§187 Homeland Security Advanced Research Projects Agency

Summary

Creates a new agency called the Homeland Security Advanced Research Projects Agency (HSARPA) and a money pool to pay for homeland security research. HSARPA will have a Director chosen by the Secretary who reports to the Under Secretary for Science and Technology. The Director must use the Fund to give competitive grants, cooperative agreements, or contracts to businesses, research centers, and universities. The money will back basic and applied research to develop breakthrough security technologies, speed testing and deployment, fix security weaknesses, and improve technology for investigating child exploitation crimes and advanced forensics. The Director may run special competitions, work with other agencies, hold technology demonstrations, and hire staff using special hiring rules with job terms limited to 5 years before any extension. The Acceleration Fund is set up and run by the HSARPA Director. Congress authorized $500,000,000 for fiscal year 2003 and more money as needed after that. At least 10% of the yearly funds through fiscal year 2005 must be used by the Under Secretary, with the Coast Guard Commandant, for ports, waterways, and coastal security work so Coast Guard ships and crews are not pulled away from other missions. Defined terms: Fund — the Acceleration Fund; Homeland security research — research to detect, prevent, protect against, respond to, attribute, and recover from homeland security threats; HSARPA — the new agency; Under Secretary — the Under Secretary for Science and Technology.