	Introduction

The Directorate of Science and Technology (S&T) is the primary organization for research and development (R&D) in the Department of Homeland Security. With a budget of $932.6 million in FY2009, the directorate conducts R&D in several laboratories of its own and funds R&D conducted by other government agencies, the Department of Energy national laboratories, industry, and universities. In the past, some Members of Congress have been highly critical of the directorate's performance. More recently, management changes have considerably muted this criticism. Nevertheless, a number of fundamental issues remain. It outlines key policy issues, including the balance of the directorate's programs, its priorities and how they are set, its relationships with other R&D organizations, its mission, its budgeting and financial management, and other concerns. The directorate consists primarily of six research divisions: the Explosives; Chemical and Biological; Command, Control, and Interoperability; Borders and Maritime Security; Human Factors; and Infrastructure and Geophysical Divisions. This section discusses three aspects of that debate: whether the directorate's "customers" are the other components of DHS, the ultimate end users, such as state and local first responders, or both; the scope of the directorate's R&D mission relative to other DHS components (such as DNDO); and the extent to which the directorate's role should include operational and other responsibilities as well as R&D. Directorate priorities can be somewhat inferred from the allocation of funding within the directorate, but no planning and prioritization documents were publicly available. The definitions of basic research appear similar. One aspect that has drawn the attention of congressional policymakers is the persistence of unobligated balances from prior fiscal years. In addition, the national laboratories can compete for the directorate's R&D funding. The Secretary, acting through the Under Secretary for Science and Technology, shall have the responsibility for—
(1) advising the Secretary regarding research and development efforts and priorities in support of the Department's missions;
(2) developing, in consultation with other appropriate executive agencies, a national policy and strategic plan for, identifying priorities, goals, objectives and policies for, and coordinating the Federal Government's civilian efforts to identify and develop countermeasures to chemical, biological, and other emerging terrorist threats, including the development of comprehensive, research-based definable goals for such efforts and development of annual measurable objectives and specific targets to accomplish and evaluate the goals for such efforts;
(3) supporting the Under Secretary for Information Analysis and Infrastructure Protection, by assessing and testing homeland security vulnerabilities and possible threats;
(4) conducting basic and applied research, development, demonstration, testing, and evaluation activities that are relevant to any or all elements of the Department, through both intramural and extramural programs, except that such responsibility does not extend to human health-related research and development activities;
(5) establishing priorities for, directing, funding, and conducting national research, development, test and evaluation, and procurement of technology and systems for—
(A) preventing the importation of chemical, biological, and related weapons and material; and
(B) detecting, preventing, protecting against, and responding to terrorist attacks;
(6) establishing a system for transferring homeland security developments or technologies to Federal, State, local government, and private sector entities;
(7) entering into work agreements, joint sponsorships, contracts, or any other agreements with the Department of Energy regarding the use of the national laboratories or sites and support of the science and technology base at those facilities;
(8) collaborating with the Secretary of Agriculture and the Attorney General as provided in [7 U.S.C. The directorate's budgeting aligned with these portfolio topics.
The Directorate of Science and Technology is the primary organization for research and development (R&D) in the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). With an appropriated budget of $932.6 million in FY2009, it conducts R&D in several laboratories of its own and funds R&D conducted by other government agencies, the Department of Energy national laboratories, industry, and universities. The directorate consists primarily of six divisions: Chemical and Biological; Explosives; Command, Control, and Interoperability; Borders and Maritime Security; Infrastructure and Geophysical; and Human Factors. Additional offices have responsibilities, such as laboratory facilities and university programs, that cut across the divisions. The directorate is headed by the Under Secretary for Science and Technology.
In the past, some Members of Congress and other observers have been highly critical of the directorate's performance. Although management changes have somewhat muted this criticism in recent years, fundamental issues remain. Among these are
the allocation of R&D funding within the directorate's programs, including the balance among basic research, applied research, and development and the proportion of funds allocated to government, industry, and academia; how the directorate sets priorities, including its use of strategic planning documents, its system of Integrated Product Teams, and the extent to which it bases priorities on risk assessment; the nature and effectiveness of the directorate's relationships with other federal R&D organizations, such as the Domestic Nuclear Detection Office, other organizations inside DHS, the Department of Energy national laboratories, and other agencies; the definition of the directorate's mission, such as identification of its customers, the scope of its R&D role within DHS, and the extent of its non-R&D missions; the directorate's budgeting and financial management, including the quality of its budget documents and the persistence of unobligated balances; the directorate's responsiveness to Congress; and the establishment of metrics and goals for evaluating the directorate's output.
Congressional policymakers are widely expected to consider reauthorization legislation for DHS during the 111th Congress. Such legislation would likely include provisions that would affect the Science and Technology Directorate.