These numbers represent only rough estimates. Precisely estimating funding levels for these missions is difficult, among other things, because it is not always clear which federal programs and activities should be included in these totals. The definition used in this analysis includes funding identified as related to homeland security and combating terrorism in a variety of administration and congressional documents.

In keeping with the administration’s use of the term “homeland security,” the estimates provided in this analysis focus on efforts related to preventing terrorist attacks within the United States, reducing America’s vulnerability to terrorism, minimizing the damage from such attacks, and improving our ability to recover from and respond to terrorist attacks. It does not include funding for some programs and activities aimed at countering potential threats to the US homeland that might be posed by another state, but are unlikely to be posed by terrorist groups. However, again consistent with the administration’s definition, as used here, “combating terrorism” includes efforts to combat terrorism overseas. It also includes the cost of fighting the war in Afghanistan, which is included in some, but not all, administration descriptions of the cost of combating terrorism.

This analysis finds that:

• Funding for homeland security and combating terrorism grew from $20 billion a year or less, prior to the terrorist attacks of 9-11, to some $70 billion in FY 2002. However, much of this increase is related to recovery and response efforts that may represent one-time expenditures.

• The Department of Defense (DoD) has received about $30 billion, or 47 percent of the funding provided in the emergency supplemental appropriations enacted since 9-11. The next largest recipients of emergency appropriations since 9-11 have been the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) ($11 billion) and the Department of Transportation ($7 billion).

• Most of the emergency funding provided to non-DoD departments and agencies has been used to help recover from the attacks of 9-11 and for victim relief, or to improve aviation security and security at critical, non-DoD facilities located around the world. Altogether, these activities have absorbed at least $25 billion of the $64 billion in emergency funding provided since 9-11.

• In recent years, DoD has received about one-third of the federal funding for homeland security and combating terrorism provided through the regular annual appropriations bills. The share of non-emergency funding for these missions allocated to DoD is likely to be considerably higher in FY 2003 if the cost of military operations in Afghanistan and elsewhere are included. The next largest recipients of non-emergency funding for homeland security and combating terrorism in recent years have been the Departments of Transportation and Justice.

• Programs and activities closely related to homeland security and combating terrorism continue to absorb a relatively small share of DoD’s overall budget. The Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB’s) and DoD’s own estimates indicate that, under the administration’s request, DoD would spend perhaps $32.5 billion on these activities in FY 2003. This represents about 8.5 percent of the administration’s $379 billion FY 2003 overall funding request for DoD.

• If policymakers are to effectively determine how much funding needs to be provided for homeland security and combating terrorism in the future, the administration will have to begin providing substantially more detailed, comprehensive, and clear data and cost estimates concerning these missions than it has to date.

According to OMB, the administration’s FY 2003 budget request includes $45 billion for these missions in FY 2003. In addition, the FY 2003 request for DoD includes about $18.2 billion in funding related to these missions that does not appear to be included in the OMB total. Taken together, this brings the total FY 2003 request related to homeland security and combating terrorism to some $63 billion. Legislation affecting direct federal spending has provided a further $11 billion in funding related to 9-11 over the FY 2001-03 period. (See Table 1.)

In real (inflation-adjusted) terms, the level of funding provided for FY 2002 is about 350 percent greater than was provided for FY 2001, prior to the terrorist attacks of 9-11 (i.e., compared to the funding for homeland security and combating terrorism provided in the regular FY 2001 annual appropriations bills). Under the administration’s request, FY 2003 funding for these missions would actually decline from the FY 2002 level by some 10 percent in real terms. However, the level of funding provided for FY 2003 might ultimately be higher than projected in the administration’s request—if, as in the recent past, additional funding is provided in later supplemental appropriations or if Congress adds some unrequested funds. In any case—because much of this funding (especially in FY 2002) is for one-time or temporary expenditures, such as rebuilding infrastructure and facilities damaged in the 9-11 attacks, victim relief, and military operations in Afghanistan and elsewhere—these trends may tell us little about the level of funding that will be required for homeland security and combating terrorism in future years.

Supplemental Appropriations
The $64 billion provided in the three emergency supplemental appropriations enacted since 9-11 has been allocated to a broad range of departments and agencies for use in a wide range of missions. Just under half of this funding, about $30 billion, was provided to DoD. The next largest amounts were allocated to the FEMA (about $11 billion), and the Departments of Transportation ($7 billion), Health and Human Services (HHS) ($3 billion), Housing and Urban Development (HUD) ($3 billion), and Justice ($3 billion). (See Table 2 for further breakdown of funding by agency).

The administration has not yet provided a detailed breakdown of the major missions to which the $64 billion in supplemental appropriations has been allocated. Roughly, however, it appears that this funding has been allocated in the following manner :

• Defense and Intelligence Activities ($30 billion, or 47 percent). This funding includes about $16 billion to pay FY 2002 operations and support (O&S) costs related to ongoing military operations in Afghanistan and elsewhere, including some homeland security activities, such as flying combat air patrols over US cities, and mobilizing National Guard and Reserve personnel. DoD has not indicated how much of this funding is attributable to the war in Afghanistan vice homeland security or other related operations. However, a reasonable estimate is that FY 2002 O&S costs associated with the war in Afghanistan will total some $9 billion. This suggests that the O&S costs for homeland security and other related missions may amount to some $7 billion in FY 2002. The remaining $14 billion in emergency funding provided to DoD is allocated to a variety of different activities. This includes some $1.5 billion to repair and upgrade the Pentagon, $1.4 billion for enhanced physical security measures for US forces and military facilities, $2.4 billion for munitions and offensive counterterrorism activities, and $8 billion for command, control, communications, intelligence and classified activities. It is unclear how much of these non-O&S costs for munitions, intelligence and other activities are related to executing the war in Afghanistan.

• Recovery from Attacks and Victim Relief ($16 billion, or 25 percent). Some $12.5 billion of the funding in this category is to cover the cost of removing debris from and rebuilding equipment and infrastructure damaged in the attacks of 9-11, in New York. Another $3.5 billion is for assistance to individuals, families and businesses that were affected by those attacks.

• Improved Aviation and Other Security ($9 billion, or 14 percent). About half of this funding is for improving security at US airports and aboard US commercial aircraft. The other half of this funding is directed at strengthening security at critical, non-DoD, facilities located around the world (funding to improve security at DoD facilities is included in the Defense category, above).

• Bioterrorism ($3 billion, or 5 percent). This funding pays for various programs and activities designed to counter or protect against the potential threat to civilian populations posed by biological and chemical weapons, and related threats.

• Other ($6 billion, or 9 percent). These funds support a wide range of different programs and activities, such as humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan and other states in Central Asia, security assistance to frontline states involved in the war on terrorism, public diplomacy (e.g., US broadcasts to people in Central Asia), investigation and law enforcement activities related to the attacks of 9-11, and training and other technical assistance aimed at improving the ability the United States to respond to a future attacks. (See Table 3 for a further breakdown of funding by mission.)

Annual Appropriations Acts
In addition to the funding provided in recent emergency supplemental appropriations, funding related to homeland security and combating terrorism is provided through wide range of annual appropriations measures. According to OMB, a total of about $24.2 billion was included for these missions in the regular FY 2002 annual appropriations bills. OMB estimates that the administration’s request for FY 2003 includes about $44.8 billion for homeland security and combating terrorism, allocated among 27 different federal departments and agencies. And this does not include all DoD funding related to the war on terrorism. Specifically, it appears to exclude about $18.2 billion in funding that may be needed to continue to wage the war in Afghanistan and to pay for other military requirements related to the war on terrorism. Thus, altogether, the administration’s FY 2003 budget request would provide as much as $63 billion for homeland security and combating terrorism.

OMB Estimate for Homeland Security and Combating Terrorism
According to OMB, the administration’s FY 2003 request includes about $44.8 billion for homeland security and combating terrorism. But OMB acknowledges that this estimate does not include the cost of some important activities related to the war on terrorism. In particular, it omits costs associated with recovering from the terrorist attacks of 9-11, and the cost of direct military action, such as the war in Afghanistan. OMB does not clearly explain which programs and activities it does include in its estimate. However, in general it appears that OMB includes those activities that are intended to improve the country’s ability to protect against and thwart future attacks, and would continue to be funded even after current military operations in Afghanistan and elsewhere are completed.

About one-third, or $14.3 billion, of the $44.8 billion identified by OMB is allocated to DoD and intelligence agency activities. Some $7.8 billion of this funding is intended to pay for homeland security activities, and about $6.4 billion for combating terrorism overseas. Most of the former funding is for physical security measures at military bases in the United States, while most of the latter funding is for physical security at overseas bases or for intelligence activities aimed at countering terrorist organizations overseas (but, as noted above, excluding those costs associated with continuing operations in Afghanistan).

Under the administration’s FY 2003 request the next largest recipients of funding for homeland security and combating terrorism in the regular annual appropriations bills would be the Departments of Transportation ($7 billion), Justice ($7 billion), and HHS ($4 billion), FEMA ($4 billion), and the Departments of Treasury ($3 billion), State ($2 billion), and Energy ($2 billion).

Overall, about $37.8 billion of the FY 2003 request is provided for homeland security, and some $8.5 billion is provided for combating terrorism overseas. Some 44 percent of the $44.8 billion identified by OMB is allocated to investigative activities, 33 percent to physical security measures, 17 percent to preparing and responding to future terrorist attacks, and six percent to research and development activities related to homeland security and combating terrorism.

Additional Defense Funding
As noted above, OMB’s estimate does not include all DoD funding related to the war on terrorism. In addition to the $14.3 billion for DoD and intelligence activities included in OMB’s estimate, the FY 2003 request includes about $20.1 billion for the Defense Emergency Response Fund (DERF). As much as $18.2 billion of this funding does not appear to be included in OMB’s estimate and is, according to DoD, related to the war on terrorism. This includes $10 billion to be used to cover the costs of continued military operations in Afghanistan or elsewhere, and about $8 billion for other programs and activities that DoD has identified as related to the war on terrorism. This latter funding includes some $3 billion for command, control, communications and intelligence activities, $1.7 billion for munitions and other offensive counterterrorism activities and $2.7 billion for enhanced physical protection measures for US forces and military bases.

Total DoD Funding for the War on Terrorism
These figures suggest that the administration’s FY 2003 budget request includes a total of some $32.5 billion for programs and activities closely related to homeland security and combating terrorism. This represents about 8.5 percent of the administration’s $379 billion FY 2003 overall funding request for DoD. This estimate may overstate the level of funding actually allocated to these missions. Among other things, it is unclear to what extent the funding requested for munitions production and various command, control, communications, and intelligence activities in the DERF is related specifically to conducting counterterrorism operations, in Afghanistan or elsewhere. Much of this equipment would also be useful in other kinds of more conventional military operations and missions. And it may be that in some instances DoD is using the homeland security and combating terrorism missions to justify equipment purchases or activities for which it would likely request funding even absent the attacks of 9-11.

On the other hand, this estimate might actually understate the amount of DoD funding the homeland security and combating terrorism missions absorb. For example, as noted earlier, it does not include funding for some programs and activities (e.g., ballistic missile defenses) aimed at countering potential threats to the US homeland that might be posed by another state, but are unlikely to be posed by terrorist groups. Nor does it include the full costs of creating and sustaining most of the forces that have been used in the war in Afghanistan, and might be used in future military operations related to homeland security or combating terrorism.

Conclusion
Federal funding related to homeland security and combating terrorism has grown substantially since the terrorist attacks of 9-11. Funding for programs and activities related to these missions is some $50 billion higher in FY 2002 than it was in FY 2001, prior to 9-11 (i.e., compared to the funding for homeland security and combating terrorism provided in the regular FY 2001 annual appropriations bills). Much of this funding is for one-time expenditures, such as rebuilding infrastructure and facilities damaged in the 9-11 attacks, and victim relief. Some of this funding is also related to carrying out military operations in Afghanistan and elsewhere, which may be of a temporary nature. Thus, notwithstanding this large increase, it is difficult to know what level of funding for homeland security and combating terrorism will prove adequate for these missions in future years.

One of the biggest obstacles to effectively coming to grips with the question of “how much is enough” for homeland security and combating terrorism is the lack of comprehensive and detailed data concerning such spending. This analysis has attempted to provide a rough estimate of how much we are currently spending and plan to spend on programs and activities related to these missions. If the administration and Congress are to gauge accurately the appropriate levels of funding needed for these areas in the future, the administration will have to work to hard to provide substantially more detailed, comprehensive and clear data concerning these missions than it has to date.

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For more information, contact Steven M. Kosiak at (202) 331-7990.

The Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (CSBA) is an independent policy research institute established to promote innovative thinking about defense planning and investment strategies for the 21st century. The center is directed by Dr. Andrew F. Krepinevich. For more information on CSBA, see our web site at: http://www.csbaonline.org.