Senate panel slashes foreign visitor ID system

BY JILL R. AITORO, JAITORO@GOVEXEC.COM

The Senate Appropriations Committee significantly cut the budget for the Homeland Security Department's program to electronically track when foreign travelers enter and leave the United States, fearing the system might not work as planned.

The committee's fiscal 2009 spending bill for DHS would provide $181.3 million for the U.S. Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology program, a 62 percent cut from the program's $475 million fiscal 2008 budget and 54 percent less than the $390 million that President Bush requested. The bill now heads to the Senate floor for a vote.

"That would be a major cut," said Ray Bjorklund, senior vice president and chief knowledge officer for FedSources Inc., a federal consulting firm in McLean, Va. "The department may be anxious to move ahead with the program, but Congress is unsure whether there is a realistic possibility that the desired goals can be met on time. Until the possibility becomes a probability, the committee apparently sees no purpose in throwing money against the program." ...