Department Of Homeland Security Essay

442 Words2 Pages

The events of September 11, 2001 had a intense effect on the money available for a wide variety of research areas. The Department of Homeland Security, created in response to the September 11 attacks, made it clear that it would use the latest technology and scientific talent available in order to make the country safer (Bullock, Haddow, & Coppola, 2013). DHS and other agencies have spent tens of billions of dollars developing technologies for the use of counter terrorism and emergency management. While there was a large increase in funding directly after September 11, it has leveled off in recent years. Before the Department of Homeland Security was created, money for homeland security was spread across various agencies (Bullock et al., 2013). While this is still true, there has been a push to make DHS a focus of homeland security research and development. As of 2008 over one-fifth of all research and development funding is managed by DHS making it second only to Health and Human Services (Bullock et al., 2013). DHS had a science budget that peaked at $1.3 billion in 2006 before falling to $700 million in 2011 …show more content…

After the creation of the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Health and Human Services was left in charge of most bioterrorism preparedness and civilian biodefense research programs (Roos, 2002). The HHS saw its budget for homeland security R&D explode from $177 million in 2002 to $1653 million in 2003 (Bullock et al., 2013). The budget saw its highest number at $2106 million in 2009 before leveling off over the next few years (Bullock et al., 2013). So much money was pouring into biodefense research that Judith Reppy, a science and technology studies expert at Cornell University, considered whether a "biomedical-military-industrial complex" had emerged in which scientists, the military and lobbyists conspire to try to keep the funds coming (Reich,