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Overview:

S & T Directorate, a division of the Department of Homeland Security, researches, develops, tests and deploys systems and training procedures to detect, prevent, and respond to chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and explosive (CBRNE) attacks. It also oversees, hires, and funds other Research and Development (R & D) parties working in the same arena, both inside and outside the government. Currently, there is criticism and concern from several fronts about the way in which S&T Directorate is run, including issues with: its allocation of funding and explanation of budget discrepancies; its relationship with a variety of other research and development organizations, as well as with Congress; and some particular angles, and the scope of, its research.

History:

The Homeland Security Act of 2002, which established the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), created the Directorate for Science and Technology as one of its four divisions, with the intent toprovide a focused, integrated approach to homeland security-related research and development in both the public and private sectors. Additionally, several government programs, or parts of programs, were transferred to The S & T Directorate through the Homeland Security Act of 2002, including programs previously under the Department of Agriculture, Department of Defense, and Department of Energy. But the S & T Directorate was not given a precise statutory mission when it was created, and also had to start from scratch in a hurry on many of its own R&D programs and relationships. As a result, from its launch, it experienced a variety of management, organizational and personnel problems. In 2006 Jay M. Cohen, who had a long and distinguished history with the U.S. Navy, was brought in as Under Secretary, to help restructure and galvanize S & T Directorate.

What it Does:

S & T Directorate, in partnership with laboratories, technological and scientific experts, universities, and a wide variety of other government and private sector agencies, businesses, and industries, is responsible for creating solutions to America’s security challenges. It provides up-to-the-minute research, resources and technology to Federal, State, local and tribal officials, including first responders, Border Patrol Agents, Federal Air Marshals, and airport baggage screeners, and develops and deploys equipment, systems and protocol to prevent, detect, and mitigate the consequences of chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and explosive attacks.

There are six primary divisions of S & T Directorate:

Borders and Maritime Security
Chemical and Biological
Command, Control and Interoperability
Explosives
Infrastructure and Geophysical Science
Human Factors

Among the specific duties of these divisions: To develop technology that improves the security of borders and waterways; increase preparedness through advance surveillance techniques and countermeasures; create communication protocols for emergency responders, cyber security tools for protecting the integrity of the internet, and automated capabilities to recognize and analyze potential threats; develop capabilities to detect and lessen the impact of non-nuclear attacks on mass transit and aviation; seek ways of lessening vulnerabilities of infrastructures that keep the economy functioning; and apply social and behavioral sciences to improve detection analysis, understanding, and responses.

There are also several programs under the S & T Directorate umbrella. They include: The Homeland Security Institute, the Department’s think tank that began operation in June 2004; SAFECOM, the Federal go-to resource operation for the nation’s public safety practitioners, so there’s one place they’re able to utilize for communicating across disciplines and jurisdictions during an emergency; and SAFETY Act, which provides liability protection for sellers of qualified anti-terrorism technology. There are also six university centers designated as Homeland Security Centers of Excellence, which are operated by a consortium of universities, and some with non-university partners, each with varying responsibilities regarding R & D. They are USC, the University of Minnesota, Texas A & M University, University of Maryland, John Hopkins University, and Michigan State.

Homeland Security Institute

Journal of Homeland Security

Homeland Security Institute Weekly Newsletter

Homeland Security Institute Reports

From the Website of S&T Directorate

Homeland Security Centers of Excellence Chosen by the S & T Directorate

Controversies:

The DHS Directorate of Science and Technology: Key Issues for Congress (CRS Report) (PDF)

Capitol Hill: DHS Science & Technology gets money - with strings (by Louis Chunovic, Government Security News)

Despite controversy, DHS continues use of data mining

(by Alice Lipowicz, Government Computer News)

Name

Content

Table of Contents
Overview
History
What it Does
Where Does the Money Go
Controversies
Suggested Reforms
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Founded: 2002

Annual Budget: $830.3 million (2008)

Employees: Budgeted for 420

Official Website: http://www.dhs.gov/xabout/structure/editorial_0530.shtm

Directorate for Science and Technology

O'Toole, Tara

Previous Under Secretary

Dr. Tara J. O’Toole was confirmed as the Under Secretary for Science and Technology at the Department of Homeland Security on November 4, 2009.

Raised in Norwood, Massachusetts, O‘Toole received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Vassar College in 1974, an M.D. from George Washington University in 1981, and a Master of Public Health degree from Johns Hopkins University in 1988. She completed an internal medicine residency at Yale University, and a fellowship in Occupational and Environmental Medicine at Johns Hopkins.

O’Toole practiced internal medicine at Baltimore community health centers from 1984 to 1988, after which she joined the Congressional Office of Technology in Washington as a senior analyst, studying how health is affected by the pollutants generated by nuclear weapons production.

The Clinton Administration recruited O’Toole in 1993 to become the Department of Energy’s Assistant Secretary of Energy for Environmental Safety and Health, providing the agency with advice on health protection for nuclear facility employees. In this capacity she was put in charge of an investigation into whether government laboratories and medical research centers injected civilians with radioactive substances without informing them of the dangers.

She joined the Johns Hopkins Center for Civilian Biodefense Strategies in 1998, and became its director in 2001.

O’Toole was a principal designer of “Dark Winter,” a June 2001 exercise in a fictional covert smallpox attack on the United States.

She founded the University of Pittsburgh’s Center for Biosecurity in 2003, serving as its Director and CEO through November 2009, on a mission to improve the nation’s resilience to biological threats. During this period she was a principal organizer of another crisis simulation, “Atlantic Storm,” in which world leaders were called on to deal with an international bioterrorism attack. The simulation was held in January 2005.

She also held the position of Professor of Medicine and of Public Health at the University of Pittsburgh and served on the board of directors of InSTEDD (Innovative Support to Emergencies, Diseases and Disasters). From 2007 through 2009 O’Toole worked as a consultant for CIA contracts, including those managed by the Scitor Corporation for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

A controversy arose during O’Toole’s Homeland Security confirmation hearings when it was discovered that she had failed to disclose her role as an adviser to the Alliance for Biosecurity, a lobbying organization funded by the pharmaceutical industry, which, along with O’Toole, had been urging the government to increase funding for biodefense vaccines. The Department of Homeland Security claimed that the disclosure was unnecessary because the lobbying group did not legally exist since it wasn’t incorporated.

Official Biography

Tara O’Toole (WhoRunsGov, Washington Post)

Obama Nominee Omitted Ties to Biotech (by Jim McWlhatton, Washington Times)

Tara O’Toole Financial Disclosure (pdf)

Cohen, Jay

Former Under Secretary

Jay M. Cohen, a New York native who was nominated for the position of Under Secretary for the Directorate of Science and Technology by President Bush in June 2006, received his commission as an Ensign upon graduation from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1968. He reported to the USS DIODON in San Diego, where he qualified in submarines. After that, he studied at MIT, and Woods Hold Oceanographic Institution, under the Navy’s Burke Scholarship Program, receiving a joint Ocean Engineering degree and Master of Science in Marine Engineering and Naval Architecture. His early Navy assignments, following Nuclear Power Training, included service on conventional and nuclear submarines. From 1985 to 1988 Cohen commanded the USS Hyman G. Rickover. Following this command, he served on the staff of Commander in Chief, U.S. Atlantic Fleet, as senior member of the Nuclear Propulsion Examining Board, and on the staff of the Director of Naval Intelligence at the Pentagon as Director of Operational Support. From 1991 to 1993 he commanded the USS L.Y. Spear, a stint which included a deployment to the Persian Gulf during Operation Desert Storm. Next he was Deputy Chief of Navy Legislative Affairs, and in 1997 he was promoted to the rank of Rear Admiral. In June 1999 Cohen assumed duties as Director of the Navy Y2K Project Office, responsible for transitioning all Navy computer systems into the new century. In June 2000 he became the Chief of Naval Research, serving as the Department of the Navy Chief Technology Officer, responsible for the Navy and Marine Corps S&T Program, coordinating investments with U.S. and international S&T providers to meet war fighter combat needs. He resigned five and a half years later, and retired in February, 2006. Six months later he chose to take on the S&T Under Secretary job.