THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

FACT SHEET

                   Funding for Domestic Preparedness
                and Critical Infrastructure Protection

The President's Fiscal Year 2000 budget includes requests for $2.849 billion for critical infrastructure protection, computer security, and domestic preparedness against a weapons of mass destruction attack.

The budget request also proposes $7.162 billion for conventional counter-terrorism security programs.

Domestic Preparedness against Weapons of Mass Destruction

In May 1999 the President proposed adding $300 million for a new weapons of mass destruction domestic preparedness program. As a result, the 1999 enacted level was $1.281 billion. The President's FY 2000 funding request for countering the threat of terrorist use of weapons of mass destruction continues and expands the program to $1.385 billion.

The FY 2000 request would include increases of $30 million above the previous level for research into new vaccines and medicines, an additional $15 million to fund Public Health Surveillance to detect an attack, and an additional $13 million to create new metropolitan medical response teams.

Highlights of the FY 2000 budget include:

     $52 million to continue procurement of a national stockpile of
     specialized medicines to protect the civilian population

     $611 million for training and equipping emergency personnel in 
     U.S. cities, planning and exercising for weapons of mass 
     destruction contingencies and strengthening public health 
     infrastructure.

     $206 million to protect U.S. government facilities

     $381 for research and development, including pathogen genome 
     sequencing, vaccines, new therapies, detection and diagnosis, 
     decontamination, and disposition of nuclear material.

Critical Infrastructure Protection and Computer Security

The President's FY 2000 request includes $1.464 billion for protection of critical infrastructure and computer security. This represents a 40% increase in the two budget years since the President created the Critical Infrastructure Protection Commission.

The highlights of this program include:

     Critical Infrastructure Applied Research Initiative 
     ($500 million)

     Intrusion and Detection Systems:  In addition to ongoing 
     Department of Defense funding, $2 million will be spent to 
     design and evaluate a similar system for other Federal 
     agencies

     Information Sharing and Analysis Centers (ISACs):  As part 
     of the public-private partnership, we will provide $8 million 
     to support the initial establishment of ISACs

     Cyber Corps:  This program will address the shortage of highly 
     skilled computer science expertise in the government and 
     enable agencies to recruit a cadre of experts to respond to 
     attacks on computer networks.  It will use existing personnel 
     flexibilities, scholarship and financial assistance programs, 
     and $3 million to examine new scholarship programs to retrain, 
     retain and recruit computer science students.

Counter-terrorism Security

In addition to the programs above, the President's FY 2000 budget request for all anti-terrorism and counter-terrorism programs is $8.547 billion, a 12% increase over the FY 1999 enacted level and an 18% increase over FY 1998.

The President also requested a supplemental appropriation in FY 1999 of $2.064 billion after the Africa bombings. This includes $1.4 billion to provide additional security measures to diplomatic and consular facilities and rebuild the two embassies destroyed in Dar es Salaam and Nairobi.

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