Agreement to Stimulate the Homeland?
As of 5:30PM last night, the stimulus agreement reached a compromise on the funds to made available for homeland security-related investments. House and Senate negotiators agreed to dedicate $2.75B to homeland efforts. In negotiations strategy, there is something called the “zone of potential agreement,” or ZOPA. Before yesterday, the ZOPA looked pretty small with the House offering $1.1B and the Senate at nearly $5B.
According to the agreement released as of yesterday, the House pulled the Senate its way into the ZOPA. (The Senate came down $2.21B, while the House moved up only $1.65B.) Other trade-offs in the $789 Billion legislation just may balance this out. Here is the text of the announcement last night from the current conference agreement on the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009:
$2.75 billion for the Department of Homeland Security to secure the homeland and promote economic activity, including $1 billion for airport baggage and checkpoint security, $430 million for construction of border points of entry, $210 million for construction of fire stations, $300 million for port, transit, and rail security, $280 million for border security technology and communication, and $240 million for the Coast Guard.
