Counterterrorism Blog

In a post on January 25, I said that the Administration's budget proposals for homeland security would have to reach a certain credibility level on the Hill, and that the first reports on the proposed budget for southern border agents were not encouraging. Today's Washington Times is reporting that the proposal to fund one-tenth of the new agents authorized in the intel reform act is drawing fire from current and former agents. Among them is our own Michael Cutler, saying that it's "difficult to understand" why the Administration wouldn't fund more agents in light of recent increases in assaults against Americans along the Mexican border. We don't expect budgetary miracles, but one-tenth of the authorized amount will not meet the credibility test.