Texas bill saves Fusion Center and gives state law enforcement officers their largest pay raise in its history

Texas Senate Finance Committee Chairman Tommy Williams was instrumental in an 11th-hour reversal of the conference committee’s decision to eliminate funding for the Texas Fusion Center, part of a nationwide anti-terrorism program that began under the Department of Homeland Security. The de-funding was initiated by the Texas House, which cited a congressional report last year criticizing the fusion centers for “useless” intelligence gathering and wasteful spending on private contractors.

Williams authored a rider to the appropriations bill that restored $12.6 million to the DPS budget “for the purpose of intelligence operations” — which effectively continues the functions of the fusion center without naming it. According to the DPS, those functions include collecting, managing and disseminating law enforcement and homeland security intelligence that enables agencies “to connect the dots that are critical to protecting the public.”

“I don’t care what they call it, since the fusion center name has gotten such bad press nationally,” said Williams. “I was very reluctant about taking that money out. Nobody would doubt that it’s a good use of our state funds and critical to the safety of our state.”

Thousands of Texas Department of Public Safety troopers are slated to receive the largest pay raise in the agency’s history as part of the new state budget that awaits Gov. Rick Perry’s signature.

The salary increase for about 4,400 state law enforcement officers, 80 percent of whom work for the DPS, averages 20 percent over the next two years, dwarfing the 3 percent pay raise for general state employees. It will cost the state $100 million. When coupled with an existing program that allows DPS troopers to earn overtime for working an extra hour a day, the cumulative increase in pay could total as much as 35 percent.

“We’re very grateful,” said DPS Sgt. Gary Chandler of Columbus, who heads the Texas Department of Public Safety Officers Association. “This will get us in the mid-range of what cities are paying.”
The legislative action comes on the heels of a state auditor’s report that showed DPS trooper pay lagged substantially behind that of police departments in big Texas cities. According to the 2012 report, maximum base pay for an Austin police officer or detective is $95,464; in Fort Worth, it’s $85,322. A DPS trooper with at least 20 years of experience earns a maximum of $61,793.

Effective Sept. 1, the new pay scale for state-commissioned officers, called Schedule C, will boost that same trooper’s annual salary to almost $76,000 by the end of 2015 — or as much as $89,000 if the officer earns the maximum allowable overtime of 20 hours per month. As is the case with other law enforcement agencies, they may also qualify for additional salary supplements, such as hazardous duty pay.
http://www.mystatesman.com/news/news/state-regional-govt-politics/dps-troopers-in-line-for-20-percent-pay-hike/nX9Dc/?icmp=statesman_internallink_invitationbox_apr2013_statesmanstubtomystatesman_launch 

The NSA held a small ribbon cutting ceremony for its Utah Data Center:

On May 18, the Salt Lake Tribune previewed the event briefly, writing:

Invitations have been sent to a select group of Utah politicians and dignitaries inviting them to the Utah Data Center ribbon cutting on May 30. The invitation says the event is unclassified and reporters will be there, but an NSA spokeswoman this week declined to discuss the festivities or say whether the event means the facility will be starting operations. The NSA has previously said the Utah Data Center would be online this fall.

But with no media coverage really emerging from it, TheBlaze contacted the NSA.

“A ribbon was cut — largely to symbolize to the authorities the completion of one part of the project,” NSA spokesperson Vanee Vines said in an email. “It was not a debut or public event in the traditional sense.”

Thursday’s event was a briefing — not open to the public or media — for state and federal authorities, Vines added. Sen. Orrin Hatch, Gov. Gary Herbert, members of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and others in the state’s legislature were present for the project status update.

Herbert’s schedule stated he would be at a “NASA Data Center Ribbon Cutting and Tour” at 9:30 a.m. at Camp Williams in Bluffdale on Thursday.

NSA’s spokesperson told us that the invitation to this event for state and federal authorities did say “media,” but it was referencing NSA’s own public and media affairs office.

Vines said that while the exterior of the $1.2 billion data center is complete, its interior is still under construction and is not expected to be fully operational until the end of this fiscal year, putting it online by this fall.

Last year, James Bamford wrote in Wired that the data center is expected to house four 25,000 square foot halls of servers. Here’s a little taste what they could be used for:

Flowing through its servers and routers and stored in near-bottomless databases will be all forms of communication, including the complete contents of private emails, cell phone calls, and Google searches, as well as all sorts of personal data trails—parking receipts, travel itineraries, bookstore purchases, and other digital “pocket litter.”

In other NSA news, the Salt Lake Tribune reported Friday that the agency is readying a special program to staff the facility. The agency is looking to its own back yard — the University of Utah.

Starting this fall, the university will begin teaching students about data center management, which SLTrib.com reported could be NSA’s Bluffdale center or even eBay and Twitter, which also operate in the state. The new data center management program comes as a request from the NSA itself, which expressed a need for more graduates with this knowledge.
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/05/31/nsa-confirms-and-explains-ribbon-cutting-for-giant-utah-data-center/