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Homeland Security would hire 1,600 agents

The President's Fiscal Year 2014 Budget proposal is delivered to the Senate Budget Committee and distributed to staff, in Washington DC on April 10, 2013. UPI/Molly Riey
The President's Fiscal Year 2014 Budget proposal is delivered to the Senate Budget Committee and distributed to staff, in Washington DC on April 10, 2013. UPI/Molly Riey | License Photo

WASHINGTON, April 10 (UPI) -- The U.S. Homeland Security Department's $39 billion budget maintains a commitment to functions such as border and cybersecurity, the White House said.

The amount provided to the Homeland Security Department in President Obama's 2014 budget unveiled Wednesday is about $625 million less than the 2012 enacted level, the White House said.

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The budget document said the department would save about $1.3 billion through reducing administrative costs and streamlining professional services.

Among other things, the Homeland Security budget would:

-- Provide $221 million for 1,600 new Customs and Border Protection officers and equipment that will mean faster processing and inspection of passengers and cargo at ports of entry.

-- Invest $714 million in a state-of-the-art lab to develop countermeasures for diseases originating in large animals that can be transmitted to humans.

-- Allocate $44 million in new funding to support expansion of the Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative Five to develop a comprehensive, coordinated system that fosters information-sharing across government agencies while protecting privacy and civil liberties.

-- Eliminate duplicative, stand-alone Federal Emergency Management Agency grant programs, consolidating them into a new grant program.

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-- Focuses immigration detention resources on priority aliens such as criminals, repeat immigration law violators, recent border entrants and immigration fugitives while expanding resources for electronic monitoring and supervision.

-- Provide $114 million for support and expansion of the e-Verify system.

-- Provide $494 million to fund research and development in cybersecurity, explosives detection and chemical/biological response systems.

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