Homeland Security Focus Areas

Emergency Preparedness and Response

Agencies Seek Their Money for Security

State and local officials urge congressional panel to speed the process of obtaining funds to prepare for terrorist attacks.

By Susannah Rosenblatt
Times Staff Writer

July 18, 2003

WASHINGTON - State and local emergency agencies need more guidance and faster funding from the federal government for homeland security projects to combat terrorism, officials told congressional lawmakers Thursday.

"We need to get dollars from the federal government, and we need to get them fast," said Orange County Assistant Sheriff George Jaramillo, testifying before the House Select Committee on Homeland Security.

After the Sept. 11 attacks, the federal government pledged $20 billion in grant money to local and federal jurisdictions to prepare first responders for potential terrorist attacks.

Orange County has collected just $875,000 of its $12-million federal grant, Jaramillo told lawmakers. And the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department has "yet to directly benefit" from government funds, department Capt. Michael Grossman testified. The two counties comprise more than 40% of the state's emergency personnel, Jaramillo said.

The Los Angeles Police Department is waiting to get more than $6 million in federal grants, said Lt. John Karle in a telephone interview.

Some agencies plan to use the money to buy equipment and train personnel in simulated terrorism exercises. Both counties must dip into law enforcement budgets to pay for anti-terrorism programs, officials said.

As it stands, the homeland security grant application and allocation process channels funds for agencies through the federal government to states, which then disburse them to local governments.

The convoluted system needs reforming, said Rep. Christopher Cox (R-Newport Beach), chairman of the panel.

"Somewhere between Congress spending the money and first responders cashing the check there is a terrible bottleneck," Cox said. "The state of California does not have the kind of financial statements that permit us to go in and look and see where that money is; we certainly couldn't track it as we could a UPS package."

Cox is helping to draft legislation to simplify the 12-step process to two steps. He also hopes to institute a program in which areas with the highest risk of terrorist attack, such as major cities like Los Angeles, would receive the most money. The current system, which allots $5 for each emergency responder in California and $35 for each first responder in Wyoming, creates "an astonishing distortion in funding," Cox said.

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) introduced similar legislation earlier this year.

Massachusetts Republican Gov. Mitt Romney, speaking on behalf of the National Governors Assn., praised many states' efficiency in distributing first-response funds to local governments. Romney cited Massachusetts' success in developing a statewide plan to combat terrorism.

"Having states be the source of funding is a critical element in having a holistic, comprehensive plan," Romney testified. He emphasized the need for federal preparedness standards by which states can measure their homeland security efforts.

Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) questioned Romney on the $900,000 allotted to Oak Bluffs Marina in Martha's Vineyard, Mass., to secure the resort area against a potential terrorist attack. "That's a prime example of what happens when the federal government gives appropriations directly to communities," Romney said.

The grant, made by the Transportation Security Administration, was not part of Massachusetts' statewide plan, he said. The state awarded 34 of 117 grant requests, favoring those with regional, rather than municipal security plans, and those with a higher terrorist threat.

Several committee members offered pointed remarks. Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-Texas) exhorted her colleagues to eliminate bureaucratic delay in first-responder funding. "America is still not safe," she said.

Cold War-Era Sirens Used As Terror Alerts
By TIM TALLEY
The Associated Press
Monday, July 14, 2003; 3:19 PM

OKLAHOMA CITY - Cold War-era sirens may be revived as terrorism warnings. Cities including Oklahoma City, Chicago and Dallas have upgraded their outdoor warning systems with a type of siren that can carry voice announcements - an idea that officials say took on added importance in the post-Sept. 11 world.
Sirens have long been used for storm disasters, but now the Federal Emergency Management Agency is studying whether they can warn people of biological, chemical or nuclear attack.
"You have all kinds of new systems," said Timothy Putprush, a telecommunications specialist with FEMA. "You originate a message. You need to get it out to the population."
Thousands of sirens were built across the country during the Cold War to warn citizens in case of nuclear attack, but the federal government stopped the program and the sirens fell silent in many of the nation's largest cities. Other cities put them to use to warn of tornadoes.
But terrorism warnings emerged as a new use for the sirens after Sept. 11. The federal government is currently updating the nation's civil preparedness guide to discuss improved ways of notifying the public of emergencies, and that includes the use of sirens.
In Oklahoma City, taxpayers agreed to spend $4.5 million several years ago to upgrade its Cold War-era warning system with 181 new sirens covering a 622-square-mile area in the city.
The sirens, together with news reports and special radios that emit a loud alarm in times of weather emergencies, helped prevent loss of life when tornadoes raked the Oklahoma City area on May 8 and 9. More than 300 homes were destroyed but only one person was killed, an elderly man who fell and hit his head while taking shelter.
The sirens can be particularly useful to people who are not listening to the radio or watching television.
"If you've got a weather radio in your house, it doesn't do much for you when you're at the ballpark," said Kerry Wagnon, director of public safety capital projects in Oklahoma City.
Wagnon also said the sirens could be used in the event of a terrorist attack like the one that killed 168 people in 1995.
Radio and television news reports are the warning method of choice in many large cities, where old civil defense sirens have fallen into disrepair.
"When the money dried up, the ability to maintain them, based on a perception of the threat, went away," said Bob Canfield, assistant general manager of the Los Angeles Emergency Preparedness Department.
Sirens would not be of much use in Los Angeles because the sprawling urban area does not face the kinds of natural disasters for which they are most useful, he said.
"They're no good for earthquakes, and tornadoes are not our thing," Canfield said.
Jarrod Bernstein, a spokesman in New York City's Office of Emergency Preparedness, says battery-operated radios make more sense than wailing sirens in his densely populated urban area of more than 8 million people.
"We just don't think it's a practical system for New York City," he said.
While not dismissing sirens, officials in Washington are looking at other options including electronic text messaging and a reverse 911 system that would telephone citizens in an emergency, said Jo'Ellen Countee of the District of Columbia Emergency Management Agency.
"A lot of people want sirens - people who are old enough to remember sirens," Countee said.
Electronic messages might work for people with a cell phone, but Putprush said visitors at the district's many monuments or on the National Mall would need an outdoor warning.
"There are thousands and thousands of tourists there at any time of day," he said. "That would be a great application for it."

Guard, reserves to be reorganized
By Rowan Scarborough
Published July 14, 2003

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld has ordered the Army, Air Force, Navy and Marines to draft plans for a sweeping restructuring of the 900,000-strong National Guard and reserve forces.
In a July 9 memo to the four service secretaries and the Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman, Mr. Rumsfeld said he wants to reduce the need for calling up large numbers of reservists in a war and to do away with it altogether in the first 15 days of a crisis. He also does not want any unit called up for more than one year in any six years.
"I consider this a matter of the utmost urgency," Mr. Rumsfeld said in the three-page memorandum, a copy of which was obtained by The Washington Times.
He wants the military's plan by the end of this month as he continues to adjust the total force for a long global war on terrorism.
The defense secretary suggests that civilians, corporations or technologies could perform some reserve roles.
A military official said one option is to redirect the Guard and reserves to homeland defense and shift overseas-deploying reserve units to the 1.4 million active force.
Larry DiRita, a Rumsfeld spokesman, said September 11 is spurring the Pentagon to look at all sorts of changes, including rebalancing the active and reserve forces.
"His objective is making sure that every time you want to take action in the world we're in now, you don't have to call up a lot of reserves to do it," Mr. DiRita said.
The reserves are home to a number of units that are crucial to winning wars and stabilizing global hot spots. There are now 204,000 Guardsmen and reservists on active duty. Many of the 10,000 military police in Iraq, for example, are reservists.
Mr. Rumsfeld has complained that too many war-fighting skills lie exclusively, or nearly exclusively, in the reserves. This means the full deployment of troops overseas for a crisis is delayed while those units are mobilized.
Most Army civil-affairs soldiers are reservists. They are playing critical roles in both Afghanistan and Iraq as peacekeepers. The soldiers provide humanitarian aid and improvements to homes, hospitals and schools.
The Air Force relies heavily on reserves to man its aerial refueling fleet, while the Army must often call up military-police units in a crisis.
Mr. Rumsfeld's memo sets out 10 "actions for force rebalance" - a phrase that means he wants to see plans for moving some reserve units to active duty and some active-duty units to the reserves.
"Specifically address capabilities that reside exclusively or predominately in the [reserve component] and are in high demand because of on-going operations and the Global War on Terror, capabilities that are required for homeland defense missions and capabilities critical to post-hostilities operations," the July 9 Rumsfeld order states.
The secretary also wants the services to develop ways, such as increased pay, to induce reservists to volunteer for active duty when needed.
"Make the mobilization and demobilization process more efficient," the Rumsfeld memo states. "When reservists are used, ensure that they are given meaningful work and work for which alternative manpower is not readily available. Retain on active duty only as long as absolutely necessary."
Robert Maginnis, a retired Army lieutenant colonel and a TV military analyst, said the changes Mr. Rumsfeld is talking about would reverse changes made after the Cold War ended. Then, units were shifted to the reserves to help shrink the active force from 2 million to today's 1.4 million.
"The type of people we're putting into the reserves are the types of people we now need on active duty to fight the war and who specialize in stabilization," Mr. Maginnis said. "What future thinkers said peacekeeping operations would be a primary mission for a large part of the force? They didn't. Future thinkers didn't envision we would have 9/11."
This is not the first memo Mr. Rumsfeld has sent out on the issue.
In November, he sent a memo to senior officials asking them to find reserve units that should be shifted to active duty.
"I would like a list of what those things are, and then an indication of what the various services are doing to put those critical skills back on active duty, rather than in the Reserves," he wrote then.
But officials say that planning was delayed. Weeks later, the military began a methodical buildup of more than 200,000 troops in the Persian Gulf for Operation Iraqi Freedom. Now that major combat operations have ended, Mr. Rumsfeld is renewing efforts to rebalance the force.
"Rumsfeld's decision to rebalance the forces is prudent," Col. Maginnis said. "Otherwise, continued reliance on mobilizing reserves will damage retention and recruitment. Our reserves components are not designed to be routinely called on as they have over the past decade for Kosovo, Afghanistan, Iraq and the war on terror."

Terror drill to test area response
Bioterrorism exercise will gauge coordination among jurisdictions
By Tom Pelton, Baltimore Sun Staff

July 9, 2003

Health officials are planning an extensive bioterrorism drill in the Baltimore area that will send volunteers, wearing makeup and acting as though they have been infected with smallpox or other diseases, to area hospitals.
The exercise, "Harbor Biological Attack - Simulated Exercise," will test the communications systems that link more than a dozen area hospitals to city, county and state emergency officials.
"This will test our ability to react and coordinate with our neighboring counties," Mayor Martin O'Malley said during a City Hall news conference yesterday. "It will be a learning experience, the kind of learning experiences that all cities should be doing."
Organizers wouldn't reveal when the practice will start, noting that they want to maintain some element of surprise. But they said the drill will occur soon and that the public should be aware so that people won't panic and get hurt.
The volunteers, who will pretend to have symptoms of diseases, will wear shirts proclaiming "this is only an exercise" so that doctors won't be tricked into abandoning patients with real health emergencies to attend to actors, officials said yesterday.
Despite the obvious signals - such as the brightly-colored T-shirts and the presence of television reporters - the doctors will have to figure out which disease or diseases the actors have, based on their descriptions of their symptoms and their makeup.
"If you go to hospitals and you see something unusual going on, with firefighters and medics and police officers, and people looking as though they are quite ill ... we want you to know that it is just an exercise," said Dr. Peter L. Beilenson, the city's health commissioner.
Donald Keldsen, director of the Maryland Emergency Management Agency, said one aim of the exercise is to help train state, city and county officials to communicate with each other during a crisis.
"It's got to be a team working together, and so we've got to practice working together," said Keldsen.
The practice will involve 200 volunteers from Civic Works, a nonprofit organization, and 15 area hospitals, including Johns Hopkins Hospital and University of Maryland Medical Center http://www.umm.edu/.
Last fall, the city conducted a "dirty bomb" terrorism simulation during which city agencies tested their ability to respond to the simulated explosion of a bomb packed with radioactive material.
Chicago, Seattle, Denver, Montgomery County and several other municipalities have also conducted bioterrorism drills since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. But Baltimore officials said their exercise will be more extensive than most.
O'Malley repeated yesterday his criticism of the federal government for failing to provide enough money for cities attempting to protect themselves against terrorist attacks.
The $60,000 cost of the drill is coming from a federal grant received by the state.
The federal government also recently pledged $10.9 million to help prepare the Baltimore region for a possible attack.
O'Malley said the city probably will receive about $4 million of that total after suburban counties and state government get their share.
The mayor said that won't be enough money and that it won't arrive soon enough to protect the city.

From the U.S. Department of Homeland Security web site, "Emergencies and Disasters:"

Response & Recovery

Funding Report: Helping Our Nation's First Responders

The Department of Homeland Security is pleased to announce the award of nearly $400 million dollars today to ten states to help enhance response and preparedness capabilities for first responders and state and local governments. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has made available more than $4.4 billion dollars in funding for grants since March 1, 2003.

Read More

Grants

Department of Homeland Security Announces $165 Million in Grants to States for All Hazards Emergency and Terrorism Preparedness

The Department of Homeland Security's Emergency Preparedness and Response Directorate, known as FEMA, has provided $165 million in grants to help state and local governments better prepare to respond to all hazards preparedness activities and emergency management.

Read More

CQ HOMELAND SECURITY - LOCAL RESPONSE
June 30, 2003 - 5:51 a.m.
Rudman Task Force Says Critical Aid on a Slow Drip
By Jeremy Torobin, CQ Staff Writer

In what could serve as a blueprint for Democratic efforts to make homeland security spending a central 2004 campaign issue, a new study being released Monday warns that funding for first responders will fall nearly $100 billion short over the next five years if current budget trends continue.
"In the nearly two years since the Sept. 11 attacks, Congress has dangerously delayed the appropriation of funds for emergency responders, federal agencies have delayed getting funds to state and local jurisdictions, and states have delayed the dissemination of much needed federal funds to the local level," the introduction to the report from the Council on Foreign Relations reads.
Ever since 9/11, first responders and the states and cities where they work have been anything but shy about calling on Congress and the Bush administration to spend more on helping them prepare for and respond to terrorism.
The independent task force that drafted the report, entitled "Drastically Underfunded: Dangerously Unprepared," met with firefighters, police officers, emergency medical workers and hospital administrators to figure out precisely how much the shortfall really is, and where the greatest gaps lie.
In a chart outlining "five-year unmet needs," the group came up with a total of $98.4 billion, including $36.8 billion that fire departments say they need to deal with attacks involving hazardous materials, $29.6 billion hospitals say they need for a wide range of equipment, services and training, $15.2 billion needed for urban search-and-rescue and $10.4 billion needed to implement a national emergency 911 system.
The task force enlisted the Concord Coalition - a nonpartisan budget watchdog group set up by the late former Sen. Paul Tsongas, D-Mass. (1979-85), and former Sen. Warren H. Rudman, R-N.H. (1980-93) - and the independent Center for Budgetary and Strategic Assessments to help it analyze the first responder community's estimated needs and come up with totals.
According to the task force's analysis, the federal budget is on track to include a total of $27 billion for first responders from fiscal 2004 through fiscal 2008, roughly $5.4 billion a year.
The task force estimates that total state and local spending over the same period could be anywhere between $26 billion and $76 billion.
Unmet Needs
Therefore, total estimated spending for emergency responders by federal, state and local governments would be between $53 and $103 billion for the five years beginning in FY04.
Based on those figures, including the $98.4 billion in projected "unmet needs," the task force concluded that the total funding necessary for emergency responders over the next five years is at least $151.4 billion and possibly as high as $201.4 billion.
Adding to the funding woes, the task force argues, is a lack of preparedness standards that would help policymakers figure out what's needed and how much to spend.
"The overall effectiveness of federal funding has been further diluted by the lack of a process to determine the most critical needs of the emergency responder community in order to achieve the greatest return on investment," the report reads.
To address this problem, Congress should require DHS to work with state and local agencies and officials, as well as emergency responder professional associations, to draw up "clearly defined" yet "sufficiently flexible" standards and guidelines, the report says.
Congress also should require DHS and the Department of Health and Human Services to submit a joint plan for meeting national preparedness standards by the end of fiscal 2007, it says.
Also, Congress should establish a clear allocation system "based less on dividing the spoils and more on addressing identified threats and vulnerabilities."
Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge, however, and many in Congress would like to tweak the current formula, which relies heavily on sheer population, with a per-state minimum plus other criteria, such whether an area is a likely target or has sensitive nuclear or chemical plants in it.
Already, though, Ridge has had to deal with questions from lawmakers about why cities in their states did not get any of the $800 million earmarked this year for high-threat cities, such as New York and Washington.
More, Longer
Congress should fund emergency responder grants on a multi-year basis to allow for long-term planning and training, the report says.
The task force also calls on DHS to move the Office of Domestic Preparedness from the Border and Transportation Security Directorate to the Office of State and Local Government Coordination.
Rudman, who with former Sen. Gary Hart, D-Colo. (1975-87), previously co-authored two reports urging the United States to stiffen its defenses against terrorism, chaired the task force.
Richard A. Clarke, a former White House counterterrorism czar, acted as senior advisor, with Jamie F. Metzl, senior fellow and coordinator of homeland security programs at the Council on Foreign Relations, directing the project.

Senator Collins Introduces Bill to Streamline First Responder Grants

Senator Susan Collins (R-Maine), Chair of the Committee on Governmental Affairs, introduced legislation on 17 June that would require federal agencies to streamline the homeland security grant application process for states and local governments, according to a 23 June Government Executive report. The Homeland Security Grant Enhancement Act (S.1245) would establish "an interagency committee to standardize the paperwork required by various federal agencies," and to "eliminate redundancies among first responder grant programs, which are spread across several agencies." Representative from all first responder grant dispensing agencies would comprise the committee, and would have five months to generate recommendations for streamlining the grant process. S.1245 also transfers the Office of Domestic Preparedness (ODP) from the Border and Transportation Security Directorate to the Department of Homeland Security Secretary office's Office for State and Local Government Coordination. It would also transfer the administration of the FIRE grants program from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to the Office for State and Local Government Coordination.

ANALYSIS: Although the ODP is the lead DHS aid dispensing agency, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Environmental Protection Agency also provides states with grants for bioterrorism preparedness and security water supplies, respectively. Senator Collins said her bill "will promote the same kind of coordination among federal agencies that we require from our states and communities. It will require federal agencies to build a straight path to the funding that enables our first responders to do what they do best - prepare for and respond to emergencies. By placing ODP in the office within Secretary Ridge's office that is directly responsible for coordinating with state and local governments, it would provide these jurisdictions with the guidance from the federal government that they seek. That certainly may account for the support that the bill has received from intergovernmental organizations like the National Governors Association, National Associations of Counties, Council of State Governments and the National Conference of State Legislatures.

June 23, 2003
Bill would streamline first responder grant programs
By Jason Peckenpaugh
mailto:jpeckenpaugh@govexec.com

Federal agencies that provide grants to first responders in state and local governments would be required to streamline their application processes for federal aid under legislation sponsored by Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine.
Collins’ bill, S. 1245 http://capwiz.com/govexec/issues/bills/?bill=2654316, would move two key first responder grant programs into the Office of Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge, and create an interagency committee to standardize the paperwork required by various federal grant programs. The committee would eliminate redundancies among first responder grant programs, which are spread across several agencies. While the Office of Domestic Preparedness is the lead Homeland Security agency for dispensing aid, states also receive grants from the Health and Human Services Department for bioterrorism preparedness. The Environmental Protection Agency offers grants to secure water treatment facilities.
“There are some distinct differences, but the HHS grant programs and ODP grant programs do overlap,” said a staffer on the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee. “Basically what our bill seeks to do is better coordinate [the programs] in terms of administration and planning.”
The committee would include representatives from all the agencies that dispense first responder grants. It would have 150 days to come up with recommendations for streamlining first responder grants across federal agencies. These requirements should help the committee avoid the fate of the National Domestic Preparedness Office, an FBI office that unsuccessfully tried to streamline first responder programs in the late 1990s, according to the staffer.
“The language that we put in the bill gives some very clear direction on what the committee needs to do,” he said.
The bill also moves the Office of Domestic Preparedness out of the Border and Transportation Security Directorate and into the Office for State and Local Government Coordination within Ridge’s office. Ridge said at a May 1 Senate Governmental Affairs Committee hearing that the Bush administration supports this move.
The Office for State and Local Government Coordination also would assume administration of the FIRE grants program, which would move out of the Federal Emergency Management Agency under Collins’ bill. The FIRE program would continue to award grants directly to fire departments, a top priority of associations representing firefighters.
“Your explicit language should ease any remaining doubts as to whether the FIRE Act will be run in exactly the same manner as FEMA,” wrote Harold Shaitberger, president of the International Association of Firefighters, in a June 9 letter to Collins.
Collins’ bill also has support from the National Governors Association, National Association of Counties, Council of State Governments and National Conference of State Legislatures, according to letters provided by the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee.
The legislation builds on three other homeland security bills introduced this spring by Collins, the chairwoman of the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee: S. 796, S. 838, and S. 1073. It has nine co-sponsors, including Governmental Affairs ranking member and Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn.

June 19, 2003

Official outlines intergovernmental efforts to bolster security

By Maureen Sirhal, National Journal's Technology Daily

Homeland security officials are working with state and local governments to implement initiatives aimed at boosting the sharing of emergency-response resources and improving the ability of different agencies' equipment to communicate with each other, a Homeland Security Department official said on Thursday.

Michael Brown, undersecretary for the department's emergency preparedness and response directorate, told the House Homeland Security Committee that his agency is moving forward with programs that are aimed at boosting domestic preparedness in case of natural disasters or terrorist attacks similar to those of Sept. 11, 2001.

The directorate plans to distribute more than $145 million this year in conjunction with the Justice Department's Community Oriented Policing Service, Brown said in a prepared statement.

State and local governments "will compete for demonstration projects that will explore uses of equipment and technologies to increase interoperability among the fire, law enforcement and emergency-medical-services communities," he said. Those projects will serve as models for technical solutions in public safety that can be deployed throughout the country, he added.

Emergency-response and public-safety groups have been grappling with the poor interoperability of their communications and other equipment that are seen as vital to coordinating response efforts in situations like those on Sept. 11.

On another front, Brown's directorate held a nationwide exercise and training program to simulate conditions of a terrorist attack. "This exercise was a success in part because it revealed several areas for improvement the directorate is now addressing" Brown said. It "also validated that our existing processes and procedures will allow [the directorate] to respond to a disaster, including a terrorist attack with a weapon of mass destruction."

The agency spent $165 million in April to fund emergency-management performance grants, which are targeted toward helping state and local "first responders" to emergencies plan similar training exercises. The agency also will award nearly $74 million to help states upgrade their emergency operations centers with new technologies and physical improvements.

The directorate, furthermore, is developing new inter-local and intrastate agreements to share equipment and personnel, Brown said. Those mutual-aid requests will be integrated into a national system for "requesting, receiving and managing emergency-response resources," which he said would enhance the nation's ability to recover in an emergency.

June 16, 2003 - 7:08 p.m.
After all this, Is Enough Aid Finally Flowing Beyond the Beltway?
By David Clarke, CQ Staff Writer

"We have a saying inside our department," Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said recently. "The homeland will be secure when the hometowns are secure."
It's a nice turn of a phrase, but homilies do not pay the bills, and if anything has drowned out Ridge's avuncular assurances over the past year, it is the incessant cries of state and local authorities for more money to make their hometowns secure.
"I think it will come up again and again, and in spades, if there is another attack," said New Haven, Conn., Mayor John DeStefano Jr., who is also president of the National League of Cities.
If rescue units ever again race to smoking ruins comparable to the World Trade Center, indeed there probably will not be much debating over first responder spending. But until then, Washington and local governments will continue to wrangle over not just how much the federal government will provide, but who should distribute the funding and how to rejigger grant "formulas."
When President Bush on June 6, 2002, announced his support for a Department of Homeland Security, the political landscape in Washington shook like an earthquake. But the foundation for many of the state and local issues that have preoccupied homeland officials, members of Congress, governors and mayors since then arrived a few months before - on Feb. 4, 2002, when Bush unveiled his fiscal 2003 budget request.
At the time, Congress had appropriated $1 billion for first responders for fiscal 2002. Now, Bush was proposing that $3.5 billion in counterterrorism grants be made available to state and local programs for training and equipping firefighters, police officers and other emergency crews - all of which would be lumped together as "first responders." He also wanted the grants managed solely by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
Consolidating these programs under FEMA was an idea the administration floated the year before, but this first post-Sept. 11 budget proposal gave the White House the opportunity to really push it onto the agenda.
Power Shift
On its face, the idea of consolidating the programs in FEMA was logical. But the president's shift would have required the Justice Department, whose Office for Domestic Preparedness (ODP) handled a lot of this territory, and the members of Congress who authorize and appropriate its funding, to cede some control. It also would have called for local police officials to deal with an agency that had no law enforcement responsibilities or experience, another thing local police were not eager to embrace.
But what really irritated state and local officials was the idea that almost all of the $3.5 billion in counterterrorism funding was not new money. In the same budget, the president proposed consolidating or eviscerating popular Clinton-era law enforcement grant programs, such as the Community Oriented Police Services (COPS) program.
To officials outside the Beltway it sounded like the administration was killing those programs to raise counterterrorist funds without really boosting the budget. The U.S. Conference of Mayors said such shifting and consolidation amounted to a nearly $800 million budget cut for programs.
"We must not rob Peter to pay Paul," New Orleans Mayor Marc Morial, then-president of the conference, said in March 2002. "We cannot afford to cut funding that helps prevent street crime in order to finance needed efforts to prevent terrorism."
The White House argued that COPS was a temporary program meant to help hire more police officers. And it insisted there was no proof that any of the other programs were actually contributing to the falling crime rate.
Rivals for Dollars
Adding to the roil was the reality that states and cities might well be united as a group in their pursuit of federal dollars, but they were rivals on the question of who should get them and how.
Local governments argued that funds should go directly to them because state bureaucracies would not only add more delay to the process, they would take sizable cuts off the top.
The states, which had an ally in Ridge, countered that sending money to them first would ensure that it was spent according to statewide plans that would help maximize dollars and avoid equipment duplication or incompatibilities, such as with radios.
The stage was set for a battle. Because Congress could not disentangle itself from election-year standoffs over spending and left for the year with 11 of its 13 annual appropriations bills on the shelf, the rhetoric only grew hotter.
Adding to the intensity was the fact that states and cities, which are almost all required to balance their budgets, have huge deficits hanging over them.
In February, Congress did not come close to quenching the thirst for more federal dollars when it finally appropriated $3.5 billion for first responders. That money was not all new, either. Appropriators chose to include programs such as COPS in their tally for the $3.5 billion, much to the consternation of state and local officials.
In April, members used the wartime supplemental bill to try to pacify some of those complaints by providing $4.3 billion for first responder, emergency planning and critical infrastructure protection programs.
Olive Oil
As for who would get what when, Congress - with the administration's support - sided with the states but offered an olive branch to local officials: Money would go first to state capitals, but they would be required to "pass through" 80 percent of it to local governments.
As far as who would hand out the money, the law enforcement community and its congressional allies won out over the administration, which wanted the new department's Emergency Preparedness Directorate to handle the grant programs once the law creating the Homeland Security Department was passed in November. Instead, the authority was given to ODP, which sits in Homeland's law enforcement wing, the Border and Transportation Security Directorate.
But even this issue remains somewhat unresolved.
Ridge has announced his support for legislation sponsored by Maine Republican and Senate Governmental Affairs Chairwoman Susan Collins that would move ODP up the organizational chart into the Office for State and Local Government Coordination, which reports directly to the secretary.
Now, dispersing money but wearing its green eyeshade, the department is turning a magnifying glass on the criteria, or "formula," it will use to award funding.
The formula passed by Congress in fall 2001 requires that about 35 percent to 40 percent of first responder funds be split equally among all states. ODP has distributed the rest based mostly on population.
A Likely Matter
But Ridge and many in Congress would like to tweak the formula so that while a state minimum would remain in place, the department could direct the rest by using criteria such as the likelihood that an area would be attacked and whether it had vulnerable sites such as nuclear or chemical plants nearby.
Collins has made revisiting the formula a top priority for her committee, while Congress set aside $100 million in the omnibus and $700 million in the supplemental spending bills for high-threat cities, such as New York and Washington.
Sending more money to those cities is again an idea few would dispute, but Ridge already has had to deal with questions from lawmakers about why cities in their states did not make the cut.
Still, the issue of redoing formulas and deciding which box on a chart will mail the checks may soon be relegated to a sideshow when Congress starts working on next year's spending bills and vectoring grants to cash-strapped hometowns.
"You're going to go where the game is being played," DeStefano said of this year's lobbying action. "And the game is going to be played in the appropriations bills."

From the "Congressional Quarterly Homeland Security Daily," 13 June:

More Federal Money Heading to State First Responders

The Homeland Security Department (DHS) announced Friday that it is sending out another installment of the money Congress appropriated for states in fiscal 2003. During this round, $400 million will go to 10 states to equip and train police, firefighters and other emergency workers who would be among the first to respond to a terrorist attack or natural disaster. The money is part of the $4.4 billion fiscal 2003 first-responder grant fund Congress gave DHS. Over the past two weeks, the department has been trumpeting every release of grant money, getting the attention of local papers. Texas will receive $78.2 million, the most of any state this round. At the bottom of the list is Maine, which will receive $15.2 million. Other states awarded money Friday are Florida, Illinois, Washington, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Louisiana, Arkansas and New Mexico. The department sends the money to state governments, which are required to pass on 80 percent of their awards to local governments. - David Clarke

From the Intellibridge "Homeland Security Monitor," 10 June:

Bush's Citizen Corps Initiative Gets Boost from Volunteer Foundation

Undersecretary for Homeland Security for Emergency Preparedness and Response Michael Brown announced on 9 June a partnership between the Points of Light Foundation (POLF) & the Volunteer Center National Network and President's Bush's Citizen Corps initiative. The two groups signed a cooperative agreement at the National Conference on Community Volunteering and National Service in Baltimore, Maryland to "raise awareness about emergency preparedness, first aid and disaster response training, and volunteer service activities," a Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) statement said.

ANALYSIS: By combining the millions of volunteers in the POLF network with the Citizen Corps initiative, the DHS is attempting to build a core of citizens ready to respond to emergencies across the country. "We know that disaster preparedness is one of those topics that is on the minds of people in our communities where volunteer centers and federal government, through this important initiative, will have more resources at their disposal," Business Wire quoted the president and CEO of POLF, Robert Goodwin as saying. Undersecretary Brown added, "The resources of the Points of Light Foundation and the Volunteer Center National Network will be invaluable as we continue to encourage all Americans to volunteer to support local first responders and other community safety initiatives through Citizen Corps. We look forward to working with the Points of Light Foundation to expand the role citizens play within their community to make our nation safer and better prepared than ever before."

Terrorism threat level lowered

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Tom Ridge announced on 30 May that the national threat level had been lowered from 'high' to 'elevated.' Ridge said the intelligence community "concluded that the number of indicators and warnings that led to raising the level have decreased and the heightened vulnerability associated with the Memorial Day holiday has passed." The threat level was raised to 'high' on 20 May following terrorist attacks in Morocco and Saudi Arabia that may have been the work of al Qaeda or sympathetic groups. The Ridge statement said "the lowering of the threat level is not a signal to government, law enforcement or citizens that the danger of a terrorist attack has passed. The U.S. intelligence community remains concerned that Al-Qaida is attempting to exploit our weaknesses and believes that the United States and its interests are still at a significant risk of terrorist attack."

ANALYSIS: The Homeland Security Advisory System has been raised from 'elevated' to 'high' four times since its inception in March 2002. A rise in the threat condition sets in motion protective measures at federal, state, and local agencies, and in the private sector. Ridge said that the U.S. "has significantly more security measures in place now at Code Yellow [or 'high'] compared to last year. More and more of our partners in the federal, state and local governments and the private sector have adopted the homeland security advisory system and have identified protective measures to strengthen security and reduce the nation's vulnerability to terrorist attacks."

Homeland Security Helps Train Citizens for Emergencies with $19 Million for Community Emergency Response Teams
For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
May 29, 2003

OLATHE, KAN. - Michael D. Brown, Under Secretary of Homeland Security for Emergency Preparedness and Response, announced today the availability of $19 million in grant money to train citizens to be better prepared to respond to emergency situations in their communities through local Community Emergency Response Teams (CERT). Brown made the announcement at a meeting with CERT members from the city of Olathe, Kan., who assisted first responders after tornadoes devastated areas of Kansas earlier this month.
"Homeland Security has provided more than $4 billion to state and local governments this year to support the efforts of first responders and help us secure the homeland," said Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge. "These CERT grants are a great example of the use of funding to better prepare America’s communities."
Each CERT member completes 20 hours of training on disaster preparedness, basic disaster medical operations, fire safety, light search and rescue, and other essential topics. The training also includes a disaster simulation in which participants practice skills they learned throughout the course. In the event of an emergency, CERT members can provide immediate assistance to victims, assist in organizing spontaneous volunteers at a disaster site and provide critical support to first responders.
"Through the CERT program, citizens are better able to respond to an emergency or disaster," said Brown. "This is an essential way for citizens to help secure the homeland by supporting the work of our professional first responders."
The grant money represents the FY03 funds made available to expand the CERT program, and is in addition to $17 million distributed through the FY 02 supplemental appropriation. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) will distribute the funds for state and local level CERT programs to each state and territory according to the formula developed through the Patriot Act. The CERT grants will allow states to fund new programs and to expand existing teams. FEMA has a goal of training 400,000 citizens through the CERT program during the next two years.
For more information on the CERT program, please visit www.fema.gov.

FEMA awards grants to states

Staff Reports

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency has announced that North Carolina is among the first 12 states to receive grants through the agency's Pre-disaster Mitigation Program to help state, local and tribal governments protect lives and property by developing multi-hazard mitigation plans.

Under Secretary Michael D. Brown of Homeland Security's division for emergency preparedness and response, said that North Carolina, Alabama, Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah and Washington each will receive $248,375 to support development of hazard mitigation plans that meet FEMA guidelines. These funds constitute 75 percent of the anticipated cost of these plans, according to FEMA officials.

The remaining 25 percent represents a cost share to be provided from a nonfederal source.

"One of our principal missions is to help reduce the loss of life and property due to disasters," Brown said in a news release. "Supporting comprehensive plans to reduce risks before a disaster strikes is the most effective way to meet that mission."

Anthony S. Lowe, director of FEMA's Mitigation Division, said state and local hazard mitigation planning is so important that it will soon be required for states to be eligible for pre- and post-disaster mitigation assistance.

"States that show they are serious about reducing risks through strong pre-disaster planning will be eligible to receive federal funds in the future to support their efforts," said Lowe.

After Nov. 1, FEMA-approved local mitigation plans will be required as a condition of states receiving pre-disaster mitigation grants for local mitigation projects. After Nov. 1, 2004, a FEMA-approved state mitigation plan also will be required for states to receive pre-disaster mitigation grants for both state and local mitigation projects.

A state mitigation plan also will be required for nonemergency assistance provided under the Stafford Act following a presidentially declared disaster, including public assistance for restoration of damaged facilities and post-disaster Hazard Mitigation Grant Program funding, the FEMA news release notes.

Multi-hazard mitigation planning may include hazards caused by nonnatural events, but it must be focused primarily on natural hazards, FEMA officials say. The funds can be used to develop multi-jurisdictional plans, if adopted by all participating political jurisdictions, since many issues are resolved better by evaluating hazards in a more comprehensive fashion, the news release notes.

Risk assessments in support of mitigation planning are also eligible.

Information about mitigation programs is available at http://www.fema.gov/fima/.

9/11 panel told U.S. vastly unprepared

By Shaun Waterman
Published May 24, 2003

The United States was so unprepared for the September 11 terrorist attacks that warplanes dispatched to intercept a highjacked airliner thought to be headed for the White House were unarmed, the panel investigating the attacks was told yesterday.
The two F-16s, part of the 113th Air National Guard based at Andrews Air Force Base, were visible in the sky above the Pentagon as it was evacuated after being struck by American Airlines Flight 77, Maj. Gen. Craig McKinley, commander of the 1st Air Force, told the panel.
Gen. McKinley is also in charge of the division of the Northern Air Defense Command (NORAD) responsible for protecting the continental United States. He was one of a number of federal officials who gave evidence on the second day of public hearings held by the commission to find out what wrong and why on September 11.
The picture that emerged was one of military and federal agencies scrambling desperately to respond to an attack for which they were completely unprepared, but officials said much had been done to improve the nation's readiness since that time.
The F-16s - which were not assigned to NORAD - had been launched at the request of the Secret Service after the first two airliners crashed into the World Trade Center, Gen. McKinley explained. But they had just returned from a training exercise and were not equipped with any weaponry to shoot down either Flight 77 or the remaining hijacked airliner, Flight 93, which was thought headed for the White House.
The two pilots showed "incredible bravery," said Commissioner Richard Ben-Veniste.
NORAD also scrambled F-16s from Langley Air Force Base in Virginia, he said. They were in the air within six minutes, which he said was "exceedingly quick." But they were still 12 minutes away from Washington when Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon.
Moreover, the man who had Gen. McKinley's job on September 11, retired Maj. Gen. Larry Arnold, told the panel that he could not have ordered the hijacked airliners shot down even if either set of F-16s had been able to make it to the capital in time.
"To my knowledge, I did not have the authority to shoot it down at that time," he said. Of Flight 77, he said, "Even if we were there, I don't think we would have shot it down."
He said that he only learned President Bush had made the decision to give him that authority five minutes after the last plane, Flight 93, crashed into a field in rural Pennsylvania, after passengers had learned the fate of the other airliners and apparently had stormed the cockpit.
Gen. McKinley admitted that NORAD was utterly unprepared for the attack.
"Our mission was at that time ... to look outward, as a Cold War vestige ... to protect against Soviet long-range bomber penetration of our intercept zone," he said.
"Would you agree," asked Mr. Ben-Veniste, that on the basis of the information available there could have been better preparedness by NORAD?"
"In retrospect, sir," the general replied, "I think I would agree with your comment."
Gen. Arnold explained that NORAD commanders had no radar cover in the United States - relying instead on civilian air-traffic-control radar data relayed to them over the phone - and could not even talk directly to their pilots while they were in the air.
Gen. McKinley explained that many changes had been made since September 11.

Transit Agency Joins Emergency Preparedness Partnership

The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) recently joined the Department of Homeland Security, the Federal Transit Administration (FTA), and the American Red Cross in a "national partnership designed to ensure that transit passengers are prepared for emergencies of all types." According to MBTA, the public safety program "includes transit emergency information available in the form of brochures, bookmarks, employee newsletters, audio announcements, as well as signage on all MBTA vehicles and MBTA stations." FTA Administrator Jennifer Dorn said the partnership "is an important next step in the industry's efforts to ensure that public transportation passengers are as prepared as they can be while riding the subways, buses and all other forms of transit."

ANALYSIS: The MBTA is the second transit agency to join the partnership, after the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA), which joined in April. The FTA is contacting other transit agencies and Red Cross chapters nationwide "in an effort to expand the program to communities of all sizes." The FTA's post-11 September transit security plan includes three priorities: "training-all transit employees must be trained to deter, detect, mitigate, and respond to a variety of emergency scenarios; emergency preparedness-local agencies must ensure that emergency plans are in place and routinely practiced; [and] public awareness-passengers are aware of their surroundings and can spot suspicious or unusual activity, and need to know how to communicate with transit officials...it is also critical that passengers know how to exit systems in the event of an emergency."

DHS Releases $700 Million in Funding for High-Risk Areas

The Department of Homeland Security announced on 14 May the allocation of $700 million from the fiscal year 2003 supplemental budget "to enhance the security of urban areas with high density population areas and critical infrastructure." Of the total, $500 million "will be provided through the states to 30 cities and their contiguous counties and mutual aid partners." New York City, Washington, DC, Chicago, and Houston are the top four grant recipients. DHS will provide $75 million for port security funding to cover "operational activities conducted during ORANGE alert from January 2003 through April 2003, critical infrastructure security, security enhancements, training, exercises, equipment, planning, and information sharing." Also included in the $700 million is $65 million for the security of mass transit systems, $35 million for radiological defense systems, $15 million for pilot projects "that would affect high density urban areas, high-threat areas, and for the protection of critical infrastructure," and $10 million for technical assistance.

ANALYSIS: According to DHS, the "dissemination of this funding takes into account threats, population density and the presence of critical infrastructure which will best help to secure our homeland in an environment where we must ensure maximum benefit is derived from every security dollar." Over the past several months, DHS Secretary Tom Ridge "has called for changing the way the government distributes federal [homeland security] aid," and has said distributing funds based solely on population is insufficient.

From the "Congressional Quarterly Homeland Security Daily," May 13, 2003:

Pentagon’s 9/11 Emergency Crews Offering Lessons Learned

State and local administrators who need advice on preparing their agencies for a major terrorist attack can take instruction July 28 from battle-tested veterans in Arlington, Va. who oversaw the emergency response to the 9/11 crash of a hijacked jumbo jet into the Pentagon. A three-day conference sponsored by the International Association of Chiefs of Police will focus on lessons learned during an after-action review of the local government’s response to the attack. Panels at the Crystal Gateway Marriot in Arlington will focus on the logistics of running a command center, establishing a safe perimeter, gathering evidence, plus offer insight on the demands placed on county managers. The street-level advice will be supplemented by big-picture presentations from senior FBI officials, including Director Robert S. Mueller III, Assistant Director Van Harp of the Bureau’s Washington Field Office, along with speeches by Attorney General John Ashcroft and Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge.

From the "Congressional Quarterly Homeland Security Update," May 12, 2003:

Cox Backs New Formula for State Counterterrror Funding

Against the backdrop of the TOPOFF II terrorism drill in Seattle and Chicago, Rep. Christopher Cox, R-Calif., chairman of the House Select Committee on Homeland Security, said Monday that federal anti-terrorism funding for state and local first responders should be based on a “rigorous threat assessment,” not on population-based formulas. Cox and other members of the panel were in New York City meeting with local officials, including Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly. Bloomberg has pushed the Bush administration to allocate additional terrorism-preparedness funding to the city, which is considered a probable target of future terror attacks. Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge, in turn, has called on Congress to change the current formula for distributing homeland security grants to states and cities before the fiscal 2004 appropriations bills are approved. The current funding formula includes mandatory minimums for each state and distributes money based largely on population. -Jeremy Torobin

Disaster, no--this is only test
Emergency will be simulated in Chicago, Seattle
By John McCormick, Tribune staff reporter. Tribune staff reporter David Heinzmann contributed to this report

May 11, 2003

By Sunday morning, Chicago will be in the early stages of a mock terror attack as officials use an imaginary cloud of pneumonic plague to test whether the area is prepared to handle the real thing.

According to a scripted scenario, the disaster will unfold over coming days and reach a crescendo on Thursday, when emergency workers will be swamped with made-up disasters, including a plane crash at Midway Airport, a building collapse and a panicked citizenry elbowing for medicine to treat the plague.

In a parallel drill, Seattle will face the fictional detonation of a radiological "dirty bomb," prompting authorities there to close roads, set up shelters and admit victims to hospitals.

The exercise, at a taxpayer expense of $16 million, is designed to provide emergency preparedness officials with experience on how to deal with separate but almost simultaneous terrorist attacks.

Called TOPOFF 2, short for "top officials," the drill is congressionally mandated and sponsored by the Department of Homeland Security. Similar exercises were held in May 2000 in Denver, Portsmouth, N.H., and Washington, D.C.

Officials say disruptions to traffic and residents here should be minimal, although a few parts of the drill are expected to create some strange images around the metropolitan area.

Authorities say travelers and residents near Midway Airport, for example, should expect to see smoke rising into the sky early Thursday evening, as a commercial plane crash is simulated there.

Incoming and outgoing pilots and passengers will be advised of the drill. Fliers printed in English, Arabic and Spanish are being distributed to area residents.

Other strange scenes might include workers at area hospitals wearing more masks around emergency rooms (to protect them from the imaginary plague) and large numbers of emergency vehicles at certain drill venues.

But most of the exercise is expected to be invisible to the public, taking place either only on paper or behind closed doors at city, county, state and federal command centers around the region. That means the public may not know where the holes in the system are for months.

"The federal government will come back and give us some kind of input," said Cortez Trotter, Chicago's emergency response chief.

Authorities will allow reporters to view some of the simulations, but they are blocking access to communications and strategy sessions that will largely determine just how successful local, state and federal authorities are in dealing with the make-believe terror attacks.

Larry Langford, spokesman for the city's Office of Emergency Management and Communications, said reporters won't be allowed to see any glitches firsthand because authorities don't want the information transmitted to potential terrorists.

Real reporters will also be prohibited from recording dialogue between emergency workers and "VNN" network television crews, actors who will pretend to be reporters at some of the disaster locations. Langford said authorities don't want footage of city workers acting out responses to an imaginary terrorist attack being accidentally broadcast or falling into the wrong hands.

Officials won't even confirm how many volunteer victims are participating in the drill in the Chicago area. The best guesses are between several hundred and 1,200, based on past statements by those involved in organizing the exercise.

Some of those who will show up at hospitals with supposed cases of pneumonic plague will carry pieces of paper saying they represent five or 10 other patients, while other hospitals will simply have patient information faxed to them.

Federal officials say Chicago and Seattle were selected for the mock exercise because they're large, sprawling metropolitan areas where local officials volunteered to host a drill.

A total of 19 federal agencies, as well as state and county health, transportation and emergency management departments will be involved in the Chicago-area exercise. Canadian authorities will also participate in a simulated international spread of the plague, leading to cross-border efforts to coordinate an epidemiological investigation.

The participants in the drill will include top local and state officials, police officers, firefighters and other "first responders" who would be called to help in the event of a terrorist attack. Several hundred evaluators will also watch the script play out, looking for failures and successes to report in a later study.

News accounts about the earlier drill in Denver, which also featured an attack by pneumonic plague, described a sometimes-chaotic response, with government agencies jostling for control while weary public health officials wasted hours on excessively large conference calls. Radios among the various federal, state and local agencies also weren't compatible.

In Chicago, the drill calls for hospital officials to diagnose the plague on Tuesday and send samples to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta to confirm that the deadly, biological agent has been released here.

On Wednesday, the volume of pretend hospital admissions will escalate and the imaginary terrorist group, called GLODO, will take credit for the biological attack.

By Thursday, the busiest of the days planned for the drill, the Strategic National Stockpile of pharmaceuticals will deploy medication for sometimes large and panicked crowds at inoculation sites in Chicago, Bridgeview, Wheaton, Aurora and Lake Bluff.

Besides the script for the bio-terror assault in the Chicago area, other side events, including a hazardous materials incident and a building collapse Thursday morning in Bedford Park, are planned.

In addition to the planned events, the scenario calls for a few surprises that are not part of the script. That could include something like a huge imaginary fire that would draw resources away from the terrorism response and put added stress on communications channels.

Altogether, several hundred emergency workers will be involved. The workers will be off-duty police officers, firefighters and other emergency personnel who will be paid by the federal government.

A spokesman said Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge might visit Chicago late in the week to observe the drill and perhaps participate in a Thursday briefing for reporters.

Jean Przybylek, vice president of operations for Northwestern Memorial Hospital, said detecting a case of the plague during winter would typically be more difficult because the flulike symptoms would seem less out of place than in the spring. She said she expects the drill will test how well hospitals are able to communicate with each other and transfer potentially large numbers of patients.

One thing that's certain about the drill's script: Authorities will nail the bad guys at a Southwest Side building that supposedly has been converted to a biological lab. The arrests are expected Thursday evening, within days of the terrorist attack--something that hasn't always happened in real life.

Drill puts focus on pneumonic plague

Health officials in the Chicago area will cope with the imagined release of pneumonic plague as the main crisis in this week's terrorism drill.

Some basics about the plague:

- Caused by a bacterium found in rodents and their fleas.

- Occurs when the bacterium infects the lungs. (Bubonic plague occurs when the same bacterium infects the blood.)

- Spread by droplets in the breath or cough of an infected person.

- First signs are fever, headache, weakness and rapidly developing pneumonia.

- Treatment includes 7 days of antibiotics, preferably beginning within 24 hours of the first symptoms.

- There is no vaccine.

Source: Centers for Disease Control

CQ HOMELAND SECURITY - LOCAL RESPONSE
May 7, 2003 - 8:13 p.m.
Budget Gaps Decimating Fire Houses, Groups Warn
By David Clarke, CQ Staff Writer

When representatives of the nation's three major fire groups came to Capitol Hill last Wednesday to make their pitch for more money for equipment and training, they chanted the new mantra adopted by first-responders looking for funding from Congress: homeland security.
But they also came with an old fashioned request - for more firefighters. Just for plain old fires.
Because of state and local budget problems, many fire departments across the country - from Worcester, Mass., to Seattle - are lopping off staff or the number of firefighters on duty at one time.
They want the federal government to help snuff out that trend.
"I am here today to tell you that no investment in homeland security will do as much to protect Americans," Kevin O'Connor, assistant to the general president of the International Association of Firefighters union, told the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee.
O'Connor and representatives from the International Association of Fire Chiefs and the National Volunteer Fire Council argued that even without the cuts across the country more firefighters are needed to ensure that local departments can respond quickly to any emergency, terrorism or otherwise.
But it's an idea that has received a lukewarm reception on the Hill and resistance from the administration, which is wary of expanding the budget to supplement fire and police departments' payrolls.
"The primary federal responsibility is for providing money for anti-terrorism equipment and training ... That's what the administration and terrorism experts suggest is the proper role for the federal government," said a spokesman for the White House Office of Management and Budget, echoing the argument made by administration officials over the past year.
What's the Difference?
The federal focus on anti-terrorism funding has been a bit of a dilemma for firefighters who don't see much of a difference between their ability to respond to a terrorist attack, a fire or a chemical spill. The distinction, they think, is made only in Washington.
"If you make departments better prepared to respond to day-to-day events then they'll be better prepared to respond to a terrorist incident," argued Craig Sharman, director of government relations for the National Volunteer Fire Council.
Frustration is building outside the Beltway.
A month ago, Worcester laid off 40 of its 965 police officers and firefighters because of cuts in state aid.
As a result, fire department response times have begun to slow and the police are under greater strain to perform homeland security duties such as patrolling water treatment plants and rail lines that carry chemical containers, Mayor Timothy P. Murray said.
"The president's words are hollow," he said. "You can't talk about the war on terrorism and then cut people at the front lines."
Worcester is not alone. Minneapolis recently let go 43 of its 425 firefighters and, on Tuesday, announced it would close two of its seven fire companies.
New York City has proposed reducing the size of engine crews from five to four at 53 of the city's 207 firehouses to deal with a $45 million deficit in the fire department budget.
The city's fire union has gone to court to stop the reductions.
Even with the political support firefighters have gained since they rushed into the burning Twin Towers 20 months ago, Hill supporters of the staffing funds aren't so sure that homeland security concerns will propel the idea forward.
"I would have thought it would," said Sen. Christopher J. Dodd, D-Conn., who added that a bill (S 544) he introduced has not received much support.
Dodd's legislation would authorize more than $7.6 billion over seven years for hiring grants. A companion measure (HR 1118) has been introduced in the House by Science Committee Chairman Sherwood Boehlert, R-N.Y.
Their proposal is similar to a Clinton-era staffing program for police departments, which isn't likely to endear it to the Bush administration.
The Community Oriented Police Services hiring grants program, known as COPS, is popular with local governments. But President Bush has tried to eliminate it the past two years, arguing that its goal was to provide enough money to hire an additional 100,000 police officers - not an endless stream of money.
But law enforcement organizations have lobbied hard to keep it and secured $200 million for the program in fiscal 2003.
Into the Sunset
Like COPS, Dodd and Boehlert's proposal is supposed to sunset after a few years.
Creating a COPS-like program for fire houses may be going too far, said Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, chairwoman of the Senate Governmental Reform Committee.
"I don't think we can expect the federal government to take over the responsibility of staffing for every fire house in the country," she said, adding, however, that some relief could be provided.
Even if the legislation makes its way through Congress, supporters would be hard pressed to find any money to fund it, said G. William Hoagland, a top budget aide to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn.
"In the fiscal crisis out there, anything defined as homeland security, as a way of releasing pressure on local budgets, will have some appeal. But in the end here, what will control funding is appropriations," he said. "I don't see significant increases beyond what is in the president's budget."

May 5, 2003 - 8:15 p.m.
States Look for Lessons in Massive Terrorism-Response Drill
By David Clarke, CQ Staff Writer

Next Monday, the Department of Homeland Security will kick off the largest terrorism-response training exercise in the nation's history.
Involving more than 8,500 people from 100 federal, state and local agencies and the American Red Cross, the five-day, $16 million TOPOFF II exercise, shorthand for Top Officials II, will test government officials' ability to handle simultaneous terrorist attacks on two major metropolitan areas.
The attack scenario involves the detonation of a large radiological "dirty bomb" at noon Monday in downtown Seattle. As federal and state officials begin treating the hundreds of casualties that explosion causes, reports will begin arriving of patients appearing in emergency rooms throughout the Chicago area, displaying symptoms of highly contagious pneumonic plague.
Later, officials in Vancouver, British Columbia, will report a similar outbreak.
TOPOFF II will directly involve state and local agencies in Washington, D.C., Washington State and Illinois, but for officials in other parts of the country, the exercise presents a perfect opportunity to test how they would react to attacks hundreds or even thousands of miles away - attacks that would immediately push the homeland security threat index to red, its highest level.
The Homeland Security Department will help emergency management officials in all states play along with the drill by providing running updates as the crisis unfolds, said Ted Macklin, assistant director for the Office for Domestic Preparedness, which is running the exercise.
Most of the information will be provided through a faux news channel - VNN - that has been created to cover the attacks.
But state security and emergency management officials in some states say they're not planning on expending a lot of time or energy monitoring the government's exercise.
"We're already responding to a very real emergency," Col. Tim Daniel, Missouri's special advisor for Homeland Security, said, referring to the tornadoes that ripped through the Midwest over the weekend.
And Daniel said Missouri officials are confident they can have the state's emergency operations center up and running quickly in the event of an actual attack.
"What we're interested in is the lessons learned that come of the exercises," he said, "That will be key."
Officials in other states neighboring Illinois, including Iowa, Indiana and Kentucky, said they have no plans to monitor the exercise either.
Oregon officials will meet tomorrow to decide whether they will participate, said Maj. Greg Willeford, a spokesman for the state police.
In the Washington, D.C., area, however, TOPOFF II will attract a lot of attention. No matter the location of a bombing or other attack, the National Capital Region, which includes the District and the close-in Maryland and Virginia suburbs, will immediately be on high-alert.
Intelligence officials believe the fourth plane hijacked on Sept. 11 - the plane which crashed in a Pennsylvania field - was targeting either the White House, CIA headquarters, or the U.S. Capitol. Al Qaeda, officials warn, has unfinished business in Washington, D.C.
Shortly after federal officials announce the Seattle bombing, spreading radiological debris, the District will open its Emergency Operations Center and begin working with officials in Virginia and Maryland to decide how to respond.
"We'll use this as a good opportunity to run through our protocols," said Thomas J. Lockwood, Maryland's homeland security advisor.
Lockwood said national capital region officials will react to whatever information they receive on Monday, the only day the region will be directly involved in the exercise.
"You should play the game as if you are doing it in real life so you don't prepare too, too much," he said.
TOPOFF II is the second in a series of terrorism preparedness drills that Congress mandated in 1998.
The first exercise was held in 2000, and simulated a germ warfare attack on Denver and Portsmouth, N.H. The government's response to that scenario was widely reported as being chaotic, with no clear chain of command and lack of coordination.
But TOPOFF I came before the Sept. 11 terror attacks and the ensuing anthrax mailings, and before the creation of the Department of Homeland Security, which is tasked with managing the response to any attack on U.S. soil.
Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge cautioned at a press conference Monday that the scenario of a radiological bomb exploding in Seattle and a plague attack on Chicago are hypothetical. But he said ""they do reflect plausible threats to the United States."
In preparation for the event, Ridge and other cabinet members met with exercise planners Monday morning for a couple of hours to run through some scenarios and ask questions about the simulated attacks.
Macklin, the Domestic Preparedness official, said that while officials in Seattle and Chicago know when the exercise will begin and generally understand what they'll be dealing with, planners will throw in some surprises to make the exercise as realistic as possible.

From the 2 May 03 edition of the "Congressional Quarterly Homeland Security Daily:"
Ridge Likes Direct Oversight of Local Grant Programs

Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said Thursday he supports legislation that would give him direct oversight over first responder grant programs. The bill was introduced by Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and would move the Office for Domestic Preparedness to the Homeland Security Office of State and Local Government Coordination, which reports directly to Ridge. The domestic preparedness office currently is housed in the Border and Transportation Directorate. Moving the office “would co-locate funding programs for state and local first responders with the office directly responsible for maintaining communications, and coordinating DHS’ efforts, with state and local governments,” Ridge told the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee. Collins, who chairs the panel, is holding a series of hearings on the issue. - David Clarke

Officials brace for terrorism simulation
By H. Gregory Meyer
Tribune staff reporter

April 23, 2003

Next month, imaginary terrorists will pretend to release killer microbes in the Chicago area, leaving thousands of fictional people dead.

This bleak scenario is expected to play out in what officials are calling the largest-ever terrorism drill in the United States. The so-called "Topoff 2" exercise will test top officials in federal, state and local governments in the midst of attacks on northeast Illinois and the Seattle area.

"It is designed to test the nation's ability to respond to multisite, multihazard terrorist events that could occur throughout the country," Thomas Mefferd, director of DuPage County's Office of Emergency Management, told the DuPage County Board on Tuesday.

The exercise comes three years after the first Topoff drill in which there was a feigned release of pneumonic plague in the Denver Performing Arts Center and six days of imagined antibiotics shortages, civil unrest and hundreds of deaths. Weary public health officials wasted hours on conference calls, according to an assessment by scholars at the Johns Hopkins Center for Civilian Biodefense Studies.

Topoff 2 is the first federal regionwide exercise since the 2001 anthrax attacks killed five in the United States.

Officials from Chicago and Cook, DuPage, Kane and Lake Counties will join state and federal officials in the drill the week of May 11. It is being led by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the State Department.

While officials say they've learned lessons from the Denver exercise, they add that a dry run that does not press the system's limits will be of little use.

"We specifically pushed the envelope on these exercises to identify places where we can make improvements," said an official with the Homeland Security Department who asked not to be identified. "We don't view these exercises as a chance to dust off our hands and say, `Well, it worked exactly the way we thought it would.'"

An element of surprise will be central to the drill's success, officials say, so most details of the Chicago-area events are being withheld for now. Many players have been kept in the dark.

James Dart, a Homeland Security Department official working on the exercise, confirmed that it will contain a simulated biological release. Other officials involved in planning said the drill is expected to center on a mock plague outbreak.

In Seattle, the detonation of a mock radioactive "dirty bomb" will be announced the same week, said Eric Holdeman of the King County (Wash.) Office of Emergency Management.

Officials would not disclose exactly where and when Illinois' first germ exposure will take place. Chicago Mayor Richard Daley's office said last fall the "attack" will take place in Chicago, though on Tuesday a spokeswoman with the city's Office of Emergency Management and Communications would not confirm that.

"The agents that are going to be directly involved in the training exercises, such as evidence recovery people, counterterrorism, SWAT teams--they don't know any of the particulars," said Ross Rice, spokesman for the FBI's Chicago office. "They know the exercise is taking place and they're going to be involved with it, and they know it's a simulated terrorist attack. That's it."

Once a "release" has been announced, local hospitals and public health agencies are expected to be among the first to respond, diagnosing cases and feeding data to epidemiologists looking for disease trends. If local and state agencies are overwhelmed, they will turn to federal agencies, such as the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for laboratory work and the Strategic National Stockpile for medication shipments, said James Hagen, the DuPage County Health Department's deputy executive director.

While some actors will arrive at hospitals and clinics with scripted complaints of symptoms, "We don't want to overrun them with actors," said Allen Graber, emergency response coordinator at the Lake County Health Department. "There will be live actors and paper patients. Each actor will bring in, on paper, five or 10 other paper patients."

Graber said he plans to provide chewing gum to local police and firefighters as a substitute for medication.

Even morgues will be enlisted in the drill, because in Lake County, for example, between 1,500 and 2,000 deaths would result if the circumstances were real, Graber said.

In the event a real emergency arises the week of May 11, the drill will cease immediately.

The drill is coming as some health departments are facing financial difficulties in part because of such new responsibilities as handling bioterrorism. While federal officials could not provide the total cost Tuesday, Holdeman said about $5 million has been approved nationwide for the drill.

Department Of Homeland Security Announces $165 Million In Grants To States For All Hazards Emergency And Terrorism Preparedness
Release No: HQ-03-EMPG
Release Date: April 16, 2003

Washington, D.C. -- The Department of Homeland Security's Emergency Preparedness and Response Directorate, known as FEMA, has provided $165 million in grants to help state and local governments better prepare to respond to all hazards preparedness activities and emergency management. These funds are a result of a significant increase in funding for the Emergency Management Performance Grants (EMPG) program from the FY '03 budget.
Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge noted, "This is an important step in getting essential funding to our state and local governments to help them battle this national effort in the war on terror. We recognize the challenge that the state and localities face when planning to respond to a potential disaster and the Department is committed to providing them with the tools they need to be prepared."
The EMPG program provide states the flexibility to allocate funds according to risk vulnerabilities and to address the most urgent state and local needs in disaster mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery. The effectiveness of state and local responder organizations is critical to the success of all aspects of the Homeland Security mission, but especially to disaster response operations. Local emergency managers plan, train, exercise and provide the facilities needed to coordinate all emergency services in response to disasters of all kinds. They also assume the leading role in mitigation program activities, those designed to reduce the vulnerability of communities to all hazards.
"The $165 million to state and locals for all hazards preparedness represents a 40 percent increase from FY '02 EMPG funding," said Michael D. Brown, Under Secretary for Emergency Preparedness and Response. "These grants are further evidence of this administration's commitment to state and local governments for all hazards emergency preparedness efforts."
The EMPG program, which was first awarded in FY 2000, was intended to consolidate funding streams that FEMA provides to state emergency management departments and agencies.

April 14, 2003 - 7:22 p.m.

Justice Department Digging Deep on Local Police Homeland Missions

By Jim McGee, CQ Staff Writer

On the subject of a weapon of mass destruction erupting inside the United States, Washington, D.C., is overrun by experts, advocates, lobbyists and entrepreneurs who profess to know the operational shortcomings, professional anxieties and equipment needs of local police.

But on what are they basing their opinions? How do these experts and advocates come by their knowledge about what police departments and their officers need to man the front lines of counterterrorism?

How, for that matter, does anyone working in the field of homeland security get reliable data about the human factors and technical requirements common to their new mission?

Now comes the U.S. Justice Department's Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) with a plan to find answers to these questions - answers supposedly based on statistically reliable data gathered from police officers and executives.

To that end, the agency has issued a request for proposals from the private sector to conduct a survey of police about their terrorism-related tasks. The data will then be placed in the public record, the BJS says.

"The survey will obtain information about law enforcement personnel, equipment, policies and programs, operations, terrorism/mass disaster response, computers and information systems, and other topics," said the BJS announcement.

The idea is to let everyone in the homeland security game, from Washington politicians and bureaucrats to university research and development teams to the big picture people at think tanks, have access to valid data about local police.

"This will provide important information for the development and expansion of law enforcement activity," said the BJS announcement in the Federal Register April 11, "and the information will be useful for policymakers engaged in research, planning, and budgeting."

If that weren't enough, BJS is also adding questions about "terrorism/mass disaster response and other current topic areas" to the 2003 Sample Survey of Law Enforcement Agencies (SSLEA).

BJS was established in 1979 to collect criminal justice data - for its own expert analysis, for use by the government at large, and for distribution via the Internet to all comers interested in slicing and dicing the latest data sets.

The Bigger Picture

The survey of police agencies and personnel is part of the much larger ongoing project of the Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics (LEMAS) program, whose results are eventually logged with the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR).

The accumulated mass of data from past surveys has made LEMAS a mother lode of hard data on law enforcement personnel, expenditures and pay, operations, equipment, computers and information systems, and policies and procedures.

"Findings from the LEMAS program are designed to provide a broad picture of the current state of law enforcement in America, as well as to document both existing and emerging trends," said the agency's announcement.

Since homeland security is shaping up as the biggest of all "existing and emerging trends," or at the very least the politically-charged preoccupation of legislators in Congress and state capitols alike, BJS has decided to include homeland security issues in its questionnaire.

While the fundamentals of this research will be familiar to most polling and other data collection organizations, the BJS project will not be standard telephone opinion farming.

The agency has set the ambitious goal of a 90 percent completion rate, via a web-based reporting system that will allow BJS monitors to keep up with the flow of questions and answers over the course of the 12-month project.

To start, the mission is to get 2,000 respondents to answer a four-page questionnaire, then an additional 1,000 respondents to complete a detailed eight pages of questions.

"This may involve multiple follow-up telephone calls, re-mailing or re-faxing surveys, e-mail correspondence, and site visits where necessary," said the announcement.

No one pretends that having accurate data on the state and local state-of-the-art will end public debate between Democratic critics in Congress and the Bush administration over how much funding and what kinds of legal and operational support local first responders need most.

But the hope at BJS is that the data will at least "provide important information for the development and expansion of law enforcement activity, and the information will be useful for policymakers engaged in research, planning, and budgeting."

New bill would help first responders obtain federal aid

Senator Tom Carper (D-Delaware), a member of the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, on 9 April introduced legislation that would give states more control in how they spend federal grants for homeland security, Delaware's News Journal reported. Carper also called for the amount of federal money a state receives to be based on its potential terrorist targets and not only on its size. The move came after Senate Governmental Affairs Chairwoman Susan Collins (R-Maine) on 9 April said she plans to introduce a bill that would authorize Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge to issue waivers allowing states and localities to obtain federal funds for purposes beyond those specified in current grant rules. Collins said her measure would probably include a provision to move the Office of Domestic Preparedness (ODP) from Homeland Security's border directorate to Ridge's office in order to "begin the process of establishing a canalized location to help our first responders," according to GovtExe.com. No details were immediately available on when the bill will be introduced.

ANALYSIS: Testimony from emergency services representatives before the Governmental Affairs Committee on 9 April highlighted the obstacles states and localities continue to face in trying to obtain federal funding for increased security measures, even when these are federal requirements. Police Chief Michael Chitwood from Portland, Maine said the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) requires 12 police officers to be on duty at the Portland International Jetport 24 hours a day, but Portland is not reimbursed for the cost of redirecting those officers from their regular duties. Similarly, Jeffrey Horvath, police chief for Dover, Delaware said grants "cannot be used to hire new police ... [or] pay overtime expenses that we incur each time [Homeland Security] Secretary [Tom] Ridge changes" the security-alert level. Hovarth told the committee, "The money has got to get to us quicker. We keep hearing about it, but we aren't seeing it," and warned, "We may have to cut certain programs and services ... if the city of Dover is unable to find other revenue sources." Horvath and Chitwood said neither of their departments had received any federal grants since 11 September, 2001.

April 8, 2003
Securing the Homeland: Protecting Our States and Cities
U.S. Department of Homeland Security

Today the Department of Homeland Security, through the Office of Domestic Preparedness, announced that approximately $100 million dollars from the FY '03 Funding will be dedicated to large urban areas within the United States. The money, dispersed under the Urban Area Security Initiative, will help enhance the local governments' ability to prepare for and respond to threats or incidents of terrorism. The funds announced today are in addition to the $566 million that the Office for Domestic Preparedness announced last month from the FY'03 Funding for first responder needs such as equipment, training, planning and exercises.
The cities were chosen by applying a formula based upon a combination of factors including population density, critical infrastructure and threat/vulnerability assessment. The cities have all previously received funding from the Office for Domestic Preparedness in the form of grants for First Responders and will also potentially receive funds from the FY '03 Supplemental Budget Request currently pending in Congress.
New York City, New York
An additional $24.76 million from the FY '03 Budget is being made available to the City of New York to protect the city's critical sites as part of the Urban Area Security Initiative. This money has been designated to the New York Urban Area to further enhance the local government's ability to prepare for and respond to threats or potential incidents of terrorism. This is in addition to the $26 million previously made available to the State of New York in the form of an ODP grant to be used for equipment, training, exercise and planning for the city's first responder groups.
Washington, D.C. - National Capital Region
An additional $18.08 million is being made available to the National Capital Region as part of the Urban Area Security Initiative. $4.91 million has previously been made available to Washington, D.C. from the Office for Domestic Preparedness within the Department of Homeland Security in the form of grants for First Responders.
Los Angeles, California
An additional $12.42 million is being made available to the City of Los Angeles as part of the Urban Area Security Initiative. $45 million has previously been made available to California from the Office for Domestic Preparedness within the Department of Homeland Security in the form of grants for First Responders.
Seattle, Washington
An additional $11.20 million is being made available to the City of Seattle as part of the Urban Area Security Initiative. $11.3 million has previously been made available to Washington from the Office for Domestic Preparedness within the Department of Homeland Security in the form of grants for First Responders.
Chicago, Illinois
An additional $10.89 million is being made available to the City of Chicago as part of the Urban Area Security Initiative. $18.8 million has previously been made available to Illinois from the Office for Domestic Preparedness within the Department of Homeland Security in the form of grants for First Responders
San Francisco, California
An additional $10.74 million is being made available to the City of San Francisco as part of the Urban Area Security Initiative. $45 million has previously been made available to California from the Office for Domestic Preparedness in the Department of Homeland Security in the form of grants for First Responders
Houston, Texas
An additional $8.63 million is being made available to the City of Houston as part of the Urban Area Security Initiative. $29.5 million has previously been made available to Texas from the Office for Domestic Preparedness within the Department of Homeland Security in the form of grants for First Responders
Future Funding...
President Bush has requested an additional $2 billion in funds from the FY'03 Supplemental Budget request recently sent to Congress to help the states and localities confront threats to the United States and the American people. This funding request includes $2 billion to further support enhancements to state and local terrorism preparedness efforts as well as coordinated prevention and security enhancement for first responders.
In FY'03, DHS/FEMA will provide $165 million in grants to the states in the form of Emergency Management Performance grants. These grants, expected to be announced soon, can be used by states for development, maintenance and improvement of state and local emergency management capabilities.
In FY'03, DHS/FEMA will also provide $750 million in grants directly to fire departments around the country for equipment, training and education under the Assistance to Firefighters Grant program. This $750 million -- the largest amount in grants ever for firefighters -- is twice as much as FEMA distributed to firefighters in FY'02, when $334 million was distributed through more than 5000 grants nationwide.
The President has requested $3.5 billion to be used for ODP grants dedicated to meeting state and local needs in his FY'04 budget request.

April 8, 2003
Homeland department to allot $100 million for emergency preparedness
By Maureen Sirhal, National Journal's Technology Daily

The Homeland Security Department announced on Tuesday that it will allocate $100 million this year for emergency preparedness in major U.S. cities.
The funding will be distributed under the urban-area security initiative and is aimed at improving the ability of local governments to prepare for and respond to potential threats, including terrorist activities. Already the department has made available to local governments $566 million to purchase emergency equipment, pay for improved training and conduct emergency exercises.
The department awarded nearly $25 million to New York City; $18 million to Washington, D.C., more than $12 million to Los Angeles, $11 million to Seattle, more than $10 million each to Chicago and San Francisco, and more than $8 million to Houston.
Additionally, the administration has asked that Congress provide $2 billion more in fiscal 2003 to help states and localities pay for terrorism preparations.
Meanwhile, a Bush administration official told a Senate panel on Tuesday that Homeland Security's emergency preparedness and response directorate is undergoing a restructuring designed to bolster cooperation among state and local emergency response agencies.
In a prepared statement before the Senate Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee, Michael Brown, undersecretary for emergency preparedness and response, said he has "ordered an internal reorganization" of the directorate, which is charged with mitigating risk and responding to incidents caused by terrorism or natural disasters.
The directorate, he said, "will be divided into four disciplines-preparedness, mitigation, response and recovery. This reorganization reflects the traditional areas of emergency management" and "resembles the organizational flow used by many states."
Brown also said the directorate is requesting funds in fiscal 2004 for several initiatives, including implementation of the National Incident Management System (NIMS), which will work to coordinate and integrate emergency response capabilities at all levels of government.
The agency also is seeking $200 million to update the flood-mapping system. "More than two-thirds of the maps are more than 10 years old," he said, adding that most of them "have outdated streets that make it difficult to precisely determine if a property is located in a floodplain."
The information, which is used millions of times a year by communities, lenders, insurance agents and others, also is incompatible with Geographic Information System technology, he said.
The $200 million budget request, according to Brown, would help create a system that would allow states and localities to better manage flood data and share it with Homeland Security.
"Through the flood-map modernization program, we will enable easy access and exchange of flood-hazard data through the Internet," he said. "This system will provide tools allowing the effective use of information for making decisions that reduce vulnerability to flood risk."

High Technology Solutions is awarded a Defense Department contract to assist first responders

San Diego-headquartered High Technology Solutions (HTS), a privately held defense systems integration and support services company, announced on 7 April "that it has been awarded a $2,000,000 contract from the Department of Defense for the development of its 'Tactical Survey System' (TSS), an innovative visualization system delivering pre-planned tactical information for [Navy] buildings and complexes" in the continental U.S. The TSS will provide emergency management personnel and first responders with "complete information and visualization tools to enable an efficient response, Allen Camaisa, HTS' chairman and CEO, said. Under developed for five years, TSS, the heart of which is patented interactive technology called "fully spherical immersive imagery," allows first fesponders to "see around corners, through walls and every room at a Tactical Survey structure before they leave their vehicle or the briefing room." Steve Larsen, CEO of Crestline-based Tactical Survey Group Inc., a project subcontractor, said, "This technology will enable emergency response personnel to train for an event as well as respond with unprecedented knowledge of a structure and its contents."

ANALYSIS: The capability to assess a crisis situation within a building remotely makes for an effective response by and relatively safe response for emergency management personnel. "TSS is unique and represents significant advancements in training, intervention and response to crisis situations."

Drugs at the Ready?

The Government Suggests You Add Prescription Medications to Your Emergency Kits. That May Be Easier Said Than Done.

By Francesca Lunzer Kritz
Special to The Washington Post
Tuesday, March 4, 2003; Page HE01

Moving beyond its duct-tape-and-plastic-sheeting dictum, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is urging more practical action, including that people assemble emergency preparedness kits in case of a terror attack.

One specific recommendation, promoted largely through the new federal Web site