Investing In Our Homeland Security
Congress made real progress this session in strengthening our nation’s homeland security by addressing some of our major vulnerabilities. This progress – reform of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), protection of our chemical facilities, and improved security for our seaports – was made possible because of bipartisan cooperation . We succeeded because members put the important job at hand first, and cooperated among committees, between Chambers, and across party lines. I am proud to have co- authored the three critical homeland security initiatives, all of which have been signed into law by the President.
The first important accomplishment was the urgently needed reform and strengthening of FEMA. The FEMA bill, which was included in the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Appropriations Bill, is the result of a seven-month Hurricane Katrina investigation by the Senate Homeland Security Committee, which I chair, into the failed preparations for and response to Hurricane Katrina.
The Committee’s recommendations will elevate the agency and give it a status comparable to the Coast Guard and Secret Service within the Department of Homeland Security. FEMA will have the same kinds of protections from arbitrary budget cuts or departmental reorganizations that weakened the agency in recent years. FEMA’s Administrator will become the President’s principal adviser for all-hazards emergency management.
The reform bill also reunites preparedness and response and makes FEMA responsible and empowered for all phases of emergency management – mitigation, preparation, response, and recovery.
Another very important reform included in our bill will be the creation of strike teams to ensure a more effective response to disasters. The legislation creates multi-agency task forces headed by FEMA in ten regions of the U.S., comprised of representatives from every federal agency that is involved in responding to or preparing for a disaster. They will train and exercise with their state and local counterparts, with non-governmental organizations, such as the Red Cross, and with key businesses, such as utility companies. I was struck during my committee’s investigation of Hurricane Katrina that so many people from FEMA’s New England Region were sent down to Louisiana to help with the response to Hurricane Katrina. The problem was they didn’t know the people they had to work with, they didn’t know the geography, they didn’t know the culture, they didn’t have knowledge of what assets could be mobilized in the response.
The worst time to be exchanging business cards is in the midst of a crisis. These regional teams will ensure that does not happen again.
We also addressed issues such as chronic staffing shortages at FEMA, the need for better pre-positioning of emergency supplies and tracking of shipments, and the need for survivable and interoperable communications. The improvements will make a real difference in ensuring that FEMA is better prepared for the next disaster, whether it is a natural disaster like a hurricane, or a terrorist attack.
The second major homeland security accomplishment of this Congress is the port-security bill that I authored with Senator Patty Murray of Washington. This landmark bill was signed this past week by President Bush. With 361 ports in this country and some 11 million shipping containers arriving each year, we desperately need better systems to ensure that our seaports and these containers are not going to be used to bring weapons, explosives, biological or chemical weapons, or even a squad of terrorists into our country. These 11 million containers have the potential to be the Trojan Horse of the 21st century.
Whatever the type of weapon, an attack on one or more U.S. ports could cause great loss of life, damage our energy supplies and infrastructure, cripple retailers and manufacturers dependent on incoming inventory, and hamper our ability to move and supply American military forces. Our port security bill is balanced legislation that strengthens our security while recognizing the importance of trade and not bringing the shipment of containers to a halt.
The legislation creates a $400 million grant program to strengthen security at ports like Portland, the largest in terms of tonnage in New England. It clarifies the roles, responsibilities, and authorities of government agencies at all levels and of private sector stakeholders. It establishes mandatory, baseline security standards and clear and measurable goals for better security of commercial operations from point of origin to destination. An important provision requires that radiation scanning be applied to 100-percent of containers entering the 22 largest U.S. ports by the end of 2007; that will cover 98 percent of all cargo. It produces incentives for shippers to voluntarily meet the highest level of security standards.
The new law also requires the DHS Secretary to develop protocols for the resumption of trade in the wake of an attack. Currently, an attack or incident at one of our ports could cripple the entire system and bring our economy to a standstill.
The third area of major homeland accomplishment involves the security of chemical plants, facilities that either use, store, or manufacture large quantities of hazardous chemicals.
DHS currently lacks the authority to set risk- and performance-based standards for security at our chemical facilities despite the fact that terrorism experts tell us al-Qaeda is focused on chemical plants and chemical explosions. Secretary Michael Chertoff has also listed chemical security as a major homeland security priority. The chemical security provision I authored would empower DHS to set performance-based security standards for the approximately 3,400 high-risk chemical facilities across this country
The bill, for the first time ever, provides DHS with the authority to oversee the security at our nation’s chemical facilities, set security standards, and even shut down a non-compliant facility if necessary to protect our nation. We have some 15,000 chemical facilities around the country, including more than 3,000 sites where a terrorist attack could cause considerable casualties among nearby populations. Our existing protections are a patchwork of different authorities – State, Coast Guard, and voluntary industry standards that are inadequate, given the threats we face.
This new law helps close a major gap in our defenses.
We will continue to take every step necessary to make our country safer from the devastation of either a natural disaster or a terrorist attack. National security remains one of my top priorities as Chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee. Real progress is accomplished with the spirit of bipartisan cooperation and determination. I am proud to have been a part of that in this session, and I am hopeful we will always deliver real progress as we continue our work for the security of our nation.
