ARTICLE

March 2004

Security Beat

by Geoff S. Fein

Increased Bioterrorism Funding in Fiscal 2005
The Departments of Homeland Security and Health and Human Services will share $275 million to expand the BioWatch program, improve a nationwide bio threat reporting system and upgrade food and animal inspections.

If Congress approves the president’s budget for fiscal year 2005, HHS would get $135 million to establish a nationwide reporting network to obtain daily information on outbreaks of diseases.

“We’ve never been able to get information on a daily basis from doctors, pharmacies and hospitals,” said HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson. “We will know in advance of any changes in health patterns.”

He added that the system is in its embryonic stage and still has some ways to go. For example, the Internet infrastructure to connect all the reporting agencies must be built.

“We are working to come up with a way to do interoperability,” said Thompson.

DHS would receive $129 million to double the BioWatch systems of monitors.

“These dollars will help improve the analytical capability,” said Tom Ridge, DHS secretary. The system has taken more than 500,000 samples in urban areas in less than a year, he said.

Those devices are now being used in 30 cities across the country to detect airborne pathogens. However, the systems are incapable of doing onsite analysis. Any samples taken have to be sent to a lab for diagnosis. Ridge said he has seen some detectors that appear to have the capacity for quicker analysis. Nevertheless, there are trade-offs for getting faster results, according to military experts. For example, the Joint Biological Point Detection System can analyze a sample in 15 minutes, but the device costs $400,000. Cultures grown inside a laboratory setting can determine a bio agent within 24 to 72 hours at a cost of $60. Military officials say that cultures are the most reliable detection method currently available.

Although additional cities will get the BioWatch monitoring devices, Ridge said the locations have yet to be determined.

The Food and Drug Administration will get $5 million from HHS to expand food inspection and to better monitor imported food, said Thompson.

This year the number of inspectors will increase from 70,000 to 97,000, with plans to increase that number to 100,000, said Thompson.

Better Planning Needed for ‘Dirty Bomb’ Attack
Experts who argue that the United States potentially is susceptible to radiological attacks—better known as “dirty bombs”—claim that this threat is often misconstrued.

“The reality is that the threat of a dirty bomb attack by terrorists is a credible one, although the psychological and economic consequences would likely far outweigh any casualties or physical destruction,” said James Jay Carafano in a study published by the Heritage Foundation.

By better understanding the dirty bomb threat, policymakers can more effectively coordinate public- and private-sector responses, he noted.

“Policymakers and the public need to understand the costs and risks associated with dirty bombs to invest appropriate resources for preparation and prevention efforts as well as for consequence mitigation,” he said. “Perhaps most important is ensuring that people do not overreact to the mere presence of radiation without full knowledge of the extent and type of contamination.”

According to Carafano, the government should:

• Develop national standards for emergency response.

There are no national standards for an emergency response to a dirty bomb attack, or for that matter to any major terrorist incident.

• Create a national system-of-systems emergency response structure.

Networks should connect sensors, decision-makers and emergency responders. “This means linking knowledgeable entities in the response to emergencies from the local level to the national level,” Carafano said.

• Focus federal resources on developing national surge medical capacity.

More than one-third of the current federal assistance provided to state and local government is for developing local hospital surge capacity. “A fixed hospital-based national emergency response system is not the answer,” he said. “It is likely that local hospitals would be quickly overwhelmed by mass casualty attacks, particularly radiological strikes that might see thousands of contaminated victims, as well as additional thousands of the ‘worried well,’ or unaffected individuals who seek medical treatment out of fear.”

• Centralize oversight of federal emergency medical response in the Department of Health and Human Services.

An effective national medical response could successfully mitigate casualties from a radiological attack. Oversight of national medical emergency programs, however, is split between HHS and the DHS.

• Enhance federal expertise in emergency medical care.

The federal government lacks an integrated approach to emergency medicine, a key component of responding to a radiological attack. HHS, for example, does not have a National Institute of Emergency Medicine.

Carafano said Congress should address the shortfall in federal expertise in emergency medical services by moving Emergency Medical Services Division functions to HHS and establishing an Institute for Emergency Medicine within the National Institutes of Health that is dedicated to spearheading emergency medical research efforts. This institute should work closely with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to devise more comprehensive emergency medical response strategies, particularly with regard to radiological contamination.

• Establish better coordination with the private sector.

A significant portion of the cleanup after a radiological disaster will be conducted by the private sector. Potentially, in addition to professional responders and volunteers, there are about 6.5 million skilled construction workers in the United States who could respond in the wake of a disaster, he said. The DHS should explore means to pre-train and certify construction workers; establish a registry of qualified contractors, firms, and unions, and link them to emergency management agencies.

National Guard Troops Retraining as MPs
To help relieve the burden placed on Army military police—both active duty and reserve—by ongoing conflicts, the National Guard is converting 18 of its field artillery, transportation and combat support units to provisional MP organizations.

Of the 18 units, 14 will be from field artillery, three from combat support and one from transportation. The new MPs will be used to provide security at military installations in the United States and Germany.

In all, about 2,200 Army National Guard soldiers will be retrained during a four-week course at the service’s Military Police School at Fort Leonard Wood, Mo. The soldiers will learn the finer points of conducting patrols, controlling crowds, route reconnaissance, setting up traffic-management points, detaining unauthorized persons and working with local law enforcement.

Study Calls for Tripling Guard Civil Support Teams
Lawrence J. Korb, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, is calling on the Bush administration to significantly grow the number of National Guard Civil Support teams from its current 32.

“Given the nature of the threat to the American public, key infrastructure and defense industries, and the existing capabilities of local and state officials, this nation needs at least 100 of these teams as soon as possible,” he said.

Korb served as assistant secretary of defense for manpower, reserve affairs, installations and logistics during the Reagan administration.

“Since the one-time cost of forming each team is about $8 million, adding these additional 68 teams would come to about $500 million,” said Korb.

In his report, “Six Steps to a Safer America,” Korb also recommends increasing the size of the active Army to a 12-division force from the current 10 divisions, and fielding a division devoted to stabilization and reconstruction.

Also, he proposes providing necessary, but currently missing, battlefield equipment and greater protection for both active troops and reservists, and stemming the emerging retention crisis by supporting military personnel and their families with increased health and education benefits.

In addition, he would dramatically expand programs that secure or destroy nuclear, chemical and biological weapons, materials and technologies by increasing funding for the Nunn-Lugar Act to $2 billion from $450 million, and broaden support for the International Atomic Energy Agency’s efforts to hunt down and secure weapons of mass destruction.

Korb suggests that the cost to increase the number of CST teams, along with other homeland security measures, could be paid by postponing the deployment of a missile defense system in Alaska and California, and canceling the F/A-22 fighter jet and the Virginia-class submarine programs.

Directory Lists Who’s Who in Homeland Security
Grey House Publishing has just released the first edition of a 700-page Homeland Security Directory. The book includes 1,175 profiles of federal and state agencies, 1,166 private companies, 280 homeland security industry resources and more than 11,200 names of key contacts.

The directory is divided into five sections: Federal Agencies, State Agencies, Company Listings, Industry Resources and Index.

Each of the 19 chapters in the Federal Agency section opens with the particular department’s headquarters listing, which includes a description of the office, its address, phone and fax numbers, Web site, as well as names of officials, their titles and phone numbers.

There are 147 pages of federal agency listings, running the gamut from the Department of Homeland Security to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Additionally, sub-agencies with similar information are listed.

For example, under the Department of Homeland Security, Directorate of Science and Technology, there are five sub agencies: Homeland Security Monitoring Network, Advanced Research Project Agency, Plum Island Animal Disease Center, Project Safecom and the Environmental Measurements Laboratory.

The 192-page state section is organized alphabetically and lists each administration and the agencies that handle emergency management, public safety, public health, the National Guard and state police.

The nearly 200 pages of industry listings contains the names and addresses of more than 1,100 CEOs and presidents, along with their company’s products and services. An alphabetical listing of industry officials and companies also is located in the index for easy reference. In addition, the directory has the names and addresses of associations, publications, company directories, and industry trade shows and seminars.

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