FEATURE ARTICLE

September 2005

Homeland Security Steps Up Emphasis On Preparedness

By Harold Kennedy

The Department of Homeland Security and the American Red Cross have declared September to be National Preparedness Month. During the month, the department and the Red Cross plan to work with local, state and federal organizations, as well as the private sector, to highlight the importance of preparedness, said Richard B. Cooper, DHS business liaison director. More than 125 national organizations, as well as all 56 states and territories, have agreed to distribute preparedness information and host related events.

DHS and Red Cross officials are urging all Americans—including employers and homeowners—to make emergency plans for surviving both terrorist attacks and natural disasters.

“No community is truly prepared for a disaster until every individual, family and household ... knows what to do, where to go and how to contact loved ones,” said Red Cross President Marsha J. Evans.

The government’s emphasis on emergency preparedness follows a major reorganization of the Department of Homeland Security announced recently by its secretary, Michael Chertoff.

“In the broadest sense, preparedness addresses the full range of our capabilities to prevent, protect against and respond to acts of terror or other disaster,” Chertoff said in announcing the changes.

The reorganization was based upon what Chertoff called a “second-stage review,” a study of the department’s programs, policies and structures after two years of operation. The changes are designed to achieve a six-point agenda that is intended to:

• Increase overall preparedness, particularly for catastrophic events.
• Create better transportation security systems to move people and cargo more securely and efficiently.
• Strengthen border security and interior enforcement and reform immigration processes.
• Enhance information sharing with state and local agencies and the governments of friendly nations.
• Improve the department’s financial management, personnel policies, procurement and information technology.
• Realign the homeland security organization to maximize its performance ability.

Of these, Chertoff said, preparedness is particularly critical. Increasing it will require the participation of all elements of U.S. society, including businesses and homeowners, he said. “America’s critical infrastructure is not a government asset. Roughly 85 percent is privately owned or operated.”

Also, Chertoff noted, the department has to prepare for all kinds of disasters, including manmade emergencies and natural ones, such as the hurricanes that have plagued the United States this summer. “We’re an all-hazards department,” he added.

To focus more attention on the issue, the department is consolidating all of its existing preparedness efforts—including planning, training, exercises and funding—into a single directorate led by an undersecretary. The new unit will provide training resources to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which will report directly to Chertoff. The department’s infrastructure division and the U.S. Fire Administration will be transferred to the directorate.

To centralize efforts to protect technological infrastructure, the unit will include an assistant secretary for cyber and telecommunications security to identify and assess the vulnerability of critical communications facilities. This new officer also will be tasked with providing timely, actionable and valuable threat information and leading the national response to cyber and telecommunications attacks.

A chief medical officer will be appointed to coordinate the department’s response to biological attacks and to serve as liaison between DHS and the Department of Health and Human Services, the Centers for Disease Control, the National Institutes of Health and other key parts of the biomedical and public health communities.

These efforts come amid tightening budgets. In the fiscal 2006 request, the administration sought $41 billion for homeland security, a 7 percent increase over the previous year. Congress, however, provided $31 billion.

Critics charge that too much homeland-security money is spent in states where threats are limited, leaving too little for those facing much greater risks. For example, in 2005, Wyoming, with a population of 494,000, received $9 million in homeland-security grants, while the District of Columbia, the nation’s capital, with 572,000 residents, got $9.2 million.

Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., has introduced legislation calling for threat-based funding “to ensure that the homeland-security resources go to the states and areas where they are needed most,” she said.

Clinton was particularly angry about the low-level of funding for rail and transit security. An estimated $7 billion is needed to protect the nation’s rail and transit systems, she said in a letter to Chertoff, but since the 2001 terrorist attacks in New York City and Washington, D.C., only approximately $300 million has been provided.

“We cannot continue merely to hope that attacks such as those we witnessed in Spain and now London do not occur in our cities across the United States,” Clinton said. “We believe that more funding is needed specifically for rail and transit security.”

Rep. Bennie G. Thompson, D-Miss., ranking Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee, agreed. While DHS has “focused on aviation—some would say with mixed results—rail security has become the forgotten stepchild,” he told a committee hearing. “This is unacceptable.”

Chertoff promised to base future preparedness operations upon three variables—threat, vulnerability and consequences. “These variables are not equal,” he cautioned. “For example, some infrastructure is quite vulnerable, but the consequences of an attack are relatively small. Other infrastructure may be much less vulnerable, but the consequences of a successful attack are very high, even catastrophic.” A nuclear attack on U.S. soil, for example, “would be uniquely threatening to our society.”

Having the head of FEMA report directly to Chertoff, rather than to the new undersecretary for preparedness may be a mistake, argues a report released in July by the Democrats on the House Homeland Committee. “Considering that preparedness and response are closely linked for first responders,” the report said. If FEMA does not retain a strong working relationship with the ... directorate, the department may fail to develop strong policies in these areas.”

One issue that both sides agree upon is that more needs to be done to encourage the public to prepare for emergencies in their workplaces, homes and schools. To help accomplish this, DHS has established a new website, www.Ready.gov.

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