HOW EFFECTIVELY IS THE FEDERAL GOV. ERNMENT ASSISTING STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS IN PREPARING FOR A BIOLOGICAL, CHEMICAL OR NUCLEAR ATTACK MONDAY, JULY 1, 2002 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, SUBCOMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENT EFFICIENCY, FINANCIAL Milwaukee, WI. The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:10 a.m., in the Milwaukee Common Council Chambers, Milwaukee City Hall, Milwaukee, WI, Hon. Steve Horn (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding. Present: Representatives Horn, Kleczka and Petri. Staff present: J. Russell George, staff director and chief counsel; Bonnie Heald, deputy staff director; Justin Paulhamus, clerk; Chris Barkley, staff assistant; Michael Sazonov, Sterling Bentley, Joe DiSilvio and Yigal Kerszenbaum, interns. Mr. HORN. It is a great pleasure to be in the State of Wisconsin. I am just going to give you some background before the Mayor will give the major presentation. This is the Subcommittee on Government Efficiency, Financial Management and Intergovernmental Relations and we are in order and we are delighted to have two fine Members of Congress in Wisconsin. On September 11, 2001, the world witnessed the most devastating attacks ever committed on U.S. soil. Despite the damage and enormous loss of life, the attacks failed to cripple this Nation. To the contrary, Americans have never been more united in their fundamental belief in freedom and in their willingness to protect that freedom. The diabolical nature of those attacks and then the deadly release of anthrax sent a loud and clear message to all Americans. We must be prepared for the unexpected. We must have the mechanisms in place to protect this Nation and its people from further attempts to cause massive destruction. The aftermath of September 11th clearly demonstrated the need for adequate communications systems and rapid deployment of well-trained emergency personnel. Yet despite billions of dollars in spending on Federal emergency programs, there remain serious doubts as to whether the Nation is equipped to handle a massive chemical, biological or nuclear attack. Today, the subcommittee will examine how effectively Federal, State and local agencies are working together to prepare for such emergencies. We want those who live in the great State of Wisconsin and the good people of Milwaukee to know that they can rely on these systems, should the need arise. We are fortunate to have witnesses today whose valuable experience and insight will help the subcommittee better understand the needs of those on the front lines. We want to hear about their capabilities and their challenges and we want to know what the Federal Government can do to help. We welcome all of our witnesses and we look forward to their testimony. Since we are an investigative committee from the full Committee on Government Reform, we do swear in all our witnesses, so if all the witnesses that are going to be here and any assistance of yours, the Clerk will put them in the hearing record. So if you will stand and raise your right hand. [Witnesses sworn.] Mr. HORN. The clerk will note that all the witnesses affirmed the oath, and we will begin with the Mayor of Milwaukee, The Honorable John Norquist. We are honored that with all the things going on in Milwaukee, that he would spend some time with this subcommittee. Thank you, Mayor. STATEMENT OF JOHN O. NORQUIST, MAYOR, CITY OF MILWAUKEE, WI; AND LARRY GARDNER, CHIEF, MILWAUKEE FIRE DEPARTMENT Mayor NORQUIST. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. My mic seems to work pretty well. [Laughter.] I want to welcome you to Milwaukee, along with Congressman Petri, who comes here quite often-it is on his way home—and of course our own Congressman, who we are very proud of, Jerry Kleczka. In the short time that I have, I wanted to affirm the importance of local responders. We all saw dramatically on the horrible day on September 11th, how New York City firefighters, police officials, health officials and other municipal officials were the key element in responding to the immediate crisis. A smaller, but nevertheless important, effort was made by communities around the country-Milwaukee was no exception-where we had firefighters, police officers, sheriff's department personnel and health officials responding to fears of anthrax contamination. We had 320 calls and 74 that we had to do tests for, it cost hundreds of thousands of dollars for various law enforcement agencies to deal with this. For the most part, the community and the workers involved did their work cheerfully-I think in every case-did it with a sense of determination. We trained people, our health department trained people. At the post office when the scare happened, it was terrifying, when anthrax was found in the post office in Indianapolis and Kansas City, we thought it was very likely it would come into our post office and our health department personnel quickly, along with our fire department, met with and trained employees of the Federal post office. We were fortunate in that in the case of our water supply, which water supplies were an immediate concern across the country when you are dealing with terrorism. We had already done a lot of preparation for preparing our water utility because of an issue here that had to do with fishermen who wanted public access in and around our water plant, and so because of that, we had already put a lot of security protocol in place and were well along on that. And that is an example to other water utilities in the country because we have moved so far with it. Our city health department pioneered something called ServeNet which tracks and reports communicable diseases at area hospitals, clinics and health departments. This is a communication issue and our health department has done this with tremendous cooperation from other parts of the health care network. These are things that do not have to cost a lot of money. These are procedures that can be put in place that just make common sense and are useful for other aspects of life other than just dealing with a terrorism crisis. And I would encourage you and your committee and Federal agencies to look at this ServeNet network that has been set up by our health department as an example for the rest of the country. Cooperation is important. I think that local Federal officials have been very cooperative, have tried to cooperate effectively with our fire department, health department, police department, sheriff's office and other agencies. But this is something that can always improve. FBI offices have a tendency to change their leadership personnel maybe more often than they should. That can lead to communication problems when that happens. Finally, I wanted to mention funding concerns. The last President was a Governor, the current President is a Governor. It is natural for them to place great value in State government and State government does have great value. But in dealing with these crises, the immediate responders are local and the Federal Government needs to make sure that there is not a tendency just to spread money thinly across political jurisdictions instead of focusing it on places that can really matter. There are only two top level labs in the State of Wisconsin. One the State runs in Madison and the other is run by our health department. Trying to replicate lab resources in small communities that can be served by those in larger communities is something that you really need to be careful about. It should not be just about making everybody feel like they have been treated fairly. It is more important to make sure that the emergency response is effective. And finally, on one issue that has to do with-not with us locally in terms of a program, but it has to do with your own agency. The Centers for Disease Control has a very effective relationship with health departments across the country, certainly our health department and also, for that matter, the State of Wisconsin's health facilities. The CDC tends to be eager to get information and to share it. They tend to be less arrogant than other agencies, maybe that is because they are so focused on disease. They have been humbled by the fact that disease can spread very quickly if there is not a good communication network. I would encourage you to consider very carefully whether it is a good idea to put the CDC in the new Department of Homeland Se there, I would be very careful to make sure that its ability to communicate and share information with local health agencies is retained. My own view is that it would probably be better to leave it in the Health and Human Services Department and set up some kind of protocol of communication with Homeland Security, because the relationships that have been built up over the years with health departments are so valuable you do not want to wreck them. With that, I am going to now introduce our fire chief, who was not formally on the program, but played a key role in the response to September 11th and is one of the key actors in all this. When we have an emergency in Milwaukee, it is the fire department usually that is in there first and leaves at the very end. So with that, here is Chief Larry Gardner. Mr. GARDNER. Thank you. I am honored to testify before the Committee on Government Reform, Subcommittee on Government Efficiency, Financial Management and Intergovernmental Relations today. My name is Larry Gardner and I am Chief of the Milwaukee Fire Department. My department provides services; emergency services that include fire education, suppression, emergency medical service, a local heavy urban rescue team and a regional hazardous materials team. First, I would like to thank the committee for its continued interest and support in the fight against terrorism. I would also like to thank you for making the resources available to better prepare us for the challenges of today's domestic and international terrorist events. The tragedies of the attack on the World Trade Center in New York and the events of Oklahoma City opened the avenues of opportunity for improved level of preparedness. Quoting a 1997 letter to Mayor Norquist from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, "In light of recent events and the increased access to the proliferation of nuclear, biological and chemical materials, there is a growing concern about the potential for terrorist incidents involving weapons of mass destruction. Recent Federal legislation authorize the Federal Government to offer State and local jurisdictions training to help the emergency personnel to respond to potential terrorist incidents involving such agencies. Initial Federal efforts will target 27 of the Nation's largest cities and will involve a selfassessment by each city of the current terrorist response capabilities and training requirements and a cooperative Federal, State and local approach to meeting identified needs." Although this letter was written in 1997, the problem of terrorism is still here and even more punctuated today. Let me tell you that the city of Milwaukee has taken advantage of the training and equipment that was made available through the Nunn-LugarDomenici Act. Milwaukee has taken full advantage of implementing the MMST or MMRS system, as it is today. And as every day passes, we see how the rules of the game for preparedness change. This is why we must continue to pursue all the resource opportunities for continued training of our emergency response personnel in the event of future terrorist attacks. I personally believe the city of Milwaukee is far better prepared than it would have been if these funds had not been made available. We must continue to receive these funds at the local level to progressively provide for training, exercising and equipping cities with the latest in medical supplies and technological advances. It is important that these funds get to metropolitan communities such as Milwaukee. Here are some of the examples of the cooperative efforts Milwaukee Fire Department has been involved with since September 11, 2001: We have responded to the anthrax response and provided public training. We have provided countywide risk assessment and training with law enforcement, media and public health. We have been involved at the State level with our regional hazardous materials team in training regional fire departments in awareness procedures for terrorist activities. We have trained and worked with county employees regarding terrorism awareness training. We have worked with—and one of the handouts I have for you is dated May 2002-we have worked with the city employees involving terrorism awareness training. We have also worked with training our heavy urban rescue team for structural collapse because of the incidents that we have become so aware of from the city of New York. The fire, health, police and public works, employee relations and sheriff's departments have worked in cooperation to increase the level of awareness through the outreach training to better prepare the different tiers of government. What do we need? We need to make our local efforts as successful as it possibly can be. Incident command training, unified training, we need to continue to work on that. Planning to optimize communications to improve wireless accessibility. Additional training at all levels of government. Seamless grant applications and grants that go directly to the metropolitan communities. Enhanced decontamination capabilities. In our collective efforts to combat terrorism, we have expanded many local resources as well as the Federal financial help. We need to continue to refine our efforts and get the money to the local levels. With that, I thank you and I am available for any questions. Mr. HORN. Thank you. We are going to go through a few in this area of law enforcement issues and then our colleagues here can ask questions on that. So we will now have David Clarke, the Sheriff of Milwaukee County. Thank you for coming. STATEMENT OF DAVID CLARKE, SHERIFF, MILWAUKEE COUNTY, WI Mr. CLARKE. Thank you, sir. Good morning, everybody. I am the newly appointed Sheriff, having been appointed in March of this year, but I do have somewhat of an advantage in that in my previous position as commanding officer of the Intelligence Division of the Milwaukee Police Department, my unit was responsible for the very thing that we're talking about today. So while I have limited training and limited knowledge in that area, I do have some. The thing that is most critical to me and to us at the law enforcement level is the information sharing. I have heard Tom Rich, Governor Tom Rich, Homeland Security Director, and U.S. Attorney |