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proposing the Department of Homeland Security in June 2002, and issuing a national strategy in July 2002. Both the House and Senate have worked diligently on these issues and are deliberating on a variety of homeland security proposals. The House has passed (H.R. 5005), and the Senate will take under consideration, after the August recess, legislation (S. 2452) to create a Department of Homeland Security. While these proposals would both transfer the functions, responsibilities, personnel, and other assets of existing agencies into the departmental structure, each bill has unique provisions not found in the other. For example, while both bills establish an office for State and Local Government Coordination and a first responder council to advise the department, the Senate bill also establishes a Chief Homeland Security Liaison Officer appointed by the Secretary and puts federal liaisons in each state to provide coordination between the department and the state and local first responders.

Proposed Department -and National Strategy Will Guide Homeland Security

The proposal to create a statutorily based Department of Homeland Security holds promise to better establish the leadership necessary in the homeland security area. It can more effectively capture homeland security as a long-term commitment grounded in the institutional framework of the nation's governmental structure. As we have previously noted, the homeland security area must span the terms of various administrations and individuals. Establishing homeland security leadership by statute will ensure legitimacy, authority, sustainability, and the appropriate accountability to the Congress and the American people."

The proposals call for the creation of a Cabinet department that would be responsible for coordination with other executive branch agencies involved in homeland security, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Central Intelligence Agency. Additionally, the proposals call for coordination with nonfederal entities and direct the new Secretary to reach out to state and local governments and the private sector in order to: ensure adequate and integrated planning, training, and exercises occur, and that first responders have the necessary equipment; attaining interoperability of the federal government's homeland security communications systems with state and local governments' systems; oversee federal grant programs for state and local homeland security

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efforts; and coordinate warnings and information to state and local government entities and the public.

Many aspects of the proposed consolidation of homeland security programs are in line with previous recommendations and show promise towards reducing fragmentation and improving coordination. For example, the new department would consolidate federal programs for state and local planning and preparedness from several agencies and place them under a single organizational umbrella. Based on our prior work, we believe that the consolidation of some homeland security functions makes sense and will, if properly organized and implemented, over time lead to more efficient, effective, and coordinated programs, better intelligence sharing, and a more robust protection of our people, borders, and critical infrastructure.

However, as the Comptroller General has recently testified," implementation of the new department will be an extremely complex task, and in the short term, the magnitude of the challenges that the new department faces will clearly require substantial time and effort, and will take additional resources to make it effective. Further, some aspects of the new department, as proposed, may result in yet other concerns. For example, as we reported on June 25, 2002, the new department could include public health assistance programs that have both basic public health and homeland security functions. These dual-purpose programs have important synergies that should be maintained and could potentially be disrupted by such a change.

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Table 1: National Strategy: Six Critical Mission Areas and Key Intergovernmental Roles

Mission Area

Intelligence and Warning

Border and Transportation Security

Domestic Counterterrorism

Key Intergovernmental Roles

Work with state and local law enforcement to leverage critical intelligence information, and provide real-time actionable information in the form of protective actions that should be taken in light of terrorist threats, trends, capabilities, and vulnerabilities.

• Provide announcements of threat advisories and alerts to notify law enforcement and state and local government officials of threats through the Homeland Security Advisory System.

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Protecting Critical Infrastructures and
Key Assets

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Defending Against Catastrophic Threats

Emergency Preparedness and Response

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Implementation of the Aviation and Transportation Security Act of 2001 requires partnerships among federal, state, and local government officials to assess and protect critical transportation infrastructures and reduce vulnerabilities.

Expand data included in federal databases such as the FBI National Crime Information Center (NCIC) database and ensure that they are fully accessible to state and local law enforcement officials.

Expand the Joint Terrorism Task Forces, representing numerous federal agencies and state and local law enforcement, to all 56 FBI field offices.

Work with state and local governments to implement a comprehensive national infrastructure protection plan to ensure protection for critical assets, systems, and functions, and for sharing protection responsibility with state and local government. Provide state and local agencies one primary federal contact for coordinating protection activities with the federal government (e.g. vulnerability assessments, strategic planning efforts, and exercises).

In cooperation with state and local governments, develop additional inspection procedures and detection systems throughout the national transportation structure to detect the movement of nuclear materials within the U.S.

Expand and modernize the Centers for Disease Control Epidemic Intelligence Service to better train local and state officials in recognizing biological attacks, and state and local Jurisdictions with a population of 500,000 or more will be provided with resources to hire skilled epidemiologists.

Working with state and local public safety organizations, build a comprehensive national incident management system to respond to terrorist incidents and natural disasters, and encourage first responder organizations to adopt the already widespread Incident Management System by making it a requirement for federal grants.

Provide grants in support of state and local preparedness efforts in areas such as: mutual aid agreements; terrorism-related communications equipment, training and equipping of state and local health care personnel to deal with chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear terrorism; planning for the receipt and distribution of medicines from the National Pharmaceutical Stockpile; equipping, training, and exercising first responders to meet certification standards.

Proposed grant requirements include: compliance with a national emergency communication plan, progress in achieving communications interoperability with other emergency response bodies, and annual certification of first responder preparedness to handle and decontaminate any hazard.

• Consolidate all grant programs that distribute federal funds to state and local first responders. The First Responder Initiative proposes to increase federal funding levels more than tenfold to $3.5 billion in fiscal year 2003.

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financial contributions made by state and local government to homeland security, the strategy acknowledges that state and local governments are incurring unexpected costs defending or protecting their respective communities. These costs include protecting critical infrastructure, improving technologies for information sharing and communications, and building emergency response capacity. At this time, the National Governors' Association estimates that additional homeland securityrelated costs, incurred since September 11th and through the end of 2002, will reach approximately $6 billion. Similarly, the U.S. Conference of Mayors has estimated the costs incurred by cities during this time period to be $2.6 billion.

Challenges Remain in
Defining Appropriate
Intergovernmental

Roles

The proposed department will be a key player in the daunting challenge of defining the roles of the various actors within the intergovernmental system responsible for homeland security. In areas ranging from fire protection to drinking water to port security, the new threats are prompting a reassessment and shift of longstanding roles and responsibilities. However, until this time, proposed shifts in roles and responsibilities have been considered on a piecemeal and ad hoc basis without benefit of an overarching framework and criteria to guide this process. The national strategy recognizes that the process is challenging because of the structure of overlapping federal, state, and local governments given that our country has more than 87,000 jurisdictions. The national strategy further notes that the challenge is to develop interconnected and complementary systems that are reinforcing rather than duplicative.

The proposals for a Department of Homeland Security call for the department to reach out to state and local governments and the private sector to coordinate and integrate planning, communications, information, and recovery efforts addressing homeland security. This is important recognition of the critical role played by nonfederal entities in protecting the nation from terrorist attacks. State and local governments play primary roles in performing functions that will be essential to effectively address our new challenges. Much attention has already been paid to their role as first responders in all disasters, whether caused by terrorist attacks or natural hazards.

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