Y 4.H 75:108-25

FED-DOCS

PERSPECTIVES ON 9/11: BUILDING EFFECTIVELY
ON HARD LESSONS

HEARING

BEFORE THE

SELECT COMMITTEE ON

HOMELAND SECURITY

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

ONE HUNDRED EIGHTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION

SEPTEMBER 10, 2003

Serial No. 108-25

Printed for the use of the Select Committee on Homeland Security

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SELECT COMMITTEE ON HOMELAND SECURITY

CHRISTOPHER COX, California, Chairman

JOHN GANNON, Chief of Staff

UTTAM DHILLON, Chief Counsel and Deputy Staff Director DAVID H. SCHANZER, Democrat Staff Director

MICHAEL S. TWINCHEK, Chief Clerk

CONTENTS

STATEMENTS

The Honorable Christopher Cox, Chairman Select Committee on Homeland

Security

Page

Oral Statement

1

Prepared Statement

4

The Honorable Dave Camp, Chairman Subcommittee on Infrastructure and
Border Security

The Honorable Donna M. Christensen, a Representative in Congress From

U.S. Virgin Islands

The Honorable Norman D. Dicks, a Representative in Congress From the

State of Washington

48

The Honorable Jennifer Dunn, a Representative in Congress From the State

of Washington

8

The Honorable Bob Etheridge, a Representative in Congress From the State

of North Carolina

The Honorable James S. Gilmore, Former Governor of the Commonwealth

of Virginia & Chairman Advisory Panel to Assess the Capabilities for

Domestic Response to Terrorism Involving Weapons of Mass Destruction

Oral Statement

Prepared Statement

The Honorable Porter Goss, Chairman Select Committee on Intelligence
The Honorable Jane Harman, a Representative in Congress From the State
of California

Ms. Eleanor Hill, Staff Director, Joint Intelligence Committee Inquiry

Oral Statement

Prepared Statement

27

30

10

9

17

20

The Honorable Peter T. King, a Representative in Congresss From the State

of New York

The Honorable James R. Langevin, a Representative in Congress From the

State of Rhode Island

The Honorable Sheila Jackson-Lee, a Representative in Congress From the

State of Texas

The Honorable Nita M. Lowey, a Representative in Congress From the State

New York

The Honorable Kendrick B. Meek, a Representative in Congress From the

State of Florida

2 82 8

56

16

59

12

68

The Honorable Eleanor Holmes Norton, a Representative in Congress From

the District of Columbia

15

The Honorable Bill Pascrell, Jr., a Representative in Congress From the

State of New Jersey

11

The Honorable Christopher Shays, a Representative in Congress From the

State of Connnecticut

51

The Honorable Louise McIntosh Slaughter, a Representative in Congress

From the State of New York

Prepared Statement

13

The Honorable Bennie G. Thompson, a Representative in Congress From

the State of Mississippi

54

The Honorable Jim Turner, a Representative in Congress From the State of Texas

Oral Statement
Prepared Statement

Page

68

MATERIAL SUBMITTED FOR THE RECORD

Questions and Responses submitted for the Record

72

PRESPECTIVES ON 9/11: BUILDING
EFFECTIVELY ON HARD LESSONS

Wednesday, September 10, 2003

U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,

SELECT COMMITTEE ON HOMELAND SECURITY,

Washington, D.C.

The committee met, pursuant to call, at 2:45 p.m., in Room 345, Cannon House Office Building, Hon. Christopher Cox [chairman of the committee] presiding.

Present: Representatives Cox, Dunn, Smith, Shays, Goss, Camp, King, Linder, Thornberry, Gibbons, Granger, Sessions, Sweeney, Turner, Thompson, Sanchez, Dicks, Harman, Cardin, Slaughter, DeFazio, Lowey, Norton, Lofgren, McCarthy, Jackson-Lee, Pascrell, Christensen, Etheridge, Lucas, Langevin, Meek, Weldon and DiazBalart.

Chairman Cox. This hearing will come to order. The full Committee on Homeland Security is meeting today to consider perspectives on September 11th, one day before its anniversary. Our hearing is titled "Building Effectively on Hard Lessons." Our witnesses will be Ms. Eleanor Hill, the Staff Director of the Joint Intelligence Committee inquiry, and the Honorable Jim Gilmore, former Governor of Virginia and Chairman of the Advisory Panel to Assess Domestic Response Capabilities for Terrorism Involving Weapons of Mass Destruction.

We will shortly welcome our witnesses after brief opening statements.

I think everyone recognized what a beautiful day it was today in Washington, D.C. in fact, the weatherman, as I drove in this morning, said it was the nicest day that he remembers in our Nation's Capital. Two years ago it was very different. The view across the Potomac, as I evacuated as a Member of the House leadership down 295, was all black over the Pentagon and it appeared in fact that the entire cityscape of Washington, D.C. was aflame in smoke and that our government was threatened as we had witnessed only in featured films.

I don't think we will ever forget, any of us, where we were that day or what went through our minds. And in that sense, 2 years ago was very recent. We can always draw it back. For my part, I spent the morning of September 11th, as it happened, at the Pentagon in the private dining room of the Secretary of Defense, Don Rumsfeld. Paul Wolfowitz was there as well, and we were discussing how important it was for Congress to take a different look at our national security to prepare for unconventional threats, not to fight the old wars of the past but to deal with the future. And (1)