First, in the State of Illinois, we do not have an urban search and rescue team. There are 28 in the Nation, we are working extremely hard to develop one using existing infrastructure, our 23 technical rescue teams, to develop the needed core training requirements. Through the State of Illinois' Terrorism Task Force, Matt Bettenhausen, as well as Mike Chambliss, from the Governor's Office and Illinois Emergency Management, we have been able to receive funding to bring the technical rescue teams up to the minimum standards and we are heading toward hopefully the direction of putting in place a mobilization package that meets all of the FEMA requirements for a USAR team. Unfortunately, we have not received the support from FEMA in Washington, at least at this point in time, and there is a letter in your packet most recently received, where it does not appear they are supporting the creation of any new teams. We feel in the State of Illinois-and this would be a statewide team-certainly city of Chicago warrants the need to have one in place here so we can mobilize it quickly and get to the business of extricating and rescuing people that might be subject to the collapse of a structure all the way down to natural disasters such as the earthquake threat in southern Illinois. . Training and education, three points I would like to mention from the Federal level: First, there are training and education opportunities from many, many Federal agencies that can be applied at the local level. We appreciate that, but there is no single coordination point. What that means is that we are missing opportunities to send people to the right training. People are going to the training without the local police and fire agencies being aware that they are sent. We need a single point of coordination with all the Federal agencies and the Federal training so that it is kind of a clearinghouse. No. 2, we do not have any regional training facilities to bring together police, fire, public works, health officials, first responders. I think a wise investment, with certain criteria from the Federal Government, to establish regional training facilities across the United States, certainly here in Illinois, using such things as like the Glenview Naval Air Station, which is currently closed, but 25 municipal agencies have pulled together in a partnership to make that a regional training center. An investment would be wise, because without the training, we cannot have seamless sustained operations. No. 3, in none of the Federal programs is there any-so far as we are able to identify-assistance with overtime funding so we can send police and firefighters to the training that is available. Once we do that, we need to backfill, otherwise local levels of service for day-to-day emergencies are reduced. Domestic terrorism, weapons of mass destruction equipment. A host of items: First, we believe that all the Federal funding should go through a single coordination point, preferably in Illinois. We can standardize and provide a sustained operation in that manner. No. 2, interoperability, there are several boards through the International Association of Fire Chiefs at the Federal level to standardize equipment that we would use out in the street in servicing a response to weapons of mass destruction, nuclear, biological and chemical. Vendors are selling products that I am calling snake oil out there. We need to have those validated through a single source so that if we respond to, let us say, California, Florida, or they come here, we are all using similar or the same equipment; again, for seamless sustained operations. Technology transfers are critical. FEMA has a grant program with a national technology transfer center. We need that equipment out in the street and the field. Example that I cite in here is some device inside the fire truck or the ambulance that would detect, early on, biological, chemical or a nuclear release, before we commit first responder troops inside of a hot zone where they have little to no chance of survival. No. 3, consider adopting a matrix, one is also contained in your packet, that standardizes the training, the equipment and the roles of first responders, regardless of their capacity in police, fire, public works or the health professionals. Next, communications interoperability; as I genuinely call it a sucking chest wound. We cannot talk to one another. We need to be able to send data to one another, we need to look at encryption for secure nets so that we can talk with our Federal counterparts and our Federal counterparts can talk with us. Office of Homeland Defense. We support it. We believe the onestop notion is needed. There are two organizational charts in your packet; one is as it is now and the other as proposed. The only thing that we see missing that would encourage some consideration over is there is no box within the wiring diagram or organizational chart that identifies a local advocate of government, a liaison that reports near the top or to the top that can tell the Director of Homeland Defense that it is working at the local level; similar to what was done during BRAC when they closed bases and relocated military installations. Federal process. As you know, local government, we can implement stuff pretty quick. That is probably the benefit of being smaller than a Federal agency in most cases. However, the way we deliver our system is asystematic. We rely on the police, they rely on us; public works is a support structure for both; the health profession; all of us work together and often with a new challenge, we are going to need Federal assistance. We need to find a way to have the Federal system less bureaucratic and more simplified so the dollars can get down to the local level quickly. Without that, we are going to have holes in our system. Holes in the system, we cannot do the job that people perceive or we're going to be expected to do. FIRE Act funding. There has been discussion about including the FIRE Act funding as part of the Homeland Defense $3.5 billion. We disagree, that it should stay separate, both of them. The FIRE Act funding was intended to assist in the day-to-day delivery of fire, EMS and general emergency management services, not domestic terrorism and weapons of mass destruction. Combining them will dilute it and will do one of two things; either damage our ability to do our job on a day-to-day basis or damage our ability to respond and provide service during acts of domestic terrorism or both. Mutual aid consortiums. In the State of Illinois, we have got a plan. I am told it is one of the best in the Nation, that we are leading. We should not be penalized for that, we should find the incen tives created by the Federal Government to encourage local municipal consortiums from the standpoint of mutual aid, sharing of resources and building on existing infrastructures versus creating new ones. I think another point is our elected officials, through the Federal Government, should receive some exposure to consequence management, but more so, clean up and recovery and financial recovery actions-lessons learned from September 11th. Any community, we know what happened across the Nation, but I think any city, their elected officials, if they have experiences in that, are going to be more well prepared. And I think if we set a national standard, it will become a better way to translate that at all levels of government-Federal, local and State-so we can work together during times of crisis. Finally a local credentialling and accountability system that has a national use needs to be achieved so that when somebody comes in on the scene of an incident, we are able to validate who they are and provide safety and scene accountability as to where they are working. I know that the Administrator of the U.S. Fire Administration, Mr. Dave Pauleson, is working on that. I would encourage your support so we can put something like that in place. Finally, inside your document is a bullet sheet, a briefing page from the International Association of Fire Chiefs. I would encourage this committee as well as all of Congress to turn to the International Association of Fire Chiefs as an umbrella agency that has high credentialling in giving recommendations and thoughts to Federal plans so we can all respond together and assist the public when we are challenged by our new threat, domestic terrorism. Thank you, sir. Mr. HORN. Well, thank you. You have been very thorough on this and there were a lot of things that we have heard in other places and there are a lot of things that have not been heard and you helped us deal with that. I now want to have Captain Raymond E. Seebald, the Coast Guard Captain for the Port of Chicago. [The prepared statement of Mr. Reardon follows:] James P. Reardon Fire Chief, Northbrook, Illinois President - MABAS (Mutual Aid Box Alarm System) Remarks, Comments and Testimony Dirksen Federal Building Chicago, IL Summary Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) Illinois does not currently have a USAR team recognized by FEMA. Illinois is currently developing a statewide USAR capability from its 23 statewide technical rescue teams (TRT). FEMA recognition is required to assure mobility/deployment mutual aid capability and ongoing federal team funding (see attachment). Training and Education Domestic terrorism and weapons of mass destruction service training transcends all public safety personnel - from the very basic first responder to the highly sophisticated special operations teams. Three distinctly different, identifiable needs exist which require federally supported efforts, including: ★ Coordination of federally provided training courses through a single agency and acceptance of students through a single state and local coordination point. ★ Regional training facilities are lacking and needed in order to integrate all public safety providers into a seamless deployment capability. Regional training facilities can also cost effectively deliver federally sponsored courses. Regional facilities should possess certain minimal qualification criteria to qualify for federal funding (NIPSTA - Northeastern Illinois Public Safety Training Academy). ★ Overtime funding to provide local governments the ability to send public safety personnel to training and educational classes has yet to be provided through any federally sponsored program. Overtime allows on-duty staff backfills so that service levels are maintained and labor agreements are satisfied. Domestic Terrorism WMD Equipment A host of matters are affiliated with domestic terrorism and WMD equipment matters at the local level. They include: ★ Federal funding must continue to be processed through a single, state coordination point. The rationale is to assure utilization of existing infrastructures, maintained regional approaches, equipment standardization and seamless operations. ★ At the national and federal level, a single point of equipment coordination and standardization must occur. The inter-operability board of the International Association of Fire Chiefs has systems in place to accomplish same. However, federal recognition, authority and funding are required to achieve this goal. Currently, a lot of vendor "snake oil is out there wasting dollars and jeopardizing first responder safety. ★Technology transfers of equipment is critical. A FEMA grant program exists; however, federal emphasis needs to be exploited to private sector entrepreneurs. Examples might include in-vehicle sensors for first responders which alarms when nuclear, biological or chemicals are detected. ★ Establish a national standard matrix that integrates roles, responsibilities, training and equipment for first responders. Such a matrix will become the guide for establishing and standardizing a seamless, cost effective system between all functional areas and all levels of government (see attachment). Remarks, Comments and Testimony Communications Inter-Operability Page 2 Develop systems allowing easy, end user adaptation so multi-disciplinary agencies can communicate at incident scenes, across state lines, exchange data, support unified command, having a national capability which is fully mobile. Office of Homeland Defense ★ The federal initiative and reorganization is a massive undertaking but, the “one stop shop" notion must be supported and accomplished (see attached organization charts). ★ Unfortunately, the reorganization lacks a method to support a major end user and customer – local governments. To achieve this, a functional area reporting directly to the Homeland Director's position needs to be established. The position or functional area should be designated as the "advocate and liaison for local govemments". (Similar approach during BRAC actions with military installation closure and re-use plans with local governments). Federal Process ★ Local governments have a unique ability to implement policy and procedural matters quickly. Conversely, federal systems are usually bureaucratic, time consuming and cumbersome. The federal system must be designed to provide expedient local support, once funding is approved by congress and the president, the process to deliver those funds must also move quickly. Local first response capabilities are systematic. Numerous steps in the process are in place and overlap usually with seamless design. If several steps in the process are incrementally dependant upon federal support (funds) and the federal system is less than expedient in delivering those funds, then a local system will lack comprehensive preparedness. ★ FIRE Act funding must be kept separate from homeland defense funding. Current FIRE Act funding is designed to support traditional fire, EMS and special operations needs. Homeland defense funding is targeted for domestic terrorism funding. Combining FIRE Act funds with domestic preparedness funds will cause a loss in achieving goals in either, or both, of the initiatives. The loss will create a flawed basic service structure unable to build upon for domestic terrorism needs. Mutual Aid and Consortium Initiatives ★ To encourage mutual aid pacts and municipal consortiums at the local level, federal incentives should be established. Specially designed grants should be awarded to those who have achieved, those who uniquely and cost effectively propose systems and to those who have the policy commitments to execute and implement locally based systems which can be replicated throughout a state. ✩ Federal consortium initiatives should include a national symposium for elected officials to discuss the policy-related matters of consequence management, clean-up, restoration and financial recovery associated with the experiences of September 11. Further, elected officials should receive an overview of the federal, state, county and local emergency management system. This might include EOC (Emergency Operations Center) basics. ★ Local consortiums should include a support package of miscellaneous materials needed at domestic terrorism - WMD incidents. The support packages will be based regionally and include various items and expendables needed early on in an incident. See attached sheet for a suggested inventory funding will need to include a vehicle and/or trailer. ★ Establish a national credentialling and accountability system for first responders with validation at the state level. The system will be invaluable during unified command operations in the coordination of responding assets while discouraging self-dispatching of resources. General The federal government should seek advisement and sometimes direction from the International Association of Fire Chiefs as a credible umbrella and coordinating entity for first responders. (See attached briefing summary). jjeb |