WORKING WITH CONGRESS TO SECURE COMMON SPACE THAT NOT

ONLY WILL FACILITATE ACCESS, BUT ALSO WILL GIVE THE STATE
AND LOCAL NDPO PARTICIPANTS A CLOSER IDENTITY WITH THE

ENDEAVOR.

THERE ARE LARGER LESSONS AS WELL. CLEARLY, THE NEED FOR FORMAL AGREEMENTS BETWEEN FEDERAL AGENCIES IS

CRITICAL SO THAT THE ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF EACH ARE

CLEARLY DEFINED AND, MORE IMPORTANTLY, CLEARLY UNDER-
STOOD BY THE STAKEHOLDERS. AS YOU HAVE HEARD TODAY, AS
WELL, THE VOICES OF THE STAKEHOLDERS MUST BE BETTER
INTEGRATED INTO THE FUNCTIONING OF NDPO. WE RECOGNIZE

THESE PROBLEMS AND ARE MOVING TO ADDRESS THEM THROUGH

BETTER ORGANIZATION AND MORE RESPONSIVE LEADERSHIP.

IT IS NO SECRET THAT THIS IS A DIFFICULT TASK. WHAT WE

ALL AGREE ON, HOWEVER, IS THE IMPORTANCE OF THE
UNDERTAKING. EVERY STAKEHOLDER FROM THE SMALL TOWN

FIREMAN TO THE MAJOR CITY POLICE CHIEF, NEEDS TO BE

PREPARED FOR THE UNTHINKABLE.

WE BELIEVE NDPO CAN GET US THERE. ANY START UP OF THIS

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KIND OF UNDERTAKING WILL, BY ITS NATURE, HIT ROUGH SPOTS. THESE ARE BEING OVERCOME AND THE PACE WILL ACCELERATE.

WE APPRECIATE THIS COMMITTEE'S SUPPORT AND CONCERNS, AS WELL AS THE SUPPORT OF CONGRESS. THE ORDERLY APPLICATION OF AVAILABLE RESOURCES IS A DIFFICULT BUT

RELIABLE PROCESS THAT, WITH THE HELP OF CONGRESS, WILL

SUCCEED.

FINALLY, I APPRECIATE, AS WELL, THE UNDERSTANDING OF THE CHAIRWOMAN THAT THE FBI DOES NOT COMMENT ON PENDING

LEGISLATION. IN THIS INSTANCE, HOWEVER, I WANT TO ADVISE YOU THAT THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE HAS RESERVATIONS

ABOUT HR4210 TO THE EXTENT THAT IT WOULD ESTABLISH AN

OFFICE OF TERRORISM PREPAREDNESS WITHIN THE EXECUTIVE

OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT. SUCH AN OFFICE WOULD LIKELY BE

CONFUSING TO STAKEHOLDERS AND WOULD DUPLICATE ONGOING

EFFORTS WITHIN THE EXECUTIVE BRANCH, AS DESCRIBED
PREVIOUSLY. IN ANY CASE, WE ALL APPRECIATE CONGRESS'

INTENSE INTEREST IN THIS VITAL ISSUE.

American Red Cross
Statement on H.R. 4210
May 9, 2000

The American Red Cross applauds the efforts of Chairman Fowler and Representative Traficant and the Members of the Transportation Subcommittee on Oversight, Investigations and Emergency Management to ensure that the nation's terrorism preparedness and response systems are effectively coordinated.

Every year more than 80,000 American Red Cross volunteers respond to more than 60,000 disasters, from fires in single family homes to major disaster events like Hurricane Floyd. Chartered by Congress in 1905 to provide a system of domestic and international disaster relief, the American Red Cross is the only nongovernmental agency with mandated responsibilities under the Federal Response Plan, administered by FEMA. Under the Federal Response Plan, the Red Cross has primary responsibility for Emergency Support Function #6 Mass Care, and is a support agency to the Department of Health and Human Services under Emergency Support Function #8 [Health and Medical Services], FEMA under Emergency Support Function #5 [Information and Planning], and the Department of Agriculture under Emergency Support Function 11 [Food]. Our role is to coordinate federal assistance in support of state and local efforts to meet mass care needs of victims of a disaster, which includes feeding, sheltering, emergency first aid, bulk distribution of emergency relief supplies to disaster victims, and collection of information to operate a Disaster Welfare Information system to report victim status and assist in family reunification.

We are pleased to see Oklahoma City Fire Chief Gary Marrs is here today to share his experiences following the devastating bombing of the Murrah Federal Building. Just last month, Dr. Bernadine Healy, President and CEO of the American Red Cross, and our disaster relief workers from across the country joined with the rest of the nation in remembering the five year anniversary of this tragic bombing, an unthinkable act of domestic terrorism. In collaboration with the agencies testifying before you today, the American Red Cross is actively involved in developing preparedness and response plans in the event of domestic terrorism. In June 1998, the American Red Cross Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical Task Force was formed, consisting of senior leadership throughout the Red Cross. In December 1999, the first American Red Cross Weapons of Mass Destruction conference was held in response to requests from chapters for planning guidance for these types of events in their local community.

Thanks to the vision and generosity of Congress, the Clara Barton Center for Domestic Preparedness will open early next year at Pine Bluff Arsenal in Arkansas. This training center will be devoted to preparing our employees and volunteers to work with federal, state and local emergency response officials during a WMD/Terrorism event. In May, Red Cross will participate in the congressionally mandated field exercise called TOPOFF. As you know, the TOPOFF exercise is being conducted to assess the nation's crisis and consequence management capacity in response to incidents involving weapons

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of mass destruction. The no-notice exercise will provide federal, state and local law enforcement officials and emergency responders with the opportunity to practice their responses to chemical, biological, and radiological attacks.

With regard to H.R. 4210, we respectfully recommend consideration of the

following:

•

•

•

Inclusion of the American Red Cross in the development of the Domestic Preparedness Training Plan, consistent with our mandated role under the Federal Response Plan as previously cited. Under provisions of Section 653, the Office of Terrorism Preparedness (OTP) Director will have to submit "...a list of individuals that the Director consulted with in the creation of the plan". We recommend that this include specific reference to the American Red Cross.

Section 6. Detailed Functions of Administration includes a provision regarding the "development and standardization of equipment and facilities." If FEMA is to develop standards for shelters that the state and local units would need to follow, this could have broad impact on the sheltering requirements for Red Cross Chapters. While the legislation states that recommendations regarding sheltering standards would be voluntary, there is concern local authorities would interpret them to be mandatory in order to receive funding. Further, the issue of funding is not discussed in the legislation. We would ask that the term "equipment" as used in the bill be further defined and that expectations and responsibilities regarding storage be further

defined.

We recommend amending the definition of a weapon of mass destruction to include "high yield explosive" (HYE) for consistency with definitions used by other federal agencies.

The American Red Cross supports the spirit of this important legislation and thanks you for your leadership in addressing this issue. We stand committed to working with Congress and the Administration to improve our ability to prevent and respond to terrorist incidents.

JOINT STATEMENT OF

MS. PAMELA B. BERKOWSKY

ASSISTANT TO THE SECRETARY OF DEFENSE FOR CIVIL SUPPORT

MR. CHARLES CRAGIN

PRINCIPAL DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF DEFENSE FOR RESERVE AFFAIRS

BEFORE THE

UNITED STATES SENATE

COMMITTEE ON ARMED SERVICES

March 24, 2000

Good morning, Mr. Chairman and other distinguished members of this subcommittee. Thank you for the invitation to testify before you today on the Department of Defense's continuing efforts to ensure a strong national defense against acts of terrorism directed at the United States, territories and possessions. We commend you for addressing the complex topic of Consequence Management, and in particular, how the Department of Defense (DoD) can provide assistance to the Lead Federal Agencies in response to state and local authorities' requests for assistance in mitigating the consequences of a domestic nuclear, chemical, biological, radiological or high yield explosive incident. We appreciate your continuing support for this important effort.

At DoD, we define Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) consequence management as emergency assistance to protect public health and safety, restore essential government services, and provide emergency relief to those affected by the consequences of an incident involving WMD agents, whether they are released deliberately, naturally, or accidentally. Consequence management is one element of the Department's approach to combating terrorism. However, consequence management is unique in that we do not distinguish whether or not an event has actually been caused by terrorists because we may not know the exact cause during the initial response period.

Our testimony today will first briefly describe federal response preparations, and DoD's role therein. We will then provide an overview of the new initiatives the Department has undertaken in the last year in this area, including the establishment of the position of Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Civil Support, and the stand-up of the Joint Task Force for Civil Support at Joint Forces Command.

U.S. Government WMD Consequence Management Response

Presidential Decision Directive (PDD-62): (Protection Against Unconventional Threats to the Homeland and Americans Overseas) reaffirmed the United States Counterterrorism Policy in PDD-39 (U.S. Policy on Counterterrorism) and expanded on the need to respond to the growing possibility of asymmetrical assaults on U.S. vulnerabilities at home and abroad through the terrorist use of WMD and cyber warfare. Discussion of consequence management in response to a significant terrorist incident was included in PDD-62. Guidance embedded in PDD-62 provided the basis for all current federal response mechanisms to include the Department of

Defense.

When viewed together, these two directives delineate responsibility throughout the U.S. government and they underscore the fact that no one single agency or Department holds all the cards. Rather, there are policy, technical, operational, law enforcement, R&D, and intelligence elements, among others, that must be coordinated and integrated.