[Senate Hearing 106-601]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
S. Hrg. 106-601
TRAINING FIRST RESPONDERS INTO THE NEXT CENTURY
=======================================================================
HEARING
before the
SUBCOMMITTEE ON YOUTH VIOLENCE
of the
COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY
UNITED STATES SENATE
ONE HUNDRED SIXTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
on
THE TRAINING OF FIRST RESPONDERS SUCH AS POLICE, FIRE FIGHTERS,
EMERGENCY TECHNICIANS, AND OTHER PROFESSIONALS FOR THE CHALLENGES THEY
FACE
__________
FORT MCCLELLAN, AL
__________
JUNE 11, 1999
__________
Serial No. J-106-601
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Printed for the use of the Committee on the Judiciary
__________
U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
69-976 WASHINGTON : 2000
COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY
ORRIN G. HATCH, Utah, Chairman
STROM THURMOND, South Carolina PATRICK J. LEAHY, Vermont
CHARLES E. GRASSLEY, Iowa EDWARD M. KENNEDY, Massachusetts
ARLEN SPECTER, Pennsylvania JOSEPH R. BIDEN, Jr., Delaware
JON KYL, Arizona HERBERT KOHL, Wisconsin
MIKE DeWINE, Ohio DIANNE FEINSTEIN, California
JOHN ASHCROFT, Missouri RUSSELL D. FEINGOLD, Wisconsin
SPENCER ABRAHAM, Michigan ROBERT G. TORRICELLI, New Jersey
JEFF SESSIONS, Alabama CHARLES E. SCHUMER, New York
BOB SMITH, New Hampshire
Manus Cooney, Chief Counsel and Staff Director
Bruce A. Cohen, Minority Chief Counsel
______
Subcommittee on Youth Violence
JEFF SESSIONS, Alabama, Chairman
BOB SMITH, New Hampshire JOSEPH R. BIDEN, Jr., Delaware
JON KYL, Arizona DIANNE FEINSTEIN, California
JOHN ASHCROFT, Missouri HERBERT KOHL, Wisconsin
Kristi Lee, Chief Counsel
Sheryl Walter, Minority Chief Counsel
(ii)
C O N T E N T S
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STATEMENT OF COMMITTEE MEMBER
Page
Sessions, Hon. Jeff, U.S. Senator from the State of Alabama...... 2
CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF WITNESSES
Panel consisting of Robert Knouss, Director, Office of Emergency
Preparedness, Department of Health and Human Services; Michael
A. Parker, Deputy Commander, Soldier and Biological Chemical
Command, Department of Defense; and Curtis H. Straub, Director,
Office for State and Local Domestic Preparedness Support,
Office of Justice Programs, Department of Justice.............. 8
Panel consisting of Darrell Huguchi, deputy fire chief, Los
Angeles County, CA and Gary McConnell, director, Georgia
Emergency Management Agency.................................... 42
ALPHABETICAL LIST AND MATERIAL SUBMITTED
Higuchi, Darrell: Testimony...................................... 42
Knouss, Robert: Testimony........................................ 8
McConnell, Gary: Testimony....................................... 44
Parker, Michael A.:
Testimony.................................................... 12
Prepared statement........................................... 16
Straub, Curtis H.:
Testimony.................................................... 22
Prepared statement........................................... 23
Various letters.......................................... 27
A P P E N D I X
Additional Submission for the Record
Nerve Gas Summary for GB/VX by Cliff Bourg, Anniston, AL, dated
June 11, 1999..............................51
TRAINING FIRST RESPONDERS INTO THE NEXT CENTURY
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Friday, June 11, 1999
U.S. Senate,
Subcommittee on Youth Violence,
Committee on the Judiciary,
Fort McClellan, AL.
The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 9:08 a.m., in
the Cadwell Auditorium, Building 3181, Fort McClellan, AL, Hon.
Jeff Sessions (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding.
Mr. Johnson. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to
the showplace of the south, Fort McClellan, and specifically
the Center for Domestic Preparedness.
We are extremely pleased today to have Senator Sessions
conducting a field hearing here at Fort McClellan and the
Center for Domestic Preparedness and we are going to get to the
hearing in just a moment, but first a couple of administrative
announcements.
If you have a requirement for restroom facilities, they are
out in the hallway to my right front as you go out the rear of
the building. And also, as we leave this morning head out to
the live agent facility for a visit with the first responders
undergoing training; the panelists that are going to be
testifying this morning and your support staff, please board
the bus that will be parked outside and transportation will be
provided to you for the rest of your stay here.
I need to introduce just for a second if I could--all media
folks, if you would, please talk with Angie in the back of the
room there. We have a room set aside for a media event shortly
after the hearing concludes this morning.
I would like to recognize some community leaders and guest
that we have in the audience this morning. First of all, on
behalf of the Center for Domestic Preparedness, thanks very
much for your interest and being here with us this morning at
the hearing.
First, I would like to introduce to you Dr. Harold McGee,
president of the Jacksonville State University. Also from
Jacksonville State University is Dr. Barry Cox.
Would you please stand when I call your name? And then
please be seated after that. Thank you very much, Dr. McGee and
Dr. Cox.
Dr. Mike Moriarty from Auburn University.
Also, I would be remiss if I did not introduce his right
arm and that is Maj. Gen. Ret. Jerry Watson, the former
commander of Fort McClellan here, who is currently working with
the Center for Domestic Preparedness along with the Auburn
Institute on development of a strategic plan.
Also, Mr. Tim Moore from Auburn University is the director
of Auburn University's Biological Detection Institute--I think
I got that right. Anyway, glad to have you here.
Also, I would like to introduce County Commission Chairman
Dunn.
Also, I would like to introduce Mr. Roy Hanna, the chairman
of the Joint Powers Authority and Mr. Kenny Whitley, the
executive director of the Joint Powers Authority.
I also would like to introduce Brig. Gen. Ret. Tom Adams,
Superintendent of Marion Military Institute.
Mr. Jerry Powell, a community leader. Thank you, sir.
Mr. Dwayne Higgins, the president of Anniston-Calhoun
County Chamber of Commerce.
Mr. John Blue from Gadsden State Community College.
And Mr. Ed Miller from the Anniston Water and Sewer Board.
I tried to catch everyone as you came in and if I happened
to overlook someone, please identify yourself to me so that we
can make sure that a proper introduction is made.
Again, thank you very much for being here this morning and
I am going to sit down now and Senator Sessions will conduct
the hearing.
Again, those of you that are going to be joining us for
lunch also have been informed, and the bus, once it leaves
here, will go to the live agent facility and from there on over
to the McClellan Club for lunch and then the bus will return
here for you to pick up your vehicles.
Again, welcome and thank you very much for being here.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. JEFF SESSIONS, A U.S. SENATOR FROM
THE STATE OF ALABAMA
Senator Sessions. Thank you very much, L.Z.
This is a little bit awkward kind of hearing room, but it
works, I think.
I really appreciate having the opportunity to know you and
work with you, our whole staff does and the whole leadership in
this town, Mayor Stedham, Chairman Dunn and others at the Joint
Powers Authority, all of you have worked together in a way that
I think can lead to making Fort McClellan a center of
excellence for training for the entire Nation for responders to
chemical weapons attack. I think that is critical for us, I
hope we can do that and I do not believe there is anyone in the
country that has done a better job today in getting prepared to
lead that effort than this center has, and I am real pleased
with it.
I have just given a lot of thought and attention to this
community, as has my staff. We believe it is a great community,
a tremendous asset to Alabama. We are going to have some
economic downturn from the closure of Fort McClellan, but there
are going to be some good things that are coming in behind it.
And the more we work at that intentionally and the community
works together effectively, I believe we can continue to build
the kind of community you cherish and desire.
I want to tell you how much I have appreciated the
leadership of Senator Shelby in so many ways. We have been able
to call on him, he is on the Appropriations Committee, which is
key at a number of different points. And he has been a real
asset in everything that we have done for Anniston and for me
personally. And I want to say that.
As you know, you have no greater champion than Bob Riley. I
talked to Bob yesterday, he and Robert Aderholt both hoped to
come but they are having votes in the House today and they
could not get out of town. I am very sorry that they could not
be here, because I wanted them to participate in this. Bob just
continues to press for the issues that you care about, whether
it is the bypass or developing Fort McClellan, he is at the
forefront in all those matters.
I would like to make a few opening remarks and then
introduce the panel. We will have some questions and then we
will have a second panel.
This is a field hearing of our subcommittee, which is the
Subcommittee on Youth Violence, but it also has oversight over
the Office of Justice Programs, and that, of course, is the
entity within the Department of Justice that will be running
the center here.
First responders have been estimated to number five million
persons. These include police, fire, emergency technicians and
other professionals. So I want to welcome today's panelists who
hold key positions in our effort to train and prepare them for
the challenges they will face.
The bomb that exploded outside the Murrah Building in
Oklahoma City took 168 American lives. I am sure all of us
remember the images of panic, shock, grief, and horror that
were associated with that incident.
Elsewhere in the country, we still seek the individual
responsible for the clinic bombing in Birmingham, which took
the life of a police officer and permanently crippled a nurse.
Recently, we have been shocked again by the tragedies which
occurred in Littleton, CO, and Conyers, GA.
The pictures of local emergency responders in each instance
struggling diligently to save lives and protect property are
vivid and poignant. The seriousness and consequence of these
events cannot be overstated. We are witnessing massive damage
and loss of life on a scale never before experienced before
outside combat. These events, however horrific and unusual,
were accomplished with so-called conventional weapons. It is
hard to imagine, but had any of these events included a
chemical, nuclear or biological weapon of mass destruction,
each could have been even more catastrophic.
Chemical, nuclear or biological weapons are not beyond the
capability of some of the world's terrorists or their
sponsoring rogue states. It is clear America must be prepared
to defend itself against such a threat when a weapon of mass
destruction event occurs. They must respond efficiently and
effectively with required resources.
One of the major difficulties faced by local jurisdictions
is the large number of layered bureaucracies involved in
responding to a crisis. What many people may not realize is
that numerous Federal, State and local agencies will be called
upon to perform individual functions in the aftermath of an
incident. Accordingly, successful coordination and management
is absolutely critical.
Several weeks ago, this subcommittee and the Subcommittee
on Technology, Terrorism and Government Information held a
joint hearing on domestic preparedness, the next millennium.
This hearing, chaired by Senator John Kyl and myself, examined
the Administration's plan to train and equip first responders.
Most panelists on that day noted that America is vulnerable to
attack and more than once they said the question is not whether
it will occur, but when.
Barbara Martinez, an agent with the FBI now assigned to the
National Domestic Preparedness Office stated in her testimony
that over 40 agencies could have a role in the preparation and
response to a true terrorist attack. Because of the number of
agencies involved, Ms. Martinez described the coordinating role
that the new National Domestic Preparedness Office, a new
office that has been created, and I think probably necessarily,
will play. It is unfortunate that the Director, Mr. Tom Kuker,
whom we expected to be here today, is caught in a plane problem
in Oklahoma and could not make it in today. So we will be
missing him but we will continue to coordinate with him.
Witnesses representing National Associations for Fire
Chiefs, Sheriffs and Emergency Technicians all testified that
due to complex bureaucracy and the numerous agencies involved,
a Federal agency which could provide fast and effective one-
stop shopping would help fill a need that currently exists.
Although the NDPO is new, I sincerely hope it has been
adequately staffed and resourced to meet the needs of our local
first responders.
During the last subcommittee hearing, it became clear
America may be fooling herself that we are currently prepared
to handle such an event. Sheriff Patrick Sullivan, Arapaho
County, CO--and this was the day of the Columbine shooting--
Sheriff Sullivan was testifying when we got the news. You did
not see him on television, Columbine High School is the edge of
his county. He testified that,
While others may be reluctant to say so, I will tell
you that America is not ready to meet this challenge.
As such, we are not prepared to handle the crisis and
the mass casualties that would occur, God forbid, if
there should ever be a chemical or biological release
in a major American city.
Mr. Charles Cragin, Acting Secretary of Defense Reserve
Affairs, last year before the House Committee said,
Should a weapon of mass destruction actually be used,
responders, be they local, State or Federal, civilian
or military, will confront unique and daunting
challenges. These rescue and medical personnel will
need to perform their mission without themselves
becoming casualties.
This point, I might add, is of great concern to me. During
Mr. Cragin's more recent testimony, he said,
As a Nation, we are also facing the fact that the
front lines in the war against terrorism are no longer
overseas, they are right here at home. Hence, the
challenges faced by communities and responders include
an unknown danger in containing the impact of the
attack, providing medical assistance throughout the
system, investigating the nature of the attack while
simultaneously protecting the evidence, and finally the
restoration of normalcy to the community as quickly as
possible.
A significant portion of the funding for domestic
preparedness will pass through the OJP, Department of Justice.
This year, our Youth Violence Committee's jurisdiction was
expanded to include Office of Justice Programs and I expect
that we will be spending a good bit of time exercising
oversight responsibilities in attempting to help them as they
develop this program.
Any effective national domestic preparedness policies, as I
am sure the President and Attorney General Reno realize must
fully integrate all aspects of response to a weapon of mass
destruction attack to ensure interoperability. In addition, the
national effort must provide guidance for planning, training,
exercising and equipping the first responders. State and local
officials must be provided with the best training, equipment
and information so that if a crisis occurs, front line
responders can assess the immediate needs, take action to
protect themselves and the public from further harm.
Modeling done by a company outside of Washington suggests,
for example, that anthrax aerosol spray released in and around
Reagan National Airport might result in over 250,000 casualties
with 10 percent of those fatal. This danger is real.
To prepare State and local communities for such an
unfortunate incident, a heavy emphasis for preparation must be
placed on preparing those communities. I would define first
responders as local fire, law enforcement, medical workers,
emergency management officials and public officials who will be
the first on the scene. It will fall to these people to assess
the damage, treat those injured, keep casualties to a minimum
and stabilize the infrastructure.
Under the Federal response plan, the FBI, FEMA, Federal
Emergency Management Association, and other Federal agencies
will assume many duties to help. However, State and local
officials will have the initial responsibility.
To this end, I might also point out that local medical
facilities must also have a trained cadre who can function
around contaminated casualties. And I think Dr. Knouss from the
Public Health Service, who will be testifying here today, will
be able to shed some light on that challenge and his plans.
We have seen through the implementation of Presidential
Directive 62 the establishment of the National Coordinator for
Security, Infrastructure Protection and Counter-Terrorism
headed by Mr. Dick Clark, which will oversee the national
counterterrorism effort. Mr. Clark, with whom I recently met in
Washington, has now established a weapons of national
destruction preparedness group. The only thing that is making
me nervous in all this effort is how many groups and agencies
we have got trying to coordinate. We need a coordinator and I
was impressed with Mr. Clark and hope that he can make sure we
are working together and not competing with one another, as we
strive to build our proper response.
For too long, we have failed to begin to train and act. We
have got to coordinate policy immediately to involve Federal
assistance and local jurisdiction. We have got to have research
and development. We have got to have equipment development--
that is extremely important. We have got to know the equipment
that we provide will work, that it is the best possible
equipment and we have got to make sure that every agency that
needs it, has it.
Any failure to integrate all our critical activities of
research and development will cost us money and increase risk.
We have got to protect those responders with the best possible
clothing and diagnostic equipment we can provide.
A second area of concern is interoperability, which
includes the need for compatible communication systems. We
found in the Columbine High School incident that that was a
serious problem for them and it undermined their ability to
respond.
A third area of concern involves a need for timely
information exchange. The National Preparedness Office in
association with the FBI, has implemented a policy whereby
communities and their responders may acquire information to
assist in preparedness. For too long, agencies did not have or
did not share information with the local communities to aid
them in updating their threat and vulnerability assessments. In
the current environment that we find ourselves, this is a must.
Civic leaders across Alabama, for instance, need access to
pertinent information which aids them in their decisionmaking.
Using Fort McClellan's teleconferencing center by DOJ personnel
may be one resource, another possibility might include a
special Center for Domestic Preparedness web page along with
applicable hotlines and correspondence packages and the like.
A fourth area of concern involves the equipment. I am
gravely concerned about the equipment. As I mentioned, we have
got to make sure that we have the best equipment. The military
has proven equipment, but we have got to go beyond that and
make sure that the equipment is compatible and effective for
local communication.
A fifth area of concern involves training. In response to
the needs of State and local governments, President Clinton has
stated that over 1.4 billion will be dedicated to this effort
over a period of years. Domestic preparedness training, only if
conducted properly and efficiently, will save lives in the
event of a terrorist attack. The framework for training and
equipping first responders is currently in place and while I
share the fear of others who argue that it is not moving along
fast enough, I do believe that Congress and the Administration
has an obligation to examine our training capabilities to make
sure that we are not just throwing money at the problem, that
we are going to make it work, and that the training is quality
training.
There presently exists some 140 domestic preparedness
training courses in America. Some of these are done through
DOD, FEMA, Department of Justice, Public Health Service,
Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Energy and other
agencies, as well as State universities and colleges. As a
result a lot has been said about integrating these programs
with good national standards, but we are not there yet--in my
opinion we are far from where we ought to be.
Consequently, so the government needs to quit studying
now--we have done that enough. We need to start producing
effective training so that people in our communities are ready
to respond.
A little closer to home, I want to mention the Department
of Justice program at Fort McClellan and L.Z.'s efforts. Fort
McClellan was designated as the Department of Justice's Federal
Center for Domestic Preparedness and as such the center
develops and delivers training under a tiered concept that
offers basic through advanced courses. Each course includes a
hands-on type exercise, requiring students to perform their
duties in a weapons of mass destruction environment, including
forcing them to face actual nerve agents.
During the August 1998 Attorney General Stakeholders'
Forum, Attorney General Reno was told by first responders that
live agent training at Fort McClellan, which I am going to
invite our panelists to visit after the hearing, this facility
with me was an absolute necessity. The Center has trained over
1000 responders and is capable of training up to 10,000 per
year. This is the goal that we must attain. Their courses are
currently full through September 30. I have learned that during
this time the Department of Justice will train an additional
550 students. Demand is high. There are now waiting lists of
850 who would like to sign up for courses. The training
conducted by the Center is a type and quality that we must
provide--excellence in training will save lives.
L.Z. received this e-mail from Lieutenant Jake Shirt of the
Arapaho, Colorado Police Department, who was involved in the
Columbine shooting, after having been trained here. This is
what he wrote,
I wanted to let you know that the advanced operations
training I received in April at the CDP was of benefit.
While not directly involved in the first day of the
Columbine High School shooting, I was subsequently
asked to set up large teams of officers to bomb sweep
12 schools. The ICS incident command training was of
great benefit in assisting me to set up those events.
Thank you again for the outstanding training program.
That is direct evidence that this kind of training is valuable.
You have got to know how to respond under those circumstances.
I would also suggest that maybe we expand our thinking and
consider training of this kind for schools, principals,
superintendents and others because they are often even quicker
to respond than others.
In conclusion, I believe that establishing the Center for
Domestic Preparedness here at Fort McClellan has proved to be a
great step in establishing a model for training. As our hearing
established, it is important that all training for first
responders has well defined standards and training plans. It
would not serve any purpose to have several different training
centers across the country offering incompatible instruction.
We do not want our communities to think they are prepared, we
want them to be prepared. A well-defined standard along with
equipment and training, permits follow-up inspections and
effective evaluation. If there are no standards by which to
measure and judge the quality of equipment and training, then
there is no possible way to judge the level of preparedness.
The Department of Justice, now has an opportunity that has
not presented itself before to ensure that we have a
coordinated procedure of training, equipment exercises,
research, and development that can help us achieve the goal we
all seek. That goal is having prepared communities.
I am delighted that we have this outstanding panel with us
today; I look forward to hearing their comments and testimony
and asking questions as we go forward.
Let me begin by introducing our first panel. Dr. Robert
Knouss is the director of Emergency Preparedness for the U.S.
Public Health Service. He has been to Fort McClellan previously
and I am glad to have him back. He is actively involved in
development of the medical training program in coordination
with the Center here. He is a key individual in the
establishment of training for the metropolitan strike teams.
Mike Parker is Deputy Commander of the Soldier and
Biological Chemical Command at Aberdeen Proving Ground. He will
be providing us insight from the military side.
Butch Straub is director of the Office for State and Local
Domestic Preparedness Support of OJP, Office of Justice
Programs. Laurie Robinson, who has been here previously,
planned to be here today, but could not make it. At any rate,
we are glad to have Butch here--he has been working intensely
on that.
That will be our first panel. Dr. Knouss, do you want to
lead off? Do you have any comments?
PANEL CONSISTING OF ROBERT KNOUSS, DIRECTOR, OFFICE OF
EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN
SERVICES; MICHAEL A. PARKER, DEPUTY COMMANDER, SOLDIER AND
BIOLOGICAL CHEMICAL COMMAND, DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE; AND CURTIS
H. STRAUB, DIRECTOR, OFFICE FOR STATE AND LOCAL DOMESTIC
PREPAREDNESS SUPPORT, OFFICE OF JUSTICE PROGRAMS, DEPARTMENT OF
JUSTICE
STATEMENT OF ROBERT KNOUSS
Mr. Knouss. Thank you very much, Senator Sessions.
Mr. Chairman, it is a great pleasure for us to be here and
I am accompanied today by Dr. Jarrett Clinton, who is the
Regional Health Administrator for this Region IV within our
Department, located in Atlanta and he will be responsible for
activities here at Fort McClellan, out of the Regional Office
in Atlanta. Eventually, I hope that we will have some people
who are directly stationed at Fort McClellan, but under his
able leadership.
I would like to spend just a few minutes, with your
permission, Senator, discussing a little bit about what we are
doing in our Department in terms of domestic preparedness and
the activities that we have undertaken.
The Secretary of Health and Human Services, headed by the
Hon. Donna Shalala, is committed to developing a strong local,
State and Federal capacity to respond to the health
consequences of a terrorist attack, particularly one using
chemical or biological weapons of mass destruction.
Under our Department's operating plan for this fiscal year,
the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is supporting
State and local governments in strengthening their
surveillance, epidemiological investigation and laboratory
identification capabilities as well as initiating a national
stockpile of critical pharmaceuticals and vaccines to
supplement local and State resources, if needed.
The National Institutes of Health is increasing its
research related to protecting against bioterrorism and our
office, the Office of Emergency Preparedness, is expanding the
development of local emergency health system capabilities to
respond to the health consequences of a WMD attack.
We focus much of our attention in our office on local
preparedness because the first response to any immediately
evident terrorist incident in the United States will be with
community-based resources supplemented by State and Federal
assistance. Therefore, local capability and capacity building
are absolutely crucial for reducing morbidity and mortality
caused by these types of attacks.
The critical issue is preparedness, which includes
developing and strengthening community response plans and
operational capabilities. The effectiveness of the integration
of the capabilities of all levels of government will determine
the success or failure of our Nation's ability to respond to a
major terrorist attack.
Just as a little bit of background, our office coordinates
the health and medical emergency preparedness activities within
the Department of Health and Human Services and is the lead
organization to coordinate disaster and emergency health
response activities with other Federal agencies, including the
Department of Justice, the Department of Defense and with the
Federal Emergency Management Agency.
During a federally declared disaster, HHS is the primary
agency that provides the health and medical response known as
emergency support function number eight under the Federal
response plan. We also manage the national disaster medical
system, which is known as NDMS. It is a partnership between
Health and Human Services, the Departments of Veterans' Affairs
and Defense and FEMA, and really is a remarkable system. I call
this, at times, the country's largest volunteer fire
department. And the reason for that is that we have 7,000
private citizens across the country who volunteer their time
and expertise as members of response teams to provide primary
medical and certain types of specialized care to disaster
victims, and more than 2,000 participating non-Federal
hospitals.
Our response capability is organized into teams such as
primary care; disaster medical assistance teams; specialty
medical teams, for example those that concentrate on pediatrics
or burn care; and disaster mortuary teams. We have 25 level one
DMAT's, including one that is located here in Alabama--
headquartered in Birmingham, which we are very proud of and
which I think every State that has one or more of these teams
should be proud of. They can be federalized to deploy within
hours, they can be self-sufficient at a disaster scene for 72
hours, providing on-site medical services. This means that they
carry their own pharmaceutical and medical supplies, food and
water, shelter and communication and other mission essential
equipment. These teams have been sent to many areas in the
aftermath of disasters, in support of FEMA-coordinated response
activities.
Our mortuary teams can assist local medical examiners to
identify and deal appropriately with the remains of those who
do not survive major disasters or in the aftermath of airline
and other transportation accidents when requested by the
National Transportation Safety Board. Just recently we deployed
that team, for example, again in Oklahoma City as a consequence
of the horrible tornadoes that swept through that State and
several other States in the midwest.
To make maximum use of these resources, we also allow State
governments to activate the national teams that are based in
their own States if necessary.
Over the last 2 years, we have provided additional training
and specialized equipment to three of our DMAT's to develop the
required capabilities to respond to terrorist attacks. We call
them national medical response teams. These teams, which are
located in North Carolina, Colorado and California, are capable
of rapidly deploying to an incident site and providing medical
treatment after the release of a chemical or biological weapon.
They can respond with a cache of specialized pharmaceuticals,
each one of them to treat up to 5,000 people exposed to a
chemical weapon. They also have specialized personal protective
equipment, detection devices and patient decontamination
capabilities.
A fourth team, actually the prototype team, is located in
Washington, DC, and remains locally to respond in our Nation's
Capital. It was prepositioned to respond should the need have
arisen during several State of the Union Addresses--located in
the U.S. Capitol, the 1997 Inauguration and most recently
during the celebration of the 50th anniversary of NATO.
Senator Sessions. I am glad you are worrying about those
events. The only time I have ever thought much about security
was there at the inauguration when I noticed that everybody in
the whole government was sitting right there. It makes you
think about the possibilities that could happen. The State of
the Union Address also makes you think about things, as well.
Anyway, sorry to interrupt you.
Mr. Knouss. Those were precisely our concerns as well, and
we have joined with the Capitol Police to respond to that
potential.
Several years ago, our Department realized the Nation was
not prepared to deal with the health effects of terrorism and
that should a terrorist event occur, our cities and
metropolitan areas would bear the brunt of coping with its
effects. In addition, we realized that local medical
communities would be faced with severe problems, including the
possibility of contaminating major healthcare institutions,
overloading hospital capabilities and threatening the safety of
medical personnel.
Consequently, in fiscal year 1995, we began developing the
first prototype metropolitan medical response system in
partnership with the Metropolitan Washington Council of
Governments and its 18 local member jurisdictions. This system,
primarily designed to respond to a chemical attack, became the
prototype of response for capabilities that we developed in
Atlanta in 1996 in preparation for the Centennial Olympic
Games, and for the 25 local systems that we began developing in
1997 as part of the domestic preparedness program stimulated by
Senators Nunn, Lugar, and Domenici.
This year, we expect to begin an additional 20 systems in
addition to supplementing the initial metropolitan systems in
order to respond to biological terrorism. These systems
activities are HHS's highest priority in helping the Nation to
prepare to cope with the effects of terrorist acts.
Once an immediately evident terrorist incident occurs,
local first responders, police and fire and emergency medical
services, would respond. HAZMAT teams would be called to
provide agent identification and hot zone rescue management.
These actions would have been the focus of DOD and FEMA under
the domestic preparedness program.
The purpose of the NMRS is to ensure that a metropolitan
area's health system is able to cope with the human health
consequences that can result from a terrorist act. Because each
city has a public safety and public health system with unique
characteristics, our system development contracts--our NMRS
development contracts, excuse me--emphasize that each
metropolitan area will develop its enhanced medical and health
response system within its current emergency response
structure. These systems provide an integrated prehospital,
hospital and public health response capability in local
jurisdictions. Each system must ensure that health workers be
able to recognize WMD injuries, know the proper treatment, be
able to ensure that medical facilities maintain their
functional capacities and plan the integration of State and
Federal responders when they arrive. Our goal is to develop 120
of these medical response systems in the largest metropolitan
areas across the country.
In regard to our training activities which brings us
specifically to the point of these field hearings, our primary
focus has been on the development of these metropolitan medical
response systems with the components of metropolitan-based
systems that would provide decontamination, triage and
definitive medical care. While DOD, DOJ, FEMA and other Federal
agencies are providing first responder awareness training,
there has been little focus on the preparation of healthcare
delivery systems and their health professionals, those being
the doctors and nurses and paramedics. Therefore, we have begun
developing the health professions curricula that are necessary
to prepare the Nation's emergency medical response personnel to
meet this challenge. The American College of Emergency
Physicians along with the American Nurses' Association and
other health professional groups, are developing with our
support the competency objectives that are needed for training
and testing of these critical types of health profession
responders. We are also seeking to address the standards used
by hospitals for assuring the maintenance of their functional
capacity during a WMD event in their communities.
In this fiscal year, Congress appropriated $3 million to
our Department for renovation and modernization of the Nobel
Army Hospital here at Fort McClellan. DOJ's Center for Domestic
Preparedness is currently establishing a national training
center, which you are certainly well aware of, for first
responders to domestic terrorist acts, to address the training
needs of law enforcement, fire fighting, emergency medical and
emergency communications personnel, among others.
First responders need to be trained in the administration
of the antidotes and other hot zone medically related
activities in addition to triage and primary care at the scene.
Paramedics need to be trained about the care required during
transportation. Hospital administrators need to be trained in
the preparation of hospitals for safety and protection of their
operations during an incident. And health professionals need to
be trained in appropriate and essential emergency and longer
term care.
And I want to just emphasize that we are working very
closely with the Office of Justice Programs to enhance the
availability of medically related training for all first
responders, and I particularly want to thank--this gives me an
opportunity to thank Mr. L.Z. Johnson for all the support that
he has given to us in this dialog that we have been having of
developing these programs here at Fort McClellan.
In summary, HHS is committed to assuring that communities
across the country are prepared to respond to the health
consequences of a WMD event. We are prepared to quickly
mobilize the health professionals and systems required to
respond to a disaster anywhere in the United States and its
territories and to assist local medical response systems in
dealing with the extraordinary conditions that would be created
by a WMD attack, and we are certain that the program we are
about to engage in here at Fort McClellan can make a very
significant contribution to those efforts.
Mr. Chairman, that concludes my remarks and I would be
pleased to answer any questions you may have. Thank you again
for the opportunity to appear.
Senator Sessions. Thank you, Dr. Knouss. Mr. Parker.
STATEMENT OF MICHAEL A. PARKER
Mr. Parker. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate the
opportunity to appear before this subcommittee. It is really
always great to return here to Fort McClellan, especially on
this occasion, to be able to see firsthand how Fort McClellan
and the surrounding communities continue to apply their
expertise in chem bio defense now in our homelands defense.
Senator Sessions. Let me ask a question. Can people hear in
the back? OK, good, the microphone is working. Go ahead.
Mr. Parker. It really again demonstrates its value,
critical value, to our Nation.
I would like to request your permission to submit extended
remarks for the record and do a quick summary.
Senator Sessions. That will be fine and we will make those
a part of the record.
Mr. Parker. My purpose this morning before you is to update
you on the progress of the domestic preparedness program, at
least the portion that the Department of Defense is responsible
for, and our plan to transition the leadership to the
interagency program which will now be headed by the Department
of Justice.
In addition, I would like to take the opportunity to
describe some of the support we believe that the Department of
Defense can provide to the Department of Justice as they
continue to mature the domestic preparedness program to deal
with weapons of mass destruction.
As of this date, we, as the interagency team, that is the
Department of Defense, the Department of Justice and the
Federal Emergency Management Agency, Health and Human Services,
Department of Energy and other Federal agencies, have trained
59 communities. By the end of this fiscal year, we will have
trained 65. We have plans to complete an additional 36 in
fiscal year 2000 and will complete the last 19 for a total of
120 cities, by about midyear fiscal 2001. A list of the cities
and their status is contained in the written submission.
To date, we have trained approximately 17,000 first
responders, drawn from the fire-fighting, law enforcement,
hazardous materials handlers, emergency medical, emergency
management and the 911 operator/dispatcher communities. I must
remark that these personnel have been absolutely professional
to the highest level throughout this training program.
This community-given training, equipment and exercise to
standards will be able to respond and meet your challenge that
you stated earlier of being prepared. It is our obligation at
the Federal level to assist the local communities to meet those
standards.
In our efforts, we have employed a train-the-trainer
concept in our efforts. There are several reasons for this
approach, one of which you touched on in your opening remarks.
There are literally hundreds of thousands of initial first
responders and when extended through the complete community,
including the medical community, there literally are millions
of people involved. In order to reach this community in a
practical manner, we determined that to use the existing
training infrastructure was the only practical timely manner
approach to take to deal with these communities.
The second aspect, Dr. Knouss touched on this as well, is
each of these communities has a unique element. They have built
a very effective response capability around their unique
circumstance, their infrastructure, the challenges that face
them, how they interface on a regional basis and many other
factors. So it is important that the Federal efforts are
tailored to fit within the communities' needs vice a top-down
driven approach. So training the trainers inculcates into the
local community's culture the aspects of chem bio defense and
nuclear response that we are trying to provide to the first
responder community.
This approach, as I touched on, generates a real
partnership by inducting the Federal efforts into the local
efforts where we knit together then a Federal, State and local
partnership in preparing a true domestically prepared and
responsive local community.
Another aspect of our training is a team approach where we
have taken a member from the interagency training team and
paired that person with somebody from the local community. Many
of these local community personnel, because of military
training, already have some insight into weapons of mass
destruction. So by teaming a person from the Federal
interagency effort, the DOD effort, with someone from the local
community and putting these people on the podium to do the
training, we have felt a much stronger sense with the local
community of acceptance because they see someone from their own
community participating in the training. It has led to a much
more meaningful dialog and interchange at that level.
In previous testimony before Congress, we cited the fact
that skills learned in this area are very perishable. This is
further compounded by the fact that there are constant
personnel turnover. So the area of sustainment, training
sustainment, is a very, very critical issue. There are a number
of initiatives that have been taken to address this area. One
such initiative is the establishment of the Fort McClellan
Center for Domestic Preparedness here at Fort McClellan.
DOJ has taken the leadership to establish this center, to
build the necessary long-term training environment that will
not only prepare our local communities, but sustain them in
that level of preparedness as long as this threat is offered to
our country.
One of the aspects that we have learned out of a Department
of Army Federal emergency management program called the
Chemical Stockpile Emergency Preparedness Program, is that you
do need to address an overarching strategy from which you can
then build a training strategy, an equipping strategy and an
exercise strategy, all built around standards by which to
measure the attainment; in this case, the attainment of real
preparedness. I think it relates earlier in your remarks that
it is a very critical component of the program and would
suggest that the Department of Justice especially here at the
Center for Domestic Preparedness, that the efforts that have
been initiated on these strategies and national standards
development is something that must be pursued in order to
really have a prepared domestic first response community.
We have offered to the Department of Justice, especially as
it relates to the Center for Domestic Preparedness here at Fort
McClellan, DOJ and DOA, Department of Army, have entered into a
support agreement where the Department of Army has agreed, as
we have been directed by the Secretary of Defense, to provide
the support to continue the operations here at the Center that
build on prior activities at Fort McClellan, specifically the
agent training facility referenced earlier, and any other
technical support that Department of Justice would desire. That
agreement is in place and we are fine-tuning it and we have
built, I believe, a very strong relationship with L.Z. Johnson
here at the Center.
We are also involved in the Department of Defense's efforts
to prepare another element of the domestic response support
community. That is the Consequence Management Program
Integration Office, which is preparing the National Guard
elements to underpin State and local response in the event of a
weapons of mass destruction incident. The Army's efforts and my
command's efforts, have been focused primarily on the
equipment, evaluation, characterization, equipping of the
National Guard units and providing various levels of technical
expertise in the area of chemical and biological agents, and
certain facets of training that we have learned through the
domestic preparedness program.
The elements are primarily in the National Guard, although
there are a few Army Reserve component units as well involved
in this. There are approximately 10 military support
detachments also known as the rapid assessment and initial
detection detachments, or RAID units, ten of which will be
regionalized across the country. These will be underpinned by
44 additional RAID-like detachments which will underpin any
consequence management activity or support during the critical
incident phase.
Additional units have been designated, 43 reconnaissance
elements as well as 127 domestic response casualty
decontamination elements, which will be available to the local
communities to call upon through the State National Guard
command and control structure. These units, because they are
moving out of a traditional military role into a domestic
preparedness role, require certain equipment that is tailored
then to this domestic environment. We are using a performance-
based approach to look at not only military equipment which is
already qualified to operate in these environments, but also to
tap into new emerging technologies that are either a domestic
commercial or a military research lab product or commercial
technologies that are already on the shelf. We are providing
the technical evaluation and will feed those into the various
National Guard elements as those are qualified.
We will also evaluate some of the considerations that you
touched on earlier, the command and control, the ability for
the communications system to cross a wide spectrum of equipment
that is already in the field is one of the elements that the
National Guard units have recognized, and we are assisting in
building communications vans with the ability to cross multiple
frequencies so that the National Guard elements can provide
assistance for the local authorities in bringing the
communications together so that there is really connectivity
across many, many of the elements that lack that as we stand
today.
Senator Sessions. Mr. Parker, I would just note that the
Senate Armed Services Committee did add some money for that--I
think there will be 17 new teams approved under our proposal.
Additionally, I think the National Guard has a critical role to
play and I appreciate that.
We are dealing with time constraints so if you can wrap up
then we'll let Mr. Straub speak. Then we will hear from the
second panel.
Mr. Parker. Yes, sir.
One of the comments that I think needs to be passed to the
Committee is one that has to do with equipping. We have--the
domestic communities that we have interfaced with have really
appreciated and been very laudatory towards the training
provided. But a common thread that comes back from every
community is that they need the equipment in order to be able
to respond and utilize the training. We have mitigated this to
some degree by DOD providing equipment training packages which
we leave behind as we complete the training of a city. That is
really an equipment package that's focused on training.
To move beyond and fully equip the communities, the
Department of Justice effort with the Department of Army would
like to provide technical support to, would characterize
equipment and then through Department of Justice's grant
authority significantly streamline and enhance the efficiency
of providing equipment to the local first responders--a very
critical element.
I think I could just maybe step to the latter part and talk
about our final transition of leadership from Department of
Defense to Department of Justice. We are--we do have agreement
at the departmental levels, the Department of Justice and
Department of Defense came together and Department of Justice
will be assuming responsibility as the lead Federal agency for
this domestic preparedness. We have been instructed by our
Secretary, Mr. Cohen, and the Deputy Secretary of Defense, Dr.
Hamry, to fully support the Department of Justice in any manner
that they need. Our leadership in the Department of Army,
Secretary Caldera, has noted that the Army has over 82 years of
experience in the chem bio defense area and we literally have
invested billions and billions of the taxpayers' dollars in
generating this infrastructure and this expertise, and it is
our obligation in the Army to provide support to Justice in
this domestic preparedness effort. Whatever they need, whenever
they need it, we are a full supporting partner.
We are looking for a formal transition about October 1,
2000 and we will be proceeding across fiscal year 2000 and
actually we already have, to implementing the details, the
necessary transition steps so there will be a smooth,
transparent transition and the domestic authorities who are the
beneficiaries of this program will see us at the Federal level
move in an absolutely transparent cross over from Defense to
Justice.
With that, I thank you, sir, for the opportunity to present
today.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Parker follows:]
Prepared Statement of Michael A. Parker
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate this, opportunity to appear
before the subcommittee.
I am Michael Parker, Deputy to the Commander, Soldier and
Biological Chemical Command. My purpose in testifying here today is to
update you on the progress of the domestic preparedness program and the
plan to transition lead responsibility for this interagency program to
the Department of Justice. In addition I would like to take this
opportunity to describe the types of support we can render to the
Department of Justice as they continue to address the challenges posed
by Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD).
As of this date, we, the interagency team, have trained 59 cities.
By the end of this fiscal year we will have trained a total of 65
cities. We, the interagency team, plan to train approximately thirty-
six cities in fiscal year 2000, with the remaining 19 cities trained by
third quarter, fiscal year 2001. A listing of the cities trained is
included as part of my written submission. To date, we have trained
over 16,850 first responder-trainers drawn from the firefighting
community, law enforcement community, hazardous material handlers,
emergency medical and management communities and the 911 operator/
dispatcher community.
We employ the ``Train-the-Trainer'' concept in our training. There
are several reasons for using this concept. First, the sheer numbers of
emergency responders who have to be trained are overwhelming. Second,
each community responds differently to various emergencies and relies
upon its unique infrastructure to accomplish its response. Finally,
each community generally has specific training institutions for various
segments of its response infrastructure. Utilization of a train-the-
trainer approach, we think, institutionalizes the response material
within the local culture. Upon completion of our training, the city
trainers take the instructor training material and adapt it to their
unique response structures and organizations and train their
responders. The training program in essence, is a federal, state, and
local partnership.
Another important aspect of our training approach is the ``team
teaching'' technique. This technique involves pairing a subject matter
expert in the nuclear, biological or chemical (NBC) arena with an
emergency responder with experience in these areas. Together the
pairing brings a high degree of credibility to the training due to the
extensive experience of the individuals involved. Both the train-the-
trainer approach and the team teaching approach continue to be very
well received by our training audience and we suggest that these
approaches continue to be used for future training of this type.
A synopsis of each course of instruction follows:
1. Employee Awareness (Video). Employee Awareness is a 30-minute
video presentation for 911 operators and diverse employees at
potential terrorist target facilities. The video is presented in
layman's terms in both English and Spanish. There is no instructor
requirement, however, a facilitator (provided by the facility
employer) is recommended to introduce the video. The video covers:
General aspects of NBC terrorism
Information on how to recognize a NBC terrorist incident
through signs and symptoms, and possible dissemination devices
Self-protection measures--Instructional materials include a
facilitator's guide, a pamphlet for the participants and a 911
checklist for future reference.
2. Senior Officials' Workshop. The workshop is a 4.5-hour course
intended to instruct and inform the senior leadership of the city.
The interactive workshop employs video clips, case studies, lecture
and discussion to promote understanding amongst city officials of
the impacts of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons of mass
destruction. The workshop objectives are to:
Assess the potential risk to their community from NBC WMD.
Identify possible targets within their community.
Understand the implications for their community from NBC
WMD.
Interact with state and federal personnel so that
operational assets can be assembled, assigned and employed with
maximum effectiveness.
Identify special legal and financial considerations that NBC
WMD incidents may involve.
The Senior Officials' Workshop is a stand-alone course with no
Domestic Preparedness (DP) course prerequisites.
3. Emergency Responder Awareness. Unlike the Employee Awareness
video, the Emergency Responder Awareness course (4 hours, 0.4
Continuing Education Units (CEU)), is designed for the trainers of
emergency responders. These responders include firefighters, police
officers and emergency medical responders. The goal of this course
is to enable participants to teach other responders the signs and
symptoms of chemical and biological agents and nuclear materials;
potential devices used for dissemination; make proper notification;
and defensive actions to safeguard themselves and their community.
This course covers:
Introduction to the NBC Terrorism Threat.
Radiological, Biological, and Chemical Materials and
Weapons.
Dissemination Devices
Responder Actions.
Prior to enrollment in the Responder Awareness course, participants
should be trainers and have a basic understanding of principles and
procedures to respond to a hazardous material incident.
4. Emergency Responder Operations. The Emergency Responder Operations
course (4 hours, 0.4 CEU) is designed specifically for incident
response teams in a defensive mode. The goal of this course is to
enable participants to teach the technical aspects of NBC
incidents, and the defensive actions required for responders to
protect themselves and their community. This course covers:
Responder Actions at the Operations Level
Chemical Downwind Hazard Analysis
Personal Protection
Introduction to Detection and Identification
Emergency Decontamination Procedures
Practical Exercise
The Responder Awareness course is the prerequisite.
5. Technician--HAZMAT. The Hazardous Materials (HAZMAT) course (12
hours, 1.2 CEU) is specifically designed for trainers of current
HAZMAT Technicians. HAZMAT Technicians learn the difference between
responding to NBC terrorist incidents compared to an ``everyday''
HAZMAT event. The goal of this course is to enable participants to
teach the technical aspects of NBC incidents and the offensive
actions required for responders to protect themselves and their
community. This course covers the same subjects as the Awareness
and Operation courses, but at a more advanced level. In addition,
this course covers:
Responder Actions at the HAZMAT Technician Level
Hands-on Detection and Identification Exercise
NBC Agents at the HAZMAT Technician Level
Protective Equipment
Decontamination Procedures
Chemical Classification, Detection and Identification
Practical Exercise
Downwind Hazard Analysis
Dissemination Devices
The participants should be HAZMAT technician qualified prior to
enrollment. No DP course prerequisites are required.
6. Technician--Emergency Medical Service. The Emergency Medical
Services (EMS) course (8 hours, 8.5 CEU) instructs trainers of
emergency medical technicians and paramedics on the unique aspects
of a response to a NBC terrorist event. The goal of this course is
to enable participants to teach the technical aspects of NBC
incidents and the defensive actions required by EMS responders to
protect themselves and their community. This course includes:
Introduction to NBC terrorism threat
Possible dissemination devices
Recognizing NBC exposure
Trends indicating possible events
Safe and legal antidote requirements
Unique triage of potential mass casualties and emergency
medical field treatment demands
Unique considerations to treat children and elderly victims
of an NBC, terrorist incident
The course consists of lectures, demonstrations and field exercises
to include personal protection measures, detection, decontamination and
triage. No DP course prerequisites are required.
7. Hospital Provider. The Hospital Provider course (8 hours, 7 CMEU
for physicians and 8.4 CEU for nurses) provides instruction to
trainers of emergency department physicians and nurses. The goal of
this course is to enable participants to teach the medical
technical aspects of NBC incidents and the defensive actions
required for responders to protect themselves and their community.
This course includes the same topics as the EMS course, but at a
more advanced level. Course covers:
Introduction to NBC terrorism threat
Diagnosis and treatment victims of an NBC incident
Unique public health guidelines
Special considerations for Hospital personnel dealing with
an NBC incident
Properly manage contaminated victims
Decontamination
Protect against cross-contamination using personal
protective measures
Course format includes classroom lecture with demonstrations and
case studies. No DP course prerequisites are required.
8. Incident Command. This course (6 hours, 0.6 CEU) provides trainers
of incident commanders with the necessary information and
considerations to effectively manage an NBC incident. The course
consists of 4 hours of lecture and 2 hours of a tabletop exercise.
Specific topics include coordination of resources; protective
measures and associated risks; evacuation versus shelter-in-place
considerations; perimeter security measures; management of mass
casualties, and applications of the Federal Response Plan. The goal
of this course is to enable the participants to teach the
challenges, consequences, and special considerations of incident
commanders when dealing with NBC incidents. This course covers:
Challenges and Consequences of Management in an NBC Incident
Tactical Considerations and Actions for NBC Incidents
Understanding the Roles of the Federal Government in an NBC
Terrorist Incident
NBC Terrorism Response and Planning Exercise
The DP Responder Awareness and Responder Operations courses are
prerequisites for the Incident Command course or any of the Technician
Level courses (i.e., EMS, HAZMAT, Hospital Provider).
As a critical part of city training, exercises add to the overall
comprehensive training process of the Domestic Preparedness program.
Three main components comprise the exercise program as an integrated
strategy:
Chemical weapons tabletop exercises
Chemical weapons functional exercises
Biological weapons tabletop exercises
Chemical Weapons Tabletop Exercise
The chemical weapons tabletop exercise is a six to eight hour event
conducted in a conference room environment for city, county and state
emergency responders. Federal agency representatives also participate
in the exercise. A chemical tabletop exercise typically follows
emergency responder training. This exercise routinely focuses on a
range of crisis and consequence management activities beginning with
threat identification, through initial and secondary responses, to
follow-on actions and long-term consequences. This exercise presents
emergency responders with simulated emergency situations designed to
encourage constructive discussion.
The objectives of the chemical weapons tabletop exercise are to:
Assist local authorities to exercise the decision process in
response to a chemical weapons terrorist incident scenario.
Examine the response mechanism of the incident command
structure.
Capitalize, reinforce and provide feedback on the training
conducted by the Domestic Preparedness program.
Chemical Weapons Functional Exercise
The chemical weapons functional exercise is a two to four-hour,
hands-on event that normally follows six months after the Domestic
Preparedness training of the city emergency responders. A three-day
timeframe encompasses the actual exercise and includes:
Controller/evaluator training (Day 1)
Site setup (Day 1)
Actor/observer/media briefings (Day 2)
Two to four-hour functional exercise (Day 2)
Formal debriefs (Close of Day 2 and Day 3)
This exercise is real time, and the participants include: fire, law
enforcement hazardous materials (HAZMAT) and emergency medical services
(EMS) units that received the Domestic Preparedness training.
Participants must assess and act on the simulated terrorist incident
based upon expert knowledge of these issues: response procedures,
current plans and protocols at their respective agencies and the
Domestic Preparedness training lessons. In this exercise, emergency
responders treat and decontaminate simulated ``victims'' and simulate
transporting them to area hospitals as if a real world situation
occurred. Furthermore, the city provides controllers and evaluators for
these exercises. Controllers ensure the city's identified objectives
are met through key actions during the CW exercise, whereas evaluators
assess the response as the chemical weapons functional exercise is
executed. The objectives of the chemical weapons functional exercise
are to:
Establish a learning environment.
Familiarize response teams and agencies with protocols to
respond to a chemical incident involving weapons of mass
destruction (WMD).
Acquaint emergency responders with the potential of a
chemical terrorist attack.
Biological Weapons Tabletop Exercise
The biological tabletop is a one-day, six to eight-hour exercise
conducted for the city, county and state emergency responders. Federal
agency representatives also participate in the exercise. This exercise
is conducted in a conference room environment where participants
respond to a simulated terrorist incident. The biological exercise
depicts the major functional response aspects of a biological terrorist
incident. This exercise focuses on how to detect and mitigate a
biological terrorist incident. Medical consequences of a biological
terrorist attack are emphasized.
The objectives of the biological tabletop are to:
Assist local authorities to exercise the decision process in
response to an assessment of a biological terrorist incident.
Examine, as a unified command, the response mechanisms of
the city, county and state agencies with federal support.
Provide feedback on the training conducted by the Domestic
Preparedness program.
In previous testimony before Congress, we have cited the fact that
the skills learned are perishable and that factors such as personnel
turnover create a need for sustainment. There are a number of
initiatives that have addressed this issue. One such initiative has
resulted in the establishment at Fort McClellan of the Center for
Domestic Preparedness (CDP) under the Department of Justice. The Deputy
Secretary of Defense has indicated that the Department of Defense will
act in a support role and in concert with that, we have entered into an
agreement with the Department of Justice to provide a broad range of
supporting services to the CDP. We view the relationship created by
this agreement as a partnership which will aid in program continuity
and efficiency and which will leverage on the body of effort not only
gained in our Domestic Preparedness program activities but in our
eighty-two years of experience and our recognition as the Army's leader
in the chemical and biological arena.
We are also involved in supporting the Consequence Management
Program Integration Office (CoMPIO) through the provision of SBCCOM
functional expertise as they establish state and regional response
teams within the DoD Reserve Component. We are supporting the CoMPIO in
equipping and providing logistical support to the first 10 Military
Support Detachment (Rapid Assessment and Initial Detection (RAID))
Detachments and the initial 44 Military Support Detachment (RAID Light)
Detachments, 43 Reconnaissance Elements, and 127 Domestic Response
Casualty Decontamination Elements. We utilize performance-based
research and development to provide ``tried, true and tested''
products. We utilize emerging technological applications to transition
promising advanced technologies or rapidly develop prototype systems
into field applications. We have leverage the defense test and
evaluation infrastructure to conduct technical performance evaluations
of commercially available equipment, and participate on the Interagency
Board (IAB) to develop a list to ensure equipment standardization and
interoperability at the local, state and federal levels. In addition we
apply functional experts to develop and deliver training programs and
expert technical assistance for the response teams.
One of the fundamental components of readiness for the cities as
they prepare for a WMD incident is equipment. As we travel the country
in our training program and other related activities we constantly hear
the message ``We need equipment--what good is training without
equipment?'' We recognized the need and have provided on a loan basis
under the Domestic Preparedness program a training equipment set with
an approximate value of $300,000.00 to each city trained. Each loaned
equipment training set is tailored to the unique needs of the specific
city involved. This process however, doesn't fully address the larger
operational requirements of the communities.
The training equipment set includes four categories of equipment:
protective equipment; detection equipment; decontamination equipment;
and training aids. The training aids are delivered during the week that
the Federal Training Team trains the city's emergency responder
trainers. The training aids are used by the city as they train their
responders. After the city is trained and has had an opportunity to
assess their Domestic Preparedness requirements, the city makes an
equipment selection and requests DOD to acquire protective, detection,
and decontamination equipment which meets their training plans. If the
requested equipment is approved, DOD acquires the equipment and
provides it under the loan agreement.
Examples of items that are found in typical Training Equipment Sets
follows:
Personal Protective Equipment: Level A Encapsulated Protective
Suits; Level B Protective Suits; Respiratory Equipment; Protective
gloves and boots.
Detection: M256A1 Training Kits; M256A1 Test Kits; M8 Paper, Box;
M9 Paper, Roll; Chemical vapor colorimetric sampling tubes and pump;
Commercial Chemical Detector.
Decontamination: M291 Decon Kit; M295 Decon Kit; Portable Showers;
Emergency Shelters.
Training Aids Set (contents fixed): M256 Simulator, Chemical Agent
Detector Kit, box; Bio Detection Tickets; M28 Simulator, Detector
Tickets, Boxes; M29 Simulator, Detector Tickets, Boxes; M18A2 Chemical
Agent Detection Kit; M8 Paper; M9 Paper; CAMSIM (Optional); CAM
Simulator (Optional); CWA Detector Kit (Tubes and Pumps); Mark I Nerve
Agent Antidote Trainers; Blue Books (Med Mgt of Bio Casualties); Green
Books (Med Mgt of Chem Casualties); Yellow Books (EMS); REAC/TS
Transport of Radiological Materials--Q&A About Incident Response; Sets
of 35mm Slides for the Six Courses; Sets of Instructor and Student
Guides for the Six Courses (Master Copies); CD-ROM containing the six
courses; Video Tapes of ``Terror at Harford Mall'' Master Copies (Beta
or other format); Video Tapes of ``Terror at Harford Mall'' and FBI--
WMD Briefing Video, VHS; Employee Awareness Video, Master Copies (Beta
or other format); Employee Awareness Video, VHS; Medical Courses Video,
VHS; Preval Sprayer; Technician-HAZMAT Training Exercise Kit;
Persistent Chemical Agent Dissemination Device; Non-Persistent Chemical
Agent Dissemination Device; Small Vials (For Sugar and Baby Oil)
Currently there are efforts under way within the National Domestic
Preparedness Office (NDPO) to create a standardized equipment list
which will meet these needs and when coupled with DOJ's grant authority
should be able to make the process far more efficient and effective. We
at SBCCOM would suggest however, that it is important to avail the
communities of expertise available at SBCCOM and other federal agencies
early in the process to aid in selecting equipment and after the
equipment delivery ensuring that it meets the needs of the community
and properly addresses the challenges posed in the WMD environment.
An integral part of the domestic preparedness program is the
testing that we are performing by the Department of Army available
equipment, which is in general use by the emergency responders around
the country. We subject the equipment to agent and simulant testing and
make the performance data available to the emergency response community
via the Domestic Preparedness Web site. We don't recommend a particular
piece of equipment based on the test results. We simply discuss the
test protocol utilized and list the test data that we obtain. In
essence, we act as a kind of Underwriter's Laboratory. This type of
information is critical to the emergency response community. Our
efforts in this regard have been very well received by the emergency
response community. We think that this type of testing activity should
be continued and would strongly support the activities of DOJ as they
address further challenges in this area while leading the National
Domestic Preparedness Program.
Finally, I'd like to address the status of the planned transition
of program responsibility from the Department of Defense to the
Department of Justice. There is an agreement, which is currently being
worked which will outline the various aspects of the transition. It is
anticipated that this transition will take place on 1 October of the
year 2000 or beginning of fiscal year 2001.
Tentative plans for the transition include the following:
DoD will fund and execute all aspects of the Domestic
Preparedness program through city number 68 of 120.
DoD will fund and execute training, chemical tabletop
exercises and Category IV equipment sets for cities 69 through
105.
DoD will fund and execute the annual Federal, State, and
Local exercises through fiscal year 2001.
DOJ will fund and execute Categories 1-3 grant money
distribution, chemical weapons functional exercises, and the
biological weapons tabletop exercise for cities 69 through 105.
DOJ will fund and execute all aspects of the Domestic
Preparedness program for cities number 106-120.
DoD and DOJ will jointly fund and execute the Improved
Response Program beginning in fiscal year 2001. The DoD focus,
beginning in fiscal year 2001, will be to enhance the Services'
response units and installation responders. DOJ will continue
to focus on responders at the state and local levels.
DOJ will be responsible for the funding and execution
mechanisms for the HelpLine and Hotline beginning in fiscal
year 2001.
DOJ will control the Domestic Preparedness World Wide Web
Page after transition.
DoD will be responsible for the funding and execution of the
Chemical Biological (CB) Response portion of the DP program.
Regardless of the transition details one thing remains paramount--
we as a nation are faced with a serious challenge--the challenge posed
by weapons of mass destruction. SBCCOM and its interagency partners
have gained a lot of experience through their domestic preparedness
activities thus far and SBCCOM desires to support the new lead agency
in the fulfillment of their programmatic responsibilities by bringing
to bear functional and testing expertise gained from decades of
experience and from other preparedness related programs.
We continue to be proud to be associated with this important
program and look forward to supporting DOJ in their leadership role in
the future. Thank you for this opportunity to testify before you here
today.
Domestic Preparedness Training Schedule
Fiscal year 1997
1. Philadelphia; 2. Boston; 3. Detroit; 4. Chicago.
Fiscal year 1998
5. New York City; 6. Los Angeles; 7. San Antonio; 8. Washington
D.C.; 9. Memphis; 10. Kansas City, MO; 11. San Jose; 12. Honolulu; 13.
Indianapolis; 14. Dallas; 15. Seattle; 16. Miami; 17. Baltimore; 18.
Houston; 19. Atlanta; 20. San Francisco; 21. Portland; 22.
Jacksonville; 23. Phoenix; 24. San Diego; 25. Columbus, OH; 26.
Anchorage; 27. Denver; 28. Milwaukee; 29. New Orleans; 30. Providence;
31. Albuquerque; 32. Saint Louis; 33. Nashville; 34. Tucson; 35.
Charlotte.
Fiscal year 1999
Hampton Roads Area (Cities 36-39 trained Collectively); 36.
Virginia Beach; 37. Norfolk; 38. Chesapeake; 39. Newport News; 40. El
Paso; 41. Sacramento; 42. Cleveland; 43. Austin; 44. Oklahoma City; 45.
Colorado Springs; 46. Buffalo; 47. Long Beach; 48. Minneapolis; 49.
Pittsburgh; 50. Newark; 51. Omaha; 52. Santa Ana; 53. Tulsa; 54. Fort
Worth; 55. Raleigh; 56. Oakland; 57. Cincinnati; 58. Tampa; 59.
Birmingham
Since program inception fifty-nine cities have been trained through
June 11, 1999.
Senator Sessions. Thank you, and I appreciate your
insightful comments, they are important, on all aspects of what
we are dealing with.
Butch Straub, with Office of Justice Programs, again, we
are glad to have you here.
STATEMENT OF CURTIS H. STRAUB
Mr. Straub. Thank you. Good to see you again.
On behalf of Attorney General Reno, Assistant Attorney
General Roy Robinson, I am pleased to be with you today to
discuss our programs, particularly our training programs that
are dedicated to enhancing the capability of State and local
first responders.
I am particularly pleased to be at Fort McClellan again
with you. This is OJP's first responder training center, a
premier center, the Center for Domestic Preparedness. At this
time, Mr. Chairman, I request that my formal written statement
be entered into the record.
Senator Sessions. We will be glad to receive that.
Mr. Straub. It is always terrible to go last. The two
gentlemen at the table have taken most of my speech.
As you have heard, OJP is working closely with both of
these agencies. Today, however, I am pleased to tell you that
OJP has formed an alliance with PHS----
Senator Sessions. Public Health Service.
Mr. Straub. Absolutely, to establish a public health
training center here at Fort McClellan. We believe that the
presence of the PHS center will provide excellent opportunities
for partnership and enhanced ability for the two Federal
agencies to serve the first responder community.
First responder training is a critical element and perhaps
the most important element of the OJP Program. Training
currently available for the first responder community to
address WMD terrorism is far from comprehensive. OJP's programs
are designed to bridge gaps in other programs and offer new
enhanced specialized training. OJP's training mission is
simple--to ensure that State and local emergency response
personnel receive the skills, knowledge, abilities to enhance
them to respond to domestic terrorism and in turn protect
lives, property and enhance safety and security in the
communities.
As OJP moves into fiscal year 2,000, we will be able to use
needs assessments and comprehensive plans developed by the
States themselves to identify training requirements and target
training resources.
As you stated, the CDP was opened June 1, 1998. Even now,
in its initial stages of operation, the CDP has trained over
1,000 first responders from 305 jurisdictions, 43 States in
basic awareness, incident command and incident management.
As you know, Mr. Chairman, Fort McClellan, which is
currently the home of the U.S. Army Chemical School, is
scheduled to be closed at the end of the current fiscal year.
In directing the establishment of the CDP, I believe Congress
saw a unique opportunity that was being provided to the
civilian emergency response community. Simply put, facilities
at Fort McClellan that so successfully served the Army's
chemical training needs can now be used to benefit the training
needs of America's civilian emergency responders. Mr. Chairman,
the transformation of Fort McClellan from a military training
facility to a civilian first responder training facility
through the creation and development of the Center for Domestic
Preparedness has the full support and commitment of the
Attorney General and Assistant Attorney General Roy Robinson.
Senator Sessions, I truly believe that CDP will be a
success story, not just for the Federal Government, but for
America's first responders.
Mr. Chairman, I have eight letters of support that I would
like to enter into the record, one of which is from Colorado.
Senator Sessions. We would be pleased to receive those.
Mr. Straub. As I conclude my statement, I want to
personally thank you for all your support of the CDP and of all
your support for the OJP program activities.
That concludes my statement. I will be pleased to answer
any questions.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Straub and the above
mentioned letters follow:]
Prepared Statement of Curtis H. Straub
Mr. Chairman and Members of the Subcommittee: My name is Curtis H.
Straub, and I am the Director of the Office for State and Local
Domestic Preparedness Support (OSLDPS), Office of Justice Programs
(OJP). On behalf of the Attorney General Reno and Assistant Attorney
General Laurie Robinson, I am pleased to be with you today to discuss
programs that are dedicated to enhancing the capabilities of state and
local first responders to deal with the threat of domestic terrorism
involving weapons of mass destruction (WMD). I am particularly pleased
to be here at Fort McClellan, at the Office of Justice Programs' first
responder training center, the Center for Domestic Preparedness. As you
know, the Center for Domestic Preparedness, which is a component of the
Office for State and Local Domestic Preparedness Support, is an
integral part of OJP's first responder training initiative. The Center
has successfully trained over 1,000 first responders since it opened
June 1, 1998.
OSLDPS Deputy Director Andy Mitchell was pleased to testify before
this subcommittee on April 20, to discuss the full range of our
programs, so I will limit my remarks today to aspects of our training
initiatives.
The standards by which OJP/OSLDPS assists state and local
jurisdictions in accessing and acquiring training and equipment for
emergency responder personnel will be coordinated by the Department of
Justice's National Domestic Preparedness Office (NDPO), which has been
proposed as an office to coordinate federal domestic preparedness
initiatives and to serve as a single point of contact for first
responders for information on federal preparedness programs.
When fully operational, NDPO will act as the single federal office
for coordinating federal initiatives on domestic preparedness into a
cohesive and logical program that enhances the capabilities of first
responders. As part of this mission, OJP/OSLDPS will operate under the
umbrella of NDPO to assist state and local jurisdictions with the
delivery of appropriate training, equipment, and exercises consistent
with the standards coordinated by NDPO.
Responder training, like any other learning experience, must be
incremental, with progressive steps in the learning process. Training
currently being offered to address readiness for WMD terrorism is far
from comprehensive. OJP/OSLDPS programs are designed to bridge gaps in
other programs and offer new enhanced, specialized training. OJP/OSLDPS
will work in partnership with other federal agencies, as well as
through the NDPO, to ensure that its programs complement other ongoing
federal training efforts.
OJP/OSLDPS' overall training mission is to ensure that state and
local emergency response personnel receive the skills, knowledge, and
abilities to enable them to respond to incidents of domestic terrorism,
and in turn, better protect lives, property, and public safety. The
training focuses on enhancing a jurisdiction's ability to respond to
explosive, incendiary, chemical, radiological, nuclear and biological
incidents. During fiscal year 1999, training efforts are being focused
on those jurisdictions that received OJP/OSLDPS equipment grant funding
during fiscal year 1998, and those jurisdictions targeted under OJP/
OSLDPS Metropolitan Firefighter and Emergency Medical Service Program.
This ensures that current training builds on past efforts and that
there is a continuity to the resources targeted to jurisdictions.
The Metropolitan Firefighters and Emergency Medical Services
(MFEMS) Program was begun in fiscal year 1997, and offers training and
technical support to the fire and emergency medical services of the
nation's largest metropolitan jurisdictions. Originally targeted to the
nation's 120 largest jurisdictions, this program has been recently
expanded to cover 255 jurisdictions across the country, including all
cities targeted for training under the Defense Department's Nunn-Lugar-
Domenici Domestic Preparedness Program, and all state capitals.
Since its inception, the MFEMS Program has been primarily
responsible for providing basic instruction in WMD awareness to fire
and emergency medical service personnel. The program's principal
course, ``Emergency Response to Terrorism: Basic Concepts,'' is a two-
day training course that has, to date, trained over 32,000 fire and
emergency medical service first responders in basic WMD awareness
principles. In addition, over 59,000 persons are currently in the
process of being trained.
The Basic Concepts course is delivered in the first responders'
local communities in order to reach the maximum numbers of first
responders. This course is also available through a `` self-study''
version that has proven very successful. We are also exploring ways to
deliver it through both ``distance learning'' mechanisms and through an
Internet-based version. OJP/OSLDPS has also worked with the Federal
Emergency Management Agency to ensure that this course has become part
of the standing curriculum at all state fire training academies.
Since fiscal year 1997, OJP/OSLDPS' responsibilities in the area of
first responder training have significantly increased, notably with the
passage of the ``Departments of Commerce, Justice, and State, the
Judiciary, and Related Agencies Appropriations Acts of 1998 and 1999.''
During this time, we have built on the success of the MFEMS Program and
integrated its training efforts into a comprehensive initiative to meet
state and local first responder training needs. Key to this process is
the use of a variety of needs assessment methods to garner information
from state and local jurisdictions aimed at identifying training
requirements and serving as a road map for targeting training
resources.
Beginning in the current fiscal year, OJP/OSLDPS will require
states to submit a three-year comprehensive plan that will identify
equipment, training, exercise, and other needs, which will be used to
identify needs and target resources. The collection of this type of
information will allow OJP/OSLDPS, working with NDPO, to determine the
WMD training that is available, being utilized, or required by
jurisdictions across the country. The information will assist the
development of new training materials and courses to fill training
gaps. This effort will be aided by NDPO's function as a central federal
government clearinghouse for training information.
A key element of the federal government's domestic preparedness
initiative is OJP/OSLDPS' National Domestic Preparedness Consortium
(NDPC). Organized as part of OJP's domestic preparedness training
initiative in fiscal year 1998, the NDPC is providing the nation's
first responders with specialized training specifically designed for
responding to WMD incidents of domestic terrorism, filling existing
training gaps, and enhancing training currently provided by FEMA, DoD,
and other federal agencies. The specialized NDPC training will be
delivered in three ways: on location at the Consortium facilities,
through regional or traveling courses, and via distance learning
technology. During fiscal year 1999, the Consortium is identifying
training needs, developing training courses, and delivering courses to
first responders in four major areas: awareness, responder operations,
technician responses, and WMD incident management.
The Consortium incorporates several of the organizations that have
received funding under the OJP/OSLDPS' domestic preparedness initiative
into a single, coordinated, and integrated training program. Each of
the five NDPC members has capabilities that make it uniquely qualified
to provide specialized WMD training.
The National Energetic Materials Research and Testing Center
at the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology provides
live explosive training and field exercises.
The National Center for Bio-Medical Research and Training at
Louisiana State University provides expertise and training in
biological agents and in law enforcement.
The National Emergency and Response and Rescue Training
Center at Texas A&M University provides the ability to conduct
field exercises and expertise and facilities for training on
urban search and rescue techniques, with emphasis on the fire,
HAZMAT, and EMS disciplines.
The U.S. Department of Energy's National Exercise, Test, and
Training Center at the Nevada Test Site provides the ability to
conduct large scale field exercises using a wide range of live
agent simulants and explosives.
The Office of Justice Program's Center for Domestic
Preparedness here at Fort McClellan provides the ability to
conduct training in a live chemical agent environment and to
conduct field exercises. The Center was opened by OJP/OSLDPS on
June 1, 1998, to train state and local emergency responders in
both basic and advanced methods of responding to, and managing,
incidents of domestic terrorism and has already trained nearly
1,000 first responders in basic awareness, incident command,
and incident management. OJP/OSLDPS is also working in
partnership with the Public Health Service (PHS) as PHS
establishes a public health training center for responding to
WMD incidents at Fort McClellan. ``OJP/OSLDPS believes that the
presence of the PHS center will provide excellent opportunities
for partnership and an enhanced ability for these two federal
entities to serve the first responder community.''
The newest addition to OJP/OSLDPS domestic preparedness training
initiative will be the assumption by OJP/OSLDPS of the Department of
Defense's (DoD) Nunn-Lugar-Domenici Domestic Preparedness Training
Program in fiscal year 2001. Currently DoD and the Department of
Justice are working on a Memorandum of Understanding for the proposed
transition of the Nunn-Lugar-Domenici program. This agreement should be
completed later this month. During fiscal year 2000, the program
transition will begin and will be completed by the beginning of fiscal
year 2001. The two departments are working well together, with
excellent cooperation from DoD, which should make the transition
seamless, with no impact on the cities involved with the training. The
Department of Justice is committed to completing the training in the
120 jurisdictions originally identified by DoD. I am confident that the
program transition will result in a much more comprehensive federal
training program for first responders, enabling OJP/OSLDPS to integrate
our training and other domestic preparedness assets with the Domestic
Preparedness Program implementation. The integration will also address
legitimate concerns regarding DOJ's and DoD's two programs having
different target groups with different delivery mechanisms.
Among the goals of this transition is to provide the basic Nunn-
Lugar-Domenici training elements to as many of the 120 cities
designated by DoD as Nunn-Lugar-Domenici training sites as possible by
the end of fiscal year 2000. Under the terms of the agreement between
DoD and the Justice Department, DoD will complete all phases of the
Nunn-Lugar-Domenici program for 68 of the 120 jurisdictions, and will
complete all basic training elements for an additional 37 cities, by
the end of fiscal year 2000. OJP/OSLDPS will initiate its
administration of the program with the remaining 15 cities in fiscal
year 2001. The completion of the Nunn-Lugar-Domenici exercise component
for cities 69-120 will be accomplished by OJP/OSLDPS, beginning on a
small scale in fiscal year 2000, followed by an accelerated rate in
fiscal year 2001.
In addition, OJP/OSLDPS, as part of its administration of the Nunn-
Lugar-Domenici program, is developing an enhanced Senior Officials
Course tailored for each recipient jurisdiction. The course builds on
the existing Senior Official courses and is part of the Nunn-Lugar-
Domenici transition. This enhanced course will dovetail with the new
state planning and assessment process under the equipment grant program
and will ultimately serve as a vehicle for delivering the assessment
findings to state and local leaders. The course teaches baseline
awareness, then walks participants through the findings of the
jurisdictional assessment. Through this process, decision makers will
come to fully understand the community's state of preparedness and the
necessary steps to ameliorate shortfalls. OJP/OSLDPS will initiate the
program with a special version intended for the first 25 cities that
received the Nunn-Lugar-Domenici Domestic Preparedness Program train-
the-trainer courses.
DoD's Domestic Preparedness Program training is essentially entry-
level WMD training for first responders, providing concepts and raising
hazard awareness. Other OJP/OSLDPS training efforts and programs will
build upon the Nunn-Lugar-Domenici base and provide the next tier in
that process, offering more advanced learning opportunities to enhance
the understanding, skills, and abilities of the first responder
community, including tactical and strategic responses to WMD terrorist
incidents. An effort is underway to evaluate and, by request of the
first responder community, certify effective training courses. As part
of that process, the establishment of training hierarchies will assure
first responders that they are progressing toward greater levels of
proficiency. NDPO will also continue DoD's compendium of existing
federal training courses and help ensure that courses meet minimum
national standards.
OJP/OSLDPS is also moving to ensure that training offered to first
responders includes the training required to use and operate the
equipment available to them under the OJP/OSLDPS equipment grant
programs. OJP/OSLDPS will provide jurisdictions technical training in
handling equipment purchased with federal grants. This training is
available upon the jurisdiction's request either through on-site
visits, long-distance learning, or by hosting responders at training
facilities around the country.
Each of the 12 courses being developed will undergo a thorough
review and critique. Comments from the review boards will then be
incorporated into the courses and, following a final expert review, the
courses will be certified by OSLDPS through the NDPO certification
process. This process will help ensure that uniform, high-quality
training is available to first responders. In addition, all training
efforts will be enhanced through OSLDPS' technical assistance program
and through responder participation in both table-top and field
exercises.
Throughout the training development process, we have attempted to
maintain close contact with and seek comments from our first responder
customers. In August 1998, the first State and Local Domestic
Preparedness Stakeholders Forum was convened with participation from
over 200 local, state and federal responders. At the conference,
responders identified shortfalls or needs from the context of practical
experience and offered recommended courses of action. The concerns and
recommendations for action that emerged have provided invaluable
guidance to planners in the development of the OSLDPS programs and to
other federal government agencies. We intend to continue this process
by maintaining an active feedback process, engaging with the responder
community through efforts such as the National Domestic Preparedness
Consortium and the NDPO's State and Local Advisory Group, which is
proposed as a key element of NDPO's process for coordinating federal
programs with state and local needs.
Through the improved coordination of federal domestic preparedness
programs that will be provided by the NDPO, OJP/OSLDPS will continue to
provide assistance to state and local jurisdictions as a part of DOJ's
overall effort to enhance the nation's capabilities to respond to
events we hope will never occur.
Mr. Chairman, that concludes my statement and I will be pleased to
answer any questions you may have. Thank you.
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Senator Sessions. Thank you.
It is a very fascinating area. I have oddly found myself on
three interesting committees that deal with it. I am on the
Health Committee and the Public Health Subcommittee, which Dr.
Knouss is with, and on Armed Services that deals with the
defense and Chairman Warner has spoken out and had hearings
with the CIA Director and others about terrorist attacks and he
is very concerned about it, and also on the Judiciary Committee
where obviously Justice programs is. So it has given me an
interesting insight in all those agencies.
Mr. Parker, I do recall and appreciate very much Assistant
Secretary Hamry, Dr. Hamry's comments, Assistant Secretary of
Defense, second to Mr. Cohen, when he said that he believed it
was a good idea to transition the initial responsibility you
were given under Nunn-Lugar to the Department of Justice. In
fact, he said he didn't think that was a core mission of the
military to be training in every city in the country. So he
thought it was healthy that that transition take place. And you
have--and I believe the Department of Defense is cooperating
fully, and it is not easy sometimes. Agencies do not like to
give up their jurisdiction or what they have been working on.
And I think that is a good event.
Dr. Knouss, just briefly, the Centers for Disease Control
is in Atlanta. Do you think they will play a significant role
in your planning for protecting public health in case of an
attack?
Mr. Knouss. Senator Sessions, they play an absolutely
critical role because, as I mentioned in the very beginning, it
is that agency that we need to turn to for strengthening much
of our public health infrastructure in the United States to be
able to establish the systems necessary to detect and determine
what agent may have been released, to create the laboratory
capability that is necessary not only for terrorist attacks but
also for other emerging infectious diseases, to be able to
assist our public health departments around the country to make
a determination of what kinds of health problems we are facing.
And we are very actively engaged with them in a partnership
within our department.
CDC plays a very prominent role in disease control efforts
and prevention efforts. But when it comes to response, the lead
within our department will fall to our Office of Emergency
Preparedness to coordinate that for the department. And we
firmly believe that the capability to respond starts in the
community and so we are committed to working with communities
across the country to strengthen their capabilities in this
regard and CDC is not only working with the communities but
also the States, which is their traditional role.
It is just that it is right down the road and I think it
would be an asset to Nobel Army Hospital if you develop a
training program here. And by the way, on training, I know you
have mentioned to me, I think the last time we talked, you
indicated again today, that you are concerned about actually
training physicians and nurses and those in the communities. Do
you have funding for that? And where are we as a country in
funding money for public health training for emergencies?
Mr. Knouss. Most of the money that we have spent up to the
present time has been spent on developing the systems at the
city level for the response of the health systems, and this
year, our funding for that activity was about $3 million
against a request that was made of $14 million. So the
Secretary of Health and Human Services actually added another
$11 million that she used her authority and transferred from
other programs within the Department to augment what was
available through the direct appropriations. And we have made a
substantial request again for fiscal year 2000's budget so that
we can support that activity. I think we are now requesting in
excess of $16 million for that activity in the fiscal 2000
budget.
Senator Sessions. That is not a line item in last year's or
this year's budget, is it?
Mr. Knouss. Yes, it was $3 million actually appropriated.
We had asked for 14, we added 11 from within the Department's
own funds and we are asking for 16.5 to be appropriated in the
coming--for fiscal year 2000.
Senator Sessions. We have got a lot of extra money being
spent on hazardous events and I believe we should make sure
that there is an actual appropriation sufficient to help you
train the physicians and first medical responders. I think it
is something we need to work on. I thank you.
Mr. Knouss. I really appreciate that a great deal.
Senator Sessions. Mr. Parker, relative to the National
Guard--do you have plans for where they might be trained? I had
heard that Fort Leonard Wood, for example, really didn't have
the capacity to do as much as might be needed. That was one
place that had been suggested. Where are we on that?
Mr. Parker. The overall training effort is still being
formulated but one of the considerations, as you point out, in
Fort Leonard Wood is the transitional state that the chemical
school will be in over the next year, bringing on the new
training facilities at Fort Leonard Wood is going to take some
time. So there has been some at least discussion and plans to
determine whether or not there is excess capacity here at Fort
McClellan which could be called upon as the National Guard
needs exceed the ability for Fort Wood to deal with it. So
there is a realization that the facility is available here at
Fort McClellan. It will be somewhat of a balance working with
L.Z. on what are the domestic demands and then where the
capacity exists to support DOD's uniformed personnel training.
Senator Sessions. We have got a great National Guard in
Alabama. Per capita, it is number one in the Nation, and I
think fifth in total membership behind Texas and California.
They have informed me of their interest in playing an important
role in that, and I think that has got real possibilities. I
think the National Guard is spread out geographically around
most States and could play a critical role. And I thank you for
that.
Butch, I think we need to get to about 10,000 a year. Where
are we in funding and what are your latest thoughts about how
close we can come to that goal?
Mr. Straub. I would also like to see 10,000 a year. Of
course that has been our objective all along. In fiscal year
2000, we requested $17 million. I don't know what the mark is
going to be. I understand the Senate was marking up----
Senator Sessions. It will be close to that.
Mr. Straub. I hope so. That will put us around 2000
trainees a year. But in our 2001 budget, OJP has requested $30
million which would move the number of students to 6500. The
target goal of 10,000 would take around $37 million a year,
which is what we would like to see.
Senator Sessions. That is a chunk of money even by
Washington standards. But it is I think an achievable goal.
Senator Shelby and I have talked about that figure several
times. I think the Senate will be in at about what the
Administration requested, hopefully we can increase it, but
whether we can or not, I do not know. We are living with our
commitment to the American people to contain spending, that the
Congress and the President agreed to last year. As a result,
funds are tight, and therefore money must come from some other
programs that are of less priority. That is more difficult than
I realized when I first went to Washington. Just because one
program is more valuable or appears to be more valuable than
another one does not mean you can easily walk over and take
money from it to give to others. They howl quite loudly when
you take money they have been receiving. As such, we have got
to work on that and I intend to keep working on that.
Do any of you have any other comments?
[No response.]
Senator Sessions. Mr. Parker, briefly, do you have any
insight from the Department of Defense's and Army's perspective
about the nature of this challenge--how real it is? I know you
have been giving thought to it for some time now. Would you
share that with us?
Mr. Parker. I think the threat is a demonstrated fact, as
it has occurred in Tokyo. The reality is that based on the FBI,
which really has the lead in the domestic threat environment,
is that it is very hard to quantify these things other than
there appears to be a consensus that the environment is as you
stated earlier, it is when, not if. That seems to be the
consensus opinion. Very hard to identify any particular group
or timeframe but it is one of those circumstances where the
consequences of the event are so extreme that we as a Nation
need to proceed and be prepared.
Senator Sessions. Well said. The consequences are so
extreme and all the experts tell us it is a question of when,
not whether, and we do need to be prepared.
I thank you for the leadership each of you have given. I
want to be helpful. While we love the facility here, we are
concerned about the whole Nation and we want to do what is
right for the country. I know the President has said we need to
shift resources to this area and I believe the Congress agrees.
If we can work together and not allow too many different
agencies to fail to coordinate effectively, I believe we can
make some major progress in short order.
Thank you very much for being with us. And I hope you can
stay around for our tour in a little bit.
On next panel, we have Darrell Higuchi, who is the deputy
fire chief in Los Angeles County Fire Department. He has an
extensive background in national disasters and domestic
preparedness in probably the Nation's most active metropolitan
area dealing with these issues. The Los Angeles County area has
been talked about and I know you have done a lot of work on
this.
In addition, Gary McConnell is the Director of the Georgia
Emergency Management Agency in Atlanta. Of course, he grew up
around Rome, he was Sheriff up there when he did a lot of work.
Now he has moved down----
Mr. McConnell. Hard work.
Senator Sessions. What is that?
Mr. McConnell. Hard work.
Senator Sessions. Hard and honest work in Rome.
He was actively involved in planning and executing the 1996
Olympics and was a key operator in working on the bombing
there. He has established an office that is well-recognized
nationally for being forward thinking and effective. And we are
glad to have you, Gary. You're too far away from here--just
across the line Georgia.
Chief Higuchi, would you like to make a few comments and
then we will have some questions.
PANEL CONSISTING OF DARRELL HIGUCHI, DEPUTY FIRE CHIEF, LOS
ANGELES COUNTY, CA AND GARY McCONNELL, DIRECTOR, GEORGIA
EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCY
STATEMENT OF DARRELL HIGUCHI
Mr. Higuchi. Yes, sir, Mr. Chairman, good morning. I would
like to thank you for----
Senator Sessions. You might need to pull that microphone a
little closer.
Mr. Higuchi. Good morning, Mr. Chairman. Thank you for
allowing me to testify this morning.
Senator Sessions. And I probably need to ask you to keep
your remarks around 5 minutes, opening remarks, if you would.
Mr. Higuchi. Yes, sir, I will keep them brief.
As you indicated, my name is Darrell Higuchi, I am the
Deputy Chief of Los Angeles County Fire Department and I am
also here before you today on behalf of the International
Association of Fire Chiefs.
Preparing for incidents of terrorism involving chemical,
biological and radiological agents, in addition to incidents
that may involve conventional explosive devices, is certainly a
high priority for the fire service. America's fire departments
are first responders and often the last resort for rescue,
prehospital emergency medical care in any community in a time
of crisis.
Should an incident of terrorism involving weapons of mass
destruction occur, the fire service is typically the first
public safety agency notified, along with law enforcement. Our
ability to successfully mitigate the incident and save lives
will depend upon our training and preparedness.
The Nunn-Lugar-Domenici amendment to the 1997 defense
authorization and the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death
Penalty Act of 1996 began Federal efforts to assist and help
better prepare local fire, police and emergency service
agencies for the possibility of terrorism involved in a WMD
incident.
The IAFC has been involved in the development of both these
laws and continues to work with the Departments of Defense and
Justice in their administration. The Anti-Terrorism Act
authorized a $5 million appropriation to train metropolitan
fire fighters in terrorism response. Designated by the Attorney
General to administer this law, the Office of Justice Programs,
OJP, provided four jurisdictions with demonstration grants, and
importantly worked with the National Fire Academy, in the
development of awareness level training curriculum that has
been available nationwide for approximately 2 years.
A train-the-trainer approach was used for both cost-savings
and an efficient way to reach as many fire fighters as
possible. Thousands have received this training based upon this
curriculum.
Additionally, coordinated Federal assistance in acquiring
appropriate personal protective, decontamination, detection and
monitoring equipment is required. Federal support and funding
for this training is also a necessity.
Early identification of a terrorist incident and the
ability to implement command and control using the standard
incident command system is vitally important. Successfully
mitigating an incident is incumbent upon this. Awareness level
training is vital and should continue to be provided. Congress
should provide sufficient funding to facilitate the
availability and delivery of this OJP/NFA awareness level
training to every local public safety agency in the country.
OJP has created, at the direction of Congress, a National
Domestic Preparedness Consortium comprised of Louisiana State
University, the New Mexico Institute of Mining & Manufacturing,
Texas A&M University and the Nevada Test Site. The Justice
Department also established a National Domestic Preparedness
Center here at Fort McClellan. We support expedited access to
the consortium's facilities as well as as many local emergency
services personnel as possible. It is important that each of
the consortium facilities focus on those aspects of emergency
operations that each can uniquely address.
It is also essential that local emergency response agencies
have sufficient oversight and input into the training
development. It is important that what is being taught is not
duplicative or contradictory and that the training meets the
goals and objectives of preparedness.
The lack of training standards in both Defense and Justice
programs is a concern to some. Others will claim that no
standards exist. We disagree. Consensus standards developed and
promulgated by the National Fire Protection Association are the
standards that should be adopted by all agencies involved in
training of local fire departments. These standards are widely
accepted and are already in use by fire training academies
across our Nation. The awareness level training developed by
OJP in conjunction with the National Fire Academy incorporates
these standards. We urge Congress to mandate that all Federal
agencies involved in training of fire fighters incorporate
these existing NFPA standards.
The International Association of Fire Chiefs believes that
the enhancement of the existing local capability is the wisest,
most cost-effective course to follow in preparing for a WMD
incident. It is our experience that not only will we be the
first responders on the scene, but we will be the largest
supplier of personnel and equipment to mitigate this incident.
Fire department hazardous material response teams deal with and
handle spills and accidental releases of highly toxic chemicals
on a regular basis. This is the case across the country. The
importance of preparing for this risk should not be
understated. However, we should not forget that bombing attacks
remain the most common tool of terrorists, both domestically
and abroad. We should not overlook the fact that our
preparedness plans--and we do realize that the National
Domestic Preparedness Consortium Program seeks to address that
item.
The recent rash of anthrax hoaxes in Los Angeles County
revealed several critical items. We found that we were unable
to determine quickly whether or not anthrax agent was actually
present at the several incidents. Further training and
equipment necessary to identify biological and chemical agents
is needed for all fire departments.
Of particular concern are those biological agents that have
incubation periods that would expose individuals to those who
unwittingly leave the scene and spread this disease across this
great Nation. The ability of responding fire department
personnel to make these decisions is crucial. The steps
necessary to decontaminate are arduous to potential victims and
responders alike.
In Los Angeles during recent drills, it was determined that
nonambulatory victims, the fire service could only handle 10 to
20 nonambulatory victims in a given hour.
The decontamination process in itself is challenging.
Training in how to accomplish it quickly and effectively is
necessary for the entire fire service.
To conclude, Mr. Chairman, local fire, public safety agency
personnel will be the first on the scene in an act of
terrorism. Our ability to save lives, mitigate environmental
damage will depend on how we are prepared and trained. Existing
National Fire Protection Association standards should be
incorporated into the Federal training programs for fire
departments.
Finally, I would like to stress that the Federal training
programs would benefit from input and oversight by local
civilian fire and emergency response experts.
At this time, I would certainly like to acknowledge the
Department of Justice, Butch Straub, for his diligence and
administrative oversight of OJP and training, and of course the
grants program, NDPO, the Pentagon and in particular L.Z.
Johnson and his staff. Our department has been a direct
beneficiary of this live agent training. Returning personnel in
their assessment and critique was rated a 9.5 out of 10 and
this in itself created a flood of applicants within our own
organization. This training has now fashioned an indelible
benchmark for live agent training for all fire service
individuals.
Thank you for allowing me to testify today, Mr. Chairman,
and I am happy to answer any questions you may have.
Senator Sessions. Thank you very much.
Mr. McConnell.
STATEMENT OF GARY McCONNELL
Mr. McConnell. Senator, I am pleased to be here on behalf
of the National Emergency Management Association, but more than
that on behalf of the State of Georgia.
Let me preface my remarks this morning with some real
issues that we must deal with. I am probably a little more of a
realist than some of the folks that you deal with on a day-to-
day basis, Senator.
Senator Sessions. Sheriffs are realists as a rule.
Mr. McConnell. DA's and prosecutors are too.
Let us talk about whether it happens or not--it is going to
happen. I will tell you about some of the things that have
happened in Georgia that I was involved in firsthand. But
before I get into that, it could not have occurred without the
support of Justice, Andy, Butch, and Roy Robinson. They have
been tremendously supportive with terrorism especially in the
State of Georgia.
Centennial Park, we all watched in July 1996, with the
explosion there, two other explosions in the City of Atlanta
within 6 months. The secondary devices are a new phenomenon in
this country where they planted it to kill the public safety
responders. Just in the last year, we have had eight anthrax
hoaxes just across the Alabama-Georgia line in Carroll County
and Haralson County, just across from Cherokee, DeKalb, and
Cleburne County.
Senator Sessions. You had eight anthrax hoax threats?
Mr. McConnell. Yes, sir. Double suicide in a school in
Carroll County, and of course the shooting about 6 weeks ago at
Heritage High School in Rockdale County.
Senator with no disrespect to anybody and none certainly is
meant, it is time that we quit talking about terrorism and
school violence, and we do something. If the State of Georgia
very candidly had waited on guidance to prepare for the 1996
Olympics, we would not have lit the torch yet. Terrorism is
real, the local first responders, the fire, EMS and law
enforcement are certainly the first folks there.
One group that I think has been overlooked this morning
particularly in testimony and reality is the State. The State
brings a tremendous amount of resources to support local
governments. The Federal Government does a tremendous job
supporting local and State but it is anywhere from 48 to 72
hours, admittedly, before they can have a large force there
unless they are prestaged like they were in the 1996 Games. And
we do not have that luxury.
It is very, very important in my opinion that we have
Federal involvement, State involvement and local involvement.
Certainly nobody is trying to take away from the local first
responders. In 20 years as a local sheriff, I understand they
are the folks there that do the work. But in 1996, for example,
we brought 11,000 State officers to the 1996 Games. There has
to be a coordinating agency out of the Governor's office who
deals with mutual aid. If we train 120 cities that DOD is
attempting to train across this country, without any
involvement from the local or State as to who those are and how
they are trained and how it is going to be distributed to the
other cities--for example, if you train the City of Birmingham,
that is great, but what about Roebuck, Gadsden, or Fort Payne?
So we have to have a mechanism of delivering that training
across the State through mutual aid. We think that the training
delivery and the issues that the Federal Government are dealing
with need to come through the Governor's office, to be assigned
to whatever the appropriate State agency is to work with them.
For example, the CDC is certainly appropriate in working with
our Department of Human Resources in our State, but there needs
to be a coordinated effort so that Agriculture or Justice is
not trying to develop the same thing in their areas; to make
sure that we use the best limited resources that we have.
The issue of the role of each individual group, we will
never resolve that because of turf battles or pride and ego and
who gets credit and who gets blame. Senator, very candidly, we
had 191 countries in Atlanta, GA in 1996, we had 137 local
jurisdictions involved in putting on the Games, we had over 60
Federal agencies there. What we must do is not only train on
live biological weapons of mass destruction, school violence,
we must go one step further past that and have an understanding
by exercise, by an understanding of who does what. The time for
the Federal agencies to meet their State counterparts and their
local counterparts is not at Columbine High School.
You know, we all want to use media releases and we all want
to be there to arrest the perpetrators. But we have got to have
a coordinated effort on how that is going to occur. We had the
luxury of having 3 years to train and exercise for the 1996
Games. That is the reason we had 130 odd victims of Centennial
Park, but they were all in the hospitals and emergency rooms
being treated within 28 minutes because we all understood our
roles, we all understood how to accomplish that.
We have got to emphasize, whether it is the fire department
of Los Angeles or the fire department here in Anniston, that we
all have roles to play. And if we do not understand that today,
we certainly cannot understand it when Columbine High School or
Heritage High School in Rockdale County is under siege.
There is a tremendous need, I think, for the Federal
Government to certainly continue their efforts to single focus
terrorism through Justice or wherever the powers pick that
agency to be. In my opinion, Justice is the place for that. But
we do not need to reinvent the wheel. For example, there is a
system of delivering Federal assistance to State and local
governments now, we need to support that through FEMA. If the
same incident would occur here in Anniston, there is a great,
world class facility here to train the first responders on
weapons of mass destruction and chemical and biological. Let us
quit looking at other places, let us quit trying to build a new
or better mousetrap and use the one that we have got. Spend
that money on training the fire and law enforcement, EMS
communities on the chemicals, how to deal with those and how to
better coordinate those efforts.
And with no disrespect to the gentleman from DOD who
testified earlier--and I do not want to get on a negative
comment here--but the Guard RAID teams are great, but are we
going to have them in our life time? We have been talking about
Guard RAID teams and Georgia has been selected for one of
those, I understand. It was selected for one of those shortly
after the 1996 Games or whenever the program started. During
those 17 days in Atlanta, GA when the world was watching, we
responded to a suspicious package every 10 minutes for 17 solid
days. We ran our fire and EMS and law enforcement and military
guys in the ground. Every 10 minutes 24 hours a day for 17 days
is a long time.
RAID teams are great, but let us move on with it. You know,
I heard this morning we are still developing where we are going
to train them at. Hell, I need them in Georgia now. Let us
train them, let us train them in Anniston and if there is a
better place 10 years down the road, let us worry about that 10
years down the road.
But the Governors of this country and the elected
leadership deserve for us to not worry about who is going to
get the credit, there is enough to go around. There will be
enough blame to go around. When CNN stuck their camera in my
face at 1:21 in the morning in Atlanta, GA, they did not care
who let the bomb go off, why did we do it. They did not care
whether it was DOD, the State of Georgia, the City of Atlanta,
EMS, fire or the whole alphabet soup, Senator.
We have got to move on. We may not have the ideal answer to
it, it will always be different versions depending on what
color shirt or what color uniform or where your loyalty lies.
But the people in this country deserve for us to make a
decision and for us to move on with it. The mothers and fathers
of those six kids in Rockdale County 6 weeks ago, they wanted
somebody to catch the shooter. They want me or somebody in the
State of Georgia to assure them it is not going to happen again
and be relatively sure that we can back up that promise.
That is what we are about. We are not about whether the
State of Georgia, the City of Atlanta, the Federal Government
or which agency gets credit for it. We have got an obligation
to do the right thing.
I want to close with one thing that I asked my 11,000 folks
to do during the Olympics, and I challenge you in Congress to
do the same thing when you are voting on weapons of mass
destruction and terrorism. I do not know who the most important
person to you is in your life, but every time you deal with
weapons of mass destruction, I want you to have that person in
your mind. And if you and I do our jobs well enough to take
care of that person, the rest of our people will be all right
too. That is where we are at with terrorism in this country
right now.
I will be glad to answer any questions you have, sir.
Senator Sessions. Thank you. That is well said and I think
we are at that point.
I was just thinking as you said you spent 3 years getting
ready in Atlanta--would you say that virtually any city in
America, if they have got good support from training and
equipment, that kind of thing, over a period of 2 or 3 years
could reach the kind of level that you did in Atlanta?
Moreover, would you say that, every major area ought to be
developing the kind of coordinated response and communications
that are necessary to respond effectively?
Mr. McConnell. Senator, my----
Senator Sessions. Would that be your vision of what
everybody ought to do?
Mr. McConnell. Yes, sir. In my opinion, there is no reason
that any city or any community in this country cannot get to
that level. It takes about four things. It takes the political
support of the elected leadership; it takes the vision and
commitment of the agencies involved, it is not easy, it is not
always popular, sir; it takes elected leadership, the agencies
involved committed to that goal and it takes community support.
Communities at different times in their lives are willing to
put up with more.
Senator Sessions. In other words, if it is the sheriff and
the chief and the fire chief and all, if they are not getting
support from the elected leaders, they are not likely to put a
big effort into it, but if they are encouraged to, they will?
Mr. McConnell. Yes, sir. And the public will put up with
it. We put metal detectors at the majority of the venues, had a
few complaints prior to Centennial Park. After Centennial Park,
they did not mind being checked at all when they went in, sir.
Senator Sessions. Yeah, good point.
Mr. Higuchi, you mentioned the quality work that the
National Fire Academy has done and the standards I guess,
National Fire--what is it?
Mr. Higuchi. National Fire Protection Association, NFPA.
Senator Sessions. National Fire Protection Association
standards--those have been developed over many years of careful
consideration about how to respond to fires, chemicals,
explosions and things of that nature. Do you feel like there
has been enough attention paid to what has already been
accomplished in developing these responses to chemical and
biological weapons, and further do you think the Federal
Government should do more in incorporating the work that has
already been done?
Mr. Higuchi. Yes, sir, Mr. Senator. As you indicate, there
has been a tremendous amount of Federal support in the
establishment of national guidelines relative to fire, EMS and
now weapons of mass destruction. I would certainly ask and
hopefully the Congressional members will support additional
funding through the Department of Justice, through FEMA down to
U.S. Fire Administration, to the National Fire Academy. I am
proud to say that I was part of several course developments of
weapons of mass destruction and the support that we received,
received an A grade. Although that is not to say that we should
be standard and happy with what we currently have, but yet, we
find those courses and possibly develop new additional courses
to better meet the needs of the fire service.
Senator Sessions. If you have say a poison gas
circumstance, what are the things that your firemen and women
need to know as they respond to that? Do you think the average
fire department in America has received enough assistance and
training in how to do it?
Mr. Higuchi. Mr. Senator, I cannot sit in front of you
today and acknowledge yes, they have had enough training, only
because of the fact that I have only dealt with Los Angeles
County Fire Department and our surrounding communities. We have
had a tremendous amount of training in the awareness area. And
to answer your question specifically with poison gas, we have
had training tapes developed, we have written materials and
again, people coming to this live agent school training as well
as the National Fire Academy, has certainly broadened our
exposure and knowledge and expertise relative to weapons of
mass destruction. Yet, it is one of those items that in reality
most fire fighters hopefully never have to deal with.
Senator Sessions. Well, most people probably do not realize
just how intensive fire department training is using chlorine
and all kinds of hazardous materials that are transported on
our roads and railways and used in our cities daily. Having
said that, what I hear you saying is to go from that to
biological attacks may be new to you, but would not be that
difficult, although sufficient scientific studies have not yet
been done. In addition, what I hear you saying is that we ought
to build on what has already been learned and the training that
has already gone on within the fire departments.
Mr. Higuchi. Yes, sir, that is correct. The fire service is
built on a lot of tradition and the culture relative to
ladders, to water systems, to fire and rescue. This is just a
new door that has now opened and presents a challenge to the
fire service in general and we are trying to meet that
challenge.
Senator Sessions. You have mentioned live agent training
several times now. Do you think that is a critical component of
making training realistic and meaningful to students?
Mr. Higuchi. Yes, sir. On our written critiques and verbal
interviews with persons that have come back, typically most
fire departments across the Nation will use a color grenade or
tear gas at the most during training exercises. But when
individuals found out this was the real McCoy, they had a
tendency to check their masks and seal 10 times more, along
with the assistance of the personnel and staff here. And that
in itself put a realism that has never been experienced by this
fire service before.
Senator Sessions. It gives them confidence that the
procedures work, I suppose, among other things also----
Mr. Higuchi. Yes, sir.
Senator Sessions. Would it not, if they have been through
an actual live agent exercise.
Mr. Higuchi. Yes, sir, they trained as if their life
depended on it this time versus normal training.
Senator Sessions. Gary, I was told a few months ago--and I
think some changes have been made--that sheriffs had not been
fully involved in this. Police departments were being
coordinated with in some of the national programs. Have you
heard any complaints that sheriffs have not been involved and
offered the training to the extent that police departments
have?
Mr. McConnell. Yes, sir, I sure have.
Senator Sessions. I think they have made a change in that.
I have expressed my concern about it, because some of my
sheriff friends have raised it with me. A sheriff oftentimes
will be the first one there.
Mr. McConnell. I think your Sheriff in Tuscaloosa County is
probably on the national board.
Senator Sessions. Yes, he did.
Mr. McConnell. He may have expressed that to you.
Senator Sessions. He caught me and he does a great job. He
is a national leader in the National Sheriffs' Association.
That was a very valid complaint and I think the Department of
Justice responded well to that.
Mr. McConnell. Justice has responded very well to weapons
of mass destruction and terrorism across the spectrum of public
safety, even with the new players of Agriculture and some other
folks we normally do not think of public safety. Justice needs
to be commended for reaching out to the other groups that
normally have not been involved in public safety.
Senator Sessions. Good.
Well, I want to thank all of you for coming. I hope that
you panelists can have time after this to actually tour the
facility. Your comments are important to me. I think this is my
second full hearing. We have had some secret briefings from the
CIA and Defense Intelligence that I cannot refer to, we have
had hearings in Armed Services as to which of these issues have
been raised. I believe we are as a Nation, beginning to
recognize that we need to be prepared to respond effectively to
these events that inevitably will occur.
We are going to accept a letter from Dr. Moriarty at Auburn
and make that part of the record. Thank you for doing that and
for your work with this project.
Senator Sessions. The record will be open to receive
testimony and I may submit some follow-up questions to some of
you who have testified.
Our bus will be leaving out front in a few minutes and we
would like for you to join us there.
Thank you so much for being with us. We are adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 10:50 a.m., the Subcommittee was adjourned.]
A P P E N D I X
----------
Additional Submission for the Record
----------
June 11, 1999.
Nerve Gas Summary for GB/VX
Nerve Gas--Used in chemical warfare, any of several poison gases
derived chiefly from phosphoric acid that weaken or paralyze the
nervous system, especially that part of the system controlling
respiration.
GD--Clear water color and volatile.
VX--Persist. Light brown color.
Symptons: 1. Twitching; 2. Pin pointing of the pupils; 3. Cessation of
breathing; 4. Muscle tension; 5. Defecation; 6. Death.
How it works: Blocks the nerve junctions and effects colon esterates.
Previous logistics for shipment of GB VX in 1972. Nerve Gas
(liquid) was placed in steel containers welded and encased in concrete
cubes, placed on flat cars with decon teams, security medical personnel
in support of the shipment to Sunny Point North Carolina, placed on a
surplus troop ship, carried out to sea and dumped into many fathoms in
a deep trench of the Atlantic Ocean. Quality assurance of the Nerve
Gases (liquid) is monitored periodically and found to be contained as
dumped in 1972. Fish habitant leakage is recorded by state of the art
systems to insure stability.
Present proposal for shipments from Aberdeen Proving Grounds in
Maryland to Anniston Airport by a C-12 Army Aircraft and transferred to
a helicopter (UH-1) or a helicopter in the inventory of the army for
delivery to the CDT Fort McClellan for use in chemical training of law
enforcement and other elements.
I challenge this air shipment of 1 liter of GB or VX to Fort
McClellan for use at the CDT facility by the center for domestic
preparedness.
Why: 1 liter is this much of VX or GB (show 1 qt. water).
1. Unsafe even at the most extremely remote possibility for reasons
of plane crash, sabotage, and leakage during shipment.
Containment during shipment is in a baker lite container. This is
any of a series of thermosetting plastics prepared by heating phenol or
cresol with formaldehyde and ammonia, under pressure: used for radio
cabinets and molded plastic wares. Baker like is a trademark.
2. If an accident occur during shipment, many people will die
within minutes of ingestion of the VX or GB. a pinpoint amount of the
Nerve Agent will kill instantly without protection of most clothing,
Atropine, Topane Chloride. Everything in the downwind hazard zone will
become contaminated.
Recommendations:
1. Use of simulants (hair spray, toulene, paint thinner with M-8,
detector paper for VX and GB presents.
2. Collateral safety and security will be maintained without
sickness or fatalities using simulants.
Cliff Bourg,
Anniston, AL.