[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 33 (Wednesday, March 20, 2002)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2184-S2187]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
By Mr. WYDEN (for himself and Mr. Allen):
S. 2037. A bill to mobilize technology and science experts to respond
quickly to the threats posed by terrorist attacks and other
emergencies, by providing for the establishment of a national emergency
technology guard, a technology reliability advisory board, and a center
for evaluating antiterrorism and disaster response technology within
the National Institute of Standards and Technology; to the Committee on
Commerce, Science, and Transportation.
Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, earlier today, along with my friend and
colleague, Senator Allen of Virginia, I introduced bipartisan
legislation that would establish the technology equivalent of the
National Guard. It is an effort we have been pursuing in the Science,
Technology, and Space Subcommittee. I am very pleased to have the
Presiding Officer of the Senate on the subcommittee and pleased that he
is in the chair as we discuss this legislation tonight.
This is a subject we have been working on since September 11 and the
tragedy that struck our country that day.
We are all aware that the public sector, government, military, and
law enforcement have begun a very significant mobilization effort to
fight terrorism. It is a laudatory effort, one I fully support. This
public effort is not going to be successful alone, if we don't take
steps to tap the tremendous technology and science talents of America's
private sector.
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Considering the enormous technological challenges faced on September
11, the quality of emergency response is more than exceptional. But the
many private companies and their science and technology experts who
rushed to offer their help that day have told our committee they can do
more. They can move faster, and they can help save more lives if the
U.S. Congress provides a portal, an opportunity for them to more
accessibly participate and offer their talents. That is why the
legislation Senator Allen and I offered today, the Science and
Technology Emergency Mobilization Act, provides an opportunity to tap
those talents of the private sector.
It doesn't create a large bureaucracy. It is not going to snarl our
private companies in red tape. It is simply going to provide a gateway
to bring the resources of the private sector to bear in the war against
terrorism.
I believe, just as John F. Kennedy gave America's youth a forum for
public service, now is the time for our Government to throw open its
doors to a new generation raised on information technologies that will
be able to respond to the wide variety of technology and science-
related challenges that arise in the wake of a terrorist attack or
other disaster.
The legislation we are offering today offers four opportunities to
capitalize on the immense technology resources of our Nation. One I am
especially pleased about would establish a virtual technology reserve.
As my colleagues know, we have a strategic petroleum reserve in our
country. It is an energy insurance policy, an energy bank, in effect,
that we can tap when we are in a crunch with respect to oil products. I
think we ought to look at technology as the same sort of resource.
So we have created a virtual technology reserve in our legislation
that would allow communities all across this country to put in place a
preexisting database of private sector equipment and expertise that
they could call upon in the case of an emergency. Access to this
database would enable Federal, State, and local officials, as well as
nongovernmental relief organizations, to locate quickly whatever
technology or scientific help they might need from the private sector.
For example, a city official tasked with setting up a command center
in the wake of an emergency might need laptop computers and high
capacity telecommunications equipment. A State health director facing a
potential bioterrorism incident might need to locate experts with
expertise concerning a specific pathogen and to obtain special
detection and remediation technology as soon as possible. An emergency
official coordinating in the field rescue and recovery efforts might
need a batch of hand-held radios or might need to bring in mobile
cellular units to expand local cellular coverage and capacity so people
on the ground can communicate.
In all of these instances, the key is locating equipment and
expertise quickly. By turning to our virtual technology reserve, these
officials would have a quick way to identify companies that have what
they need and companies that have expressed their willingness to help
in an emergency.
The Wyden-Allen legislation has several other provisions that we
believe will help make a meaningful difference in this fight against
terrorism. The legislation provides for the formation of rapid response
teams of science and technology experts. It establishes a clearinghouse
and test bed for new antiterror technologies. Suffice it to say, our
Government has received thousands and thousands of ideas, unsolicited,
from private companies and citizens all across this country with
respect to products to aid in the fight against terrorism. And there is
no systematic way to evaluate the quality of those products.
The bipartisan legislation we brought to the Senate today would
provide that test bed and a plan to have those products evaluated.
Finally, our legislation provides for pilot projects to help overcome
a problem that seems incomprehensible in a communications center as
advanced as the east coast of the United States. We saw on September 11
that first responders, people on the front lines, police and fire and
others, were not able to communicate to each other. Before our
subcommittee, we were told that on the east coast of the United States,
arguably the most sophisticated communications center on the planet,
there were firemen actually hand walking messages to their colleagues
because all of the available communications systems--the hard-wire
systems, the land lines, the cell lines--was down. So we badly need to
have innovative work done in trying to make interoperable these
communications systems that our first responders need.
Our Subcommittee on Science, Technology, and Space found, as we
analyzed the events of September 11, that the private sector was ready,
willing, and able to contribute, but too often they were up against
obstacles when they wanted to help. Some couldn't get proper
credentials to access disaster sites. Some simply could not find the
right place to offer their people their expertise and equipment and
were literally knocking on doors offering to help, and people literally
could use their skills.
On December 5 of last year, FEMA Director Joe Allbaugh testified
before our subcommittee that emergency response officials could have
used the help of people in the technology sector to set up databases to
track the missing and injured, as well as the goods and services being
donated. But what Director Allbaugh has said--and he has been very
helpful in this effort--was there simply wasn't a centralized go-to
desk to provide experts for immediate needs.
In the event of a bioterror attack, we have been told by the health
authorities that communities would face the very same confusion. Right
now, if a town is hit with a biological agent and local officials are
looking for the closest medical authority, there is no comprehensive
list of certified experts to help them.
Suffice it to say, in our effort to try to come up with a coordinated
plan to fight terrorism, there are going to be some difficult issues. I
have great sympathy for Tom Ridge as he tries to bring together these
agencies--perhaps 20 agencies--that are going to be involved in this
effort. There are going to be some very difficult decisions that have
to be made to maximize the talents and work of these agencies.
But it seems to me the idea of having a preexisting database, so that
in communities in Florida, and in Oregon, and across this country, if
you are hit with a bioterror agent or have a calamity involving a
terrorist attack, that you would have a preexisting database of
individuals who can help and companies that are willing to donate
equipment. That strikes me as eminently doable, something practical
that the Government can do to make a real difference. That is why our
virtual technology reserve and setting up these databases can make a
real difference.
In addition to that virtual technology reserve, the Wyden-Allen bill
seeks to move experts into a community as rapidly as possible when
problems arise. To that end, in our bill we provide for the creation
and certification of national emergency technology guard teams. We call
these teams NET guard teams. They would be made up of volunteers with
technology and science expertise, and they would be organized in
advance and available to be mobilized on short notice.
After consulting at length with leaders in the Bush administration,
we have decided that these unique teams ought to be modeled after the
urban search and rescue teams that are now under FEMA and the medical
response teams under the Department of Health and Human Services. But
instead of providing search and rescue or medical services, which, of
course, is what is available today, the NET guard teams would provide
the technology, information, and communications support to help
rescuers work more effectively. Once assembled, NET guard teams can
provide technology-related help in the aftermath of floods,
earthquakes, and other natural disasters as well.
In the testimony Director Allbaugh gave to the subcommittee, we were
told that the technology challenges that are facing crises such as the
September 11 attacks are not just technology problems, they are
problems that ultimately cost lives. The essence of this legislation is
about saving lives, and one way it can do that is to establish a
structure to form and activate
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what we call NET guard teams of technology experts who can step in when
crises occur.
We also think science and technology experts from the Nation's
leading private sector companies have a role to play before disaster
strikes. Clearly, we need to respond more effectively when there is a
disaster. But it is only common sense to utilize the talents and energy
of those in the private sector in a preventive way as well, and that is
also a key feature of our bipartisan legislation.
Since September 11, thousands of experts and entrepreneurs have
contacted the Federal Government offering new technologies. We would
like to have those evaluated. That evaluative kind of effort can go
forward as we employ a preventive kind of strategy for our leaders in
the private sector and for purposes of making sure we accept and
evaluate and implement these ideas that are now flooding in from around
the country.
We create a Center for Civilian Homeland Security Technology
Evaluation. It is going to have two purposes. It will serve as a
national clearinghouse for security and emergency response
technologies, helping to match companies with innovative technologies
with the Government agencies that need them; it would provide a single
point of contact to which both companies and Government agencies could
turn to have their technology proposals addressed.
What we have heard in our committee--and I have been told as well in
the Commerce Committee, and in other forums--is that the private sector
really doesn't know where to turn. Should they go to the Department of
Health and Human Services? They have been interested in ideas from
private sector leaders. Should they go to the Department of Defense?
They are interested as well. We establish a center for evaluating
technologies, so there will be a central clearinghouse for companies to
know where to turn.
More particularly, the center will operate a test bed to evaluate the
ability of proposed technologies to satisfy Government needs. This test
bed will work in conjunction with existing Federal agencies and the
national laboratories. It is not meant to be a technology gatekeeper,
somehow having the Federal Government picking winners and losers, but
it is designed to assist agencies that are now telling us they do not
have the capability to evaluate these technologies on their own. This
test bed is necessary, in my view, to keep new technologies from
slipping through the cracks.
I don't want to see American lives lost because the Federal
Government could not find a way to accommodate fresh, new ideas from
our leaders in the technology and science area.
The legislation springs, as I have touched on, from firsthand
accounts of what happened on September 11. Here in the Capital and in
New York, the terrorist strikes flattened telecommunications and
information networks. Many people of New York wandered the streets,
unable to find out anything about an injured or missing loved one or
even to register their names. Web sites, voice mail, and e-mail systems
of relief organizations filled up and crashed.
When emergency workers moved in, they told us they were hindered by
the fact that their communications systems could not work together.
Courageous emergency workers told our subcommittee that communications
breakdowns made their job more difficult and more dangerous as well.
So for that reason, we would establish a pilot program under which
grants of $5 million each would be available for seven pilot projects
aimed at achieving interoperability of communications systems used by
fire, law enforcement, and emergency preparedness and response
agencies.
In simple English, what that is all about is making sure the police,
fire, and health agencies can communicate with each other. It is
probably as important as anything the Government can do. But because in
many instances there are overlapping authorities in different systems,
we are not making that possible in our country. It involves a lot of
complicated issues, many of which the occupant of the chair and I have
a chance to wrestle with in the Commerce Committee. Certainly spectrum
or forum are a part of it.
At a minimum, we ought to test out through the pilot projects in the
bipartisan bill we are introducing today some ideas for making it
easier for police, fire, and health to communicate and save the lives
of citizens, and certainly make their lives less dangerous as well.
The Nation's top technology companies have been very involved in
developing this effort, including Intel, Microsoft, America Online, and
Oracle, that have all expressed support for the legislation. All of
them believe that creating a high-technology reserve talent bank--a
talent bank that serves as a new force to confront a new threat--and
the other initiatives proposed in the Wyden-Allen bipartisan
legislation make sense. I thank them and other leaders in the private
sector for their involvement.
In drafting the legislation, I have consulted with a number of
leaders in the administration in the antiterrorism effort, including
Director Allbaugh; Richard Clarke, the President's Special Advisor for
Cybersecurity; Commerce Secretary Donald Evans; and John Marburger of
the Office of Science and Technology Policy. To a person, they have
been very responsive and they have met us more than halfway in terms of
making their own time and that of their staffs available. Senator Allen
and I appreciate their bipartisan commitment.
I pledge tonight to continue to work with them and, on a bipartisan
basis, with the administration and with colleagues in the Congress on
both sides of the aisle, to move this bill forward as rapidly as
possible.
At this point, I ask unanimous consent that letters in support from
several of the Nation's leading technology companies be printed in the
Record.
There being no objection, the letters were ordered to be printed in
the Record, as follows:
Intel Corporation,
Santa Clara, CA, March 18, 2002.
Hon. Ron Wyden,
Hart Senate Office Building, Washington, DC.
Dear Senator Wyden: I write to express our support for the
``Science and Technology Emergency Mobilization Act'', your
legislation--soon to be introduced--that would establish a
national emergency technology guard and a civilian homeland
security evaluation center within NIST. This legislation
would provide a means for enhancing emergency response and
recovery of information technology infrastructure in the
event of major disasters such as the events on September 11
of last year.
A national strategy for ensuring the resiliency of our IT
infrastructure against attacks and natural disasters is long
overdue, particularly as our country has become increasingly
dependent on the interconnected digital network. We look
forward to working with you on the details of this
legislation in committee and on the floor as it moves toward
enactment.
Again, we applaud your leadership and forward vision on the
need for strengthening our information technology backbone.
Sincerely,
Andrew S. Grove,
Chairman of the Board.
____
Oracle Corporation,
Washington, DC, March 18, 2002.
Hon. Ron Wyden,
United States Senate, Washington, DC.
Senator Wyden: I am writing to express Oracle's support for
the ``Science and Technology Emergency Mobilization Act'',
your proposed legislation that would establish a national
emergency technology guard, and a ``virtual technology
reserve'' consisting of a database of private sector
equipment and expertise that emergency officials may call
upon in an emergency. This legislation would improve and
enhance emergency response capabilities, particularly the
recovery of information technology infrastructure, in the
event of major disasters such as the events on September 11
of last year.
As you well know, this country has become increasingly
dependent on continued operation of its vast information
networks. That is why a national strategy to ensure the
resiliency and continued operation of our information
technology infrastructure against attacks and national
disasters is critical. Oracle looks forward to working with
you on the details of your proposal as it moves through the
legislative process.
On behalf of Oracle, thank you for your leadership on
issues important to maintaining our nation's technology
infrastructure.
Sincerely,
Robert P. Hoffman,
Director.
____
Microsoft Corporation,
Washington, DC, March 19, 2002.
Hon. Ron Wyden,
United States Senator, Washington, DC.
Dear Senator Wyden: We welcome the opportunity to comment
on your legislation to create a reserve of technology and
science experts capable of responding to national
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cyber emergencies. We applaud your ongoing leadership on this
and other key technology matters in the United State Senate.
Microsoft is deeply engaged in security matters. Our
Trustworthy Computing Initiative, recently announced by Bill
Gates, places a primary emphasis on security, privacy and
reliability across our products, services and operations.
We agree with you that, in case of a national cyber
emergency, the Federal Government should draw upon the
brightest minds in industry in its efforts to protect Federal
agencies and other critical entities. In fact, on September
11th our Chief Security Officer was called to active military
duty to support the government's response to the attacks. He
recently left Microsoft to become the Vice Chairman of the
President's Critical Infrastructure Protection Board.
We view your focus on a National Emergency Technology
Guard, like our Trustworthy Computing Initiative, as a means
to strengthen America's cybersecurity via better trained
personnel.
We thank you again for the opportunity to comment on this
matter and commend you once again for your ongoing leadership
in cybersecurity.
Sincerely,
Jack Krumholtz,
Director, Federal Government Affairs, Associated General
Counsel.
____
AOL Time Warner,
Washington, DC, March 19, 2002.
Hon. Ron Wyden,
Hon. George Allen,
United States Senate, Washington, DC.
Dear Senator Wyden and Senator Allen: On behalf of AOL Time
Warner, I would like to express my appreciation for your
efforts and leadership in the area of antiterrorism and
disaster response, including the development of legislation
to address this critical issue.
September 11th forever changed the way our country thinks
about crisis response and emergency management, and has made
all of us realize the importance of working together as a
team when disaster strikes. Like so many other organizations
and individuals across the country and around the world, we
at AOL Time Warner watched with horror as the tragic events
of that day unfolded--and did what we could to contribute to
the immediate needs of the emergency response personnel, from
financial and humanitarian assistance to technical support.
Since that time, we have participated in numerous
discussions, including several ongoing initiatives led by the
Administration, about both how to prevent such a catastrophe
in the future and how to mitigate the effects of such a
disaster should the unthinkable occur again. It is clear from
these discussions and from our experiences on that day, that
one of the most critical objectives in formulating a disaster
response strategy is to ensure the functioning of our
communications infrastructure in the event of an emergency.
Your legislation, ``The Science Technology Emergency
Mobilization Act,'' recognizes the important role played by
volunteers--like those from our company and countless and
countless others across the nation--in providing technical
assistance to enhance communication in times of crisis, and
creates a mechanism for coordinating and deploying such
assistance in a systematic fashion during a national
emergency. We believe that this type of voluntary partnership
between industry and government is vital to ensuring that
disaster response and recovery efforts are coordinated and
effective.
We are grateful for your work on this issue of such
importance to our nation, and look forward to continuing to
work with both Congress and the Administration on matters
relating to security and critical infrastructure.
Sincerely,
Susan A. Brophy,
Senior Vice President, Domestic Public Policy, AOL Time
Warner.
____________________