 | |
| |
TechnologyDaily Mobile
The Local View Of Homeland Security
by Maureen Sirhal
The impact of federal lawmakers' drive to combine more than 20 federal agencies into one Homeland Security Department would reach far beyond Washington. The legislation outlining the functions of the proposed Cabinet-level agency indicates that its efforts to ensure border security, consolidate intelligence gathering, bolster information sharing, and coordinate emergency response and prevention would impact states and localities in many ways.
The House has passed its homeland security bill, H.R. 5005, and the Senate is considering its measure, S. 2452. Both would transfer the functions of agencies like the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which typically works directly with local affiliates, but the measures do have key differences.
The House bill would create a National Council of First Responders, composed of 100 representatives from fire, police, medical and other emergency offices. The council's mission would be to share "best practices" in emergency planning and response, to identify and coordinate the use of new technologies, to improve training and communications efforts, and to advise the new department on ways to improve its assistance to state and local governments.
It also contains language instructing state and local governments about gathering and sharing information on protecting critical infrastructures. The Homeland Security secretary and undersecretary for emergency response would help facilitate efforts among states and localities and the private sector. The bill also would mandate that government communications technology be interoperable.
"The most important way the Homeland Security Department would help, I think, is that of the majority of the agencies ... [many] workers are not located in Washington," said Richard Diamond, a spokesman for Majority Leader Richard Armey, R-Texas. "A lot of elements of this agency are designed to work with state and local authorities. ... The idea of coordination ... that's one of the goals of the department."
The House legislation also proposes state-funded universities to host homeland security centers, which would conduct research and devise programs to enhance homeland security efforts, including activities such as creating better first-responder training programs.
The Senate bill differs in some ways from the House measure, particularly in areas such as harmonizing emergency-response communications media. Under the Senate legislation, a coordinating committee contained within an Office for Science and Technology in the new department would identify new technologies and facilitate interoperability among state and local responders.
The bill also would create a one-stop shop for emergency preparedness initiatives and would authorize grants for "private entities to pay for the federal share of the cost of improving emergency preparedness and educating employees and other individuals using the entities' facilities."
Lawmakers hope the new department would streamline the disparate activities of agencies responsible for border security, intelligence and emergency response, consolidate redundant spending programs, and ensure the federal government can react quickly to threats, attacks or other disasters. That streamlining, in turn, could benefit state and local officials, Diamond said.
"One of the reasons that we wanted to do a Department of Homeland Security in the first place was to coordinate all the scattered efforts and programs that are out there right now and put them under one coherent direction," he said. With "one chain of command," Diamond said, federal programs will be effective to local and state officials.
Localities Favor Some Changes To Security Plan
State and local government officials have applauded the proposed consolidation. Dalen Harris, a legislative associate for homeland security and public safety issues at the National Association of Counties (NACo), said the organization worked diligently with Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., to ensure that language to create an Office of State and Local Coordination remained in the Senate bill. The House also adopted a similar provision as an amendment to its bill.
We hope that "when they pass the final version, no one tries to take that out," Harris said. Overall, he said county officials are "pleased with the composition" of the proposed department. Harris added that NACo supports President Bush's initiatives aimed at "first responders" to emergencies and hopes that efforts to bolster emergency response make the final legislative cut.
Andy Solomon, a spokesman for the U.S. Conference of Mayors, said the important issues for mayors are the streamlining of federal agencies into one department and the sharing of intelligence information with state and local officials.
Groups that represent states and cities do have some complaints about the federal resources for implementing emergency-response initiatives. Members of the mayors' group, for example, rallied in Washington earlier this week, touting their security initiative while blasting the federal government's failure to extend promised funding to cities for heightening security at key points of entry. And NACo opposes proposals to authorize direct federal funding to metropolitan emergency responders.
"We would like to see some requirements for states to allocate funds on a regional level," Harris said. "Not all counties need direct funding," Harris said.
He also said Congress must recognize that states and localities cannot shoulder emergency response alone. But he praised efforts thus far by White House Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge to inform local officials of new developments in the war on terror and potential threats.
States Join Drive To Create Citizen Corp
As part of the federal Citizen Corp initiative -- a program designed to cultivate and train a readily available source of citizen volunteers in times of crisis -- Virginia Gov. Mark Warner this week unveiled a new online portal, Virginia Corps.
The Web site provides information on volunteer opportunities across Virginia, including with both traditional volunteer groups and new efforts related to homeland security. Virginia Corps allows organizations to link volunteer opportunities under a ZIP code-based matching system and provide contact information for more than 20 existing volunteer centers.
Pre-existing volunteer organizations such as Neighborhood Watch and the Community Emergency Response Teams program are including terrorism and emergency preparedness activities with their host of other crime-prevention services. Virginia expects to receive about $300,000 in federal funds over the next few months to support the Citizen Corps implementation.
Georgia unveiled a similar site last week.
South Dakota Receives Federal Anti-Crime Aid
The Justice Department has awarded South Dakota $1 million to help defend children against predators on the Internet.
Gov. Bill Janklow announced last week during a national computer-crimes conference in Sioux Falls, S.D., that the child-safety grant will help fund the activities of the state's Internet Crimes Against Children enforcement unit (ICAC), which coordinates with local law enforcement groups and the state attorney general to investigate and prosecute Internet crimes against children.
To date, the ICAC has opened more than 150 investigations, searched 91 computers and made 18 arrests.
NEW FEATURE
-Advertisement-
-Advertisement-
-Advertisement-
