In the 2nd hearing in a week on funding for first responders, for...
In the 2nd hearing in a week on funding for first responders, former Sen. Warren Rudman (R-Vt.) again said interoperability was a first priority. However, a House Govt. Affairs National Security Subcommittee hearing Tues. focused more on funding than…
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on specific priorities. Last week, before the Senate Judiciary Terrorism Subcommittee (CD Sept 4 p6), Rudman and other security experts repeatedly emphasized the need to develop interoperable communications systems for first responders. On Tues., he pushed the need for national standards for first responders and for the govt. to establish those standards after conducting threat assessments. Rudman led the Independent Task Force on Emergency Responders that issued a report in the spring that estimated nearly $90 billion was needed to properly fund first responders for terrorism preparedness. But Rudman said that number could be wrong and until there was more planning and assessment, no one knew how much needed to be spent. “We need to establish priorities, but we can’t until we know what the standards are,” he said. Rudman said interoperability wasn’t likely to be an expensive project to fix, highlighting the test of software patches that could make communications systems more interoperable. Grant Sieffert of TIA agreed and told us that the issue with interoperability was one of procurement, not technology. The Dept. of Homeland Security should conduct a threat assessment and establish first responder standards, which Rudman said should take 9 months. From there, Congress should establish a system of funding that included oversight mechanisms. Appropriations bills should have time lines written in because funds had been too slow to arrive at municipalities, Rudman said. Subcommittee Chmn. Shays (R-Conn.) agreed that standards needed to be set: “Without standards, time and money will be wasted on a dangerous and costly illusion, while police officers and firefighters, emergency medical teams, public health providers and emergency managers confront terrorism without the tools they need,” he said. Subcommittee ranking Democrat Kucinich (Ohio) said the Bush Administration needed to pull out of Iraq and spend those funds on homeland security. Rep. Maloney (D-N.Y.) said that politicization needed to be taken out of the grant distribution process. Wyo., which has few homeland security funding priorities, gets $32.50 per person while N.Y., a much more likely target, gets just $4.60 per person, Maloney said.