[House Hearing, 107 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
HOW EFFECTIVELY IS THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT ASSISTING STATE AND LOCAL
GOVERNMENTS IN PREPARING FOR A BIOLOGICAL, CHEMICAL OR NUCLEAR ATTACK
=======================================================================
HEARING
before the
SUBCOMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENT EFFICIENCY,
FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT AND
INTERGOVERNMENTAL RELATIONS
of the
COMMITTEE ON
GOVERNMENT REFORM
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED SEVENTH CONGRESS
SECOND SESSION
__________
JULY 3, 2002
__________
Serial No. 107-212
__________
Printed for the use of the Committee on Government Reform
Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.gpo.gov/congress/house
http://www.house.gov/reform
U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
WASHINGTON : 2003
87-138 PDF
For Sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office
Internet: bookstore.gpr.gov Phone: toll free (866) 512-1800; (202) 512-1800
Fax: (202) 512-2250 Mail: Stop SSOP, Washington, DC 20402-0001
COMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENT REFORM
DAN BURTON, Indiana, Chairman
BENJAMIN A. GILMAN, New York HENRY A. WAXMAN, California
CONSTANCE A. MORELLA, Maryland TOM LANTOS, California
CHRISTOPHER SHAYS, Connecticut MAJOR R. OWENS, New York
ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN, Florida EDOLPHUS TOWNS, New York
JOHN M. McHUGH, New York PAUL E. KANJORSKI, Pennsylvania
STEPHEN HORN, California PATSY T. MINK, Hawaii
JOHN L. MICA, Florida CAROLYN B. MALONEY, New York
THOMAS M. DAVIS, Virginia ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON, Washington,
MARK E. SOUDER, Indiana DC
STEVEN C. LaTOURETTE, Ohio ELIJAH E. CUMMINGS, Maryland
BOB BARR, Georgia DENNIS J. KUCINICH, Ohio
DAN MILLER, Florida ROD R. BLAGOJEVICH, Illinois
DOUG OSE, California DANNY K. DAVIS, Illinois
RON LEWIS, Kentucky JOHN F. TIERNEY, Massachusetts
JO ANN DAVIS, Virginia JIM TURNER, Texas
TODD RUSSELL PLATTS, Pennsylvania THOMAS H. ALLEN, Maine
DAVE WELDON, Florida JANICE D. SCHAKOWSKY, Illinois
CHRIS CANNON, Utah WM. LACY CLAY, Missouri
ADAM H. PUTNAM, Florida DIANE E. WATSON, California
C.L. ``BUTCH'' OTTER, Idaho STEPHEN F. LYNCH, Massachusetts
EDWARD L. SCHROCK, Virginia ------
JOHN J. DUNCAN, Jr., Tennessee BERNARD SANDERS, Vermont
JOHN SULLIVAN, Oklahoma (Independent)
Kevin Binger, Staff Director
Daniel R. Moll, Deputy Staff Director
James C. Wilson, Chief Counsel
Robert A. Briggs, Chief Clerk
Phil Schiliro, Minority Staff Director
Subcommittee on Government Efficiency, Financial Management and
Intergovernmental Relations
STEPHEN HORN, California, Chairman
RON LEWIS, Kentucky JANICE D. SCHAKOWSKY, Illinois
DOUG OSE, California MAJOR R. OWENS, New York
ADAM H. PUTNAM, Florida PAUL E. KANJORSKI, Pennsylvania
JOHN SULLIVAN, Oklahoma CAROLYN B. MALONEY, New York
Ex Officio
DAN BURTON, Indiana HENRY A. WAXMAN, California
J. Russell George, Staff Director and Chief Counsel
Bonnie Heald, Deputy Staff Director
Justin Paulhamus, Clerk
C O N T E N T S
----------
Page
Hearing held on July 3, 2002..................................... 1
Statement of:
Hecker, JayEtta, Director, Physical Infrastructure Issues,
General Accounting Office; James Bogner, Special Agent in
Charge, Omaha Division, Federal Bureau of Investigation;
Lieutenant Tim Conohan, emergency preparedness coordinator,
Omaha Police Department; Paul R. Wagner, fire chief, city
of Omaha; Steven Hinrichs, M.D., director of Nebraska
health laboratory, director of microbiology and virology,
department of pathology/microbiology, University of
Nebraska Medical Center; and Philip W. Smith, M.D., chief
of infectious diseases, department of internal medicine,
University of Nebraska Medical Center...................... 4
Heineman, David, Lieutenant Governor, State of Nebraska;
Richard A. Raymond, M.D., chief medical officer, State of
Nebraska; Richard Hainje, region VII, FEMA; W. Gary Gates,
vice president, Nuclear Division, Omaha Public Power
District; Steve Lee, director, Douglas County Emergency
Management Agency, Douglas County Health Department; and
Pete Neddo, manager of safety and security, Metropolitan
Utilities District......................................... 77
Letters, statements, etc., submitted for the record by:
Bogner, James, Special Agent in Charge, Omaha Division,
Federal Bureau of Investigation, prepared statement of..... 30
Conohan, Lieutenant Tim, emergency preparedness coordinator,
Omaha Police Department:
Letter dated July 25, 2002............................... 75
Prepared statement of.................................... 44
Gates, W. Gary, vice president, Nuclear Division, Omaha
Public Power District, prepared statement of............... 105
Hainje, Richard, region VII, FEMA, prepared statement of..... 92
Hecker, JayEtta, Director, Physical Infrastructure Issues,
General Accounting Office, prepared statements of..........6, 120
Heineman, David, Lieutenant Governor, State of Nebraska,
prepared statement of...................................... 80
Hinrichs, Steven, M.D., director of Nebraska health
laboratory, director of microbiology and virology,
department of pathology/microbiology, University of
Nebraska Medical Center, prepared statement of............. 53
Lee, Steve, director, Douglas County Emergency Management
Agency, Douglas County Health Department, prepared
statement of............................................... 112
Raymond, Richard A., M.D., chief medical officer, State of
Nebraska, prepared statement of............................ 85
Smith, Philip W., M.D., chief of infectious diseases,
department of internal medicine, University of Nebraska
Medical Center, prepared statement of...................... 63
Wagner, Paul R., fire chief, city of Omaha, prepared
statement of............................................... 49
HOW EFFECTIVELY IS THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT ASSISTING STATE AND LOCAL
GOVERNMENTS IN PREPARING FOR A BIOLOGICAL, CHEMICAL OR NUCLEAR ATTACK
----------
WEDNESDAY, JULY 3, 2002
House of Representatives,
Subcommittee on Government Efficiency, Financial
Management and Intergovernmental Relations,
Committee on Government Reform,
Omaha, NE.
The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 9:04 a.m., in
the Private Dining Room, University of Nebraska Medical Center,
45th and Emile Streets, Omaha, NE, Hon. Stephen Horn (chairman
of the subcommittee) presiding.
Present: Representatives Horn and Terry.
Staff present: J. Russell George, staff director and chief
counsel; Bonnie Heald, deputy staff director; Justin Paulhamus,
clerk; Chris Barkley, staff assistant; and Michael Sazonov,
Sterling Bentley, Joe DiSilvio, and Yigal Kerszenbaum, interns.
Mr. Horn. A quorum being present, the hearing of the
Subcommittee on Government Efficiency, Financial Management and
Intergovernmental Relations will come to order.
On September 11, 2001, the world witnessed the most
devastating acts ever committed on U.S. soil. Despite the
damage and enormous loss of life, the attacks failed to cripple
this Nation. To the contrary, Americans have never been more
united in their fundamental belief in freedom and their
willingness to protect that freedom.
The diabolical nature of those attacks and then the deadly
release of anthrax sent a loud and clear message to all
Americans. We must be prepared for the unexpected. We must have
the mechanisms in place to protect this Nation and its people
from further attempts to cause massive destruction.
The aftermath of September 11th clearly demonstrated the
need for adequate communications systems and rapid deployment
of well-trained emergency personnel. Yet despite billions of
dollars in spending on Federal emergency programs, there
remains serious doubts as to whether the Nation is equipped to
handle a massive chemical, biological or nuclear attack.
Today the subcommittee will examine how effectively
Federal, State and local agencies are working together to
prepare for such emergencies. We want those who live in this
great State of Nebraska and the good people of Omaha to know
that they can rely on these systems and they should.
We are fortunate to have witnesses today whose valuable
experience and insight will help the subcommittee better
understand the needs of those on the front lines. We want to
hear about their capabilities and their challenges and we want
to know what the Federal Government can do to help.
We welcome all of our witnesses and look forward to their
testimony. This is an investigating committee of the full
Committee on Government Reform and we swear in all witnesses
and we will do that in a minute. Your statements, which we all
have read are very fine statements. And when I call on you,
actually it will be Congressman Terry, he will move from one
person to the next as the agenda shows and that is
automatically in the record of the court reporter. We just want
a summary of your document because we are on a time schedule
and we are going to need to be here until 11. So if you will
stand and raise your right hand and have the people behind you,
if they are going to give testimony.
[Witnesses sworn.]
Mr. Horn. The clerk will note that all have affirmed. We
thank you and I will now turn over the gavel to my colleague,
Lee Terry. He has been an outstanding Member of the House of
Representatives and we admire his work and tried to be helpful
in a number of things. He will conduct this because he knows
many of you and we have asked him to do that.
So he will start with the first person, which I will
mention that one, and that is JayEtta Hecker. She is the
Director of Physical Infrastructure Issues, U.S. General
Accounting Office. That is the Office under the Comptroller
General of the United States--a 15-year term, so Presidents and
Congress cannot do much if they do not like it. He has done a
marvelous job, the best I have ever seen over the last 30
years.
So we will have a 3-minute summary by Ms. Hecker and at the
end, she will have a summary if we have lost a few pieces here
and there.
Mr. Terry [presiding]. Thank you. Chairman Horn, I want to
begin by thanking all of our witnesses today. I appreciate that
you took time away from your jobs in protecting our community
to be here today for what I consider an extremely important
matter, of coordinating between governments to make sure
everyone is working together for the same goal of protecting
and serving our community in case something tragic should
happen.
I also want to thank our congressional staff, we have many
of our staff members here, Chairman Horn, who helped work with
your incredible staff to organize today's event. Particularly I
want to point out next the University of Nebraska Medical
Center who is, of course, hosting this event. I think as you
will find through the testimony today, you will be impressed,
not only with the University of Nebraska Medical Center and how
progressive they have been in making sure our community is
prepared to handle any biological, chemical or nuclear attack
or incident, but also how impressed I think you will be with
the State, our utilities, our police, our fire, our FBI--all
those that have come here to testify today.
And last, I want to thank you, Chairman Horn. You are one
of the, if not the, hardest working chairmen in Congress today,
and for the audience that is here today, Chairman Horn held a
similar hearing in Milwaukee yesterday and the University of
Vanderbilt Medical Center the day before.
His task as the chairman of the Subcommittee on Government
Efficiency, Financial Management and Intergovernmental
Relations, particularly in the field of biological, chemical
and nuclear preparedness, is to gather data. And Steve--
Chairman Horn is known by his colleagues as being the academic
on that committee. So if there is anyone that can best gather
and articulate the data into needs and goals, it is Chairman
Horn.
So that is what the purpose of this hearing is today, to
elicit the testimony from all levels of Government, to see what
we are doing in Omaha, what the University of Nebraska is
doing, what we are doing at the State level. So it is not just
Omaha, Papillion and Bellvue, but Burwell and Funk, Nebraska--
across the State.
Chairman Horn and his great staff will then sort through
piles of testimony and information, work with Government
agencies such as the General Accounting Office, GAO, and come
up with a report and recommendations of how we can best
partner.
As Chairman Horn mentioned in his opening statement, life
changed for all of us on September 11th.
Many of my colleagues went to Congress thinking of police
and fire as a local issue. After September 11th, we can no
longer think that way. We are all members of the same team now,
at different levels of responsibility. And unless there is
coordination between all levels of Government, from the Omaha
Police Department, the Fire Department to our FBI, through our
State to FEMA, we will have weak links. Weak links break and
somewhere in our community, people will go unserved and
unprotected. We in Congress cannot allow that to happen.
So, Chairman Horn, thank you for the effort that you are
putting forth in touring States and localities across our
Nation, and since you are from the California, Long Beach area;
thank you for going to the heartland and not just the big
cities of L.A. and San Francisco, but to the medium size cities
such as Omaha, Nebraska.
And in my conclusion I will say, I am so confident that you
will be impressed with the testimony that you will hear today
that you could probably make some recommendations to those
larger cities, because I think we are doing several things
right here in this community.
So again, thank you for taking time, and welcome to Omaha.
With that conclusion of my opening statement, it is
somewhat unusual--I used to be on the Government Reform
Committee, but switched to the Energy and Commerce Committee,
so Steve is allowing me--I am sorry--Chairman Horn is allowing
me to be an ad hoc member and even so kind to let me handle the
gavel for awhile, although----
Mr. Horn. Just do not use it on my head.
Mr. Terry. You know, power.
I call on JayEtta Hecker. Thank you for being here today.
STATEMENTS OF JAYETTA HECKER, DIRECTOR, PHYSICAL INFRASTRUCTURE
ISSUES, GENERAL ACCOUNTING OFFICE; JAMES BOGNER, SPECIAL AGENT
IN CHARGE, OMAHA DIVISION, FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION;
LIEUTENANT TIM CONOHAN, EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS COORDINATOR,
OMAHA POLICE DEPARTMENT; PAUL R. WAGNER, FIRE CHIEF, CITY OF
OMAHA; STEVEN HINRICHS, M.D., DIRECTOR OF NEBRASKA HEALTH
LABORATORY, DIRECTOR OF MICROBIOLOGY AND VIROLOGY, DEPARTMENT
OF PATHOLOGY/MICROBIOLOGY, UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA MEDICAL
CENTER; AND PHILIP W. SMITH, M.D., CHIEF OF INFECTIOUS
DISEASES, DEPARTMENT OF INTERNAL MEDICINE, UNIVERSITY OF
NEBRASKA MEDICAL CENTER
Ms. Hecker. Good morning, Mr. Chairman and Mr. Terry, we
are very pleased to be here. I will very briefly summarize my
full statement.
The key points that I want to make really are two; one is
about the proposed department and some views that the GAO has
about that. And second, the importance of the national strategy
that is yet to be developed and our concerns about the scope of
what ought to be in that strategy.
Now about the department, the key thing is that GAO has
been studying terrorism preparedness programs and counter-
terrorism activities and has concluded and recommended for a
number of years the importance of better Federal coordination.
Both our work and the reports by emergency managers at the
State level, as well as the experience of a lot of the
exercises has shown that Federal programs have not been well
coordinated, and organizations and different levels of
government have not worked together as well as they could.
So there has really been an absence of Federal leadership
and coherence in the assistance to and building of effective
partnerships that you would expect from the Federal role.
Those are the kinds of things that we look for in the
department. We think that there is an important role for the
Congress to look at that proposal. We have a number of concerns
about what is included in the department and what is out. For
example, our review in the area of bioterrorism notes that
there is a potential for an increase of fragmentation by
bringing 300 people and I think $4 billion of activity from HHS
on bioterrorism into this new department. The proposal breaks
bioterrorism off from those similar activities that would still
be ongoing and that are core public health programs in HHS.
So it is not easy to establish where you draw the line, and
there is a very active role for Congress to play in weighing
those considerations.
The second point about the strategy. There are three things
that we look for in the strategy and we do not believe that the
proposal that has been put forward represents a strategy. It
was due last month and now it has been deferred, so it is
something you would actually like to see before the department
is created, as its role presumably is to implement the
strategy. But in any case, the strategy is yet to come out and
there are three levels of detail that we would like to see in
it.
First is greater clarity about the different roles of
government.
Second is more implementation of a performance oriented
organization--performance management, a focus on performance,
not just programing this much money, this many people. What are
the results, what is the impact?
And finally, clarity on the appropriate tools that really
build incentives and partnerships.
So in sum, the State and local governments are critical to
effective homeland security, and while there are many aspects
of getting a department to work, an absolutely essential part
is building these effective partnerships. That is why we
applaud the work of this committee and are working actively
with Mr. Horn on better understanding the challenges in
building effective intergovernmental relations. We think this
is the absolutely perfect way to do it, to hear from these
folks about what the concerns are, what their experience is
with Federal programs and have that be key input to the
department.
So I too look forward to the statements and continue to
stand ready to provide support for the committee.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman and Mr. Terry.
Mr. Terry. Thank you. As some of you know who have
participated in hearings in the past, we let everyone testify
and then if there are any questions from Mr. Horn or from me,
that is when we will ask them.
Mr. Bogner is the Special Agent in Charge of the Omaha FBI
Division and he has been very active in our community in
helping develop our task forces. September 11th, certainly he
and I met and toured the facility and had an interesting
briefing of the role of FBI in that particular situation. I
appreciate all of your efforts and the fact that you are here
in our community. We welcome you and thank you. You may start.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Hecker follows:]
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Mr. Bogner. Good morning, Chairman Horn, Congressman Terry.
I appreciate and value the opportunity to testify before you
today.
As part of the reorganization plan, Director Mueller stated
to all FBI employees that the FBI's goal in counterterrorism is
prevention. It is not, as in the past, only reacting to attacks
and bringing terrorists to justice.
While investigating terrorist acts remains the FBI's
highest priority, our primary goal is prevention of future acts
of terrorism. This does not mean that prosecution is not
important; prosecution is an absolutely critical element of
prevention. But making clear that the goal is prevention rather
than prosecution will mean enhanced emphasis on intelligence
gathering, analysis and proactive initiatives. Counterterrorism
is our top priority.
We in the Omaha Division of the FBI have embraced Director
Mueller's message and implemented numerous initiatives. The
Omaha office covers the two States of Iowa and Nebraska, a
territory spanning two time zones and extending from the
Mississippi River to the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. It
is approximately 800 miles from eastern border to western
border of our FBI Division. We encompass three Federal judicial
districts. We have the main headquarters in Omaha, along with
eight resident agencies throughout the two States, three
additional offices in Nebraska and five additional offices in
Iowa. Our territory includes distinctly different regions of
the country, ranging from urban industrial centers to midwest
farmlands and agricultural communities to the ranch lands of
the great plains. The vastness of the territory and the
resulting differences in regional culture and crime problems
require us to maximize and leverage our resources and to
exercise some flexibility and innovation in our investigations
and operations.
We, with our city, county, State and other Federal
counterparts recognize that partnership is the most effective
means of countering terrorism. This partnership, when
formalized, generally takes the form of a joint terrorism task
force, otherwise known as JTTF. The process of forming a JTTF
in the Nebraska and Iowa areas reflects the unique and
expansive nature of the territory, which is why I gave you that
information on the record about this territory.
In trying to address terrorism matters in an 800-mile wide
two-State territory required innovation and so we believed that
it was important, not to have just a single investigative
entity or joint terrorism task force, but one composed of five
elements throughout the two States. This was our premise and to
validate that, we sought input from the city, county, State and
other Federal agencies. We held a series of informational
meetings throughout the two States. We notified and invited all
law enforcement agencies within those two States to attend. We
had 171 representatives of the city, county, State and Federal
law enforcement agencies attend those meetings where we
presented the FBI counterterrorism strategy, the function of a
typical joint terrorism task force and provided briefings,
intelligence briefings, to those law enforcement agencies. And
we proposed a unique concept to the joint terrorism task force
by having five teams. I have provided you a map of those five
teams so that you can see more clearly I think how they are
formed and how they represent and can respond to the diverse
geographic regions that our territory covers.
Presently the joint terrorism task force consists of 110
law enforcement agents or officers from more than 50 different
agencies throughout the two States.
One of the goals to provide the joint terrorism task force
officers is training. In addition to training specifically for
those partners, we have provided counterterrorism training to
city, county, State and Federal agencies throughout the two
States of Iowa and Nebraska, through many Police Chiefs
Associations and law enforcement coordinating committee
meetings and conferences.
The Nebraska/Iowa Joint Terrorism Task Force has already
conducted a very successful and high profile domestic terrorism
investigation, despite the fact that the investigation occurred
just 2 days after forming this joint terrorism, and this was
the matter of the improvised bombs that were left inside
mailboxes in the rural areas of Iowa, northwest Illinois,
Nebraska, Colorado and Texas.
The Joint Terrorism Task Force was mobilized within hours
of the first explosions there, and the identification,
location, apprehension and filing of charges against the
individual occurred within 5 days of the first bomb being
found.
We worked very closely with the Nebraska State Patrol and
the Iowa Department of Public Safety to establish secure
communications with all law enforcement officials within those
two States. In addition to those activities, we also have been
involved in weapons of mass destruction or WMD preparedness and
counterterrorism preparedness and training exercises.
Every FBI office has a weapons of mass destruction
coordinator, likewise do we. And that coordinator's job is to
ensure that the various State and local agencies in Iowa and
Nebraska are familiar with the assistance that the FBI can
provide, as well as our protocol for responding to these
weapons of mass destruction incidents. Our coordinator has
conducted or participated in nine preparedness or training
events within the last 3 years, and I have provided the
committee with a list of those events.
The Omaha Coordinator is also a member of a steering
committee for the Omaha Metropolitan Medical Response System,
or OMMRS, which I am sure you will hear additional information
about. Representatives of all major health care facilities,
public health officials in the Omaha metropolitan area
participate in OMMRS. OMMRS' mission is to maximize
preparedness and coordination in the health care community.
They meet on a monthly basis. We have very actively
participated in that and our coordinator is a member of that.
The Division has participated in 10 exercises in the past 3
years that I have noted and also provided you information on
that.
In the area of weapons of mass destruction investigations
and operations, we are in constant contact with members of the
law enforcement, fire and emergency management and medical
communities. This partnership was clearly evident in the
cooperation during the time period after September 11, 2001
when anthrax hoaxes occurred in Iowa and Nebraska. In addition
to these hoaxes, well-meaning citizens reported hundreds of
suspicious packages and other items. Since October 2001
nationwide, the FBI has responded to more than 16,000 reports
of use or threatened use of anthrax or other hazardous
materials and the Omaha Division has had this share of these
reports. We have provided advice, guidance and response on more
than 800 incidents of suspected or reported anthrax, physically
responded to the scene approximately 75 times and have several
pending investigations related to those threats or hoaxes.
In the FBI Omaha Division, all investigations and
preparedness responsibilities are conducted jointly with other
law enforcement agencies and often with the appropriate fire
and emergency response agencies. We believe that communication,
coordination and cooperation are exceptional in the heartland
here and in the Omaha Division and we strive to maintain and
improve upon the relationships that we have built over the
years.
This concludes my prepared remarks and I express
appreciation to this subcommittee for concentrating on this
issue of terrorism preparedness. Thank you.
Mr. Terry. Likewise. Thank you, Special Agent Bogner.
Next is Tim Conohan from the Omaha Police Department,
Lieutenant Conohan is in charge of the emergency preparedness
for the city of Omaha--or the Police Department--sorry, Tim. He
is the coordinator, and I appreciate that you took your time to
be here and Tim and I were friends before we were--at least Tim
became the famous police officer he has become. Tim, thank you
for being here today.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Bogner follows:]
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Lieutenant Conohan. Thank you, Congressman Terry, and
Chairman Horn, thank you for inviting us.
Chief Kerry would have liked to have been here this
morning, but he had a scheduling conflict, so he asked me to
represent him and read a prepared statement. So with that, I
will.
The events of September 11, 2001 and the subsequent anthrax
mailings that occurred shortly thereafter were a wake-up call
for all public safety officials throughout this country.
Although the Omaha metro area was spared from the death and
destruction that occurred back east, our city did have to deal
with perceived bioterrorism threats of anthrax being mailed
through our postal system. We learned first hand that our
public safety departments can become taxed to their limits when
dealing with not only an actual bioterrorism incident, but a
perceived threat as well.
Although there were no actual cases of anthrax being sent
through the postal system to anyone in the Omaha metro area,
the fear that the public experienced in dealing with this
bioterrorism event was indeed real. Our police, fire and 911
departments handled hundreds of calls from citizens that
thought they were the victims of a bioterrorism incident.
The Omaha Police Department feels that there are several
areas where the Federal Government can continue to be of great
assistance and support State and local government when dealing
with nuclear, biological and chemical events.
The first one would be threat assessment equipment and
personal protective equipment for first responders. It is
imperative that first responders, police, fire and EMS have the
necessary equipment to determine as quickly as possible the
substances they are dealing with when responding to NBC type--
nuclear, biological, chemical type--incidents.
They then must be able to don the appropriate personal
protective equipment to allow them to function in this type of
environment.
We learned first hand how important it was to have the
ability to assess quickly what type of threat we were dealing
with. Omaha was indeed fortunate to have a bioterrorism
preparedness lab in our city, located right here on the campus
of the University of Nebraska Medical Center, it is a division
of the Nebraska Public Health Lab. These labs allowed public
safety officials the ability to quickly analyze the biological
or chemical agents or the hoax material they were dealing with.
The labs must be equipped and staffed properly to ensure quick
response to bioterrorism threat incidents. These labs need to
be a high priority. Public safety departments cannot formulate
a response plan until they know what exactly they are dealing
with and time is critical during these types of incidents.
Second, we would like to see the Federal Government assist
us with a best practices manual. We feel there is a need for
the Federal Government to assist State and local public safety
agencies in putting together a best practice manual when
dealing with nuclear, biological, chemical terrorism incidents.
There needs to be consistency throughout the country when
dealing with these events. This will greatly enhance the City's
ability to draw upon mutual aid from other cities during times
of WMD incidents. We would ask that input from State and local
agencies of various sizes be requested when putting together
this type of manual to ensure that it will work for agencies of
all sizes.
Third, regional training for standardized response. This
goes hand in hand with the completion of a best practice
manual. State and local public safety agencies need the Federal
Government's expertise in the field to assist us with training
our people so there is a standardized response to these type of
incidents.
And last, public education to reduce fear. After what our
city experienced last fall, we feel it extremely important that
there is an education component to any response plan dealing
with nuclear, biological, chemical type incidents. An informed
public will have less fear and be less likely to panic when
they have to deal with an NBC terrorism incident.
Although Federal funding is a critical component to any
State or local response plan for nuclear, biological, chemical
incidents, we feel it is even more important that the Federal
Government share its expertise in this area with State and
local governments, so that standardized response plans can be
created to assist us in dealing with incidents of this nature.
The 2002 funding of the Office of Domestic Preparedness for
State Domestic Preparedness Programs is a great start to
assisting State and local governments with implementing
response plans to deal with nuclear, biological and chemical
type events.
The Omaha Police Department thanks Congressman Terry for
inviting us to speak before this committee and represent our
community.
Sincerely, Donald L. Carey, Chief of Police, Omaha Police
Department.
Thank you.
Mr. Terry. Thank you, Lieutenant Conohan.
Next we have our great fire chief for the city of Omaha and
I have had the pleasure to work with Chief Wagner when I was a
member of the Omaha City Council and also had the opportunity
to work with his niece in Washington, DC. So you are never far
away, Chief. Thank you for being here today. You may start.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Conohan follows:]
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Mr. Wagner. Thank you. Good morning, Chairman Horn,
Congressman Terry, I appreciate the opportunity to speak to
this committee today.
I am going to be a little bit more parochial. I think that
what we are going to see in many of these subcommittee meetings
is that there are needs that are probably going to be
consistent for all metropolitan cities, and so I am going to
speak from that point of view.
I do have a prepared speech, I will try to make it brief
and maybe reduce some of the time that it takes.
I would like to thank the Federal Government and
subcommittee for taking the time to address these issues. The
Omaha Fire Department has been the beneficiary of Federal
assistance to provide training for all its employees in weapons
of mass destruction. We were fortunate enough to be probably on
the cutting edge of this and it was very beneficial to us. We
trained all of our personnel, which is very important when we
respond to these kinds of events, and our expectation is that
the potential is always going to be there, more so now than
ever before. We were the beneficiaries of $300,000 worth of
equipment, which was also very important to us, because once
the training took place, this equipment was determined to be
the necessary equipment needed for any response, looking at
nuclear, biological and chemical.
But there are problems with this and I think we have to
look at those problems from a parochial point of view: Shelf
life. There is a shelf life on some of these products and there
is no program in effect to offer replacement without using city
funds. With the budgetary constraints that we are all facing
today, it would probably take a little priority with respect to
our budget for just the everyday servicing of our citizens and
being able to function as a fire department. And that is not
good. It is certainly something that we need to look at. We do
have some very fine facilities here, they have already been
referred to, but I will refer to them again. The Nebraska
Public Health Labs are one of the best and they are
conveniently placed for the city of Omaha and the Omaha Fire
Department right here.
There is no recycling system. If we have equipment and we
could recycle it through training, how can we do that--how do
we allow that to be offered to other communities so that they
can have the benefit of this equipment--not just the city of
Omaha, but the outlying communities.
Technological advances. We have improved equipment and they
range from a variety of things--greater protection as in air
purifying equipment, canisters that filter chemicals and can be
updated. Less bulky, lighter weight and usable for greater
lengths of time. Changes in the equipment that allow us to work
in a more contaminated environment for longer periods of time
safely.
One of the issues for Omaha, as well as probably a lot of
other communities, is that the equipment does not allow for
vehicles to allow us to transport this equipment. We have been
able to utilize some funds to buy trailers, but one of the most
important aspects of any response is how quickly we can get
there. And I think we have to look at if this is designated for
weapons of mass destruction, can we utilize these funds to buy
equipment that would allow us to take the equipment to the
scene immediately? We have agreements now with some trucking
companies who have been very considerate in offering us help.
But we have to get them to have a truck and a driver come to
the scene of our equipment storage and then trailer it to an
event. This is all very time-consuming and can affect the
impact of what we can do when we arrive at the scene. And I
think it is very important to look at these as potential uses
for funds that will benefit everyone.
Omaha Fire Department views itself as a regional response
for hazardous materials. With respect to that, we look at time
response, trained personnel and the need to be able to function
effectively and efficiently in the field. We have recently sent
some of our personnel to Anniston, Alabama, where they have had
additional training and learned a lot more about weapons of
mass destruction, because we are learning more as time
progresses.
We need to be able to bring that training not only to the
Omaha Fire Department, but to the regions surrounding us.
With respect to that, I would like to thank this
subcommittee for taking the time to listen to me. As a fire
chief, we respond locally first and regionally second, but that
can obviously change very quickly. We want to be able to
provide the best equipment, the best training and the best
offer to save lives as we can.
And with that, I would like to thank you for taking the
time. If there are any questions I can answer at the end of
this, I would be very happy to. Thank you very much.
Mr. Terry. Thank you, Chief, appreciate your testimony.
Next is Steven Hinrichs, Dr. Hinrichs at the University of
Nebraska Medical Center, he is the director of Nebraska Health
Laboratory, director of microbiology and virology in the
Department of Pathology and Microbiology. Dr. Hinrichs, thank
you for spending your morning with us. You may begin.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Wagner follows:]
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Dr. Hinrichs. Thank you, Chairman Horn and Congressman
Terry, I appreciate this opportunity to provide testimony.
As part of my duties at UNMC, I have been named Coordinator
of the University of Nebraska Bioterrorism Preparedness Task
Force, and in addition, I work with the Nebraska Health and
Human Services System as Director of the Nebraska Public Health
Laboratory.
The commitment, dedication and expertise of the people who
have been brought together by the planning efforts of the State
government, particularly under the direction of Lieutenant
Governor Dave Heineman, have been unprecedented. We also
greatly appreciate the coordinating efforts of our Chief Health
Officer, Richard Raymond, and his efforts have been
outstanding.
It is apparent to everyone that we are facing a challenge
with the potential to significantly alter and permanently
change life as we know it in our Nation and, therefore, many of
the traditional obstacles to progress have been set aside.
I will provide summaries of my comments and recommendations
on the following topics, but would be pleased to answer any
specific questions as they might arise.
My first comment relates to electronic information systems.
Continued support is needed for development and deployment of
electronic information systems. These systems must extend to
the private sector including hospitals and laboratories. Many
of the current systems are primitive and consist of only
notification systems rather than direct communications that
allow real time monitoring and exchange of information. The
Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services can be a
leader in this activity.
My second comments relate to the National Laboratory
Reserve Force. The national need exists for a reserve force of
expert laboratory scientists capable of responding to national
emergencies. These reserve scientists could be deployed during
non-crisis times to provide training and connection to the
front line laboratories throughout each State. This is the
model that we are taking in Nebraska. The CDC has begun
exploring mechanisms to meet this need similar to the one in
Nebraska and this activity is one of the critical objectives of
the new funding to States.
The third area of activity is in the role of the
universities. Universities and institutions of higher education
represent a national resource and should be included in efforts
to educate the public regarding threats from biological,
nuclear and chemical agents, as well as the training of first
responders and volunteer service providers. We also are capable
of providing research into new approaches to identifying and
responding to acts of bioterrorism.
Universities can contribute expertise in areas related to
both human, animal and crop diseases. However, universities
also face significant challenges due to the need for enhanced
security and the impact of the Patriot Act.
The fourth point is that we need sustained effort over
time. Continued support of public health efforts over several
years is needed to facilitate the rebuilding of national
capacity and the overall national laboratory system. The
recruitment and training of new personnel to fill the need of
expert scientists will take many years to accomplish.
I would like to emphasize that we believe it is important
to recognize that many of the biological, chemical and
radiologic agents have the capability to affect humans, plants
and animals and, therefore, a system to respond to these
threats must incorporate the ability to communicate with not
only the medical, but the agriculture communities as well. It
would be inherently disjointed if efforts at both the research
level and the application level were not capable of integrating
the capabilities of the agriculture extension services of our
State land grant universities and the medical services of our
academic medical centers. Therefore, the most important test of
any governmental reorganization effort must be whether the new
agency is able to be cross cutting and unify diverse resources,
not only within the Government, but also within our
universities.
We learned from the events following the anthrax attack of
last fall that education of the public was one of the most
important factors contributing to calming their fears. Dr.
Smith will address this issue in more detail.
In conclusion, many of the Government's efforts to prepare
for and deal with bioterrorism have been effective. The success
of our Government's ability to place technology into the able
hands of educated citizens, health professionals and soldiers
will have the single greatest impact on the outcome of this
war.
I encourage our Government to make effective use of our
academic institutions as key partners and consider how current
and future legislation, as well as any significant structural
changes to Federal agencies, will impact the world's most
effective higher education system.
The University of Nebraska is prepared to contribute its
capabilities to efforts by the President, Congress, State and
local entities to develop a comprehensive and integrated plan
to deal with future criminal acts using biologic agents. This
is a complex task. UNMB and other institutions of higher
education are prepared for this task. We can be effective
strategic partners in this national effort.
Thank you for inviting me to present this testimony.
Mr. Terry. Thank you, Dr. Hinrichs.
I would now like to introduce the chief of infectious
diseases in the department of internal medicine, Dr. Philip
Smith. Dr. Smith, you may begin.
[The prepared statement of Dr. Hinrichs follows:]
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Dr. Smith. Chairman Horn and Congressman Terry, thank you
for the opportunity to testify. I will just briefly present a
few excerpts from my written testimony.
Basically you are asking us how the Government is doing in
terms of coordinating the response to bioterrorism and I would
have to say that the response has been excellent.
First of all, there was quite a bit of planning in
Nebraska, as there was nationally, prior to the bioterrorist
attack of September and the anthrax attack of October 2001. The
State Health Department contracted with the two universities
and with the Nebraska Infection Control Network to develop some
educational programs and to do a survey of institutions prior
to the terrorist attacks occurring.
The Nebraska Infection Control Network did a survey of all
hospital and nursing home infection control practitioners in
the State. Now keep in mind, in small communities, the
infection control practitioners are often a resource for
infectious disease emergencies such as a bioterrorist attack.
They found last summer, not surprisingly, that only 2 percent
of institutions felt they were prepared for a bioterrorist
attack. After the attack occurred, there was a tremendous
coordinated effort, and without a doubt, the Government,
through the Nebraska State Health Department, has provided
excellent leadership here. Dr. Dick Raymond, in the Health
Department, has spearheaded this, he is the medical director.
And there are many other institutions that are involved,
including the universities who have provided hundreds of hours
of education of public, physicians and other health care
providers, with the information necessary on anthrax and other
possible bioterrorist attacks.
As we look ahead, I think we need to be prepared. It is an
enormous task and many interested parties are involved. One of
the key elements is collaboration between the Government, the
health department and other parties. And I think one great
example, just as we have seen with Dr. Hinrichs, is in the
laboratory where the State Health Department and University of
Nebraska Laboratory combined in their bioterrorism preparation
efforts.
We have proposed several ideas to the Health Department
that are being considered for collaborative efforts. No. 1 is a
multi-disciplined education task force; and No. 2, which I will
not go into in detail, is a bioterrorism containment for small
numbers of cases of a disease like anthrax or smalllpox that
may occur and pose a hazard to the public.
I wanted to comment briefly on our multi-organizational
education program. We propose that all the interested parties
in the area of medical bioterrorism prevention be brought
together in a single committee structure, to do an inventory of
the resources we have available and to coordinate a training
effort, including looking at distance learning technology.
There are many different players, and the types of
organizations that we have represented on our proposed
committee include organizations like the two universities, the
Health Department, the Medical Society, the Hospital
Association and Nursing Home Association, infection control
practitioners, first responders, the two city emergency
response systems in the State; namely, Omaha and Lincoln; and
other interested experts in biocommunication, distance learning
technology.
So I guess in summary, I think that the State response to
the bioterrorist attack was prompt and excellent and
particularly in Nebraska, I feel that our Government worked
very hard to provide coordination between the public and the
private sector in the area of education, prevention,
laboratory. And I hope that this spirit carries on as we move
ahead.
Bioterrorism is a very daunting task and there are many
different players. I think the key role of the Federal
Government here is to not only foster, but to insist on multi-
agency collaboration to minimize the chance that we are going
to have duplication, and do the best job of protecting the
public in the future.
Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Dr. Smith follows:]
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Mr. Terry. Thank you, Dr. Smith.
At this time, the panel is subject to questions. Chairman
Horn.
Mr. Horn. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
In your testimony, Dr. Smith, you state that a 2001 survey
taken before September 11th found that less than 2 percent of
Nebraska's hospitals and nursing home infection control
practitioners felt they were prepared for a bioterrorist
attack. If that survey were taken today, what type of response
would you expect to see to the same question?
Dr. Smith. A very good question. In fact, we plan to answer
that scientifically by redoing the survey, but my guess is that
the percent of people that are prepared for bioterrorist
response at the present time would be much higher, perhaps 75
percent. Almost 100 percent of hospitals and long-term care
facilities have done some planning and are much better off than
they were a year ago. I think many people realize we still have
some details in terms of interagency collaboration and exactly
who to call in the event of an emergency, getting correct
communications, equipment and so forth. But I think 100 percent
of institutions will say have improved and probably 50 percent
of them will say they are close to being ready.
Mr. Horn. Given limited resources, your suggestion to
concentrate effort at university hospitals is well taken. How
many and where are Nebraska's university hospital centers?
Dr. Smith. There are two medical schools in Nebraska; the
University of Nebraska and Creighton University. We work
together on the pre-survey that I talked to you about earlier,
and also would work together on my proposed collaborative
training model that we have going ahead in the future.
Mr. Horn. What would be the geographic area?
Dr. Smith. The two medical schools are both in Omaha, both
on the extreme edge of the State. But although both medical
schools are in Omaha and the State is about 500 miles wide, we
have many outreach programs, including outreach training
programs, satellite telecommunications, so that even though the
medical schools are on one edge of the State, they communicate
well with constitutions outstate.
Mr. Horn. How long would it take to transport patients from
remote parts of the State to the two centers?
Dr. Smith. As far as transport to the two centers, it can
be done either by ambulance or by helicopter and transport--
because of the availability of the air transportation,
transportation can be accomplished in a short time, in a matter
of hours.
Mr. Horn. When we were in Nashville and with Vanderbilt,
the hospitals could not have any frequency to work with the
military that is on another frequency when they bring patients
and land on the roof of the hospital. Do we have any problem
like that? You have got major groups in military, do we have a
frequency between civilian and military?
Dr. Smith. I cannot answer that. Can anybody? Paul Wagner,
Fire Chief.
Mr. Wagner. At the present time, we do not have that
capability, Chairman Horn. However, I can tell you that at the
present time, Douglas County is involved in an 800 megahertz
system which will allow us to communicate with the hope that we
will be able to bring these other agencies on line and at least
provide them with the ability to communicate with us in the
event of a weapons of mass destruction or anything of that
nature. However, it is presently still being worked out in
terms of the RFP for the equipment. So we are looking at a
number of years down the road before we would even be able to
do that.
Mr. Horn. Could you discuss emergency room diversions at
the medical center? Is it a problem, Dr. Smith?
Dr. Smith. I am not sure what you mean.
Mr. Horn. Well, could you discuss the medical room
diversions at the medical center? I mean we find hospitals all
over America have difficulty in terms of overcrowding and
everything else, illegal immigrants, so forth and so on. So how
do you deal with that, or is it a problem here?
Dr. Smith. I think it is a problem in terms of hospital
capacity being relatively full. There is not a shifting of
individuals in the sense of deliberately shunting patients from
one facility to another, but there are times, for instance,
during an influenza outbreak in the community, when virtually
all hospitals are full. And when a hospital becomes full, then
patients are shunted preferentially to hospitals that have
available beds. And at times, they have been shunted to other
cities, such as Kansas City or Des Moines when hospital beds
are not available here.
When we are planning for a bioterrorist emergency, I think
our initial discussions about a small unit, as was demonstrated
on the east coast, you are probably going to be dealing with a
small number of cases of anthrax or influenza or hemorrhagic
fever or smallpox, and we think that a special containment unit
should be available because of the concern of protecting the
public and other individuals at the hospital from spread of
that, especially before a diagnosis is necessarily made.
The State Health Department, I know, is working on the
potential of up to 500 cases of a bioterrorist agent and
because of the hospital capacity being somewhat limited, that
may involve creating field hospitals in situations such as
gymnasiums and armories because the hospital capacity may not
be there.
Mr. Horn. The laboratories you have are very fine that go
with the medical schools. How about parts of Nebraska where
there is no hospital. What are we doing to get a laboratory
that the community colleges or the smaller colleges would have.
Do they need training when we are talking about a germ that we
do not know really what it is, like botulism.
Dr. Smith. That is a very good question, and what we
believe is one area where Nebraska is setting an example for
the rest of the country. And that is because we developed a
program called the laboratory demonstration project in
Nebraska. It was then funded by the CDC for us to hire an
individual who would be able to go out and train as well as
provide communication to all those small hospitals, small
facilities throughout the State of Nebraska.
We were in a situation because we had that operation in
place at the time of the bioterrorist attack, to actually
create information for all of those small facilities and
distribute it across the State of Nebraska within a week
following the anthrax crisis.
So that is an extremely important issue. We feel that the
rest of the States need a similar opportunity to develop that.
And fortunately that program became one of the key aspects of
the bill that was recently funded and is now flowing money to
the States. So that exactly is the issue and we continue to
work on that problem.
Mr. Horn. Do you have a number of private laboratories that
could do the work also?
Dr. Smith. Well, that is exactly the issue, because the
current situation is that the laboratory response network,
which the current program sponsored by the CDC does not extend
to the private sector and we believe that the private sector is
really on the front lines. So our efforts have been to connect
to the front lines those private laboratories, those private
hospitals, in order to prepare them. And so in our plan, we
have to have training planned and we have connectivity planned
with all those private hospitals, those private laboratories.
That is an extremely important issue, Congressman Horn.
Mr. Horn. I am glad you had that answer, because I was not
sure whether it was simply State, region, national. But we've
got other people also?
Dr. Smith. That is right.
Mr. Horn. Good. Thank you.
Mr. Terry. Tim, did you have a followup to Chairman Horn's
concern?
Lieutenant Conohan. Yes, I did. Chairman Horn, your
question concerning the hospital emergency rooms and how do we
handle situations like that. Omaha is very fortunate, and I
think Special Agent Bogner mentioned it. We have a group that
has been meeting for the last 3 years called the Omaha Metro
Medical Response System. It is not only for the Omaha area, but
it is for the whole metro area. It has received some Federal
funding in 2000. This is a group of law enforcement, public
health, hospital personnel. We have created a committee, I sit
on the steering committee, along with one of Mr. Bogner's
agents, that looks into exactly the things that you mentioned,
about interpreters, if we run into issues related with
immigrants that cannot speak and we are dealing with those type
of situations. Omaha is very far advanced, I think, than most
cities because of this Omaha Metro Medical Response System, and
the Federal funding that was put in place to assist that is
greatly appreciated.
Again, that needs to extend throughout the State, but right
now Omaha and Lincoln are really working together to ensure
that the largest populated cities are being handled, and all
those small, minute issues that could concern biological,
chemical and nuclear weapons are being addressed when it comes
to public health.
Mr. Horn. Thank you.
Mr. Terry. I had one particular question, Lieutenant
Conohan, I wanted you to followup with OMMR and you did that.
Special Agent Bogner, you had mentioned the JTTF, Joint
Terrorism Task Forces. I am wondering how your JTTF works with
OMMR, are they the same thing? Where do they overlap? I am
particularly interested in how we develop the theme of the JTTF
and OMMR. Is this unique? Could we copy it? Where are the voids
and where can we as the Federal Government help in the process?
Mr. Bogner. First of all, Congressman Terry, on the Joint
Terrorism Task Force, those are the investigative units that
consist of law enforcement officers and agents throughout the
two States. So they conduct the investigations, gather the
intelligence, hopefully do the analysis on them and then
attempt to prevent any activities, or investigate them
sufficiently in advance to interrupt any planned activities,
not only locally here, but throughout the country, if we should
get any information that might relate to any activity within
the country, to gather that intelligence and pass it on to the
appropriate elements and Joint Terrorism Task Forces in other
parts of the country.
On the OMMR, though I am not in the best position to answer
that. That is more of I think a coordination group that was
established for the health care and perhaps the Lieutenant can
add to that because, I was not here in the initiation of that.
But when I came, I was briefed about that association, not only
the coordinated activity among those health care professionals
and law enforcement professionals, fire and other first
responders to it, but also the training initiatives that they
have. We have participated in that because we feel that there
are two stages, probably three stages, to these events. One is
the initial incident and first responders to the initial
incidents and the coordination is obviously very important
there. Second, any investigation of--if it is proved to be a
terrorist activity here, the investigation of that criminal
act. And then third, consequence management after that.
So that is more of a coordination group, I think. I am not
sure who else would be best to respond to that.
Lieutenant Conohan. I think Mr. Bogner, or Agent Bogner is
right, that they are two separate entities, Congressman Terry.
The Joint Terrorism Task Force deals with preventative issues
where the Omaha Metro Medical Response System would deal with
responding to an actual event.
Mr. Terry. Thank you. I'm going to ask then, Lieutenant
Conohan and Chief Wagner the next question, regarding
equipment. In both of your testimony, you talked about
equipment that is necessary for assessment, the extent of
whatever incident has occurred, as well as protective personal
equipment. Do you have any grasp in the Police Department and
in the Fire Department what the totality of the cost would be
to become prepared, knowing that you are front line defenders?
We are going to hear from FEMA in a few minutes, but
nonetheless, you are the first responders. What specific
equipment is necessary and cost, have you been able to grasp
that? And followup with, there have been Federal grant programs
established. Do those need to become more flexible, for
example, in COPS and COPS More programs? Are those flexible
enough now that those can be used in the special circumstances
of purchasing equipment and training of officers and firemen?
Lieutenant Conohan first.
Lieutenant Conohan. Well, let me let Chief Wagner, he
outranks me, so he should go first. [Laughter.]
Mr. Wagner. I only outrank him because I have some figures.
[Laughter.]
That is really a very good question. First of all, as I
mentioned earlier, technology has advanced. Three years ago
when we looked at how we respond to these events, we were using
our self-contained breathing apparatus and airtight suits.
These allowed us approximately 30 minutes of functional working
time at best. And in the summertime when it is really hot,
probably less because you are going to overheat quickly.
There are now suits out there that allow us to work for
hours on end, that allow us to stay cool within that
environment. And we looked at the cost--as I said from the very
beginning, I was being very parochial--and just with respect to
the Omaha Fire Department, we are looking at approximately
$50,000, which would allow us to function in an environment,
have enough protective equipment to rotate crews and to do our
jobs.
From the point of view of a department the size of Omaha,
where we are a little over 600 employees, obviously all 600 are
not going to wear these, it is going to be our hazmat people.
We are looking at possibly 20-30 people at a time that have to
have enough suits and you have to be able to decontaminate
them.
We look at that as strictly what will work for us today. I
could give you more specific numbers in terms of suits and
actual cost, but these suits that we are looking at are the new
technology that allow us to do a better job. And as time
progresses, we are going to find more technology that will
allow us to do even more. How do we keep up with these costs
and providing the equipment to the necessary organizations that
will need it. That's the question.
Mr. Horn. If I might ask a question, just because I saw
that $50,000 and I wondered how many uniforms does that really
buy. Can you give us an idea of what the normal fire department
needs in terms of the special type of oxygen and all the rest?
Mr. Wagner. That is a good question. Obviously, as I said,
we would not even try to outfit all of our people, it is
strictly the hazmat trained personnel. Off the top of my head,
I am going to say maybe 30 to 40 outfits, completely outfitted.
You have to recognize that things are very costly. Self-
contained breathing apparatus alone is probably $1,500-$1,600,
and when you replace bottles, then you have to have extra
bottles.
Mr. Horn. So it is $1,000 or $2,000, in that range.
Mr. Wagner. At least $2,000, I would say, yes. I can get
you the specifics and actually mail those to you, or e-mail
them to you and I would be happy to do that.
Mr. Horn. Without objection, it will be in the record at
this point.
Mr. Conohan. In regard to the Police Department, we are not
at an adequate level to respond to these type of incidents
because of a lack of personal protection equipment. We are in
the process of purchasing as much as we can through our budget
dollars, but we are going to be asking the State, through the
Federal dollars that they are receiving, to assist us in the
purchase of some personal protective equipment for our
officers. Our officers will be the first to respond, and I
think Chief Wagner understands, and police officers in the past
have been referred to as blue canaries. You know, we respond,
and we determine by falling to the ground and dying that we
have got a hazardous situation there. And we usually get the
calls before fire responds.
So we do need a minimal amount of personal protective
equipment. And the dollars would probably be $300 per person,
that will allow us to have a negative pressure respirator,
which is a gas mask basically, with filters that will filter
out the agents and the biological agents that we would be
dealing with when we respond. Also some type of protective suit
that would also assist us. We would like to see a kit in each
one of our cruisers for our officers to be able, if they
receive a call to a situation, they can immediately put that on
and then be there to help. It would be really unfortunate if
all my officers had to back out and let fire handle a
situation. You heard from Chief Wagner, not every one of the
fire officers or firefighters have the necessary protective
equipment at this time now. So it is critical that we do get
the funding for the personal protective equipment.
The Fire Department right now is the lead agency in regards
to hazardous material incidents. We will assume a support role
for fire and we will look to them for guidance and leadership,
but there is definitely going to be a need for law enforcement
to work within that environment and during that incident.
We see that it is critical that we obtain the personal
protective equipment for our officers.
Mr. Horn. Just looking in the audience here, I would think
there were people saying well, that is fine for the police and
the fire department, how about me? Is there any type of gas
mask or whatever? Has there been any discussion about that? And
we will ask that also of the FEMA director on the next panel.
But I realize that most of the professionals say well, we will
solve that problem. The question will be, if you had let us say
an airplane that was using pesticides and spraying the place
and all the rest of it.
Mr. Wagner. Once again, I think that is a good question.
When we went through our weapons of mass destruction field
exercise, one of the issues was what do you do with the public
and is there anything that we can do. And to be very honest, if
it is ingested, I am sure from a medical standpoint, you are
already out of luck or you are going to have a number of people
that are going to succumb to that.
At the present time, there is not a method or tool or piece
of equipment that we could put on the market and sell that I am
aware of. Our response is that the sooner we get there and
start decontaminating, the better the opportunity for
survivability. And that is probably the answer that you are
going to hear throughout the country at this point in time,
sir.
Mr. Horn. Lieutenant.
Lieutenant Conohan. I would agree with Chief Wagner. I
mean, you know, I am not going to stand here and say that we
can protect the public from every one of these events. There
are going to be casualties, you have to understand that. And I
think most people do. What we can do is try to minimize those
casualties through the efforts of both fire, police and the
public health services. And you know, maybe eventually down the
road, as more technology becomes available, maybe there will be
something out there for the general public to be able to
purchase and utilize in one of these events. But to my
knowledge, I do not know of any right now. Again, we are in the
process of trying to equip the first responders and we have not
done that yet.
Mr. Horn. Thank you.
Mr. Wagner. May I add one thing, sir?
Mr. Horn. Sure.
Mr. Wagner. I think that no matter what happens, we are not
going to recognize an event until people start actually falling
down. And at that point, I think it is almost too late, when
you say what can we put on to filter our air. And that is one
of the problems with the weapons of mass destruction, is that
we are going to respond to an event when we recognize the
symptoms of that event.
And so once again, I think that in many respects, it is
going to be too late to be able to do something. It is how we
react to it, how quickly we react to it and then recognize
whatever that particular germ, whether it be chemical,
biological or nuclear, whatever that event is. And that is
going to fall back again to our field testing and then the
labs.
Dr. Smith. I would add just to that, I agree entirely, but
upon infectious disease sampling, some diseases are secondarily
spread and some are not. We are very fortunate that anthrax was
not a disease that spreads from person to person, but if we do
have a hemorrhagic fever or smallpox, then after the first
wave, as Chief Wagner discussed, then this disease may still be
spreading and that is why we depend on the special units for
the early cases and our laboratory for making an early
diagnosis.
Mr. Horn. In your discussions with the CDC in Atlanta, they
have vaccines on smallpox. Was there ever a discussion saying
why are we not using this for the average citizen?
Dr. Smith. We are very interested in that and the CDC is at
the present time debating it, because there is some morbidity
and mortality with the vaccine itself and since there have been
no cases of smallpox since 1977, the issue is whether or not we
should vaccinate the entire population with possibly one person
in a million dying from the vaccine, or whether we should wait
until there is an emergency and try to vaccinate and just
stockpile vaccines. And a third strategy that the CDC is
leaning toward right now I understand is that we vaccinate
perhaps first responders, physicians and emergency personnel
and then have a vaccine stockpile that we can activate very
quickly to vaccinate the population.
So we are very interested in the debate at the CDC about
this right now. We do get calls from our citizens saying should
I be vaccinated, but when we explain the situation, I think
people are pretty understanding.
Mr. Horn. Thank you for that answer.
Mr. Terry. Lieutenant Conohan--no more questions for the
panel, but I do want to ask if you could, if you have any
numbers, assessment of the costs of providing equipment, if you
could just provide that to me and I will submit it to the
committee for the record.
Lieutenant Conohan. Yes, I will.
Mr. Horn. At this point in the record.
Mr. Terry. At this point, right.
[The information referred to follows:]
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Mr. Terry. With that, I excuse the panel. Thank you for
coming today and providing your testimony. It was interesting
and helpful.
Mr. Horn. We are delighted with it.
Mr. Terry. We will now call the second panel, our esteemed
panel which consists of our Lieutenant Governor David Heineman;
Richard Raymond, Dr. Raymond, Richard Hainje and Gary Gates,
Steven Lee from Douglas County and Pete Neddo.
And we will begin with our highest ranking public elected
official our Lieutenant Governor. David Heineman has an
extensive pedigree in politics and management, and we are
fortunate that he is our Lieutenant Governor and has also been
placed in charge of bioterrorism, terrorism preparedness for
the State of Nebraska. And I think he is exactly the person we
need to be in charge of that task.
Before I request your testimony, I think we need to swear
in this panel, so chairman, if you would.
Mr. Horn. I want you to understand that the subcommittee is
an investigating subcommittee and once we call on you, the
chairman here today, that document goes right into the record,
you do not have to read it word for word, just summarize it and
then we can have a dialog.
So if you would stand up, raise your right hands.
[Witnesses sworn.]
Mr. Horn. Thank you very much.
Mr. Terry. So Lieutenant Governor David Heineman, will you
please start.
STATEMENTS OF DAVID HEINEMAN, LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR, STATE OF
NEBRASKA; RICHARD A. RAYMOND, M.D., CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER,
STATE OF NEBRASKA; RICHARD HAINJE, REGION VII, FEMA; W. GARY
GATES, VICE PRESIDENT, NUCLEAR DIVISION, OMAHA PUBLIC POWER
DISTRICT; STEVE LEE, DIRECTOR, DOUGLAS COUNTY EMERGENCY
MANAGEMENT AGENCY, DOUGLAS COUNTY HEALTH DEPARTMENT; AND PETE
NEDDO, MANAGER OF SAFETY AND SECURITY, METROPOLITAN UTILITIES
DISTRICT
Lieutenant Governor Heineman. Chairman Horn, Congressman
Terry--Congressman Terry, I especially appreciate those
comments, that is very kind of you.
Let me try to limit my comments so we can get to that
discussion, but I do want to start by emphasizing that Nebraska
Governor Mike Johanns had the foresight to appoint a State
Bioterrorism Task Force in 1999, 2 years prior to the tragic
events of September 11, 2001. The mission of the task force was
to assess the State's level of bioterrorism preparedness, to
formally apply for grants from the CDC to increase laboratory
capacity, to increase surveillance in epidemiology capacity, to
develop a health alert network and to coordinate bioterrorism
surveillance activities between the Nebraska Public Health Lab,
county health departments and the State Department of Health
and Human Services System. And I believe this emphasis has
given us a head start in preparing for bioterrorism.
The other key event that I want to mention to the committee
is the Governor appointed a Homeland Security Policy Group last
fall, that includes the Nebraska National Guard, Nebraska
Emergency Management, State Patrol, Fire Marshal, the Secretary
of Health and Human Services System and the Chancellor of the
Med Center and the Governor's Policy Research Office. And I do
want to note that we have an extraordinary asset in this State
in the University of Nebraska Medical Center and we appreciate
their efforts, particularly Chancellor Maurer and Dr. Hinrichs.
As Lieutenant Governor and Director of Homeland Security, I
chair the policy group. And the point I want to make about
this, this structure is very critical because it keeps the
focus on the development and implementation of a statewide,
comprehensive homeland security policy strategy, rather than a
fragmented departmental view of homeland security that I have
seen in other States.
I also want to make note for both of you that we appreciate
the cooperation we have received from Governor Ridge and the
Office of Homeland Security. If you are not familiar, we have
had meetings with their staff back in Washington, DC, we do a
conference call every other week with many States and that has
been very, very helpful. And in particular, I think it is worth
noting that when we had the pipe bomb incidents here about 2
months ago, the Office of Homeland Security was in very close
coordination and communications with our State Patrol,
Emergency Management and myself and we particularly appreciated
the outstanding support we received from the FBI.
Regarding bioterrorism preparations, we are receiving $9.7
million. Dr. Raymond here to my left, the State's Chief Medical
Officer, will go into some detail about that but what I want to
emphasize again is this comprehensive view that we have been
trying to take, Congressmen. Even though the money is coming
down from Health and Human Services to our Health and Human
Services System, part of those funds will go to our Department
of Agriculture for agri-terrorism. Part of the money will go to
the University of Nebraska Medical Center and the Creighton
University Medical Center for the education of health
professionals throughout the State. And I think that is very
helpful and the reason we have been successful is because it is
being coordinated at the highest levels of our State
government; i.e., the Governor's Office.
In the near future, we expect to receive Federal funding
for the needs of our first responders and we very much
appreciate that Federal support, because an essential element
to any effective bioterrorism response is the ability of all
public safety agencies to communicate with each other. Chairman
Horn, you had an earlier question, so I am pleased to note that
Nebraska is moving forward with a new state-of-the-art wireless
communication system that will allow all law enforcement, fire
and emergency personnel to communicate with each other from
Omaha to Scotts Bluff. I mention this because both the State of
Nebraska and our local units of government are discussing a
coordinated effort to use part of our respective portions of
the proposed first responder dollars for our wireless
communications system. And I also want to thank Congressman
Terry, who is working with us on the associated infrastructure
costs to receive hopefully some Federal funding for that.
Finally, the State of Nebraska strongly supports the
concept that all Federal funds should be coordinated and
disbursed through the States in order to maintain a
comprehensive, strategic focus to national, State and local
homeland security efforts.
Thank you.
Mr. Terry. Thank you, Lieutenant Governor.
Next is our chief medical officer for the State of
Nebraska, Dr. Raymond.
[The prepared statement of Lieutenant Governor Heineman
follows:]
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Dr. Raymond. Chairman Horn, Congressman Terry, good
morning. Congressman Terry, I am glad to see you rehydrated
after the parade in Elkhorn on Saturday.
Mr. Terry. Yeah.
Dr. Raymond. I will try to just summarize my remarks also,
Chairman Horn, so we have time for the discussion, which I am
sure you would rather hear.
First of all, as Chief Medical Officer, I am an appointee
by the Governor, I do report directly to Governor Mike Johanns
on all health-related issues in Nebraska and I also report
directly to Lieutenant Governor David Heineman, particularly on
bioterrorism issues, and most recently, of course, on the CDC
grant and how we plan to spend that money.
In addition, I see one of my roles to be a chief
facilitator amongst agencies, both State, Federal and local,
universities, local health departments, law enforcement, etc.,
to make sure that the dollars that we do receive are spent in a
very coordinated and enhanced effort.
I would like to express my gratitude to all the Federal
officials who have kept myself and others in Nebraska very
informed through the timely provision of information, their
availability for consultation through prompt return of phone
calls, their onsite visits for technical advice, their funding
to address our capacity for bioterrorism response and other
outbreaks of infectious disease and other public health threats
and emergencies. The number of conference calls and online
video presentations by the CDC and by the Health and Human
Services and others has just been amazing and extremely helpful
during these difficult times. They provided very important
information and support for our epidemiologists and our public
health officials.
I would like to take just a little bit different slant this
morning than the other testifiers who have gone before, and
give you just a little history perhaps. You are probably aware
of this, but for the public record, I want to make sure we
emphasize it.
In 1994, the defense against weapons of mass destruction
began to fund major metropolitan communities for emergency
response, as you have already heard from law and fire. We
started receiving funding in the year 2000 in Omaha and
received funding in 2001 for Lincoln. So our two major
metropolitan areas have already begun advance planning.
Needless to say, it has been enhanced and accelerated since
September 11th.
In 1999 the Federal Government gave money to the CDC to
help States begin to prepare for bioterrorism. I think there is
a great deal of foresight there and I think a lot of people
thought maybe someone was smoking something funny when they
allowed this money for bioterrorism. We looked at it as an
ability to increase our public health infrastructure, whether
we ever needed it for bioterrorism or not.
Two of the grants we received, one you have heard reference
to already, and that is the enhancement of our public health
lab, which allowed us to hire personnel and purchase equipment
and become a Level 3 lab. So we were able to respond to white
powder and anthrax threats in October and November very
rapidly. And as Dr. Hinrichs has already mentioned, we became a
model for the CDC.
One of the things he did not mention was we prepared a CD-
ROM for all of the hospitals in Nebraska to understand how to
handle the white powder, the CDC took the CD-ROM and used it
nationally, with our permission of course. But I mean it was a
model that we were able to develop because of our grants that
we received in 1999.
He also did not mention that Tony Sambo, who was hired to
be the director of our microbiology lab, was called by the
Federal Government to Washington, DC, for 1 month to help in
the investigation of the U.S. Postal Office for anthrax. He was
their main advisor/coordinator.
Because of what the CDC did for us in 1999, we were able to
turn around and help the Federal Government in 2001. So we
think there is a good, mutual symbiotic relationship here.
Nebraska is a very rural State. At the start of this year,
we had 16 county health departments that covered 22 of our 93
counties. All response to bioterrorism or other infectious
disease has to be local initially, followed by State, followed
by Federal. Eighty of those counties had no ability to respond,
91 had no epidemiological capacity. Thanks to the foresight of
our legislature and our Governor, we were able to pass a bill
that uses the tobacco funding money, some of the tobacco
settlement money to be a big carrot, to enhance rural
communities to form multi-county health districts composed of
at least 30,000 people.
Because of the events in the fall, this process also became
very accelerated and in the last 6 months, we have formed 16
new multi-county health districts that now cover 84 of our
counties. They are very early in their process and a lot of the
CDC money that we will receive will be going out to these new
county health districts to help them build their infrastructure
so they can help us.
Some of the money will be used to hire epidemiologists for
our two large county health departments, that being Lincoln and
Omaha, and those will be our deputies should we need them in
rural Nebraska. They will become our epidemiologists to help
rural Nebraska as an example of how we used the CDC funding.
We are taking the CDC dollars and trying to find unique
situations in Nebraska. As an example, we are very rural, you
have already heard, Chairman Horn, about the two medical
schools located both in Omaha, they have a high degree of
national recognition for their abilities to educate on
infectious disease and they have formed a coalition at my
request, along with multiple other people. They will be in
charge of the money that we will be using for education of
health professionals should the need arise.
The red light is on, I will stop. I would like to thank the
U.S. Government for funding these activities. I would ask that
you strongly consider continued funding. Public health has kind
of been on the back burner for so long, it is going to take
consecutive years to buildup the capacity that we so
desperately need. We cannot afford not to be totally prepared.
The State that is the least prepared
for bioterrorism becomes the weakest link in the Nation's
defense against bioterrorism because of our mobile population.
We must make sure that all States respond to this.
Thank you very much.
[The prepared statement of Dr. Raymond follows:]
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Mr. Horn. Mr. Chairman, I would like to ask one question in
particular, and that is the M.D. practicing out in the
prairies. What are we doing to get either broadband or some
form of telephone type of information? Have we done that?
Dr. Raymond. We are in the process. Actually for 17 years,
I was one of those prairie doctors, so I know what it is like
out in rural Nebraska, that is where my heart really is. Even
though the people are in Omaha and Lincoln, my heart is in
rural.
I actually met very early this morning with a group that
has a proposal to help us link, via satellite communications
with all the rural hospitals. We are--right now, we have
contracts out to every hospital in Nebraska, that we will
provide them money from the CDC grant for e-mail addresses,
computer enhancement and faxes. Also, in our county health
departments, the same process.
That is the best I can do this summer, but we will use
other money from the Health Alert Network part, that is Focus
Area E, I believe of the grant, will be used to actually get
online instant video communications to all of our hospitals to
start with. We would like to obviously expand beyond that, but
we are taking steps as we go along. So I think that will be our
next step for those particular dollars. It is very important.
Mr. Horn. Thank you.
Mr. Terry. Thank you. Since you are the chairman, you can
break in whenever you want.
Next, the Director of Region VII of FEMA, Federal Emergency
Management Agency, Richard Hainje. Thanks for being here today.
Mr. Hainje. Thank you. Good morning, Congressman Terry,
thank you for this opportunity and, Chairman Horn, thank you.
I am pleased to be with you here today to discuss the
challenges that are facing emergency managers in their efforts
to become better prepared to respond to acts of terrorism.
FEMA is the Federal agency responsible for leading the
Nation in preparing and responding to and recovering from
disasters. Our success depends on the ability to organize and
lead a community of local, State and Federal agencies and
volunteer organizations. We know who to bring to the table when
a disaster strikes in order to ensure a more effective
management of the response.
Region VII includes the States of Iowa, Kansas, Missouri
and Nebraska, representing a population of approximately 13
million, with the majority residing in the urban areas. Risks
in Region VII include flooding, tornadoes, earthquakes,
hazardous materials and the potential for terrorist attacks.
The management and control of hazardous materials is a
major issue in Region VII. The North Platte, Nebraska facility
is one of the largest railroad terminals in the world and it
has over 80,000 shipments of hazardous materials per year.
FEMA's responsibility is to coordinate Federal, regional
and State terrorism-related planning, training and exercise
activities. All of the States in Region VII have implemented
proactive and aggressive actions in response to terrorism
threats that have emerged since September 11th. Many States
have committed substantial amounts of staff and their own
financial resources toward preparing for weapons of mass
destruction events.
The President has requested $3.5 billion in the fiscal year
2003 budget to support first responders. That is the first
responder grant initiative. These funds would help plan, train
and acquire needed equipment and conduct exercises in
preparation for terrorist attacks or other emergencies.
Right now, we are developing a streamlined and accountable
procedure that would speed the flow of funds to the first
responder community. The President is requesting funds in the
2002 spring supplemental to support the first responder grant
initiative, including $175 million to be provided to State and
local governments to upgrade and sometimes to develop for the
first time comprehensive emergency operation plans.
We recognize that biological and chemical scenarios would
present unique challenges to the first responder community. Of
these two types of attacks, we are in many ways better prepared
for a chemical attack because such an incident is comparable to
a large-scale hazardous materials incident.
Bioterrorism, however, presents the greater immediate
concern. With a covert release of a biological agent, the first
responders become hospital staff, medical examiners, private
physicians or animal control workers instead of the traditional
roles of police, fire and emergency medical workers.
When September 11th showed us how a commercial jetliner
could be used as a weapon of mass destruction, the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission and FEMA began to work jointly on the
preparation of protocols and procedures for dealing with the
consequences of a similar attack on a nuclear power plant.
The functions that FEMA performs will be a key part of the
mission of the new Department of Homeland Security. As you
know, FEMA is proposed to go into--as the complete agency, into
the Department of Homeland Security. The new department will
strengthen our ability to carry out important activities such
as building the capacity of State and local emergency response
personnel to respond to emergencies and disasters of all kinds.
The structure of this newly proposed department recognizes
that FEMA's mission and core competencies are essential
components of homeland security. For this reason, Congress can
continue to be assured that the Nation will be prepared to
respond to acts of terrorism and will coordinate its efforts
with the entire first responder community. It is FEMA's
responsibility to ensure that the National Emergency Management
System is adequate to respond to the consequences of
catastrophic emergencies and disasters regardless of the cost.
Terrorism presents tremendous challenges. In recent years,
we have made tremendous strides in our efforts to increase
cooperation between the various response communities, from fire
and emergency management to health and medical to hazardous
materials. We continue to work with our partners in Federal,
State and local government to improve our response and recovery
capabilities from any disaster, whether natural or manmade.
Thank you for this opportunity.
Mr. Terry. Take. I appreciate that, Mr. Hainje.
Next, I want to introduce Gary Gates from Omaha Public
Power District. Mr. Gates is the vice president of the Nuclear
Division, oversees security at the Fort Calhoun Nuclear Power
Plant and motivational speaker. Mr. Gates.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Hainje follows:]
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Mr. Gates. Thank you, Chairman Horn and Congressman Terry.
As Congressman Terry indicated, my name is Gary Gates, I am the
Chief Nuclear Officer for the Omaha Public Power District and
as a result, have responsibility for oversight of our Fort
Calhoun Nuclear Station. As such, I am acutely aware of the
focus being placed on security since September 11th.
Others will address the biological or chemical agents and
dangers they would pose. What I would prefer to do this morning
is focus on the area of intergovernmental relations that I
believe is working very well because of communications. To a
certain degree, I am a customer of many of the presenters that
you have heard this morning.
On September 11th, we went to our highest level of
security, as did all other nuclear plants, and we have since
built on that. Many of the measures taken at Fort Calhoun,
including increased staffing and increased barriers, were
implemented across our country. We have conducted length and
ongoing discussions with numerous agencies to define and
redefine areas of responsibility. We have taken a number of
internal steps that I am not at liberty to discuss the details
of in a public forum, for obvious security reasons, but they
are significant.
Even before the events of September 11th, OPPD was working
with State and local officials in Nebraska and Iowa to assure
our neighbors that our operations are safe and do not pose a
threat to the health and welfare of the public. This level of
communication and trust has provided a sound foundation on
which to grow.
Our relationship with the State, local and Federal
officials has become even stronger as a result of September
11th, increasing a level of cooperation and communications that
already existed. By communicating, we mean that each party
letting the other know what is being done and what needs to be
done to enhance our preparedness to respond to an emergency.
Our security office at Fort Calhoun Station has increased
contact with the NRC, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, to
discuss issues of security since September 11th.
Representatives of the NRC attend briefings from Homeland
Security and various other agencies, contributing to that
effort to pass that along. NRC Region IV, of which we are a
part, has been very proactive through the Regional
Administrator, in maintaining close communications regarding
security issues.
Following September 11th, we held discussions with the
Washington County Sheriff's Office, the Nebraska State Patrol
on additional security, including more patrols and a heightened
presence in the area. We met with members of the Nebraska
Adjutant General's Office and familiarized them with our
security organization, and should the need arise, how the
National Guard could quickly and most efficiently become part
of that security effort. In fact, General Lemke personally
toured the site to confirm that the contingency plans were
adequate.
We also began daily communications with security
organizations in other plants to share our knowledge and learn
from them. This peer-to-peer contact is continuing today
through our contacts at the Nuclear Energy Institute in
Washington, DC.
Regular, open communications are the key to successful
completion of task. A wise individual once said that the job
gets done more easily when nobody worries about who gets the
credit. And that is the case here.
Just to give you an idea of the scope of the agencies that
we have interfaced with, the Nebraska and Iowa State Troopers,
our own and other nuclear security officers, National Guard
officials, the NRC, the FBI, Federal Aviation Administration,
the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, FEMA, Nebraska
Emergency Management Agency, Iowa Emergency Management, county
emergency directors on both sides of the Missouri River, the
Coast Guard and more. We will continue to effectively monitor
these efforts and continue this communication. It is a true
team approach.
Knowledge is power and by passing on the knowledge to the
men and women on the front lines, front offices and backrooms
of these organizations, we have given them more power to work
against terrorism. In return, these women and men give us the
benefit of their diverse points of view on ways to improve
security.
In summary, communications, training and the drills that we
do on a very frequent basis build a relationship in which to
continue positive intergovernmental relations.
We know that this approach of industry and government
cooperation involving Federal, State and local officials is the
right approach for our utility and the people we serve.
Thank you for your time.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Gates follows:]
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Mr. Terry. Thank you, Mr. Gates, appreciate your time.
Next, I have the honor of introducing Steve Lee. Steve has
been with Douglas County Emergency Management, Douglas County
Health Agency for as long as I can remember. How long, Steve,
have you been there?
Mr. Lee. Well, I am starting my 30th year last month.
Mr. Terry. That is what I thought. I appreciate you taking
the time. Mr. Lee, obviously in his positions with Douglas
County Health and Douglas County Emergency Management, is at
the hub of the activity in case of any emergency, albeit any
time of terrorist attack or an actual emergency. So Mr. Lee, we
appreciate that you took time out of your busy day to be with
us today. You may begin.
Mr. Lee. Mr. Chairman, Representative Terry, thank you for
the invitation. I will read my remarks, which will prevent me
from rambling.
For the record, I am the Director of Douglas County
Emergency Management Agency. I do not have a direct affiliation
with the Health Department, although we work quite closely.
One of the beautiful things about America is its ability to
meet every challenge it faces. Most recently, in preparing for
bioterrorism attacks, we have begun to plan for what may indeed
be our most daunting and long-term battle. We are blessed with
the freedom, talent, ingenuity and resources to meet this
challenge, but it will require an unselfish and unified effort
by those individuals, organizations and governments charged
with the safety, security and protection of our citizens.
The potential scenarios involving bioterrorism require an
enhancement of local and State capabilities to manage the
threat. Issues that may be encountered include: Developing
response models that include the occurrence of a chemical or
biological attack with no advanced warning. Difficulty in
identifying the agent. Development of a rapid and reliable
public health surveillance system. Determining the most
appropriate means of protection. Decontaminating, sheltering
and treating victims, first responders, incident sites and the
environment. Plans and facilities for the decontamination of
the worried well population. Identifying and providing
appropriate treatment, both initial and definitive. Identifying
and providing diverse collateral requirements; for example,
public safety, mental health issues, ventilation systems and so
forth. Determining the appropriate disposition of the deceased.
And working more closely with the media to address issues such
as mass panic and decontamination procedures.
First responders and health systems, including State and
local health departments, need specific protective equipment
and training and the ability to: Identify the agent. Learn
appropriate methods for safe extraction and transportation.
Store, disburse and distribute antidotes. Decontaminate, triage
and provide primary care. And provide for forward movement of
victims when treatment centers reach capacity.
We now know that the real or perceived release of a
biological threat such as anthrax has a debilitating and
predictable impact on a community. It does not require the
release to take place in a densely populated area or a highly
visible place of assembly. We have seen how easy it is to
overwhelm our support systems. A wide outbreak of infectious
disease would threaten the ability of emergency and medical
personnel to respond. Personnel within these facilities would
be at risk of infection themselves, especially prior to a
certain diagnosis of the disease. The collection and disposal
of contaminated material presents additional long-term
problems.
The problems cited above, along with other issues and
concerns too numerous to mention here, make it seem as though
there is no way this task could be accomplished. Although no
plan will completely address and solve the menace of
bioterrorism, I believe we can go a long way toward providing a
reasonable, acceptable solution. In fact, the Federal
Government already has a model in place that, if followed,
serves as an excellent guide for addressing the planning
requirements for bioterrorism. It is called MMRS or
Metropolitan Medical Response System. MMRS provides for a
collaborative development of an effective system capable of
responding to chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear
incidents. It requires coordination among fire, law
enforcement, emergency management, hospitals, laboratories,
public health officials, poison control centers, mental health
professionals, infectious disease experts, surrounding
communities, States and the Federal Government.
Three years ago, a contract provided to the city of Omaha
through the Federal Department of HHS enabled the development
of the Omaha Medical Response System, referred to as OMMRS. It
was created following a series of three exercises conducted
under the authority of the Nunn-Lugar-Domenici Domestic
Preparedness Act. The after-action reports highlighted the
community's need to enhance its WMD response capability,
particularly the areas of public health, communications and
hospital preparedness. OMMRS represents over 50 agencies,
departments and institutions. By virtue of the ongoing effort
of its 10 active subcommittees, OMMRS is in a position to
inform you exactly what our community requires in meeting the
bioterrorism threat. You may wince at the final tally, but it
is accurately and honestly arrived at.
The two most important words I have used in describing a
successful bioterrorism preparedness program are: unselfish,
and unified. All localities, regional and States, should be
encouraged to utilize MMRS or an equivalent concept. No single
entity can provide for or meet the requirements that are needed
for a bioterrorism plan. Left alone, agencies will fight for
funds, reinvent wheels, refuse to share information and end up
with plans developed in isolation that will not work.
I will conclude by saying that last, the Federal Government
can do four additional things: Congress must insist on
cooperation, not competition, among the Federal agencies and
departments and see to it that they are singing the same song.
Continue to support efforts to increase the public health
infrastructure in order for communities to effectively address
acts of bioterrorism and other public health threats. Offer an
incentive to business and industries to contribute to the
cause, whether it is money, material or personnel. And last,
assure the public that these issues are being addressed and
develop programs that enable the citizens to make a
contribution by being actively involved, beyond just being more
vigilant.
Thank you.
Mr. Terry. Very good, appreciate that testimony.
Next I have the honor of introducing Pete Neddo, who is the
manager of safety and security for Metropolitan Utilities
District. Mr. Neddo.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Lee follows:]
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Mr. Neddo. Good morning. Thank you, Congressman Terry and
Chairman Horn, for asking the District to be represented here.
As mentioned, I am the Director of Safety and Security for the
Metropolitan Utilities District, a gas and water public utility
for Omaha.
In addressing the issue here this morning of how the
Federal Government is assisting the State and local governments
in preparing for bioterrorist attacks, we found that while
there is some assistance there, it is somewhat limited.
While the EPA has provided some grant money to water
utilities for threat assessments, that money can only be used
for threats, so there is not a lot of flexibility in how we can
use that to enhance security and make other types of
improvements. We have received excellent information,
educational materials and such, to use to educate our employees
and our customers. That has been very helpful.
In addition to that, Sandia National Labs, in conjunction
with the American Water Works Association Research Foundation
has provided an excellent risk assessment methodology for us to
use in evaluating the water systems. They have also provided
some training for member companies. I think that should be
expanded for all water utilities, because it is an excellent
model and should be used by all, I think.
We have incurred significant increases in security costs
since September 11th. The cost of security guards has tripled.
Improvements have been initiated in many areas, security
evaluations, improvements and other enhancements are ongoing.
As we evaluate our systems, we are going to incur more costs to
protect the water and gas supplies for Omaha. Our needs will be
met, costs are expected to be significant.
The District recognizes the responsibility to its
customers, the public as well as the employees and we will make
the necessary improvements to continue to look for ways to
ensure gas and water supplies are protected. Critical to this
obviously is fire protection. We will work with the fire
departments to ensure that is available to them.
The support from local law enforcement, the FBI and other
enforcement agencies has been excellent. We are kept informed
on various activities through advisories, other methods,
responses to our various inquiries has been outstanding,
especially from local law enforcement.
We are also in coordination with Offitt Air Force Base,
looking at their needs and their concerns and working with them
to address those needs so that will be ongoing and we feel is
very critical.
Our commitment to security is strong, continual and any
assistance, whether monetary or otherwise is beneficial and can
only serve to expedite our efforts. At the present time,
Federal assistance, as I mentioned, has been limited to the EPA
grants. We would like to see perhaps more flexibility in using
any moneys that are made available and use those to enhance
hardware, physical security efforts and those.
Thank you for your time this morning. That is all that I
have.
Mr. Terry. Thank you, Mr. Neddo.
Mr. Horn. Mr. Hainje, I am interested in the applications
people are applying for the $3.5 billion allocated in the first
responder grant funds. Now you represent both urban America and
rural America. Do you feel the formulas they are using across
the Nation make sense? And if so, what is the formula?
Mr. Hainje. At this time, they are still working on those
formulas. They have had quite a bit of input. They brought in
State emergency management directors, local police, fire
representatives, a few elected officials to have some sessions
to talk about what that process should be.
The only indication that I have had so far of how that will
work that would probably be the most comforting is that the
States themselves are going to be able to do planning on how to
access that money and how to best use it. So there is a lot
of--there will be a lot of local input. There will be a
tremendous amount of State input, State by State.
Mr. Horn. Of course, the mayors will then complain that the
Governor is doing it and they want to do it. And that is a 40-
year-old argument.
Mr. Hainje. That is an argument that I believe you will
hear more about than I will in my office probably. You know, it
is something that--FEMA presently in emergency operations works
very extensively with the State emergency management folks, who
are part of the Governor's office typically. And that is the
relationship that we have had most common.
In some of our mitigation activities, we work directly with
locals, but we have encouraged the States--the States are in
the process of developing plans for this and the format is
expected to be easily accessible to local and State government.
Mr. Horn. Mr. Neddo, your responsibilities for water are
great. When I was in Europe a few months ago, you perhaps read
about this, there were four terrorists that were trying to
poison the water supply of Rome. They caught them, but we are
open in many parts of America, you have big reservoirs and all
the rest.
What are we doing to assure security of your water supply
here?
Mr. Neddo. Well, as I mentioned, the security guard service
has tripled, our costs in that area have tripled. Our manning
in that area has tripled. We have installed a number of
physical security devices--card access readers. We have
controlled access into many of our areas, we have realigned our
tours and those kinds of things that we generally make
available to the public and certainly tightened controls on
those.
We are in the process of completing threat assessment
evaluations to determine where our critical areas are and where
maybe our weakest points are and are looking at enhancing
physical security in those areas.
We are, in fact, using the Sandia methodology which really
fits well with what we are doing here.
But you are right, it is very unnerving to drive by some of
our water facilities and see how easy they are to be accessed.
We are continuing to evaluate, we will be installing more
security cameras, detection, we will operate under a fairly
simple detect, delay and respond risk assessment plan.
Mr. Horn. Thank you.
Mr. Terry. Let me just followup. Is there also a process
for testing, continuous testing of the water so if there is an
incident that occurs that goes undetected by cameras and a
guard, that there is perhaps a tertiary level of containment
and detection?
Mr. Neddo. Yes, there is testing. We are also looking at
expanding our testing. In fact, even continuous monitoring at
various points throughout the water system. That is a very good
question.
Mr. Terry. Do you have any more questions?
Mr. Horn. No, that is it.
Mr. Terry. Lieutenant Governor Heineman, Chairman Horn
raised one of the fundamental questions regarding how the money
will be distributed. There will be a formula--I do not know. Do
you know how much of that $3.5 billion will come to the State
of Nebraska? I have heard from our local police and fire, who
are now trying to use different grants to avoid the political
controversy of having to ask the State for dollars. Is there a
process that has been developed at the State to get the dollars
in a, let me say, non-political way, to those that are in most
need of those dollars?
Lieutenant Governor Heineman. That is a pretty significant
question, Congressman Terry. Let me try to take that one on.
Mr. Terry. You have 30 seconds. [Laughter.]
Lieutenant Governor Heineman. Thirty seconds. It is called
Governor Mike Johanns--no. In our State, everything we have
tried to do is to take a comprehensive view. As I talk to my
counterparts in other States, I am amazed that, oh, you all
actually get in the same room and you talk to each other. I
mean their emergency management does not talk to the National
Guard, does not talk to the State Patrol, does not talk to
Health and Human Services or whatever.
As you well know, in our State, we have a foundation that
for many years, regardless of political party, we are all in
there trying to do what is best and what is right for the
State. So I do not think that has been a problem for us. About
75 percent of money that we will get--and I do not know the
specific amount out of the formula--will go to local first
responders. Again, I mentioned in my testimony, we are already
beginning discussions on this new wireless communication
system. Can all of us agree in advance that a portion of those
dollars will go to that system?
And so I think the coordination and the cooperation that
you have heard about all morning long is very true in Nebraska,
because we tend, when elections are over, to take off the
political hats and we are focused on doing what is right for
the State.
And we have a situation in our State, three Congressman and
two Senators, we know each other all very, very well from a
variety of previous positions. This afternoon, they are all
going to be talking, for example, on the drought situation
facing Nebraska. So the communications that occurs in our
State, I think, has avoided the difficulties that I hear from
my counterparts in other States. We are going to make sure that
money goes to the local units of government. But I also want to
emphasize, there is going to be a national homeland security
strategy. In order to carry that out, to have an effective
command and control, I think you have got to use the chain of
command, which basically flows from our national level to our
States to our local units of government.
Now maybe in the State of New York where they have
different kinds of challenges, they have different problems,
but I will say in Nebraska, I do not believe that will be one
of ours.
Mr. Terry. Well, I do think that what separates us probably
from other States and their degree of preparedness is our
ability to communicate. For some reason, that has just been the
culture in Nebraska and that really helps us.
A tool of communication, as you have mentioned and Dr.
Raymond mentioned, is the wireless communications system so all
emergency entities, whether it is local police and fire
departments from Omaha to wherever, and also I would assume,
Dr. Raymond, medical information that perhaps is developed here
at University of Nebraska Medical Center laboratories and then
needs to be communicated to various parts of Nebraska. That
wireless communication system, Lieutenant Governor Heineman, I
think is key.
I am just wondering where we are in that process of
developing it. We have written a letter asking for
appropriations. Assuming we do not get that this year, where is
the State. And also have you thought about using--you mentioned
satellite, but there is new wireless terrestrial technologies
too that will allow not just for land-based communications, but
internet communications, videoconferencing, which I think would
be a tremendous asset.
Lieutenant Governor Heineman. Congressman Terry, I fully
expected you were going to announce that grant to us this
morning and that everything would be--we would be ready to move
forward. But we do appreciate all the support we are receiving
and your efforts and Senator Hagel and the others of our
delegation.
One of the hats that I think we have done very well in this
State--the Lieutenant Governor is responsible not only as
director of homeland security, but I serve as chairman of the
Nebraska Information Technology Commission, I will be a member
of the board on this wireless communications board. And so that
gives the Lieutenant Governor of this State the opportunity to
keep this comprehensive focus, to look at the variety of
technologies, to span not only what I will say is our
bioterrorism concerns, but our information technology needs in
general, related to the Med Center, the University of Nebraska,
our distance education learning, videoconferencing. We want to
take advantage of all those techniques and I would just share
with you that if we do not get the money this year, we will
continue to move forward with our local efforts involving our
cities and counties where they are going to use their bonding
authority to move forward in some of these equipment purchases.
But particularly, the infrastructure costs that we talked to
you about, if we could begin to move forward on that, that will
take us a long ways down the road of implementing a new
wireless communication system.
Mr. Terry. Well my time for questions has run out. If I
could ask the chairman for time for one more question.
Mr. Horn. Certainly.
Mr. Terry. Thank you, sir.
I would like to ask Mr. Hainje, one of the themes that we
have picked up on today is that in order to be successful in
securing any community, whether it is in Nebraska or anywhere
in this Nation, is the need for full cooperation and really all
levels of government, whether it is Douglas County with Mr.
Lee, city of Omaha, State of Nebraska, the Federal Government.
You represent the link of the Federal Government to the State
and the other links. Historically there has been, at times of
emergency, tensions that arise between the Federal link and the
local and State links.
What efforts are being taken in regard to terrorism
preparedness, bioterrorism, chemical, nuclear, to avoid those
type of tensions so we can all act as members of the same team?
Mr. Hainje. I believe the first thing is that Director
Allbaugh, when he immediately came in, one of the first things
that he talked about was for FEMA specifically to not be late
arriving on the scene, if you will, when something begins to
happen. So we actually are attempting to open up--on the after-
the-fact side of things, open up the communication and open up
the cooperation even quicker.
Going way back in history to like Hurricane Andrew, there
was a timeframe between when an incident happened and the
Federal Government assistance arrived, very controversial at
the time. It changed greatly before the floods of 1993 and it
has now gotten to the point now where in major events,
certainly a weapons of mass destruction type event, FEMA would
be there nearly immediately on those scenes.
And also just for the record, if you will, what FEMA does
is set up the emergency support functions in Washington or in
the region and bring in the Federal agencies so that we can
start offering help. If you are more familiar with working with
HHS, HHS will be there, if it is an issue that deals with them.
And we can start offering that support very quickly.
We are gearing up considerably with the new Office of
National Preparedness our training and exercise and
coordination abilities. This is something that was prior to
September 11th, that the President asked Director Allbaugh to
form that and the Office of National Preparedness' entire goal
is to work more closely with people at all levels, whether it
be specific to, for example, like Mr. Gates referred to,
nuclear preparedness around a facility and how that all works,
increase the exercises and the communication and plus, really
the big thing though, is we are gearing up in the first
responder area. That will be a major, major impact, because in
order to do the first responder grant initiative correctly, we
will have to work closely with agencies nationwide on what
their plans are and offer the kind of support they need.
So we are trying to do things on the response side, if you
will, and the recovery side, to make ourselves more responsive
and as responsive as we can be. And we are trying to work
closely with our Federal partners and the Federal response plan
is the key to that and the first responder initiative
especially is going to really bring a lot of this together and
hopefully facilitate a lot of discussion.
Mr. Terry. Thank you for that answer. Thank you for the
extra time, Mr. Chairman.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Hecker follows:]
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Mr. Horn. I want to thank a number of people, without whom
this hearing would not have been made. And let me start in with
the subcommittee itself. I believe we have J. Russell George,
our staff director and chief counsel; and Bonnie Heald, is on
the left of Mr. Terry, and she is the deputy staff director;
Chris Barkley is on our--where is Chris, OK, he is running
around solving problems; and then Justin Paulhamus is the
majority clerk. We have Yigal Kerszenbaum, a subcommittee
intern. And I want to thank particularly Mr. Terry's District
Director, Molly Lloyd.
And our host here, we are most grateful, I just love this
facility and that is the University of Nebraska Medical Center.
And then you have seen this gentleman over here, the court
reporter, Bill Warren. Bill, you have escaped me a minute--
well, maybe he has moved in the back--oh, here he is. He goes
with us wherever we go and the transcript is right.
And we are going to have to ask your indulgence because we
have a meeting at 11 with the Strategic Command to see them.
You have here a number of questions we would like to ask, but
if you would not mind, we will send you the questions and just
at your leisure, put an answer in there and we will put it in
the record at this point, because you have put some very
important things before us.
And I particularly am delighted that Lee Terry could
provide here the leadership. He is one of the finest U.S.
Representatives I have ever seen and I have known him since day
one when he arrived.
Mr. Terry. And I did not even write that.
Mr. Horn. That is true. I got the PR guy from the
Lieutenant Governor's Office. [Laughter.]
Your interest in the public interest to do the right thing,
that is what he has done. And you are lucky to have a person
like that. So thank you, sir.
Mr. Terry. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Horn. With that, we are adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 11:05 a.m., the subcommittee was adjourned.]
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