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Office of Emergency Management: The Department of Defense's Domestic Preparedness Program

In response to an unprecedented wave of terrorist activity in both the United States and abroad over the past five years, and to the growing concern of the potential use of Weapons of Mass Destruction in a terrorist attack, The Defense Against Weapons of Mass Destruction Act was passed in 1996. Sponsored by Senators Nunn, Lugar and Domenici, the Act allocated $52.6 million of its $100 million appropriation to a "Domestic Preparedness Program", whose goal is to increase and improve local emergency agency response to a nuclear, radiological, biological, or chemical terrorist attack through training and exercises.

Most Federal agencies acknowledge that New York City is the number one terrorist target in the nation. In order to prepare for a potential attack, New York City has made known their need for equipment and training totaling $26.355 million. Over the past year, the Mayor's Office of Emergency Management requested $20.855 million from the Department of Defense, $3.2 million from FEMA, and $2.3 million from Health and Human Services for the Metropolitan Mobile Strike Team (MMST) System. To date, the city has not yet received any funds, training, or equipment.

New York City officials have encountered numerous problems while attempting to obtain this funding, and have determined that mismanagement and poor planning by the Department of Defense and FEMA have rendered the program useless. This brief serves to document these problems.

In April 1997, FEMA gave the Mayor's Office of Emergency Management a 24-hour deadline to submit funding proposals for training exercises. OEM submitted five proposals requesting a total of $3.2 million. Not only have these proposals been ignored, but OEM was subsequently told by the Department of Defense that FEMA never had any money to distribute, and should not have solicited proposals. To add to the confusion, the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense/Special Operations, Low Intensity Conflict Department recently told OEM that the Domestic Preparedness Program "Was not designed for direct grants."

While New York City has not yet received any Federal funds, the Department of Defense has already spent four million dollars of program money preparing Denver, Colorado for their June, 1997 G-8 Summit, which was attended by eight heads of state. This money was allocated under the guise of a training exercise that consisted of hundreds of soldiers and the latest equipment and technology.

One week later, the City of New York hosted the 10-day U.N. Environmental Summit. This event attracted 30 heads of state, 70 foreign ministers, and a visit by the President and Vice President of the United States. Despite the enormous potential for a terrorist incident, it took the intervention of the Health and Human Services Emergency Preparedness Office to get the DOD to honor our request for a supply of Mark-1 Antidote kits. No other federal assistance or money was offered, and no special response units were offered to be pre-positioned in New York City, as occurred in Denver.

The Mayor's Office of Emergency Management has also been told that New York City, which has 60,000 responders, will receive the same cache of training equipment as the other 26 participating cities, some of which have as few as 6,000 responders. We believe this an outrageous and inadequate allocation of equipment.

While the Act clearly speaks to enhancing local preparedness, as local government will bear the brunt of these terrorist incidents, little, if any, money has been spent to enhance local preparedness. In fact, money is being used to enhance Federal preparedness capabilities in DOD in spite of the fact that they couldn't truly respond in time to aid cities.

It is imperative that New York City has their people and equipment in place, because many Federal officials believe a Federal response to a terrorist act will take 12-18 hours (as opposed to the DOD's estimate of 4-8 hours). Considering this figure, one participant exclaimed that "The only people these Federal responders would be coordinating their operations with are the funeral directors."

New York City officials are also concerned that large sums of money have been spent to publicize the program, while almost nothing has been spent on actual training or exercises. Valuable funding has been squandered, as proposed training programs and the "Model City" exercises have fallen apart. The Department of Defense worked for months to prepare training packages, and abandoned them after reviewers from various cities found that the courses were not even close to meeting local needs. New York City was eager to participate in the "Model Cities" program, and is now considering doing this as a joint NYC/FBI program.

Both the Department of Defense and the Federal Emergency Management Agency have demonstrated a lack of ability to develop and implement this program, and have proven themselves incapable of working with local agencies. DOD in particular is simply not accustomed to dealing with local governments; Their concept of operations does not match local operations, and they do not have an understanding of local response. As the FBI has local offices throughout the country, and experience in working with local law enforcement and emergency management agencies, it is our belief that the Domestic Preparedness Program should be placed under the direction of the FBI.

Because New York City has not yet received any federal funding, the Mayor has committed city money to fund New York's anti-terrorism preparations. At present, it is the leadership of the Mayor and the "can do" attitude of the city's public safety agencies that are taking the lead without Federal or State support to protect New York City citizens. A terrorist act in New York City is an act against the country. It's time the Federal rhetoric caught up with reality, and provided assistance to a city that has proven it is ready to hold up its end in the fight against terrorism.

Domestic Preparedness Program - Talking Points

• In September 1996, the Mayor wrote to the Secretary of Defense requesting assistance in obtaining money from the 1996 Defense Against Weapons of Mass Destruction Act's Domestic Preparedness Program.
• Despite requesting $26.355 million in equipment and training over the past year ($20.855 million from the Department of Defense, $3.2 million from FEMA, and $2.3 million from Health and Human Services for the Metropolitan Mobile Strike Team (MMST) System), New York City has yet to receive any funds.
• The City of Denver has already received $4 million in federal money from this program.
• Large sums of money have been spent to publicize the program. Almost nothing has been spent on actual training or exercises.
• Valuable funding has been squandered on the development of inadequate training programs that have been abandoned.
• The program should be placed under the direction of the FBI. The FBI has local offices in all the target cities, and experience working with local law enforcement and emergency management agencies. DOD does not.
• In April 1997, FEMA asked New York City to submit funding proposals within 24 hours. OEM submitted 5 proposals, requesting a total of $3.2 million for exercises. OEM has yet to receive any response form FEMA.
• Months later, the Assistant Secretary of Defense/Special Operations Department told OEM that the Domestic Preparedness Program "Was not designed for direct grants."
• New York has 60,000 responders. We will be given the same amount of equipment as the other 26 cities on the list, some of which have fewer than 6,000 responders.
• Funds earmarked for local preparedness are being used to enhance Federal preparedness capabilities in DOD, in spite of the fact that they can't truly respond in time to aid cities.

Budget Breakdown Summary

Approximately $100 million dollars was allocated to the Defense Against Weapons of Mass Destruction Act of 1996.

Roughly $47.4 million dollars has been allocated to such programs and agencies as the Cooperative Threat Reduction Program (which works to accelerate the destruction of stockpiles of chemical, biological, and nuclear material in the former Soviet Union), Public Health Services, and the U.S. Border Patrol, which is working to strengthen the ability of international and U.S. border officials to interdict the transit of weapons and materials of mass destruction.

As originally set forth in the Department of Defense's May 1, 1997, report to Congress titled "Domestic Preparedness Program in the Defense Against Weapons of Mass Destruction," approximately $52.6 million was reported to have been allocated for the Domestic Preparedness Program during Fiscal Year 1997. It was to be divided as follows:

• $16.4 million for the Emergency Response Assistance Program, which consists of training, expertise advice, and Hotline and Helpline Programs. (NOTE: The fiscal year is ending in September, and these Hotlines and Helplines are no where to be found.)
• $6.6 million for the development and fielding of Metropolitan Mobile Strike Team (MMST) Systems. (NOTE: New York City has requested $2.3 million for the MMST. No money has been received).
• $9.8 million for the development and fielding of a Chemical/Biological Quick Response Force. (NOTE: This is all the funding allocated for the entire United States. This approach is in contradiction to their own assessment as to the best way for the nation to prepare for these events, which is local, not federal, response.)
• $9.8 million for the testing of preparedness for emergencies involving nuclear, radiological, chemical, and biological weapons. (NOTE: This money needs to be allocated by September 1997. New York City submitted five proposals requesting a total of $3.2 million. We have not yet received an acknowledgment of these proposals, let alone any funding. In addition, the funding for the "Model Cities" program, which New York City was eager to participate in, was cut to the point to where we are reconsidering DOD's involvement. We may do this as a New York City/FBI program.
• $10 million for the upgrade of equipment for the Marine Corps' Chemical Biological Incident Response Force, including funds for pre-positioned equipment at key domestic locations.

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