Senate creates first responder tech team
The Senate on Thursday passed a measure to create a volunteer cadre of technology professionals that the government could mobilize during a crisis.
"As America mobilizes to protect itself from terrorism," said Sen. Ron Wyden, the Oregon Democrat who sponsored the measure, "a key weapon in the defensive arsenal is its great technological prowess. ... Therefore, it is essential to ensure that America's anti-terrorism efforts tap the tremendous science and technology talents of the private sector."
Similar to existing urban search and rescue teams, the National Emergency Technology Guard, or NET Guard, would be certified and deployed by an office within the executive branch and headed by a presidential-appointed director.
"The legislation does not create a large bureaucracy, nor does it seek to micromanage," Wyden said Thursday. "Instead, it gives the president flexibility to decide where within the executive branch the different functions set forth in the bill should be placed."
In addition to building a virtual reserve of tech experts, the measure would mandate the creation of a center to serve as a clearinghouse for evaluating new technologies aimed at enhancing emergency-response capabilities.
"New technologies are being developed every day that can help save lives and improve the ability of our firefighters, police and 'first responders' to react quickly and effectively to a catastrophic event," Virginia Republican George Allen, a co-sponsor of the measure, said on the floor.
According to the bill, the center, dubbed the Center for Civilian Homeland Security Technology Evaluation, would provide an online portal as a single point of contact for industries to navigate the federal bureaucracy to recommend their technologies that could potentially aid the security efforts. The bill also seeks to grant funding-totaling $35 million-for pilot projects that attempt to solve interoperability problems in local emergency response-including fire, law enforcement, medical practioners-and communications infrastructure.
Allen spokesman Matt Raymond said language similar to the freestanding bill is included in the House Science Committee's portion of a measure to created a Homeland Security Department. But "where it goes [from there] is sort of up in the air," he added. The proposal ultimately could become law as part of the homeland security legislation, he noted.
House Science Committee Chairman Sherwood Boehlert, R-N.Y., has said he will shepherd a companion measure through the House.
Wyden noted that companies such as AOL Time Warner, Intel, Microsoft, Oracle, the National Association of Manufacturers and Biotechnology Industry Organization support the proposal.