FEMA seeks national strategy for funding first responders

The Federal Emergency Management Agency is making strides toward creating a national strategy for bolstering the resources of "first responders" to emergencies, a top official said Tuesday.

Bruce Baugham, FEMA's national preparedness director, told a gathering at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington that initiatives to harmonize emergency preparation and response involve all potential disasters, not just terrorists threats.

"We need to build an all-hazards capability," he said. "We have not put the time, effort and money into that system." He called for an integrated national system that can "respond to any event, whether it's Hurricane Andrew or an 8.4 [earthquake] in California."

The creation of a central office for emergency preparation will enhance the effort to meet that goal, Baugham said. Current core preparedness responsibilities fall to FEMA and the Justice and Health and Human Services departments, but those functions would be combined into a proposed Homeland Security Department. That step would give states and localities easier access to the federal government for coordination efforts and to apply for grants, he said.

Officials already are working together to avoid duplication. Congress has allocated $100 million for states to create emergency plans, $56 million to upgrade emergency operation centers and $50 million to improve equipment interoperability. With an additional $7 million, FEMA is seeking equipment to enable secure communications with state emergency offices.

Thomas Rinaldi, deputy director of New York's emergency center, said that since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, "one of the most important things we felt we needed to do was to look internally."

Consequently, the group has formed a task force to examine technology issues, including interoperability and information technology support. Like other states, New York also established a task force to examine issues involving wireless communications networks.

"There are some very inherent problems, especially being a border state with Canada," where Canadian broadcasting firms share wireless spectrum with New York emergency agencies, Rinaldi said.

Federal and state officials are collaborating on setting standards and performance benchmarks to rate the success of certain equipment and first-responder initiatives.

Still, George Vradenburg, AOL Time Warner strategic adviser and co-chairman of a Potomac Conference task force, noted the "misalignment" of resources and timing in the first-response initiatives. Because they already have millions of federal dollars to apply to emergency-response funding, he argued, local officials have begun equipment upgrades.

"I fear in '02 and even in '03 we are going to build a new generation of equipment ... well in advance of when you have your standards in place," he said.

Baugham agreed but cautioned that some immediate needs should be addressed. "The dilemma we are in is, 'Do we place a moratorium ... until we set interoperability standards?'"

So far, the Office of Domestic Preparedness at the Justice Department manages the lists of standard and accepted emergency-response equipment, he said, adding that the FEMA, Justice and HHS preparedness offices are grappling to fashion a better "interface" with private industry to resolve the specifics in equipment and technology standards.