Homeland Security sets standards for detectors, gear

The Homeland Security Department has announced its first standards for radiation detectors and for gear to protect personnel in a chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear incident. The standards are intended to help state and local governments make procurement decisions and to provide manufacturers with performance criteria.

Friday afternoon in New York, the department's Science and Technology Directorate announced standards for radiological and nuclear detectors, providing performance criteria and test methods that government officials and manufacturers will use in evaluating portable radiation detectors and portal monitors installed in buildings. The department's Office for Domestic Preparedness, along with the Commerce Department's National Institute of Standards and Technology and the Energy Department's national laboratories, helped to develop the standards.

"The [Homeland Security] Department, through [the Bureau of] Customs and Border Protection, has already moved forward with deploying state-of-the-art radiation detection technologies at key installations on our nation's borders. These standards will facilitate our ability to ensure that equipment meets rigorous standards and supports the quick deployment of the best equipment available," said Asa Hutchinson, Homeland Security undersecretary for border and transportation security.

Meanwhile, the department's Science and Technology Directorate yesterday announced its adoption of standards on protective clothing, self-contained breathing apparatus and air-purifying and self-contained respirators. The National Fire Protection Association and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health developed the standards over several years.

Jurisdictions receiving grants from the Office for Domestic Preparedness, which is the department's major provider of grants to first responders, are to use the radiation detector standards to guide their spending, the Homeland Security Department said.

Homeland Security Undersecretary for Science and Technology Charles McQueary testified Wednesday before the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Science and Research and Development about the detector standards and their relationship to grant decisions.

Rep. Robert Andrews, D-N.J., used the hearing to stress the importance of establishing equipment standards when doling out homeland security funds. "The world is just filled with charlatans right now," Andrews told McQueary.

Subcommittee members also cited complaints from business owners that it is difficult to reach the Homeland Security Department with information about their anti-WMD and other technologies. Businesses are "constantly" contacting committee members about relations with the Science and Technology Directorate, Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., said.

The department is certifying such technologies, through its Homeland Security Advanced Research Projects Agency, with an eye toward encouraging research and development by limiting the legal liability of vendors in case of a WMD attack. The certification process, though, has also been the focus of complaints, with businesses calling the process unduly complicated and bureaucratic.

"There might be some undue burden. We've got some barriers to entry there," McQueary acknowledged at the hearing.

McQueary said the $1.04 billion requested for the directorate for fiscal 2005 would be a $126.5 million increase over fiscal 2004, mostly because of increased spending on biological defense.

Rep. Jim Turner, D-Texas, praised the biological defense spending but asked whether more money should be devoted to other areas as well. McQueary replied that more money is needed for protection in that sector because a biological attack would be relatively easy to carry out but might not be as readily detectable as other kinds of weapons of mass destruction attacks.

"I truly believe that the greatest threat to this country lies in the biologic area as much as any," McQueary said.

McQueary said a "budget decision" has been made to limit overall spending for the directorate. "We all work for somebody. … I view my responsibility as trying to get the best performance we can get our of the budget request," he said.

Amid such budgetary constraints, the department has sought to spend in a more targeted way by improving its ability to assess the threat of terrorism around the country and where vulnerabilities lie.

The department's Information Analysis and Infrastructure Protection Directorate is conducting a national threat and vulnerability assessment, which will be aided in part by the submission last month of states' homeland security plans and assessments. Department officials said repeatedly last year that the assessment could take up to five years, but Turner said Deputy Homeland Security Secretary James Loy told him the process will take place much more quickly.

According to Turner spokeswoman Moira Whelan, Loy said Homeland Security Department officials "expect to get something rolling and have something by the end of the year." Loy provided no specific timeline and said he expects something akin to a "rough draft" this year, Whelan said.

"Without that comprehensive threat and vulnerability assessment," Turner said Wednesday, "in many ways, we are kind of operating ad hoc."