DHS faulted over Washington area security coordination

The Homeland Security Department has not done enough to prepare the Washington area for the possibility of another terrorist attack, lawmakers said Thursday.

Members of the House Government Reform Committee called a hearing to allow Thomas Lockwood, who last month became the director of DHS' Office of National Capital Region Coordination, to respond to findings by government auditors that coordination of security and spending is sorely lacking in the capital region. As director of the office, Lockwood is responsible for overall coordination of Washington area security efforts.

"There really doesn't seem to be a sense of urgency by DHS with regard to the National Capital Region," said Rep. Jim Moran, D-Va.

Moran noted that freight trains carrying hazardous and explosive material travel on a railroad line that runs through Washington and within a mile of critical government facilities.

Committee Chairman Tom Davis, R-Va., criticized DHS for leaving Lockwood's position vacant for five months. "The fact that they left this open for so long raises doubt about the commitment of the administration."

Lockwood said his office is developing an integrated plan for the region within "the next several months." He said his priorities are public education, development of interoperable communication systems, integration of intelligence and information sharing, and distribution of funds. He said he has visibility and support within DHS.

The General Accounting Office concluded in its report (GAO-04-433) that the National Capital Region lacks a coordinated plan for spending money and identifying priorities. In fiscal years 2002 and 2003, eight jurisdictions in the region were awarded about $340 million in grants to enhance emergency preparedness. Of that, Lockwood's office targeted $60.5 million to benefit the region as a whole, while the remaining funds went to local jurisdictions.

"[The National Capital Region] faces several challenges in organizing and implementing efficient and effective regional preparedness programs, including the lack of a coordinated strategic plan for enhancing [region] preparedness, performance standards, and a reliable, central source of data on funds available and the purposes for which they were spent," the report stated. "Without the standards, a regionwide plan, and needed data on spending, it is extremely difficult to determine whether [capital region] first responders have the ability to respond to threats and emergencies with well-planned, well-coordinated, and effective efforts."

The region also lacks concrete documentation on how money was spent or what money is still in the pipeline waiting to be spent, said William Jenkins, GAO's director of homeland security and justice issues.

"We put Humpty Dumpty together from a variety of sources and it wasn't easy to do in some cases," Jenkins said.

Lockwood told reporters after the hearing that there will be greater transparency and tracking of how money is spent. He added that he "absolutely" believes the region is safe.

"I need to focus on where we're going from here," Lockwood said. "I am much more concerned about where we're at with this $60 million, because most of the money that was discussed in the GAO report was sent out prior to the Department of Homeland Security, and already sent to and spent for the most part by state and local government."

One of the main challenges is helping the region think and act as a whole, Lockwood said. "People have high expectations. Part of my job is to both manage those and to work with other people to fulfill those expectations."

"People are used to a federal government program that's mandated down with specific direction versus a program that says, 'This is a bottoms-up approach. Here are the kinds of things that these resources are for but it's up to the communities to prioritize as a community, to prioritize as a region, for those resources,'" Lockwood added. "Part of my function is to work as a community, to bring everybody together."