Lawmaker challenges companies to develop anti-terror technology

The chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee said Wednesday that technology developed for the war on terrorism could also benefit the U.S. economy.

Rep. Christopher Cox, R-Calif, said the war on terrorism will be "an indefinite struggle," and he challenged private companies to develop technology that enhances security and makes the U.S. economy stronger.

"Our job is to sustain this war on terror by making investments in security that actually improve America's economy," Cox said during a keynote speech at the 2005 Government Security Conference in Washington. "Can we, as we introduce new security technology into some productive process, make that production process simultaneously more efficient?"

"Right after 9/11, all we were asking of our security investment was that it not slow down the country too much, that the lines that were formed not be too long, that the depression in the gross domestic product not be too much," he said. "We need to ask more because, going forward, we're going to need the economic engine of the United States of America to drive this war on terror and ultimately to win it."

For example, Cox asked if technology to inspect cargo could also improve the efficiency of moving it.

"Can't we ask that our technology investments move things more quickly through the ports? Why can't technology that tracks and inspects containers for security purposes also improve throughput in the ports and satisfy commercial demand for better real-time tracking of shipments?

"I think protective measures can do something for our homeland security and something for our economy at the same time," he said.

But, he added, technology investments must be sustainable and the government should ensure that basic federal research can quickly become applied technology.

"Our investments in homeland security technology have got to be sustainable," he said. "This isn't something that we can attack as we did during World War II by developing an all-powerful weapon that will force our enemies to surrender. We can't build Liberty ships faster and thus hasten the conclusion of the conflict. Instead, we know that year in and year out-forever-we've got to make the investment necessary to stay one step ahead of the terrorists."

Cox also called on the Homeland Security Department to put more emphasis on prevention activities and finding potential terrorists, as opposed to overseeing response-and-recovery activities.

"We've got to have a prevention strategy that is focused on finding those terrorists before they act. Very little, I will hasten to add, of what the Department of Homeland Security spends its money on these days is devoted to what ought to be a high priority. We've got to reconfigure in order to do that."

He added: "When I think of prevention, what I'm thinking off is finding the terrorists where they live and interdicting and disrupting what they're doing well before it happens."