Senator Wyden on Improving Military Technology

CONAN: The digital age has come to the military, as it has to every other segment of society. This past June, the Senate passed the Science and Technology Emergency Mobilization Act, or NetGuard for short, which would call into service a group of rapid response volunteers that could restore communications and technology in the event of a terrorist attack. Joining us now is one of the sponsors of the bill, Democratic Senator Ron Wyden from Oregon. And he's with us from his office here in Washington, DC.

And, good of you to speak with us today.

Senator RON WYDEN (Democrat, Oregon): Thanks for having me on the show.

CONAN: When did you first come up with this idea?

Sen. WYDEN: Well, after September 11th and, of course, my state has a tremendous technology sector, we saw that when the terrorists struck that telecommunications and all the information networks were flattened. You had landline and cellular communications hard hit by an incredible spike in volume, as well as strikes to the cell towers at the Trade Center, the Verizon hub, and a bunch of companies from my state wanted to help. They wanted to send people and equipment there. And they were just hindered by the fact that there was no infrastructure there to deal with them. In fact, some of them essentially testified to my Science and Technology Committee that they basically just stood around for a while until people could use them. And so we went forward with the NetGuard proposal, a sort of technology equivalent of the National Guard, and it became law last fall.

CONAN: Well, who do you hope to recruit?

Sen. WYDEN: Well, I think we're going to see a lot of volunteers with extensive technology expertise from the nation's private sector companies. You saw in my state the Intels of the world making clear that they'd be willing to move at a moment's notice when disaster strikes. And they'll help not just fix what's broken but to create whatever technology systems are needed. And that could mean repairing and re-creating compromised communications systems, setting up a command center, setting up a database, for example, to track the missing and injured. And now under the homeland security legislation, these teams can organize locally and be ready to act before there's a crisis.

CONAN: Would these people be wearing uniforms? Would they work in units together? I mean, you just have these ideas, this vision of people with pocket protectors marching down the street.

Sen. WYDEN: Well, it's interesting, some of this has already begun to be developed on the local level. Actually there are some parts of the country where people are already wearing hats and shirts and things like that. And what I'm struck by is if you approach this in a locally driven approach, what you will find is a lot of technology experts and entrepreneurs with the power and desire to help, you know, the country when communications systems have been shellacked, as they were on September 11th. And you bet you can have these networks grown locally. We also envisage a national database of volunteers so that, for example, if a biochemical agent strikes in a particular area, health experts will know the people locally who are capable of dealing with it.

CONAN: If somebody wanted to find out more, whether they're an individual or an IT company maybe, how would they?

Sen. WYDEN: Well, they can certainly call our office. We'll plug them in. That's my office, 224-5244, in Washington. But...

CONAN: Submit the area code 202 before that.

Sen. WYDEN: (202) 224-5244. Probably faster is to call the Office of Homeland Security under the new department. That's the agency that's going to coordinate it. And right now they're moving to implement it, and our legislation has become law.

CONAN: How big do you see this becoming?

Sen. WYDEN: Well, I think that there are an extraordinary number of companies and individuals who are prepared to help. We saw that after September 11th, and you're always reluctant to say the sky's the limit, but this is a sector made up of dedicated, patriotic, caring people. And they made it clear after September 11th that if the government will just take steps to ensure that their talent and energies are used, they are interested in being available.

CONAN: Well, thanks very much for speaking with us today.

Sen. WYDEN: Thanks for your interest.

CONAN: Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon, and he was speaking with us from his office here in Washington, DC.