Statements on Introduced Bills and Joint Resolutions

Floor Speech

STATEMENTS ON INTRODUCED BILLS AND JOINT RESOLUTIONS -- (Senate - October 22, 2007)

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Ms. COLLINS. Mr. President. I rise to introduce a bill that would formally establish and enhance the Protective Security Advisor Program Office within the Department of Homeland Security.

The PSA program, which operates under the DHS Office of Infrastructure Protection, has proven its worth on many occasions. For example, when the Interstate 35-W bridge in Minneapolis collapsed in August of this year, PSAs provided valuable support to the Minnesota Department of Public Safety, providing assessments of infrastructure impacts relating to emergency services, postal and shipping operations, public transit, fuel deliveries, public utilities, and rail operations.

DHS has deployed more than 70 PSAs in major metropolitan areas around the country. These are skilled and savvy people, averaging more than 20 years of law-enforcement, military, or counter-terror experience. They regularly interact and develop working relationships with Government agencies at all levels and with private-sector entities, and they can be among the first on the scene when disaster strikes.

Critical infrastructure is not, however, confined to large urban areas. Yet, 10 States--Delaware, Idaho, Maine, Montana, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont, and Wyoming--do not have a resident PSA dedicated to serving the interests and protecting the citizens of those States.

The bill I introduce today will enhance our national preparedness, response capability, and security by providing

a minimum Protective Security Advisor presence in every State, while preserving the risk-based principle that provides extra coverage in areas of dense population or concentrated critical infrastructure.

The bill will also enhance the PSA program by providing for 10 supervisory PSAs for regional coordination and management, and by authorizing additional PSAs at DHS headquarters. These headquarters PSAs will help manage participation in training and exercises, PSA training and certification programs, and day-to-day operations that help our Nation prevent, respond to, and limit the consequences of terrorist attacks and natural disasters.

This bill also will advance the goals of the National Infrastructure Protection Plan. It will promote governmental and private-sector efforts to assess risks to and vulnerabilities of critical infrastructure, help stakeholders share information and coordinate activities, assist with multi-jurisdictional planning, and provide counsel to any designated Principal Federal Official when a joint field office must be established.

State emergency managers recognize the importance of this legislation. The Maine Emergency Management Agency has already provided a letter of support. Its bipartisan list of cosponsors--Senators Pryor, Sununu, Johnson, Coleman, Biden, Thune, Enzi, and Carper--includes three other members of the Senate Homeland Security Committee. These facts attest to the bill's merit.

Mr. President, 300 million Americans live in a society that depends on a complex and tightly interrelated network of critical infrastructure and services including food supply, finance, energy, sanitation, transport, and communications.

The DHS Protective Security Advisors have demonstrated that they are a critical element of our homeland-security defenses. This bill will expand their numbers, extend their coverage, strengthen their organization, and make all of us safer.

I urge my colleagues to support this measure.

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