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Interview

MR. SCOTT: In the meantime, there's a new report on the government's Terror Watch List that's raising some concern. That list, used to check people entering the country at border crossings: airports, seaports, things like that. Now it has 755,000 names on it -- is that too long to be useful? With us now, Maine Senator Susan Collins.

Senator Collins, when I read that number, I mean, how do you manage a database that has three-quarters of a million names on it?

SEN. COLLINS: Well it is an astonishing number. I think you have to realize that in some cases this does not represent separate individuals. There are aliases, for example, that may be used by individuals who are on the list. But it does raise a concern about how effective the list can be if it's that large, and also about its accuracy.

We know -- all of us who represent people in Washington know that we have innocent constituents who have mistakenly been included on the list because their name or other identifying information is similar to someone who should be on the list. So there's a lot of work to be done.

MR. SCOTT: It just sounds like another one of those federal bureaucracies that might sort of be a good idea in the beginning, but just becomes this bloated unwieldy thing.

SEN. COLLINS: I think the concept of a watch list is a good one and an important one. After all, if we had had a watch list like this, we would have been able to block some of the hijackers who attacked our country on 9/11, 2001. So the concept of the list is good, but if the list isn't accurate, if it's too large to be useful, if the information is obsolete, then it not only produces unfairness to frustrated travelers, but it also isn't very -- it isn't as effective as it should be.

It's troubling to me that the list has been ineffective in two recent examples where people should have been stopped from crossing the border, and yet were allowed to come into the country over and over again.

MR. SCOTT: Let me turn your attention to a related topic. Supposedly, one of the great fears of the Department of Homeland Security is perhaps some kind of a dirty bomb attack in this country. And yet, there's word that the preparations -- if a dirty bomb were to go off in a major American city, we are woefully unprepared for treating people who might be sickened by the radiation that gets tossed out as a result of that attack. How do you change that? How do you get people ready? How do you get the government prepared?

SEN. COLLINS: Well, there needs to be a lot more coordination with the private sector -- with hospitals, for example, and public health authorities -- and also among the Department of Homeland Security, HHS and the Department of Energy. We are making some progress. In 30 cities across the United States we have special sensors that are able to detect biological and chemical agents. It's sort of an early warning system. But you're right. Even if we realize that there has been a release of a biological, chemical or radiological agent, if we don't have the public health system in place and the laboratories in place to test people, to evaluate illnesses, to evaluate exposure, then knowing that it occurs is just the first step of a process and it's certainly not a sufficient one.

MR. SCOTT: Well, it's like waking up on September 12th. We all said, yeah, it was pretty stupid to let people on airplanes with box cutters. We don't want to wake up one day after a dirty bomb attack and find out that there's no coordinated plan for treating all the people who might be ill.

SEN. COLLINS: That's right. And that's why I'm pressing for the agencies involved to work together and come up with a plan that would be presented to Congress.

We've got a lot of work to do in this area, whether it's a deliberate release through a dirty bomb or whether it's an accidental release of a biological agent or a pandemic flu. This is an area where an awful lot more work needs to be done and it needs to be coordinated with private health care providers, whether it's physicians and other health care providers or hospitals or public health clinics, there's a lot more work that needs to be done.

MR. SCOTT: Susan Collins, senator from Maine. Thank you very much for being with us.

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