Hearing of the Homeland Security Subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee - Testimony from Members of Congress
CHAIRED BY: REP. DAVID E. PRICE (D-NC)
WITNESSES: REP. KEITH ELLISON (D-MN); REP. DEBORAH HALVORSON (D-IL); REP. HENRY CUELLAR (D-TX); REP. RUSH HOLT (D-NJ).
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REP. PRICE: Subcommittee will come to order. Welcome. Today we'll be taking testimony from members of Congress who have asked for project consideration as part of the fiscal 2010 budget request for the Department of Homeland Security.
As I have previously stated, this subcommittee has earmarked funding in three areas -- this subcommittee earmarks funding within three areas of the DHS; for pre-disaster mitigation, for emergency operation centers, and for bridges that are deemed an obstruction to navigation and must be altered.
On occasion the subcommittee earmarks projects outside of these categories, but it is uncommon. Of course, members may also make programmatic requests that do not require specific earmarking. We'll welcome any suggestions along those lines today as well. And we look forward to the customary input from members throughout the entire appropriations process.
So we look forward to hearing from our members today, beginning with Congressman Ellison; if you'll step up to the table. Keith, your full written statement will be entered into the record, so I ask that you limit your oral remarks to a five minute presentation.
Before we begin however, let me ask our Ranking Member, Mr. Rogers, for any comments he wants to make.
REP. HAROLD ROGERS (R-KY): I don't have any.
REP. PRICE: No comments, so we will proceed.
Keith Ellison, the member from Minnesota, welcome, and please proceed.
REP. ELLISON: Mr. Chairman, thank you for allowing me to present today, and also let me thank Ranking Member Rogers. I certainly appreciate the opportunity and really appreciate being able to take part in this form.
I'm here today to provide additional details for an earmark request that I've submitted on behalf of the city of Minneapolis. This is a request for $1 million to build a new emergency operations center in Minneapolis.
This new center will provide the needed space and required technology to effectively manage future emergency incidents in Minneapolis, as well as the Greater Twin Cities metro area.
In August 2007, we experienced a collapse of the Interstate 35W bridge in Minneapolis. And this dramatic event in which we lost 13 members of our community, over a 100 people were -- suffered severe injuries, also highlighted the importance of this important project. More importantly I think this tragedy helped to show the nation that a well-organized emergency response saves lives.
Many people thought that more than 13 people would lose their lives in this tragic incident, but because of the quick and emergency response many people were in fact saved. Of course, every minute and every hour counts when such a tragedy strikes.
The bridge collapse also revealed the shortcomings of the undersized and poorly equipped Minneapolis Emergency Operations Center. I'll refer to it as the EOC. The EOC was the command center coordinating the local, state, and federal emergency response to the bridge collapse.
The emergency -- the Federal Emergency Management Agency, FEMA, and the United States Fire Administration, the USFA, in an after- action assessment stated that the current Minneapolis EOC was inadequate to meet the needs of complex emergency incidents. Let me quote from the report.
"The EOC is located in the basement of city hall, and is used when a large-scale emergency or disturbance occurrence that involves multiple city agencies. The EOC is essentially a single room, which did not have enough space for all the representatives from the organizations having statutory authority to be present. There is not enough room for a policy-coordinating group usually staffed by political administrative leaders or for other planning, logistical, or public information functions."
The inadequate size and functionality of the current EOC was rated by most respondents as the biggest obstacle to management of the response. Particularly during the evening of the collapse, the EOC was simply not capable of handling the number of staff and elected officials who reported to the center.
And I could testify, I was there myself, and recognized that we just had a severe space and therefore logistical barriers. My appropriation request will be used to build a new EOC with additional space and necessary technology to enable emergency personnel more effective management capability to address a broad range of possible emergency incidents throughout the Twin Cities.
The Twin Cities contains the nation's 12th largest regional economy, and it includes a concentration of critical infrastructure and key resources which most importantly goes to regional population of approximately 3 million people. The new EOC is consistent with and supported in the Minnesota Homeland Security strategy, the Twin Cities Urban Area Security Initiative strategy, and the Minnesota State prepared this report.
The final design for the new EOC is being completed, and approximately $5.6 million in local funds have been identified for the project. The operating and maintenance budget has been developed and will be secured with city general fund dollars. The federal appropriations request of $1 million will permit completion of construction by spring of 2010, about a year from now.
Mr. Chairman, in conclusion, I want to thank the entire committee along with our ranking member for the time and consideration for this important request. Thank you very much.
REP. PRICE: Thank you, Mr. Ellison. We appreciate that testimony. I have no questions. Do you, Mr. Rogers?
REP. ROGERS: No questions.
REP. ELLISON: Thank you.
REP. PRICE: Thank you very much.
REP. ELLISON: Have a fine day.
REP. PRICE: We will next call to our witness table Representative Deborah Halvorson from Illinois, one of our new members. Ms. Halvorson, please proceed.
REP. HALVORSON: Thank you, Chairman Price, Ranking Member Rogers, and members of the committee. Thank you so much for allowing me to testify today on behalf of my constituents in the 11th Congressional district of Illinois.
I come before you today to ask you for consideration of a $5 million appropriation for the Central Elementary School in Ottawa, Illinois for pre-disaster mitigation. On September 15, 2008, the remainder of Hurricane Ike swept through Illinois, causing severe storms and some of the worst flooding my state has ever seen in decades.
Because of the storm, well, first of all my district was very much affected, particularly in the historic city of Ottawa, they saw severe damage, and because of the storm, Ottawa residents were evacuated from nursing homes, roads were deemed to be unsafe, falling trees caused further damage.
And with destruction throughout the area, Ottawa's Central Elementary School was hit particularly hard, and experienced a great deal of damage. Central Elementary School houses over 400 fifth and sixth grade students. The flooding caused two significant and devastating effects on school, which has prevented students from being able to return to the classroom.
First, water damage virtually destroyed the school, making it unsafe environmentally for the children. Second, asbestos was found inside the school building and the soil surrounding the building. So for the time being, church basements and mobile classrooms throughout the Ottawa community are serving as classrooms for the 400 students.
And as you can imagine, the logistics involved in providing ongoing education has presented numerous challenges on multiple levels. Local officials have been placed in difficult positions, having to find quick solution for their expensive problem.
The school board has decided that the best option at this point is to take the entire school and put them in an abandoned Wal-Mart for the next school year until they can find a permanent solution. The simple fact is that the small community of Ottawa is unable to assume the full financial burden of making sure that the students have a location to attend school.
The specific amount of money that the school received from FEMA is unclear at this point, but it's unlikely that these funds will be adequate for the school -- the students to return to the school. There's a lot of work that needs to take place before we can get our fifth and sixth graders back to a proper classroom to start learning again.
We need to make sure that the school is structurally safe, free from toxic materials and that necessary precautions are taken to prevent substantial flood damage in the future. Rebuilding the school in the current location poses a risk of flooding again.
An appropriation of any amount will help provide the critical financial resources needed to either rebuild the school in a location outside the floodplain or rebuild on existing location just somehow to mitigate the risk of future flooding. So I'm grateful to the members of our community that has helped in every way to help the children of Central Elementary School continue their education in these challenging times.
The church basements have been converted to classrooms. Parents have volunteered their time and energy, and school employees have worked tirelessly. But I ask please that this committee consider funding for Central Elementary School.
Fifth and sixth graders need help, and this is not the time in their life that they should go from church basements to an abandoned Wal-Mart for their schooling. So you know, I really appreciate your time, Chairman Price and Ranking Member Rogers, to help us in this needy time.
REP. PRICE: Thank you very much. Let me just ask you briefly to comment on your current dealings with FEMA. You do have a declaration and there's a possible eligibility. What do you understand that situation to be?
REP. HALVORSON: Well, unfortunately, we are still working with them. They were told in the beginning that the money that they would get could help them relocate. Now they've been told that the money will only be to fix the school they're in.
However, it's minimal. It won't come near the cost to fix the school, and it will only fix -- and the school will have to be left in the place it's at and it's in the floodplain where it will flood over and over again. So we need whatever help we can get to mitigate the fact that we don't want it to still be structurally unsound.
And so we need whatever help we can to mitigate the process to make it safe from being -- for this to happen again. The parents are scared to put their fifth graders and sixth graders back in a situation where this can happen again, over and over again.
REP. PRICE: Well, we will certainly give this consideration. We understand very readily the challenge you're facing here, and the need to get this school back in business in a safer way, a way that will resist future damage. We will have to see what the --
REP. HALVORSON: Right.
REP. PRICE: -- what the fit is between this and the kind of categories of funding that we have available.
Mr. Rogers?
REP. ROGERS: No questions.
REP. PRICE: No questions, so thank you very much, Ms. Halvorson.
REP. HALVORSON: And thank you both very much. And we're just looking for every avenue possible to help these children.
REP. PRICE: We understand. Thank you.
REP. HALVORSON: Thank you.
REP. PRICE: So we'll next call Congressman Cuellar (ph). Welcome.
REP. CUELLAR: Chairman, Congress --
REP. PRICE: Congressman, we're glad to have you. We ask you to summarize your remarks within five minutes, and we'll put your full statement in the record.
REP. CUELLAR: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. First of all, I appreciate the work that you all do in this committee. As you know, I chair one of the subcommittees on the Homeland Security. So I appreciate what the appropriations folks do here.
I have a couple of requests I just want to talk about. One, it has to do with an advanced emergency response wireless mesh network for the city of Hidalgo. This is a FEMA pre-disaster mitigation account in the manner of $500,000. And it's basically -- what we're asking here, Mr. Chairman, is to create a wireless broadband network to provide public alert and warning communications.
One of the things that we've seen down there in the border, Mr. Chairman, is the fact that, you know, we have the situation of what's happening across the river, number one, you know, the situation with the drug cartels across the river. At the same time, being on the river in that particular area, there is -- we put in some money for levies to control the flooding.
There was a huge flooding there back about 20, 30 years ago. So what this will allow is to have a wireless broadband network for alert and warning communications. And this is something that I would ask you to consider. I have some other requests, but I know you all are very busy, and I -- the rest of the testimony is there, I just wanted to bring this up at this time.
REP. PRICE: All right, thank you very much.
Mr. Rogers, do you have any questions?
REP. ROGERS: No questions.
REP. PRICE: All right. We appreciate your appearing.
REP. CUELLAR: Thank you.
REP. PRICE: And we'll give due consideration to your request.
REP. CUELLAR: Thank you for your time.
REP. PRICE: We had one additional witness scheduled, but I don't believe he is on the scene. All right, we'll --
REP. HOLT: I'm here, Mr. Chairman.
REP. PRICE: All right, good, good. Our colleague, Rush Holt, from New Jersey, arriving just in the nick of time.
(Laughter)
REP. PRICE: Rush, we welcome you here. We ask that you give us a five minute oral summary of your statement. We'll put whatever you want in the record.
REP. HOLT: I hope I can keep it to less than that. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, Mr. Rogers, and the committee. Thanks for the opportunity to testify on the Fiscal 2010 homeland security appropriations.
As I've already provided the subcommittee with information, my -- I have requests for some specific projects in Old Bridge, Shrewsbury, West Windsor Township, and Trenton. And I won't revisit those requests right now.
I'd like to talk about a couple of programmatic matters. As you may know, I have a programmatic funding request regarding the Commercial Equipment Direct Assistance program, the so-called CEDAP. CEDAP fills a critical role in helping local law enforcement and first responders by providing qualified applicants with the means to buy commercially available equipment that can be used to make our communities safe.
Since its inception in 2005, CEDAP funding has been reduced from $50 million to its current low in Fiscal Year '09 of $8 million. During 2008, during that -- during the process in 2008, more than 3,500 applications were approved for funding.
However, based upon the availability of funds, only 1,000 jurisdictions were ultimately served by the program; 2,500 approved applications were placed on the 2009 CEDAP list. In September '08, then Senator Biden introduced the Homeland Security and Law Enforcement Improvements Act which called for allocating not less than $75 million for the CEDAP program for Fiscal Year -- years 2009 and 2010.
And I think this would be an appropriate funding level. So I request that you take a look at the CEDAP funding and consider an increase to something on the order of $75 million.
Second, I'd like to bring to the committee's attention a situation at Amtrak that I believe represents a shortcoming in safety preparations and effective counterterrorism response.
Earlier this year, I was made aware of the existence and activities of the Amtrak's Office of Security Strategy and Special Operations. This element, which does not answer to the leadership of the existing Amtrak Police Department, has created SWAT-like units, and intelligence liaison relationships with our intelligence agencies and conducted hostage rescue training exercises all without, as far as I can tell, integrating its activities within the existing Amtrak Police Department's chain of command.
Police union officials have visited me and talked about incidents that have been conducted without notifying; for example, either the Washington Metropolitan Police Department or the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force in Washington. This created something of a scene.
This OSSSO entity has according to its own officials received millions of dollars of rail security funding approved by Congress, and when they met with me earlier, they pressed for still more. I'm deeply concerned about this entity's activities and the clear disconnect within Amtrak over who's in charge of rail security in the Northeast Corridor and elsewhere in the Amtrak system.
So I'll ask the committee to conduct a probing look at this -- at this, the organization, and its relationship with the Amtrak Police Department, and give some thought to what measures Amtrak should take either on its own, or with Congressional direction, to ensure that there is a coherent, unified organization looking at rail security. So I appreciate the committee's time and attention on these matters, and I'd be happy to answer any questions.
REP. PRICE: Thank you. We do appreciate your coming before us and addressing these policy matters, particularly this latter concern which I have to agree does warrant our attention as we prepare the bill. So thank you for flagging this matter this morning.
Mr. Rogers, do you have any questions?
REP. ROGERS: Only to comment briefly, I appreciate your bringing to our attention the CEDAP request. That's a popular thing in my part of Kentucky. And of course, we will give that due consideration, but I do appreciate your highlighting that aspect.
REP. HOLT: Thank you. If I may just say for the record so that it's clear to others; the idea of the CEDAP, it gives a pre-approved list that makes it easier for small organizations without large procurement departments to choose approved items and get on with it.
REP. ROGERS: Commercial Equipment Direct Assistance Program, and that's a proper name. Thank you.
REP. PRICE: Thank you very much.
REP. HOLT: Thank you.
REP. PRICE: With that, we thank all of our witnesses, and the subcommittee is adjourned.