Bush Orders Critical Infrastructure Protection, “All-Hazards” Preparedness

By Joe Fiorill
Global Security Newswire

WASHINGTON — In two directives meant to better protect the United States against terrorist attacks, President George W. Bush yesterday ordered the Homeland Security Department to identify and protect key infrastructure and to establish a “national all-hazards domestic preparedness goal.”

The directives come amid increasing debate about how best to distribute resources to protect the United States in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. State and local governments have been jockeying for federal dollars since the attacks, and legislators have struggled with balancing calls to protect the whole country against a push to implement more targeted spending based on assessments of the terrorist threat.

In one of the two directives, Homeland Security Preparedness Directive-8, Bush said the “primary mechanism” for federal preparedness assistance will be awards to states, not localities, and that the aid will be based on statewide protection strategies. He added that agencies that provide such assistance should “base those allocations on assessments of population concentrations, critical infrastructures and other significant risk factors, particularly terrorism threats.” Currently, the Homeland Security Department’s formula for distributing funds to first responders is a combination of per-state minimums and population factors.

In the directive, Bush sought to “prevent and respond to threatened or actual domestic terrorist attacks, major disasters and other emergencies by requiring a national domestic all-hazards preparedness goal, establishing mechanisms for improved delivery of federal preparedness assistance to state and local governments and outlining actions to strengthen preparedness capabilities of federal, state and local entities.” The homeland security secretary was ordered to submit the goal to the White House before or when the department provides its fiscal 2006 budget submission to the Office of Management and Budget.

The president designated the homeland security secretary ― currently, Tom Ridge ― as “the principal federal official for coordinating the implementation of all-hazards preparedness in the United States” and ordered the secretary to cooperate with all levels of government in developing the national all-hazards preparedness goal. The goal, according to the directive, will require Washington to ensure “effective, efficient and timely delivery of federal preparedness assistance to state and local governments” and provide for preparing first responders “respond to major events, especially prevention of and response to threatened terrorist attacks.”

The other directive, Homeland Security Preparedness Directive-7, “establishes a national policy for federal departments and agencies to identify and prioritize United States critical infrastructure and key resources and to protect them from terrorist attacks.” In the directive, Bush acknowledged that “it is not possible to protect or eliminate the vulnerability of all critical infrastructure” and called for both “strategic” and “tactical” security improvements at key locations.

Bush ordered federal departments and agencies, in coordination with state and local governments and business, to “identify, prioritize and coordinate the protection of critical infrastructure and key resources,” designating the homeland security secretary as the official responsible for national coordination of the effort. Among “critical infrastructure” to be considered, Bush mentioned the information technology, telecommunications, chemical, transportation, emergency services, postal and shipping sectors.

Bush ordered the Homeland Security Department to deliver, within a year of yesterday’s directive, “a comprehensive, integrated national plan for critical infrastructure and key resources protection.” The demand appeared to extend an existing deadline for the department, which failed to meet a deadline this week to submit such a plan to the House of Representatives Appropriations Committee.

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