Ridge Calls Threat Assessment a Top Mission

By Joe Fiorill
Global Security Newswire

WASHINGTON — U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said today that a long-awaited national assessment of the terrorist threat is still a top priority for his department (see GSN, April 29).

“One of the most important, unique, critical missions of the department … is to do this threat assessment,” Ridge said of the project, which some critics charge has been left by the wayside in violation of the statute that created the Homeland Security Department.

Ridge made the remarks to a group of reporters just after he delivered an address launching a Council for Excellence in Government study, Homeland Security from the Citizens’ Perspective. The independent council recommended an update of the 2002 National Strategy for Homeland Security “based on comprehensive national threat and vulnerability assessments, as well as state and regional risk assessments.”

Ridge said Homeland Security has been working on the national assessment of threats and vulnerabilities since it began operating last year. He stressed that the job is a big one, given the size of the country and its economy. Homeland Security, he said, has developed “good relations” with the state and local governments and businesses that must contribute to the assessment.

The assessment is mandatory under the Homeland Security Act of 2002, but experts and legislators have frequently called progress too slow. Among its many uses, the assessment would help the department to better target its grants for local emergency responders, distribution of which has proved highly contentious amid charges the funds are being spent haphazardly.

“Federal, state and local funding of homeland security,” the council said in its report, “should be allocated strategically to achieve specific goals in the context of the national strategy, on the basis of assessments of threat and vulnerabilities.”

Director Suzanne Mencer of the department’s Office for Domestic Preparedness, which administers the responder grants, said in congressional testimony April 28 that state assessments submitted in January to the office would be crucial in preparing the national assessment.

“We will have a national list” of critical infrastructure, Ridge said, addressing one aspect of the effort. “We’ve already begun to set priorities in all the sectors of the economy,” he added.

The council’s recommendations followed “town hall” meetings held in major U.S. cities ― often attended by Ridge ― and polls of the public and of emergency responders. The report took into account expert input and the council’s own review of homeland security efforts throughout the government and private sector.

The council said citizens are often eager to participate in homeland security efforts but do not know how to do so. It recommended that federal, state and local authorities update homeland security strategies, giving more weight to citizens’ concerns.

“The current National Strategy for Homeland Security, which was published in 2002 before the establishment of the Department of Homeland Security, did an outstanding job of identifying the challenges facing us and articulating the broad principles necessary to meet them,” the council said in the report.

“Since then,” it continued, “a lot has happened in the homeland security enterprise, and the national strategy should be updated to reflect our collective experience and progress, as well as lessons learned on many fronts.”

The council also recommended creating a Homeland Security “reserve fund” for use during terrorist attacks, consolidating congressional oversight of Homeland Security into a single committee, setting up a “seamless national network” for sharing terrorism-related information among agencies and initiating a Homeland Security-led effort to integrate “all critical databases as soon as possible.”

“Citizens are willing to be engaged,” Ridge said, summing up what he called the major theme of the report. He called the town halls “an enabling process.”

“We look at the recommendations,” he added of the report itself, “and we take them seriously. We’re happy to report that much of that work is well under way.”

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