The all FBI-related WMD activities within their jurisdictions. FBI Laboratory is in the process of providing technical training to field office personnel in the recognition, protection from, handling and collection of hazardous materials and contaminated evidence, to better meet our needs as well as work with first responders. The FBI's Hazardous Devices School at Redstone Arsenal, Huntsville, Alabama, has added a WMD Awareness Course in its curriculum as part of its training for civilian bomb technicians. In 1998, the FBI created the National Domestic Preparedness Office (NDPO) to identify, establish standards for, and help provide equipment, training and advanced field technology for the first responder community. NDPO is in the process of acquiring staff, which will be drawn from a number of agencies, including the DOD. NDPO is designed to continue, improve upon and extend the work begun by DOD under Nunn - Lugar Domenici. Its activities will be closely coordinated with the DOD, Department of Justice and the relevant sectors of the first responder community. With respect to research and development or technology transfer issues, NDPO will soon begin a comprehensive study of needs and gaps, particularly in the areas of personal protective equipment, field detection, decontamination and communication systems, which are of the highest priority to the first responders. Some funding has been appropriated to NDPO for research and development in these areas. Collaboration with DOD, DOE, HHS and the Federal Emergency Management Administration is necessary and will ensue. Because of the nature of the nature of the hazardous materials used in WMD, their potentially severe impact on society, and the variety of methods that could be used in their deployment, science, technology and medicine necessarily play a very significant role in the response to, investigation and resolution of, and recovery from such events. The FBI Laboratory is the nation's largest and most diverse laboratory focused on the application of science and technology to problems of law enforcement. We have a number of expertises and resources to bring to bear on the problems associated with WMD. As an example, in 1996 we created the unique Hazardous Materials Response Unit (HMRU) as a focal point for the FBI's scientific and technical support for events involving WMD. This unit is responsible for supporting our field offices, national program managers, and partners in the scientific and forensic aspects of crisis management and investigation for criminal and terrorist events involving the threatened or actual use of hazardous biological, chemical, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) materials. We do this by applying (or developing) our own capabilities, or acquiring such from other organizations. Over the past three years, the FBI Laboratory has aggressively engineered close collaborative relationships with key elements of the Departments of Defense, Energy and Health and Human Services for coordinated response, consultation and technical advancement. In 1996, the FBI Laboratory began interacting productively with the Army, Navy and Marine Corps and several civilian organizations in this area. This occured during the joint planning, preparation and staging of technical resources for WMD at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta. Since then, we have been called out and worked together regularly to investigate suspected WMD events, shared technologies and protocols, exercised together, and have established Memoranda of Understanding (MOU). We intend to continue this work, and expand our use of DOD, DOE and HHS facilities and personnel to meet FBI and first responder needs, for specialized expertise and analyses, training, research, development, test and evaluation, technology transfer and exercises. Within DOD we routinely interact with the U.S. Army's Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID), the Naval Medical Research Center (NMRC), the Engineering Research, Development and Engineering Command (ERDEC), and Dugway Proving Grounds (DPG). We have executive and sub-group membership (including WMD) in the Technical Support Working Group (TSWG), which is jointly managed and supported by the Departments of Defense, State and Energy, as well as the FBI. TSWG's principal mission is to develop new counter terrorism technologies, and is a superb model for interagency cooperation which needs to be expanded. With ca. $4.7 million we receive annually, we fund HMRU and other WMD-related research and development at several Department of Energy national laboratories. We have briefed and intend to share our results with pertinent Federal, state and local agencies, as appropriate. We are beginning to work with the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDCP), along with medical components of the DOD, to more effectively define and develop the capabilities of the civilian public health community, particularly with regard to bio-terrorism. We are regularly invited to attend and actively participate as peers in DOD, DOE and HHS conferences and meetings on the scientific aspects of WMD. Let me now turn to specific research and development and technology transfer efforts which demonstrate the coordinated relationship between DOD, other Federal agencies, and the FBI. held In 1996, the NMRC began transferring its hand WMD scenarios. The first investment of appropriated HMRU research and powerful mobile treaty verification laboratory, developed and maintained by ERDEC's AMC Treaty Laboratory. We will take delivery of a customized version of this laboratory this month. We and ERDEC are committed to jointly developing protocols for our use, and certifying the laboratory to a high level of quality assurance. This laboratory will be a critical and integral part of our response to WMD. Using funding supplied by TSWG, ERDEC and the FBI Laboratory have contracted for the development of a very small, portable (50 lb.) and powerful chemical analytical spectrometer. This is being developed by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. We are just beginning the shakedown testing of this system. Once certified for field use, this technology will provide sensitive, accurate, rapid analysis of hazardous chemical substances. Beginning in Fiscal Year 1998, HMRU initiated 12 priority research and development efforts, totaling ca. $2.6 million, at the DOE National Laboratories for new methods and technologies directed at the detection, identification, analysis, sampling, and handling of biological and chemical hazards and contaminated evidence. Much of this leverages previous investments by the DOD, DOE and other customers. All HMRU efforts have been briefed to the other partners. Additionally, FBI Laboratory personnel participate in |