Stanford Law Library 3 6105 062 563 122 COMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENT REFORM DAN BURTON, Indiana, Chairman BENJAMIN A. GILMAN, New York MARSHALL "MARK" SANFORD, South BOB BARR, Georgia DAN MILLER, Florida ASA HUTCHINSON, Arkansas LEE TERRY, Nebraska JUDY BIGGERT, Illinois GREG WALDEN, Oregon OHN T. DOOLITTLE, California HENRY A. WAXMAN, California ROBERT E. WISE, JR., West Virginia PATSY T. MINK, Hawaii CAROLYN B. MALONEY, New York ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON, Washington, DC CHAKA FATTAH, Pennsylvania ELIJAH E. CUMMINGS, Maryland ROD R. BLAGOJEVICH, Illinois JOHN F. TIERNEY, Massachusetts THOMAS H. ALLEN, Maine HAROLD E. FORD, JR., Tennessee BERNARD SANDERS, Vermont (Independent) KEVIN BINGER, Staff Director DANIEL R. MOLL, Deputy Staff Director DAVID A. KASS, Deputy Counsel and Parliamentarian PHIL SCHILIRO, Minority Staff Director SUBCOMMITTEE ON NATIONAL SECURITY, VETERANS AFFAIRS, AND INTERNATIONAL CONTENTS Hearing held on March 11, 1999 Hinton, Henry L., Jr., Assistant Comptroller, National Security and In- ternal Affairs Division, U.S. General Accounting Office, accompanied by Norman J. Rabkin, Director of Administration of Justice Issues, General Government Division, U.S. General Accounting Office, and Ms. Davi M. D'Agostino, Assistant Director of National Security Analy- sis, National Security and International Affairs Division, U.S. General Letters, statements, etc., submitted for the record by: Blagojevich, Hon. Rod R., a Representative in Congress from the State (III) Page GOVERNMENTWIDE SPENDING TO COMBAT TERRORISM: GENERAL ACCOUNTING OFFICE VIEWS ON THE PRESIDENT'S ANNUAL REPORT THURSDAY, MARCH 11, 1999 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, SUBCOMMITTEE ON NATIONAL SECURITY, VETERANS COMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENT REFORM, Washington, DC. The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 1 pm., in room 2247, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Christopher Shays, (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding. Present: Representatives Shays, Blagojevich and Mica. Also present: Lawrence J. Halloran, staff director and counsel; Michele Lang, professional staff member; Jonathan Wharton, clerk; Earley Green, minority staff assistant; and David Rapallo, minority counsel. Mr. SHAYS. I'd like to call this hearing to order. Events like the World Trade Center bombing and the release of poison gas in a Tokyo subway crystalize our fears and galvanize our determination to confront terrorism. In response to a threat that approaches our shores from many directions in many forms against many potential targets, more than 40 Federal departments, agencies and programs will spend $9.2 billion this year to combat terrorism. Today we examine those governmentwide efforts to detect, deter, prevent and respond to terrorist attacks, continuing work begun by this subcommittee's previous chairman, Speaker Hastert. We ask how a sprawling and growing anti-terrorism and counter-terrorism program is being coordinated across the notoriously previously bureaucratic barriers. We ask how priorities are set, how risks are measured and how responses are designed to augment, not duplicate or replace existing local, State and Federal capabilities. These are not easy questions. By its very nature terrorism is unpredictable, even irrational, and may confound standard methods of risk analysis. For example, current threat assessments conclude conventional weapons, guns and bombs, remain the terrorists most likely choice, but the most unlikely threat, the use of biological or chemical weapons to inflict mass casualties would have the most devastating consequences. (1) |