mitment to train the remainder of the originally designated 120 cities.

During the fiscal year 2000 transition period, the Department of Justice will coordinate with DOD in the city training planning phases and will begin to provide grant funding for equipment for training. The transition will occur in stages to accommodate existing budgets and program plans.

DOD focus, beginning in fiscal year 2001, will be to continue to enhance the readiness of its WMD response units, as well as its installation responders. The Department of Justice will contribute funding to benefit from the lessons learned from the improved response program beginning in fiscal year 2001. Joint planning will be conducted through a multi-agency task force to coordinate both the improvements of State and local response capabilities and DOD's efforts to enhance its response elements.

Mr. Chairman, I would be happy to respond to your questions. I know my time is up for my opening statement, but I look forward to your inquiries.

Senator SESSIONS. Thank you. We appreciate that, and just one question. The Department of Defense willingly even requested that another agency take over this problem, is that correct?

Mr. CRAGIN. I don't think it would be accurate to characterize it as a request, Mr. Chairman. I think what transpired is that as part of the studies that were ongoing at the Department of Defense, we met with many first responder representatives from around the Nation. We also were receiving input through the after-action reports as we trained the various cities with respect to the DPP.

At the same time, the Department of Justice was conducting first responder focus groups, for a number of reasons, including the fact that the Attorney General had been tasked with developing a 5year counterterrorism plan. To a person, the consistent consensus was one-stop shopping. We have confusion, we have division. We need to have a consistent conduit for our activities.

Dr. Hamre, Attorney General Reno, James Lee Witt, the FEMA Director, Bear Bryant from the FBI, and Dick Clarke met to discuss this and there was a consensus developed that it would be best to transfer the training aspect to the Department of Justice, inasmuch as it was being tasked on a continuing and escalating basis to provide equipment to first responders. So we really had the disconnect of one entity was doing the training and another entity was doing the equipping. And as I said, everybody reached the consensus we needed one-stop shopping.

Senator SESSIONS. Well, I think Dr. Hamre raised a question or made the point-I think it was in his testimony that it was a bit beyond the normal demands on the military to conduct a national training program. He felt comfortable or he thought it was a good idea to shift it to another agency.

Mr. CRAGIN. That is right.

[The prepared statement of Mr. Cragin follows:]

PREPARED STATEMENT OF CHARLES L. CRAGIN

Good afternoon, Chairman Sessions and Chairman Kyl.

Let me begin by thanking you both for inviting me to discuss the role of the Department of Defense in supporting the nation's domestic emergency preparedness to respond to incidents involving weapons of mass destruction.

In the wake of the bombings at the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City and the World Trade Center in New York, it became readily apparent that we as a nation were less than well prepared to respond to terrorist incidents involving WMD. As a result, President Clinton has undertaken significant efforts to galvanize federal agencies and prompt them to work more effectively, both together at the interagency level and in support of first responders, to provide our nation with an enhanced, flexible and integrated response capability.

As a nation, we are also facing the fact that the front lines in the war against terrorism are no longer only overseas-they are also right here at home. As Secretary Cohen recently said, we must face the fact that "the next terrorist attack will come to U.S. soil in a bottle or a briefcase." I believe our heightened security measures for next weekend's NATO conference here in Washington provides ample evidence of our concern for terrorist activities right here at home. We are determined to ensure that we are prepared for a deadly chemical or biological attack against our country. A comprehensive and coordinated government-wide interagency effort is now underway. I'm going to make that the focus of my testimony today.

Under the direction of President Clinton and Secretary Cohen, and in partnership with Congress, plans, policies and laws are being developed or revised to help us prepare better for the day when terrorists or rogue nations attack with unconventional means. President Clinton believes we must do more to protect our civilian population from the scourge of chemical and biological weapons, and that we must prepare better to respond to attacks against our Homeland. Last May, in his commencement address at the Naval Academy, the President announced that the government would do more to protect our civilian population from these threats.

PROCESS FOR COORDINATING INTERAGENCY WMD PREPAREDNESS EFFORTS

Specifically, the President has signed Presidential Decision Directive 62 (PDD 62) the Combating Terrorism directive which highlights the growing threat of unconventional attacks against the United States. In essence, PDD-62 helps bring a program management approach to our national counter-terrorism efforts; it details a new and more systematic method of working together to fight terrorism here at home.

PDD-62_established the Office of the National Coordinator for Security, Infrastructure Protection and Counter-Terrorism to oversee national counter-terrorism efforts. This National Security Council (NSC)-directed framework is bringing a new impetus and a new urgency to our efforts to support state and local authorities. Within this framework, the NSC established three senior management groups: The Counterterrorism Security Group (CSG), the Critical Infrastructure Coordination Group (CICG), and the Weapons of Mass Destruction Preparedness (WMDP) Group. The NSC chairs all three of these groups; and each group has multiple subgroups. The NSC-chaired WMDP senior management group coordinates interagency WMDP policy issues and oversees the activities of seven subgroups. These subgroups are engaged in coordinating policies involving federal assistance to state and local authorities, research and development, prevention of WMD from entering the US, security of US WMD facilities and materials, contingency planning and exercises, legislative and legal issues, and intelligence. Each subgroup membership is comprised of the appropriate federal agency/department principals and/or their senior level representatives who can accept or deliver tasks for action. The DoD is an active participant in all of these subgroups, which at its core, operates on the assumption that disaster response is primarily a mission for state and local authorities. As Deputy Secretary of Defense Hamre emphasized during his testimony before the Senate Armed Service Committee on March 9, the role of the Department of Defense is to support other federal, state and local civilian agencies and officials.

Within the DoD, Dr. Hamre issued an internal management plan for implementing its responsibilities as outlined in PDD-62 and to better coordinate DoDwide WMDP activities. This management plan identified DoD senior management committees and subject matter subgroups that mirror the PDD-62 committee and subgroup structure established by the National Security Council (NSC).

I am responsible, along with a representative of the Secretary of the Army, for coordinating the Department's WMDP efforts involving assistance to state and local authorities, and for representing those activities at the National Security Council's interagency Assistance to State and Local Authorities Subgroup. I also held to coordinate WMDP activities Department-wide and participate on the NSC's WMDP senior management committee.

PDD-62 and the implementing guidance clearly provided the interagency with a more rigorous management structure for coordinating and promulgating national domestic preparedness programs and policies. As always, however, our efforts are

designed to support-not supplant-the efforts of state and local agencies and first responders.

The world of domestic preparedness and response is highly dynamic. No single agency acting alone can address the problem in its entirety. As a result, we are in the process of deepening our interagency ties and developing a coordinated approach. We at the Department of Defense realize that this approach is necessary if we are to avoid confusion, both within the federal government and in terms of our ability to communicate effectively with the first responder community. We are working hard to understand the concerns of the state and local authorities regarding the federal role in the process. In many respects we share the same concerns, especially regarding the need for a lead federal agency for WMD and the need for the federal government to speak with one voice on this vital issue.

The Department, along with its federal agency partners; DOJ, FEMA, PHS, DOE, EPA, and others are working hard to ensure that we address problems through a coordinated approach. Both the Department of Defense and the Department of Justice have conducted forums with first responders. Without exception, the number one request of first responders has been for the identification of a single federal agency to lead the training and equipping of first responders. In their words, they have sought the ease, convenience and predictability of "one stop shopping."

In an effort to respond to this need, the Department of Defense and the Department of Justice have agreed in principle to establish the DOJ as the lead federal agency for the federal WMD domestic preparedness. Within that framework, the Attorney General has proposed the establishment of the National Domestic Preparedness Office (NDPO), which is up and running at FBI headquarters and is even now furthering the integration of our national response efforts. In fact, just last week, the NDPO conducted a three-day training session right here in Washington for the FBI WMD field coordinators to provide them information on interagency assets and capabilities.

THE DOMESTIC PREPAREDNESS PROGRAM

The Defense Against Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) Act of 1996 (Public Law 104-201) authorized Federal agencies to provide resources, training and technical assistance to state and local emergency management personnel who would respond to a WMD terrorist incident. The Act, sponsored by Senators Nunn, Lugar and Domenici, mandated that the United States enhance its capability to respond to domestic terrorist incidents involving nuclear, biological, chemical and radiological weapons. The legislation designated DoD as the interagency lead to carry out a program to provide civilian personnel from federal, state and local agencies with training and expert advice regarding emergency responses to a use or threatened use of WMD or related materials. This interagency effort resulted in the establishment of the "train the trainer" program we call the Domestic Preparedness Program (DPP). In the planning stages of this program, it was agreed that training priority would be given to the largest population centers of the U.S. This translated into a program plan to provide initial training and preparedness assistance for Domestic WMD response for the 120 largest (according to census data) cities in the U.S. The U.S. Army Soldier and Biological Chemical Command, and the Army's Director of Military Support have been and will continue to serve as principal agents within the Department for executing the program. In fiscal year 1997 and fiscal year 1998, the Department spent $79M in support of this domestic preparedness program, in fiscal year 1999, the Department will spend $50M, and in fiscal year 2000 we plan to spend $31.4M.

My office provides policy guidance and oversight of the city_training/exercises, equipment loans, and expert assistance program aspects of the Domestic Preparedness Program, while the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Special Operations/Low Intensity Conflict) provides oversight for the annual Federal-State-Local exercise mandated by law for the program. The Secretary of Defense designated the Secretary of the Army as the Executive Agent for implementing the program. The Director of Military Support (DOMS) is the Staff Action Agent and the Commander of the Soldier and Biological Chemical Command (SBCCOM) is the Program Director for the Domestic Preparedness Program.

The interagency continues to support our execution of this program. Specifically, they participated with us in the development of our approach for executing this program, which includes initial visits to selected cities, a week of "Train the Trainer" training for local first responder trainers, including hazardous material (HAZMAT), firefighters, law enforcement, and emergency medical service personnel. Tabletop and functional "hands-on" exercises using chemical and biological scenarios further reinforce this training. A training equipment package is loaned to each city for their

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subsequent training use. To date, 53 cities have participated in the training and more than 15,000 first responder trainers have been trained.

Additionally, an annual federal, state, and local exercise is held to improve the integration of federal, state, and local response assets during a WMD response. In fiscal year 1997, the annual exercise was held in conjunction with the "Summit of the Eight" Conference in Denver, CO (May 1997). The fiscal year 1998 exercise was held in September 1998 in Philadelphia, PA. The fiscal year 1999 exercise is scheduled for August 1999 in New York City, NY.

Other component elements of the DP program include the Improved Response Program (IRP) and the Expert Assistance Program. The Improved Response Program involves the performance of technical investigations and exercises geared to improve first responder survivability and response to WMD incidents. The IRP has provided practical real world solutions to problems in WMD tactics, procedures and equipment discovered through the DP training. Testing to validate equipment protection and detection claims is being conducted as part of the Expert Assistance Program. The Expert Assistance Program also provides support for a national Hotline for emergencies, a Helpline for assistance, and web pages that provide technical information needed by first responders.

In September 1998, key representatives from the Department of Justice, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the National Security Council Director (Mr. Clarke) and the Department of Defense met to discuss how these agencies could best work together to combat domestic terrorism. It was agreed in principle that the Department of Justice (DoJ) should assume leadership for implementing the nation's domestic preparedness program. This agreement would have the added benefit of placing responsibility for federally supported WMD training and equipping in one location, as part of the "one-stop" shop consistently requested by first responders. DoD has worked in concert with the Office of Justice Programs and the National Domestic Preparedness Office to develop a formal memorandum of understanding that will transfer most facets of DoD's Domestic Preparedness program to DoJ.

Although our negotiations are not yet concluded, so far the joint DoJ-DoD plan for transitioning responsibility for this program has gone extremely well. We expect the Memorandum of Understanding guiding this transfer will be finalized this summer. DoD will retain responsibility for the city training and equipping program until end of fiscal year 2000, at which time DoJ will honor the commitment to train the remainder of the originally designated 120 cities. During the fiscal year 2000 transition period, DoJ will coordinate with DoD in the city training-planning phases and will begin to provide grant funding for training equipment. The transition will occur in stages to accommodate existing budgets and program plans.

DoD's focus beginning in fiscal year 2001 will be to continue to enhance the readiness of its WMD response units and installation responders. DoJ will focus on the response at the local and state levels. As a result, both agencies will contribute funding to benefit from the lessons learned from the improved response program of the DP program beginning in fiscal year 2001. Joint planning will be conducted through the Multi-Agency Task Force to coordinate both the improvements of state and local response capabilities and DoD's efforts to enhance its response elements. Beginning in fiscal year 2001, DoJ will assume funding and programmatic responsibility for the Hotline, Helpline and Internet web site, but DoD will retain funding and programmatic responsibility for the chemical-biological database and the equipment testing program, as these program elements are integral to satisfying independent DoĎ needs. DoJ will coordinate with DoD in joint planning efforts so that the state and local responder communities will continue to benefit from the expert assistance functions. DoD will enhance its domestic chem/bio response capabilities through the CB-RRT by continuing to train, exercise, and maintain this team.

Checks and balances are built into the staged approach to the transition. DoJ will coordinate with DoD throughout fiscal year 2000 and participate in joint planning as articulated in the finalized Memorandum of Understanding, which we hope to complete in early summer.

From joint publications to field manuals, from schools to staff colleges, we are working to embed WMD preparedness procedures and training into the way we do business. This effort is particularly pronounced at those schools that produce qualified personnel to perform WMD functions. The training of the Rapid Assessment and Initial Detection (RAID) teams and other elements will mirror our efforts to work across both Service and interagency lines to develop mutually supportive programs. We are working to ensure that the WMD responders, people at the local, state and federal levels, are prepared to work together to meet the needs of the people affected by a WMD attack. Extensive training will include teaching and course work provided by the Army Chemical School, and Defense Nuclear Weapons School,

the Army Medical Department, the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Fire Academy, the US Army Medical Research Institute for Infectious Diseases, FEMA, and the Department of Justice's Center for Domestic Preparedness.

THE ROLE OF THE NATIONAL GUARD AND RESERVE IN DOMESTIC EMERGENCY
PREPAREDNESS

One effective means of channeling federal support to first responders will come through the National Guard and Reserve. The Guard is the tip of our military response spear and, as such, will usually be the first military asset on the scene. Indeed, as Dr. Hamre, the Deputy Secretary of Defense, mentioned in his recent testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee, the National Guard and Reserve forces are "forward deployed all over America." When it comes to WMD response, the members of our National Guard and our other Reserve components are ideally suited for the mission. They live and work in more than four thousand communities nationwide. They are familiar with emergency response plans and procedures. And they often have close links with the fire, police, and emergency medical personnel who will be first on the scene. As a result, the Guard and Reserve comprise a highly effective source of trained and ready manpower and expertise.

For example, over half our total military medical capability is resident in the Reserve components. In the event of a WMD event, casualties may be enormous—and we will need to call on Reserve component medical expertise and equipment. The Reserve components, predominantly the Army Reserve, also have more than sixty percent of our military chemical-biological detection and decontamination assets. They will be essential providers of support to state and local authorities in the event of a WMD incident.

To better harness these inherent capabilities and make our national plans for WMD response more effective, last May President Clinton announced the establishment of ten RAID teams. These teams are designed to be assets of the Governors as they perform three vital tasks. First, they will deploy rapidly to assess suspected radiological, biological or chemical events-in support of the local incident commander. Second, they will advise civilian first responders regarding appropriate actions. And third, they will facilitate requests for assistance. Each RAID team will be composed of 22 full-time National Guard soldiers and airmen. The units will be fully mission capable in January 2000.

In fiscal year 2000 we will be requesting permission for five additional RAID teams to be organized. Congress must approve additional full-time National Guard positions for these teams. Stationing of these additional elements is currently being analyzed.

Additionally, each of the Reserve components is being called upon to play an expanded role in WMD response. The Department of Defense in fiscal year 1999 and fiscal year 2000, will train and equip 43 Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical reconnaissance elements and 127 decontamination elements in the Army Reserve, Air Force Reserve, Army National Guard and Air National Guard, enabling them to more effectively respond to a WMD attack.

In addition, and at the direction of Congress, the Department is working to establish 44 military support detachments, which we refer to as RAID (Light) teams. These teams are being established as part of our overall effort to develop a nationwide response capability that has strong roots in the local and state first-responder community. They will be established using traditional National Guardsmen and will be built on the RAID model but tailored to the specific needs of each of the States and territories where a RAID team was not placed. The RAID (Light) teams will be structured and trained to provide a modest planning and assessment capability in every state and territory.

In the area of resources and resource management, an interagency board (IAB) was convened to develop a standardized equipment list (SEL) for domestic response elements. This list provides both military and other interagency partners the opportunity to procure standardized equipment to ensure interoperability between response organizations. Ultimately this list will also support the requirements of state and local first responder organizations.

DoD also has a limited stockpile of medical supplies and protective gear, which can be used in a WMD incident, upon approval of the Secretary of Defense. We are also conducting research and development through the Counterterrorism Technical Support Program and the Technical Support Working Group (TSWG) to develop personnel protection, agent detection and identification equipment, and mitigation and decontamination equipment for use by first responders. The support provided by DoD will be based upon the resources within the department, our immediate proximity to a situation, or the nature and scope of the situation. It is important to note