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TESTIMONY OF
CRAIG CONKLIN
CHIEF
NUCLEAR AND CHEMICAL HAZARDS BRANCH
(FEMA)
DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY

BEFORE THE
HOUSE ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE
SUBCOMMITTEE ON TERRORISM, UNCONVENTIONAL THREATS AND CAPABILITIES
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

REGARDING THE ARMY'S CURRENT FORCE PROTECTION PROGRAM INITIATIVES AND OTHER MAJOR GROUND COMPONENT ACQUISITION PROGRAMS

 APRIL 1, 2004

Mr. Chairman and members of the Subcommittee, I am Craig Conklin, Chief of FEMA's Nuclear and Chemical Hazards Branch.  I am pleased to provide this statement to the Subcommittee wherein I will update FEMA's activities in support of the Chemical Stockpile Emergency Preparedness Program (CSEPP) since my last testimony before this Subcommittee, on October 30, 2003.

Once again, we welcome the opportunity to share with the committee CSEPP's continued successes and how this important program is benefiting our nations' emergency preparedness and homeland security efforts.  Following my brief remarks, I will be happy to answer your questions.

My statement will cover: FEMA's roles and responsibilities in CSEPP; the structure and operation of the program; the current status and challenges presented by this complex program; and the efforts to share the lessons learned from this program within the Department of Homeland Security.

FEMA'S MISSION

FEMA's mission continues to be the reduction of the loss of life and of damage to property and to protect our residents from all hazards, natural and man-made.  We accomplish this mission by providing the Nation with comprehensive, risk-based emergency management programs, including mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery.  Our integration into the new Department of Homeland Security has increased our opportunities to perform this mission.

We continue to work closely with many other Federal Departments and agencies, and with States, Tribal Nations, local governments, volunteer organizations, and private industry.

CHEMICAL STOCKPILE EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS PROGRAM (CSEPP)

In my previous testimony, I detailed the statutory foundation of the Program, Public Law (P.L.) 99-145, wherein Congress directed the Department of Defense (DOD) to dispose of its lethal unitary (pre-mixed) chemical agents and munitions while providing "maximum protection for the environment, the general public and the personnel involved in the destruction of lethal chemical agents and munitions . . ." Both the U.S. Army and FEMA continue to work towards Congress' goal of maximum protection for the environment, general public, and personnel. FEMA and the Army jointly formed CSEPP to ensure Congress' intent was followed.

Since 1988, FEMA and the Army have cooperated in enhancing public safety and working towards maximum protection at the Army's chemical stockpile sites. We also have signed three Memoranda of Understanding and one reaffirmation to show our cooperation and resolve in protecting the public.

CSEPP's mission continues to be protecting residents from exposure to chemical agents and is, therefore, directly beneficial to the work of DHS and our Nation's anti-terrorism efforts. Many of CSEPP's chemical hazard and public safety research, training, and public outreach efforts can be used nationwide.

FEMA'S CSEPP RESPONSIBILITIES

CSEPP is an outstanding example of partnership among the Army, FEMA, States, Tribal Nations, and local jurisdictions.  The Federal management structure is uniquely designed to capitalize on each Federal partner's expertise and administrative infrastructure to develop and enhance the emergency preparedness capabilities of the affected Army installations and the participating State and local jurisdictions.

Within CSEPP, FEMA's responsibility and accountability entail all aspects of off-post emergency preparedness, including:

• Administering off-post CSEPP funds;
• Supporting the States in developing response plans;
• Preparing, developing, delivering, and evaluating training;
• Providing technical assistance; and
• Developing programs for evaluating off-site readiness capability.

PROGRAM STRUCTURE

Ten States, 41 counties, and one Tribal Nation surrounding the eight U.S. Army stockpile sites participate in CSEPP.  The eight States hosting installations with chemical stockpiles are:  Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Oregon, and Utah. Two additional States, Illinois and Washington, also participate in the program because of their borders' proximity to the stockpiles in Indiana and Oregon, respectively. The Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Reservation in Oregon also actively participate in the program.

Thirteen (13) counties are in Immediate Response Zones, the areas closest to where the chemical agents are stored and generally within approximately a ten-mile radius. Twenty-five counties are in Protective Action Zones, beginning at the outer edge of the Immediate Response Zones and extending to a distance of between six and 31 miles.  The remaining three counties are designated as host counties, which lie outside the Immediate Response Zones and Protective Action Zones.

Like FEMA's other emergency preparedness programs, CSEPP is administered through the States.  Funds are distributed to the States under Cooperative Agreements, based upon a negotiated work plan between the States and FEMA Regional Offices.  Under the agreements, each State identifies needs, develops proposed projects to meet those needs, requests funds, and disburses those funds at the State level and to local governments.

Budgeting for the CSEPP is done according to the Department of Defense's Planning Programming and Budgeting System (PPBS). The budget for off-post emergency preparedness is based in large part on Life Cycle Cost Estimates (LCCE) that are prepared by the States in conjunction with FEMA, and updated regularly.

At the Federal level, FEMA and Army Headquarters are responsible for CSEPP policy and program development, while the FEMA regions and the Army's Chemical Materials Agency manage day-to-day operations.  Site-specific issues are dealt with through site-specific Integrated Product Teams.  These teams (required to be established by Section 1076 of P.L. 104-201, the Department of Defense Authorization Act for FY1997) serve as the primary local forum for identifying site-specific operational issues, proposing solutions to those issues to the appropriate level decision makers, and implementing programmatic and operational decisions.

CSEPP MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

CSEPP   focuses on providing the personnel, equipment, and training necessary to establish a response infrastructure that enables emergency managers to quickly alert the public, manage the response, and communicate with the public, the media, and emergency responders.   Equally important is public awareness of what to do in the event of an incident.  CSEPP   programmatic benchmarks define a level of response functionality necessary to protect the public (benchmark compliance) and provide resources as needed to eliminate preparedness weaknesses.

Fiduciary requirements dictate that FEMA carefully evaluate requests from the States and communities to achieve "maximum protection" capability within the limits of funds provided.  As such, our goal is to deliver maximum available resources to the local communities in relation to the level of risk faced by the community.                             

As of March 31, 2004, approximately $645 million had been allocated to the States under the annual Cooperative Agreements.  In addition, $80.2 million more has been applied to FEMA-managed contracts that support the States. The allocation of resources is tracked according to the jurisdiction that spends the funds rather than the jurisdiction that benefits from the service.  Therefore, funds spent at the State and county levels do not reflect the true picture of the benefits the counties have received through the program.

For FY2005, FEMA has programmed $96.3 million into the budget to cover off-post CSEPP-preparedness.

CSEPP BENCHMARKS AND PREPAREDNESS COMPONENTS

FEMA and the Army continue to manage CSEPP through the 12 benchmarks.  These benchmarks date back to 1993 and capture the outcome-oriented methods necessary for public safety.  The Program continues to develop metrics and strategic plans to ensure the environment, public, and personnel are protected.

The benchmarks are the primary system by which we manage performance in CSEPP.  The eight CSEPP communities evaluate and update their benchmark status quarterly at IPT meetings. The FEMA Regional CSEPP personnel then report benchmark status at quarterly In Progress Reviews (IPRs) held at FEMA headquarters.  CSEPP has made significant strides in improving benchmark compliance during 2003.  In fact, during that year, compliance increased from 93.3 percent in 2002 to 95.4 percent.

CONTINUED SUCCESSES

The partnership between the Army and FEMA is very strong and getting stronger. Our two organizations have worked well together resulting in numerous accomplishments. Building on those successes, we are working on other initiatives that are designed to enhance public protection, to streamline budgeting and administrative tasks, and to continue the use of Integrated Product Teams (IPTs).  IPTs are working groups comprised of stakeholders from all levels of government to resolve issues and implement the program.

Since my last testimony, the program has achieved many notable successes.  On March 23, 2004, both FEMA and the Army renewed their outstanding partnership as signatories to a new Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the parties.  The new MOU captures organizational changes and reaffirms our commitment to cooperation and public safety.

We have developed Cooperative Agreement (CA) Tools 3.0, an automated CSEPP financial management software for budget application, review, approval, award, reporting, and closeout of CSEPP grants and cooperative agreements. Thus far, we have installed the software in seven of our ten CSEPP States and it has received rave reviews.  One State's financial manager deemed the CA Tools software a "godsend."

Other Federal agencies and organizations have adopted CSEPP's outcome-oriented exercise process for national implementation. Our emergency exercises are jointly conducted with the full cooperation and involvement of the Army installations and the off-post communities. Army and off-post personnel routinely train together, participate in integrated process teams, and meet to share ideas at meetings and workshops. This relationship has solidified communications between the on-post and off-post communities that is critical to the effective implementation of an emergency plan.

Our comprehensive Reentry Recovery Workbook now has a computer-based interactive planning and training tool for recovery planning. This tool will help our communities develop first-rate recovery plans.  Our Medical Quality Improvement Teams continue to rely on the expertise of our state and local partners.  Observers have noted that our CSEPP medical preparedness exceeds that of most communities and is an outstanding example nationwide.

Since last October, we have updated and refreshed our outstanding CSEPP Portal at www.cseppportal.net.  We have made the site more user-friendly and incorporated a "My CSEPP" feature so that users may tailor the site to their needs.  Portal use is growing exponentially and is a highly-effective mechanism to share information and best practices.

Our Protective Actions IPT continues to develop a Workbook to aid State and local governments in the development of protective action decision strategies.    We make concentrated efforts to share the results of our research and science with others who can benefit.  For example, much that CSEPP has developed can be of value in protecting against toxic industrial chemical hazards, and we have worked closely with the President's Chemical End-2-End Working Group and the National Institute for Chemical Studies to ensure that CSEPP best practices are exported to other hazardous materials preparedness programs.

We are extremely proud of the public safety efforts FEMA and its partners have accomplished in Alabama.  The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers performed the Herculean task of completing collective protection construction projects at 20 schools by October 1, 2003.  This task allowed demilitarization operations to begin.  To date, more than 50 percent of the sarin (GB) rockets have been destroyed with a concomitant reduction in public risk.  The Alabama IPT successfully resolved extant protection issues and, thus, ultimately increased the safety of the community by destroying the hazard.  Also, at the request of the Alabama community, FEMA has developed an automated protective action decision tool that takes data from the Army's CSEPP hazard analysis model and rapidly develops an optimized strategy to minimize exposure of the population at risk.

CSEPP has continued its history of developing valuable training and public education materials.  In fact, on March 26, 2004, our Chemical Preparedness Section Chief, Dan Civis, accepted an award from the Society for Technical Communication for our  Residential Shelter-in-Place video. This video is in great demand from many federal, State, and local agencies and is used to assist them in WMD training and public awareness. A companion video, Shelter-In-Place for Businesses and Industry, has also been completed and is ready for release.    Since my testimony last October, over 100,000 additional CSEPP training courses, job aids, technical reports and public education tools were downloaded from the CSEPP training web site and are regularly used for training first responders to deal with weapons of mass destruction and toxic industrial chemicals.  Total training downloads now exceed 326,000.

We are in continuing dialogue with our State, County, and Tribal Nation partners to resolve outstanding issues and to sustain the high level of preparedness that exists within our program.

CONCLUSION

CSEPP continues to accomplish its mission of protecting the environment, general public, and workers at the eight chemical weapons stockpile sites.  Nearly all-major CSEPP systems are in place and operational. Improvements to protections in all communities will continue.  We continue to strive to increase our preparedness and readiness with our goal of 100 percent benchmark attainment reachable in the very near future.  Our efforts to improve public safety, however, will not cease until all the chemical weapons stockpiles are destroyed.

Once again, FEMA is committed to ensuring the successful implementation of CSEPP and protecting the health and safety of our citizens.   "Maximum protection" is the most stringent requirement of any emergency preparedness program directive, but we are confident that the Federal, State and local emergency management community is up to the challenge.

Since the Program's inception, CSEPP communities have made quantum leaps in emergency preparedness.  Today, our communities are included amongst those best prepared in the nation to respond to a WMD incident.    Again, we thank our CSEPP communities for their commitment and dedication to this important program and renew our pledge to work with them until the risk of a chemical stockpile incident no longer exists. Just as we, FEMA, and the Army, reaffirmed our commitment to each other and to further public safety through our signing of the March 23, 2004, MOU, FEMA recommits itself to ensuring the public's safety at the chemical stockpiles.  Most importantly, just as Alabama has reduced its risk by 12 percent in the last few months since my last testimony, the other communities can see the same reductions once they begin destruction of the chemical weapons stored in their communities.   Finally, we all look forward to that day when the last chemical weapon and warfare agent is destroyed.

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