WASHINGTON President Bush's proposal to consolidate oversight for disparate training programs for emergency responders, including the McClellan-based Center for Domestic Preparedness, was questioned by Alabama's senior senator Wednesday.
The administration's plan, which was part of the budget proposal sent to Congress this month, would transfer the center from the Department of Justice to the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The center is the only facility in the nation that uses actual biological and chemical agents in the training of first-responders.
While FEMA's top official billed the move as a way of standardizing training and equipment requirements and eliminating communication problems among law enforcement and firefighters, U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby, who has of late been at loggerheads with the agency, said he was "troubled" by the proposal.
"To date, I have been provided with very little information to convince me that this would be a valuable transfer," said Shelby, R-Tuscaloosa, at a senate subcommittee hearing. "Furthermore, the information that I have received leads me to believe that your agency is just beginning to do their homework regarding the nation's first-responder training program."
In recent months, Shelby has criticized FEMA for its management of the emergency preparedness program for the chemical weapons stockpiled at the Anniston Army Depot and the incinerator built to destroy them. These criticisms were brought on by the agency's decision to withhold funding for protective equipment, including respiratory hoods and software upgrades that county officials say are crucial to emergency preparations.
The conflict, which also has led Gov. Don Siegelman to sue the federal government, surfaced at Wednesday's Appropriations Subcommittee on Veterans, Housing and Urban Development and Independent Agencies hearing.
"Technical and bureaucratic problems have plagued the CSEPP community in Anniston, Ala.," Shelby said, referring to the acronym for the Chemical Stockpile Emergency Preparedness Program. "My primary concern has been and continues to be the safety of the Anniston community."
FEMA Director Joe Allbaugh said he was eager to resolve a controversy that is tying up more than $15 million in funding, but gave no sign that his agency will back down from its opposition to providing protective hoods or gas masks to civilians near the depot.
"I don't mind giving you a mask, but I want to make sure you are trained," Allbaugh told The Star. "How many people are going to carry a mask in their purse? Staying inside (in the event of a chemical accident) is the best thing to do."
Allbaugh said FEMA will hold an internal meeting Friday specifically concerning the preparedness controversy in Anniston.
How Shelby's probing of FEMA's role in Calhoun County will affect the larger issue of oversight for first-responder training remains to be seen. Congress ultimately will decide whether the Justice Department's Office for Domestic Preparedness, which contains the Center for Domestic Preparedness, will be moved under FEMA's umbrella.
Bush's budget asks for the transfer along with $235 million in funding.
FEMA established its Office of National Preparedness in May 2001, before the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 threw the spotlight on preparedness issues and especially those that concern law enforcement and firefighters. That office, which is distinct from the new Office of Homeland Security, was designed to coordinate preparations for attacks using weapons of mass destruction.
Allbaugh said the goal of consolidating grant programs from the Justice Department and FEMA is to streamline the bureaucracy and improve communication through the ranks.
"Many first-responders themselves are baffled by the maze of programs and agencies that provide preparedness assistance," Allbaugh said in a written statement. "FEMA is the natural federal agency to be the single point of contact to facilitate and oversee the implementation of the national effort to build preparedness capabilities."
Based on Allbaugh's praise for the Center for Domestic Preparedness - he called it a "fabulous facility" - a change in oversight wouldn't seem to have a negative effect on its funding or importance within the nation's first-response community.
"We need to build on what's going on down there," Allbaugh told The Star. "We just don't need two entities doing the same thing. This we need to consolidate."
A Justice Department spokesman did not return calls for comment and a local spokesman for the center said he was not aware of the proposed changes.
