WASHINGTON
Alabama's U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions asked Director of the Office of Homeland Security Tom Ridge to expand the role of Anniston's Center for Domestic Preparedness during a closed meeting with Ridge Wednesday.
"I have no operational authority over any department," Ridge said after the meeting. "I don't control any dollars. I can't hire and fire. But I do make recommendations, and I am answerable to the president."
What part the McClellan-based center will play in Ridge's eventual strategy recommendations to protect the country from future terrorist attacks has not yet been determined. Also to be determined is who eventually will have oversight of the center, which is the only facility in the nation that uses actual biological and chemical agents to train first responders.
Under President Bush's budget proposal, oversight for disparate training programs for emergency responders such as the center would be consolidated to improve communication. Oversight would be transferred from the Department of Justice to the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Congress ultimately will decide on the proposed change.
Sessions, R-Mobile, said the move "could be best" because $3.5 billion would be allocated through FEMA for first responders under the president's budget request for homeland defense.
"When you start to consider those numbers," Sessions said, "what it would take to double the CDP is not very great. Whereas in the Department of Justice, there are a lot of competing agencies."
Asked if the Bush administration is looking at the center to be the primary training facility for first responders under the new homeland defense plan, Ridge said: "It's got a extraordinary track record. With minimal investment they have trained thousands and thousands of people.
"Infrastructure is already in place. You don't have to build a lot of the buildings and you don't have to train a lot of cavalry. We want to go back and take a much closer look at that and to see if we can expand on it."
Ridge said he intends to "enhance homeland security in many different ways" and "many different places."
FEMA director Joe Allbaugh has previously said he also would like to expand the CDP at McClellan.
