Tom Ridge's mission is to put together a comprehensive homeland security plan for the United States. The director of the Homeland Security Agency said Tuesday he sees Anniston's Center for Domestic Preparedness as an important part of that plan.
Ridge was in Anniston Tuesday to tour the center, which offers the only live-agent chemical training in the country. He spoke about the CDP's role in terrorism response and the push to move the center under the umbrella of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Ridge is taking President Bush's lead in moving the center to FEMA from the Department of Justice, to the disapproval of some of Alabama's elected leaders.
"We have to build a national capacity at all levels in communities to respond to terrorist events," Ridge said of the center's importance in national preparedness.
The center provides the nation's only live-agent chemical training for first-responders, seen as a valuable preparedness tool after the events of Sept. 11.
Ridge said having the center under FEMA's control would give the federal government one agency with the sole purpose of dealing with disasters, including terrorist attacks.
"We need one agency with core competencies to deal with these things, so let's make it FEMA," Ridge said. "If we have it my way we'd change the sign on the front of the building."
Ridge said he hadn't realized how sophisticated some of the CDP's training facilities are. The CDP, he said, is "an impressive national asset." He complimented the way the Anniston area replaced a closed military installation with another national asset.
Ridge also discussed ramping up the center's training capacity to 20,000 first responders per year. Currently, the CDP has trained more than 12,000 first responders over a four-year period.
Such an effort would take more funding, which would come from a $3.5 billion pie proposed for emergency preparedness by the Bush administration.
"I look at facilities like this as training the trainers, then teaching them to go train the first responders," Ridge said.
CDP Director L.Z. Johnson said Ridge's visit was a significant part of the center's history.
Congressman Bob Riley, R-Ashland, had opposed the CDP's move to FEMA, but after discussing the issue with Ridge Tuesday he said his concern rests within the CDP's transition from Justice to FEMA.
"If it's simply taking down the Department of Justice's sign and putting up FEMA's sign, then I don't think we would have a problem with it," Riley said.
