Summary

Combating Terrorism: Observations on Growth in Federal Programs

T-NSIAD-99-181  June 9, 1999

Full Report (PDF, 21 pages)   

The President's budget request for fiscal year 2000 includes about $10 billion to combat terrorism. About $1.4 billion of that amount was earmarked for dealing with weapons of mass destruction, according to the Office of Management and Budget. This testimony focuses on three issues. First, GAO briefly describes the foreign- and domestic-origin terrorism threats, as it understands them from intelligence analyses, and discusses issues surrounding the emerging threat of terrorist attacks involving chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear weapons. Second, GAO discusses the growth in federal programs to train and equip local "first responders"--police, fire, and emergency medical services--and the expansion of federal response teams to deal with terrorist attacks involving weapons of mass destruction. Finally, GAO discusses efforts to better manage the federal response to terrorism and opportunities for additional focus and direction.

Subject Terms

Biological warfare
Biological weapons
Chemical warfare
Combating terrorism
Domestic intelligence
Emergency medical response teams
Emergency preparedness
Explosives
Federal/state relations
Firearms
First responders
Homeland security
Metropolitan medical response system
Redundancy
Strategic planning
Terrorism
Terrorists
Weapons of mass destruction
FEMA Federal Response Plan
Nunn-Lugar-Domenici Domestic Preparedness Program
Oklahoma City (OK)
World Trade Center (NY)