Mr. AKAKA. Mr. President, this month is National Preparedness Month and activities are underway that will help educate Americans on actions they can take to safeguard their family and their community.. During this time, not only should we be inspired, but we should also be mindful that this past August 29th marked the two year anniversary of the time in which Hurricane Katrina decimated parts of Louisiana and Mississippi. In addition, we are now in the midst of a record-setting hurricane season, with an unprecedented two hurricanes making landfall simultaneously from the Pacific and Atlantic oceans on the same day. It is also the 6th anniversary of the attack by Al Qaeda on our country.
These catastrophic events underscored the need for our country, and each and every one of its citizens, to be prepared for disaster, regardless of its form. Much has been done since these terrible events to do so, but, so much more needs to be done. As time separates us from those terrible events, we must not become complacent.
During this month, we should use this time to reflect on how far we have come and how much further we need to go, and what should be done to protect ourselves, as individuals, and as a country. While we may have incident, training, and contingency plans in place to help ensure that certain situations may be appropriately addressed, it is important for us to remember that acts of terror may not always be prevented, and nature continues to show its fury in many ways.
As several reports have indicated, the threats to our homeland have not gone away; they have simply changed form. The July 17, 2007, National Intelligence Estimate (NIE), entitled "The Terrorist Threat to the U.S. Homeland", confirmed that, although many plots to attack the U.S. after 9/11 have been disrupted, Al Qaeda "is and will remain the most serious terrorist threat to the Homeland" and that its "plotting is likely to continue to focus on prominent political, economic, and infrastructure targets with the goal of producing mass casualties..." Furthermore, and of greater concern, the NIE assessed that Hezbollah, which has, until now, only conducted anti-U.S. attacks outside the U.S., "may be more likely to consider attacking the Homeland over the next three years..."
In addition to these threats, it is important to note that there a significant number of vulnerabilities at home. Even as memories of the massive August 14, 2003, North American power outage fade, the tragic August 1, 2007, bridge collapse in Minneapolis has provided yet another reminder that the Federal government can no longer ignore our aging infrastructure. In the words of author Stephen Flynn, "we depend on complex infrastructure built by the hard labor, capital, and ingenuity of our forbears, but....it is aging - and not very gracefully." In this regard, we must be focused on training, resources, and contingency plans to ensure that our nation is prepared.
Another point of concern is the impact of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) had on the health infrastructure in Ontario, Canada that revealed a vulnerable system unable to cope with an epidemic that originated outside it's borders. The World Health Organization (WHO) predicted that the deadly H5N1 avian influenza would likely be the source of the next global pandemic. In the United States, a new study published by researchers from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and the University of Washington has confirmed the first incidence of human-to-human transmission of H5N1 avian influenza, a beginning step in its becoming a human pandemic. The impact of such a pandemic would be enormous. A February 2006 study by the Lowy Institute for International Policy at the Australian National University concluded that, in a worst-case scenario, a global influenza pandemic would result in 142.2 million deaths and a $4.4 trillion loss in GDP. Given these studies and cases, it is imperative that the U.S. be prepared for such a pandemic. We should not wait for another disaster to hit the U.S. - we must prepare now.
I commend the Department of Homeland Security for conducting its National Preparedness Month Campaign and am pleased that more than 1700 state and local level organizations will be participating in preparedness activities around the country. I urge all Americans to take responsibility for their own preparedness, for that of their families, their businesses, and their schools. As the chairman of the Subcommittee on Oversight of Government Management, the Federal Workforce, and the District of Columbia under the Homeland Security Committee, I am committed to making sure that the Federal, State and Local governments are properly organized for the next natural or man-made disaster and to holding these agencies responsible when they are not. The passage of time since Katrina and 9/11 have done nothing to lessen the threat to the U.S., either from outside, or within. It is not a matter of if such an event will occur, but when it will occur. We must take the necessary precautions to be better able to deal with the disasters or incidents that will occur.
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