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Miller Opening Statement for Hearing on Consequence Management for an Attack on the U.S. Homeland Involving Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear, and High-Yield Explosives
Washington, D.C. – U.S. Rep. Jeff Miller (R-FL), Ranking Member of the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Terrorism, Unconventional Threats and Capabilities, today released the following prepared remarks for the subcommittee’s hearing on how the United States would manage the consequences for an attack on the homeland involving chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear or high-yield explosives:
“I would like to thank Chairman Smith for calling today’s hearing. On this subcommittee, we follow very closely terrorism and unconventional threats, and there is no doubt that those who would bring harm to the U.S., its citizens and its interests, seek to obtain a chemical, biological, radiological or high-yield explosive (CBRNE) capability to sow terror, harm innocent persons, and disrupt the peaceful lives all people desire. While much of our military’s efforts focuses, very rightly, on projecting capability forward to deter, defeat and defend our nation and its interests, today we will examine the very important issue of dealing appropriately with an incident in which a CBRNE capability is used.
“Since 9/11, the Department of Defense and Department of Homeland Security have done an excellent job of keeping a CBRNE attack from happening on American soil. While we must certainly continue to pursue success in deterring and preventing such attacks from occurring, we must likewise be prepared to react quickly, and effectively, should a CBRNE event occur.
“Some very important steps have been taking to enhance the Department of Defense’s capability to respond to a domestic event, from the establishment of U.S. Northern Command (NORTHCOM) to better coordinate military support to domestic agencies to the creation of National Guard Weapons of Mass Destruction Civil Support Teams to aid local first responders. But much remains to be done.
“NORTHCOM’s Joint Task Force Civil Support was formed to provide a trained, ready CBRNE Consequence Management Response Force, or CCMRF, that would respond to catastrophic CBRNE incidents to integrate the Department’s support to save lives and prevent injury. The Department assigned the first CCMRF forces to NORTHCOM in October of last year with the second and third CCMRFs to be activated through 2010. However, as we noted in the House version of the Fiscal Year 2010 National Defense Authorization Bill, the Secretary of Defense decided this April to ‘allocate’ forces instead of ‘assigning’ them. While this may seem a mere question of semantics, this difference can represent significant changes to how the CCMRF will operate, train, and be resourced—potentially degrading this much needed response capability.
“Further, in the Fiscal Year 2009 National Defense Authorization Act, we had directed the Government Accountability Office to examine NORTHCOM’s progress in establishing forces assigned to the consequence management mission which we had expected to receive in April of this year. The Secretary’s decision to allocate versus assign, however, has impacted the completion of that report and has raised serious concerns in our minds about the potential negative impacts this decision may have on NORTHCOM’s ability to respond to a CBRNE event.
“Ensuring that the Department of Defense can provide a much needed capability is the reason we are here this morning to receive testimony from the Department and from GAO on the military’s consequence management capability. As we delve into this important topic, I would also be interested in hearing your comments on the National Strategy and the National Military Strategy to Combat Weapons of Mass Destruction. As we noted in this year’s defense bill, there seems to be a divergence in the application of the concepts contained in those strategy documents, so I would be very interested in hearing your thoughts on what may be lacking, or effective, in our overall planning and organizing to deal with the CBRNE threat. I look forward to hearing your testimony today.