Anti-terrorism Legislation - SuffolkJournal.com

Local Congressman
Helps Pen Anti-Terrorism Legislation
by Jane Lee Bock

November 2, 2001

Last week Congressman Steve Israel (D-Huntington), one of 67 members of The Democratic Task Force on Home Land Security, announced the creation of a new proposal to protect communities throughout America against bio-terrorism. Called the Bio-terrorism Protection Act (BioPAct) of 2001, the measure seeks to ensure that Long Island will be able to respond swiftly and effectively to a bio-terrorist attack.

"We call the Bio-terrorism Protection Act BioPAct because we know that every American needs to be part of this fight, part of the pact to protect our homeland," said Israel. "It's a pact between the American people and their government, working together, called to national service, marshaling our vast resources to keep Americans safe from bio-terrorism. The plan doesn't just draw on government programs but on the American spirit, intellect and creativity."

Prior to September 11th of this year, Suffolk's emergency management focus was primarily on potential weather incidents. Since September 11th, additional concerns about public safety have arisen, such as the threat of anthrax contamination and the potential for further destruction. The BioPAct is designed to provide funding to local town, village and county municipalities for equipment and other preparedness that might be needed in the event of a local act of terrorism. It also provides a financial incentive for local governments to put together plans by giving them the money they need to hire, train, establish communications systems, etc.

Israel held several meetings last week with existing emergency services personnel such as firefighters, hospitals, postal workers, police and public safety professionals to determine the existing level of preparedness and ask them what they needed to better coordinate all of their efforts.

The conferences were convened after Central Islip postal workers discovered a suspicious express mail package at their facility on October 17. Suffolk County Police Department Emergency Services closed the plant for decontamination and testing but the FBI allegedly took more than a week to pick up the item from police. Congressman Israel then intervened to expedite the testing of the package and although the FBI has never reported on its contents, other test results showed that no employees had been exposed to Anthrax.

"Cities, towns, counties and states on the front line in this fight should have resources to reduce the threat from biological terror. Law enforcement should have the resources to increase its ability to investigate threats and stop terrorists before they hit. Postal workers should have resources to deploy new technologies to detect biological threats before they harm citizens. Our proposal does all of these things," said Israel.

Although no dollar amount was given for implementation, key components of the proposal include:

Improving community emergency response capacity and preparedness -- Increase hospital capacity; educate medical personnel; increase nursing and clinical lab personnel; and provide training to first responders.

Ensuring an adequate supply of vaccines and treatments for all Americans -- Increase the national stockpile of anthrax antibiotics; develop and acquire additional doses of smallpox vaccines; research and develop new vaccines and antibiotics; train and equip health professionals to provide antibiotics and vaccines.

Enhancing community planning and intergovernmental coordination -- Provide planning grants to local communities and health care providers to develop emergency response plans that meet certain minimum federal guidelines; fund state trauma care systems and strengthen intergovernmental coordination.

Enhancing surveillance, improving communications, and strengthening technology infrastructure -- Train health care personnel in the detection of illnesses related to biological attacks; build local technology and communication systems; require state and federal agencies to share information with first responders.

Protecting our food and water -- Protect crops and livestock through increased surveillance and research; increase inspections of imported food and domestic production plants; develop improved monitoring systems to track water quality.

Enhancing law enforcement's ability to protect the nation -- Establish new criminal offenses involving the possession and unsafe handling of biological agents; develop and deploy new computer hardware, software, and training to support biometric technology; create new grants to local communities for counter-terrorism training and equipment.

Securing our borders at land and sea -- Increase the size of the United States Border Patrol Force and the number of INS and Customs Inspectors at ports of entry; fund the development and deployment of technology capable of detecting explosive devices; biological and chemical contaminants; provide Coast Guard with enhanced training and equipment.

Addressing threats to mail delivery services -- Implement improved mail tracking abilities to track suspicious packages to their source; and investigate procedures to treat mail.

The Military: Preparing, responding & assisting communities -- Increase military domestic crisis response teams; train and equip military and civilian emergency responders with interoperable communications equipment.

Strengthening our intelligence through full coordination -- Conduct a threat assessment to identify areas of vulnerability and provide a basis for a national strategy for homeland security; remove barriers to efficient information among agencies; conduct public education campaign on the threat of and response to biological weapons

Improving intelligence capabilities -- Improve identification of foreign biological agent possession; fund and recruit in the Intelligence community more linguists of Middle Eastern and South Asian background; increase language translation skills and improve usage of language resources.