Norton to Preside Over Hearing on 9/11 on Much Anticipated Plan for Assuring Safety of U.S. 9/10/07

Washington, DC-To mark the 6th anniversary of 9/1l, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), Chair of the Subcommittee on Economic Development, Public Buildings, and Emergency Management, will hold a hearing at 10 AM on Tuesday, September 11 on the long awaited plan to safeguard the country following Hurricane Katrina and the 9/11 terrorist attacks six years ago entitled "Readiness in the Post-Katrina and Post-9/11 World: An Evaluation of the New National Response Framework." The hearing will be held in Room 2167 of the Rayburn House Office Building. This is the first hearing on the National Response Framework mandated by Congress for coordinating public and private responses in case of a national terrorist attack or natural disaster. Norton received a draft of the long-delayed plan last Wednesday following a letter she sent to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Michael Chertoff requiring that the framework be sent to the subcommittee no later than September 5 after many months of delays when the framework had been sought by at least three different congressional committees. Norton said that Congress sought a revised national response plan because Katrina "left no doubt that the United States was prepared for neither a major natural or terrorist disaster. Now that the Bush administration says that Al Qaeda strengthened and reorganized in Pakistan to spring again with another terrorist attack, we simply could not allow another 9/11 to come and go again without a national plan to protect the United States because there has been no terrorist attack on the United States since 9/11." However, Norton said, "The absence of an attack did not alert us to 9/11 and will not prepare us for the next attack. The American people need assurances that the country is prepared for the unexpected. Our hearing will help determine if we have the necessary mechanisms to respond should another 9/11 or Katrina occur."

In recent weeks reports have surfaced doubting the country's readiness and the value of a draft National Response Framework. Just last week, the GAO reported that "DHS has made the least progress toward some of the fundamental goals identified after the 2001 attacks and again after Hurricane Katrina in August 2005; improving emergency preparedness; and failure to produce a National Response Plan." To address the dramatic holes that were revealed during the Katrina catastrophe, Congress passed the Post Katrina Emergency Management Reform Act of 2006, which prescribed several directives that Congress felt necessary to prepare for the next natural disaster or terrorist attack. The Act requires the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to ensure that the national response plan provides a clear chain of command that is consistent with the role of the FEMA administrator as the principal emergency management advisor to the President. However, press reports recently said that the latest draft fails to meet this mandate and fails to include sufficient on-the-ground state and local input from those who will have to implement the framework, as well as the necessary collaboration and coordination among federal and local governments. Some witnesses at tomorrow's hearing are expected to give caustic criticism of the latest plan.

Witnesses will include R. David Paulison, FEMA Administrator; Vice Admiral (Ret.) Roger T. Rufe, Jr., DHS Director of Operations; Paul Stockton, Senior Research Scholar at the Stanford University Center for International Security and Cooperation; and state and county public emergency managements officials.