Maloney Supports Increase in Civil Protection Teams
By Mindy Finn
WASHINGTON – Congressman Jim Maloney, D-5th District, has introduced legislation to increase the number of Weapons of Mass Destruction Civil Support Teams in the U.S. so that every state including Connecticut can have its own emergency response team.
When the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center occurred and New York emergency personnel had to rush to Ground Zero, Maloney wondered, “Who was covering Connecticut?”
“The answer would be, well, that coverage comes from Boston. But, Bridgeport, Norwalk, Stamford, Danbury and Waterbury are a long way from Boston,” he said.
Currently there are 27 teams around the country, with five to be added before the end of the year. These military teams, made up of 22 full-time National Guard members, are “designed to provide support to civil authorities in response to weapons of mass destruction threats or attacks,” Maloney said.
Currently, there are two teams assigned to cover New England, one in Natick, MA and one in Scotia, New York.
“It is appropriate that we have a team located in Connecticut, both to help Connecticut and to serve as a back-up for New York and/or Boston,” Maloney said. In the event of a weapons of mass destruction attack, the Civil Support Teams would be the Federal Government’s first line of defense, he added.
Connecticut is just one of a number of states that does not have a civil support team. “While, 32 teams is a good start, it doesn’t go far enough. My legislation calls on the Secretary of Defense to establish at least one team per state and territory,” Maloney said.
“The teams are expertly trained to provide a variety of services including coordinating an evacuation or rescue and recovery effort, securing communications, and providing medical supplies. The teams will be trained in the detection and treatment of biological or chemical terrorism, and outfitted with the proper protective equipment for entering a contaminated site. The teams will also be able to provide an assessment of the damage, consultation on logistics, and medical defenses against chemical and biological weapons,” explained Maloney.
According to a September 2001 General Accounting Office report entitled Combating Terrorism, the Department of Defense recommends that there should be a response team in every U.S. state, territory, and in the District of Columbia. Maloney’s proposal would increase the total number of teams to 55, to also allow for a reserve team.
Each civil support team costs about $5.5 million and Maloney said his proposal would cost an additional $120 million. “Of course $120 million is a lot of money but in the context of the national defense budget, it’s a fairly small amount.”
“It can cost billions to rebuild an area that has undergone attack,” said Maloney.
Maloney said he believes emergency response resources “should be stronger than they are, they should be more extensively trained than they are, and they should be better integrated with state emergency personnel and local emergency personnel. The best way to do that is to have at least one team located here in the state of Connecticut and every other state.”
Maloney said he has been pushing for additional teams for several years. Five additional teams are to be created before the end of the year, but the locations where they will be stationed have not yet been announced, he said.
Maloney sent a letter to Sec. of Defense Donald Rumsfeld earlier this year asking that Connecticut receive one of the five new teams.
“There are concerns about specific locations in Connecticut that need and deserve special coverage that such a team makes possible,” said Maloney in a telephone interview on Thursday from Waterbury. Maloney returned early to Connecticut this week after the House of Representatives was adjourned suddenly Wednesday so that the Capitol and its office buildings could be examined for any trace of anthrax. This came after the office of Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-SD, received a letter containing the bacteria.
“If we had a team that was based in Connecticut, that team would be training all the time with our state emergency response people and our local emergency response people,” Maloney said.
“Training is half the battle,” he said, “making sure that our responders are fully up to snuff with all their technical training and also up to speed with the way in which they would interact with the state police, with the state laboratory, with the state national guard here in Connecticut, with local police departments and the like.”
Maloney said he expects his bill, which was introduced Wednesday, will be referred to the Armed Services committee, of which he is a member. Maloney said he would expect his bill to be included in defense authorization legislation which Congress will take up next February.
