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Homeland Security Undersecretary Asa Hutchinson agreed Thursday to a congressional request to review minimum requirements that are attached to federal grants to local "first responders" to emergencies.

Testifying before the House Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee, Hutchinson, who heads border and transportation security at the Homeland Security Department, also said that millions of dollars in federal grants for homeland security remain unused by the states and that the states themselves are the problem in disbursing the aid.

Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Harold Rogers, R-Ky., reacted by saying that if states are the problem, Congress might consider bypassing them to directly fund local first responders. "The states ought to be on notice that the clock is ticking," Rogers said.

Rogers called on Hutchinson to look at the minimum requirements and report on whether he thinks they are necessary, how to impose them and what they should be. Hutchinson committed the department to providing some degree of review of the requirements within 30 days, and suggested the requirements might make a good topic for a hearing.

Rogers also said he sees a need for the establishment of a baseline level of security that all localities must achieve to meet federal standards. Hutchinson said a department fear is that five years from now the funds will have been spent and it may be difficult to account for how they were spent.

The use of federal grants is based on state vulnerability assessments, and Congress built flexibility into the system to allow for varying local situations, Hutchinson said.

The priorities currently associated with first-responder grants target the ability of communications systems to interact and the willingness of localities to support each other in emergencies, he said.

Hutchinson also took more criticism for the department's decision to develop a new fingerprint database of potential terrorists that is technologically incompatible with an existing FBI database containing 44 million names. "I'm very concerned about this," Rogers said. "We've got to find an answer here."

In particular, Rogers cited concern that border agents cannot access the FBI database. Hutchinson said that in terms of border control, the Bush administration views the problem as "unacceptable" and plans to fix it by the end of the year.

The fix consists of creating parallel access to the FBI database so border agents who apprehend aliens can check their information against it. So far, 20 border stations have the capability, and another 100 are expected by year's end.

COMMENTS

• I agree with the article 100 percent. There is not only a problem with state not getting funding out but also, the large communitites holding on to the funds and getting more. There are a lot of small communitities that need funding too but are unable to get the funding because of larger communitities holding onto the funds. The other problem is that states taking all the administration funds and using them for their own purposes, such as hiring additional people within the state offices. There are Homeland Security Response Teams such as ours who can not even afford the insurance on our response vehicles and a building to house equipment because we are made up of volunteers and proud of that fact. I would put this team up to any other team in the state or country and be able to show them up. Anyway, we could use that administration monies to help off set cost to keep team functioning. Right now we the volunteers take funds out of our own pockets to keep things moving. Any help in this situation would greatly be appreciated. I applaud the lawmakers who really think this program needs to be looked at. But please do not forget about the volunteers, after all we make up over 80 percent of the emergency responders throughout the country and are very dedicated as to what we do. Sincerely, Marty Altman Posted March 17, 2004 7:03 AM