Lawmakers demand standards for homeland security grants

The director of domestic preparedness for the Homeland Security Department found herself in a heated oversight hearing Thursday, fielding questions from frustrated lawmakers about national preparedness standards and management problems within the department.

Members of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security peppered Suzanne Mencer with tough questions and demands during her first hearing since taking her position last September at the department.

Committee Chairman Hal Rogers, R-Ky., demanded that Mencer's office immediately issue a plan that tells states and local first responders the "minimum essential capabilities" the federal government expects from them when grants are awarded. Rogers said the committee would withhold funding from the department and write the standards if DHS doesn't.

"We want to give you a chance to do it. If not, we're going to do it," Rogers said. "It ought to be done administratively because you're the experts, supposedly. But it needs to be done forthwith."

"When would you like it?" Mencer asked.

"Today," Rogers replied.

"I don't know if I can get ahold of the secretary in that short notice," Mencer said.

"I'm not concerned about your communications with the secretary; I'm concerned about spending these dollars … without standards," Rogers said, raising his voice. "That's why we're paying you the big bucks. I want to know when you're going to [get to] us the minimum essential capability plan by which you will require local first responders to comply with the grant monies we give them."

Mencer said DHS is required to develop a national all-hazards preparedness strategy under Homeland Security Presidential Directive-8, which was signed by President Bush last December. According to the directive, however, DHS is not required to define the strategy until it submits its budget request for fiscal year 2006.

Mencer said officials from her office planned to brief White House staffers on the strategy Thursday and DHS Secretary Tom Ridge next week. By the end of her exchange with Rogers, Mencer agreed to provide the committee draft documents by the end of Thursday.

She added that other elements within DHS are responsible for contributing to the strategy, such as the science and technology directorate.

Rogers said that since Mencer administers the grants, the committee is looking to her office to issue preparedness standards.

Mencer also noted that states were required to submit a homeland security assessment and strategy by the end of January. She said all strategies have been received and are under review, and 37 were approved by her office. The strategies are designed to help DHS coordinate grant funding.

Criticism of DHS came from both sides of the aisle, with lawmakers expressing frustration over issues such as how much funding is available for state and local governments, how the funding is being distributed, and whether cities will be reimbursed for costs incurred when DHS last raised the nation's threat level.

Rep. Marion Berry, D-Ark., said DHS needs "some serious urgency and emergency attitude."

"I think there should be a massive wake-up call in the whole Department of Homeland Security," he said. "I don't think that we're even approaching getting the job done with this department, regardless of how much money we put in."