Lawmaker pushes use of military technology in disaster response

Rep. Curt Weldon, R-Pa., is looking to educate his peers on how civilians can better use classified military technology to track and mitigate environmental hazards -- including forest fires, earthquakes and hurricanes -- in the wake of last month's disastrous tsunami in the Indian Ocean.

Weldon, an Armed Services Committee member and one of the leaders of the bipartisan House Oceans Caucus, plans to hold a February briefing for lawmakers on the Civil Applications Committee, a group of federal civil agencies that have used classified satellite imagery and other technology.

For instance, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and other branches of the Commerce Department have used this imagery for mapping in land and resource management programs, and for detecting a range of natural disasters.

The military has more advanced satellite technology than civilian agencies, and these satellites might be able to see areas that are not always tracked by commercial satellites or are out of the scope of these satellites, Weldon argues. There is a need to increase "use of defense assets that are a key part to understanding environmental phenomenon that lead to catastrophe and sometimes lead to war," Weldon said.

The trick is to convince lawmakers who advocate defense or the environment to work with one another, which Weldon said does not occur often. Weldon wants to spend about $5 million for a state-of-the-art system that would integrate military and civilian satellite technology, but is concerned that other budget priorities might stand in the way. "It'll take a major forest fire, major loss of life," he said.

With the Bush administration pledging a minimum of $350 million to aid the tsunami relief effort in South Asia and other Indian Ocean coastlines, Weldon said it is prudent for Congress to appropriate the necessary technical upgrades at a fraction of that cost, not to mention future supplemental disaster aid. Classified satellite imagery has been available to federal civil agencies since the 1960s. At a meeting last Wednesday, Weldon invited members of the CAC -- which consists of representatives from about a dozen federal agencies, including NASA and the Homeland Security and Transportation departments -- to brief members. No day, time nor agenda has been set for the briefing.