Judd Gregg: “one of the Senate's highest priorities, and one of my own personal priorities, has been ensuring that State and local…”

“one of the Senate's highest priorities, and one of my own personal priorities, has been ensuring that State and local first responders are prepared to handle a terrorist attack, especially one involving weapons of mass destruction. One of the principal ways I have tried to do this is through the Office of Domestic preparedness at the Department of Justice. Through the Appropriations subcommittee that Senator Hollings and I oversee, the Senate built ODP from a $5 million program into an $800 million program in just five years. Since 1998, ODP has been the focal point within the Federal Government for State and local jurisdictions to receive equipment grants, training, technical assistance, and exercise support for combating terrorism. The original legislation creating the Department of Homeland Security would have combined the preparedness functions of ODP and the response functions of FEMA into a single Directorate, the Directorate of emergency Preparedness and Response. The problem with this framework is that the much larger FEMA would have dominated the new Directorate, and its priorities and philosophies would have obscured those of ODP. ODP possesses unique experience and expertise when it comes to preparing the State and local jurisdictions to handle terrorism. FEMA has very little experience with this side of the equation: its role has always been to respond after an event occurs.”