Tony Thurmond: “once again, I congratulate the Senators from Georgia, New Mexico, and Indiana, on their efforts to craft an amendment to…”

“once again, I congratulate the Senators from Georgia, New Mexico, and Indiana, on their efforts to craft an amendment to authorize the establishment of an emergency assistance program to train and equip State and local authorities to respond to domestic terrorist use of weapons of mass destruction. I want to reiterate my concerns with parts of the amendment that would increase funding and expand authorities for the Cooperative Threat Reduction Program, both in DOD and in DOE. I trust that the sponsors will provide us with information on the justification for these new activities and the impact on the DOD future years defense plan and DOE as soon as possible. The sponsors submitted letters from the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of Energy in support of this new initiative last night. I assume that the sponsors will provide us with copies of these two letters as well. Mr. President, I have urged the sponsors of this amendment to consider a few recommendations that would enlist the assistance of the National Academy of Sciences in developing the emergency assistance program; that would specifically authorize a chemical-biologial emergency response team; and, that would specifically authorize funding for a regional NBC emergency stockpile from which the State and local authorities could draw in an emergency. Lastly, I want to mention just a few other concerns I have with this amendment. There are no appropriations for these new initiatives.…”