John Sarbanes: “Madam, President, my amendment, No. 4554, would establish an Office of National Capital Region Coordination within a…”

“Madam, President, my amendment, No. 4554, would establish an Office of National Capital Region Coordination within a newly-created Department of Homeland Security. Joining me in offering this amendment are Senators Warner, Mikulski, and Allen. The September 11, 2001 terrorist attack on the Pentagon underscored the unique challenges the National Capital Region faces in emergency preparedness. A recent editorial in the Washington Post perhaps described the problem best: Sept. 11 laid bare the truth about the national capital region's preparedness for a major terrorist attack. That fateful day revealed that the area's 5 million residents, the federal government's far-flung operations and the varied state and local jurisdictions were ill-prepared for the kind of emergencies that could result from bioterrorism or other murderous terrorist strikes . . . . It will be no easy feat, converting a region containing three branches of the federal government, two states, and the District of Columbia, each with separate police forces and emergency plans--but all using the same roads and bridges--into a well-coordinated governmental operating complex . . . In no other area of the country must vital decisionmaking and coordination occur between an independent city, two States, seventeen distinct local and regional authorities, including more than a dozen local police and Federal protective forces, and numerous Federal agencies.”