By Ed Somers and Ron Thaniel
August 9, 2004

At least nine House and Senate committees will be holding hearings on the 9/11 Commission's report over the next month, with more hearings expected in September. The majority of the hearings will focus on the issue of federal intelligence gathering and coordination, however other key subjects such as transportation security and federal-local information sharing are expected to be discussed.

Conference President Akron Mayor Donald L. Plusquellic sent a letter on August 5 to House Speaker Dennis Hastert, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and all Members of Congress asking that the Conference be provided opportunities to testify on the Commission's recommendations. Specifically, Mayor Plusquellic said that the Conference would like to testify on:

• Information sharing, with a particular focus on vertical integration between the federal government and local public safety agencies;
• Transportation security related to airports, transit systems, ports and other key modes; and
• Resources for first responders, with particular attention on the recommendations of the Department of Homeland Security's Task Force on State and Local Homeland Security Funding.

Some of the major recommendations in the 9/11 Commission's report that relate to cities include:

• Base federal funding for emergency preparedness solely on risks and vulnerabilities, putting New York City and Washington, DC on the top of the current list.
• Make homeland security funding contingent on the adoption of an incident command system to strengthen teamwork in a crisis.
• Allocate more radio spectrum and improve connectivity for public safety communications.

On the issue of transportation security, the report said, "Over 90 percent of the nation's $5.3 billion annual investment in the TSA goes to aviation — to fight the last war. The money has been spent mainly to meet congressional mandates to federalize the security checkpoint screeners and to deploy existing security methods and technologies at airports. The current efforts do not yet reflect a forward-looking strategic plan systematically analyzing assets, risks, costs, and benefits. Lacking such a plan, we (the 9/11 Commission) are not convinced that our transportation security resources are being allocated to the greatest risks in a cost-effective way."

Included among the transportation recommendations are:

• The U.S. government should identify and evaluate the transportation assets that need to be protected, set risk-based priorities for defending them, select the most practical and cost effective ways of doing so, and then develop a plan, budget, and funding to implement the effort.
• Improved use of "no-fly" and "automatic selectee" lists should not be delayed while the argument about successors to CAPPS continues. (The deployment of a new screening system to take the place of CAPPS has been delayed because of claims it may violate civil liberties). This screening function should be performed by the TSA, and it should utilize the larger set of watchlists maintained by the federal government.
• The TSA and the Congress must give priority attention to improving the ability of screening checkpoints to detect explosives on passengers. As a start, each individual selected for special screening should be screened for explosives.
• The TSA should expedite the installation of advanced (in-line) baggage'screening equipment. TSA also needs to intensify its efforts to identify, track, and appropriately screen potentially dangerous cargo in both aviation and maritime sectors.