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Costly Weapon-Detection Plans Are in Disarray, Investigators Say

By Spencer S. Hsu
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, July 16, 2008; A15

Bush administration initiatives to defend the nation against a smuggled nuclear bomb or a biological outbreak or attack remain poorly coordinated, costing billions of tax dollars while basic goals and policies remain incomplete, according to new reports by congressional investigators.

The administration budgeted $2.8 billion in 2007 for nuclear detection but lacks a strategic plan to plug gaps and move beyond its initial goals, such as placing radiation detectors at domestic and overseas ports, according to reports by the Congressional Research Service and the Government Accountability Office for a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing that will be held today.

Separately, a five-year-old program to detect the airborne release of biological warfare agents such as anthrax, plague and smallpox in more than 30 major U.S. cities still lacks basic technical data to help medical officials determine how to respond to an alert triggered by the sensors, congressional investigators and state and local officials will report to the House Homeland Security Committee.

In written testimony submitted for a House hearing today, state and local public health laboratory directors were highly critical of the program known as BioWatch, saying it is underfunded, improperly managed and of unclear benefit, despite $400 million in federal spending.

"The BioWatch program has been variously described by my fellow state and local laboratory directors as a parasite to the public health laboratory and squatters in valuable public health laboratory space," said the prepared testimony of Frances Pouch Downes, a Michigan state health official and president of the Association of Public Health Laboratories. "I am hard-pressed to disagree."

DHS spokesman Russ Knocke said that BioWatch guidelines were provided for jurisdictions to create their own operating rules and that the program has paid for its own staff, equipment and materials. A different GAO report recently quoted Energy Department officials praising the DHS for helping shift their focus to detecting nuclear materials overseas away from ports, he added, providing "a more balanced defense of our homeland."

"These criticisms simply don't bear truth," Knocke said.

Democrats are using the Senate and House hearings to air dissatisfaction with the White House's domestic response to the threat from weapons of mass destruction, which was a focus of President Bush in the run-up to the Iraq war in 2003, his 2004 reelection fight and several presidential security directives. As Bush prepares to leave office in January, critics say that despite progress, his administration's actions have not fulfilled its rhetoric.