Return to the NCSBCS Committees page.  

Members! Click here to view Complete Article including links to Publications
referenced herein as well as the Member's Resource Library.

HOMELAND SECURITY SUMMIT SUMMARY

NOT IF, BUT WHEN, WHERE, HOW! ARE WE PREPARED?

In early June 2002, U. S. Senators Joe Biden and Bill Frist; AT&T CEO and member of the Business Roundtable, Michael Armstrong; former National Security Advisor, Brent Scowcroft; and Ambassadors Richard Holbrooke and Paul Bremer, III, each challenged the over 1,200 attendees at the McGraw-Hill Companies Homeland Security Summit with the above statements and question – "Are we prepared for the next terrorist attack on the United States?"

At the June 6-7 forum held at the Ronald Reagan Building in Washington, D.C., speaker after speaker (some 60 in total) described either what needs to be done or what actions are now being taken by the business community, construction and transportation industries, and the Federal government to help our nation get ready for the next event.

This article summarizes some of those actions described at the McGraw-Hill Summit. This article also directs members of NCSBCS to sections on our website where homeland security materials and guides can be downloaded and used to help your industry, state or local jurisdiction be better prepared. This article also describes work being done by the Regulatory Affairs Committee to assist our members.

WHAT’S BEING DONE - Organize, organize, organize.

In the wake of 9-11, the Business Roundtable in New York City formed a Security and Economic Recovery Task Force (headed by AT&T CEO Michael Armstrong) which among other actions has formed a "CEO COMLINK" that can within five minutes link every one of the Business Roundtable’s 150 CEOs with the Federal government to coordinate disaster responses involving their industries.

The construction industry and federal agencies, state and local government associations (including NCSBCS), led by the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers, the American Society of Civil Engineers and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), have formed The Infrastructure Security Partnership (TISP) which links 80 organizations to communicate with each other and develop a coordinated construction industry response to future terrorist attacks.

Several construction industry associations and the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers have developed and issued guides and workbooks to assist in either the design of more disaster-resistant structures or assist in risk assessment. If you are a member of NCSBCS, you can directly access several of these guides by going to the Regulatory Affairs Committee portion of the NCSBCS website to read and print them.

Among the guides available to NCSBCS members are:

    1. ASHRAE’s Risk Management Guidance for Health and Safety Under Extraordinary Incidents, January 2002
    2. Directions for Water Facilities from the CDC
    3. Draft Department of Defense Minimum Antiterrorism Standards for Buildings (UFC 4-010-01, May 8, 2002)
    4. Protecting Buildings and Their Occupants from Airborne Hazards, U. S. Army Corps of Engineers (TI 853-01, October 2001)
    5. Guidance for Protecting Building Environments from Airborne Chemical, Biological, or Radiological Attacks, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (May 2002)

The National Governors Association is holding biweekly homeland security conference calls with the state homeland security directors of each of the fifty states and several territories passing along information designed to help each state homeland security office to avoid having to "reinvent the wheel" in the development of their state’s/territory’s respective response to the terrorist threat.

Members in the National Alliance for Building Regulatory Reform in the Digital Age are coordinating their efforts to work with the White House Office of Homeland Security to promote the development of a secure, nationwide, secure database for first responders which includes as-built designs, evacuation plans, and other key contact information.  (See National Alliance link for more information on the Alliance and the secure database.)

With funding currently pending with the U.S. Congress, the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) is preparing to undertake a multi-year effort to research the building construction technology, codes and standards, and to process lessons that can be drawn from the World Trade Center destruction. This project includes work with the construction industry to disseminate those lessons learned in changes to our codes, standards, and construction processes.

The U. S. Government must bridge the gap between its agencies that gather information (CIA, etc.) and those that use information to undertake law enforcement (FBI/INS).

We must get rid of the inefficiencies and blind spots of "stove pipe bureaucracies" by streamlining and coordinating the flow of information and action across all agencies and through all levels of government. (During the Summit the White House announced its plans to support legislation creating a cabinet level agency for homeland security – this announcement was widely applauded by Summit attendees and speakers.)

On a far broader scale, 9-11, is making the point that American industry must work with the U. S. government to remove from the world the terrorist threat, not only through a force of arms but more lastingly, in the words of AT&T CEO Michael Armstrong, "by sowing the seeds of economic growth with democratic values that go with it to assure social justice and equity throughout the world and build a stronger bridge between the U. S. and the rest of the world."

WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE – Coordinate, Fund, Support, Train, Drill and be Vigilant

Attendees at the McGraw-Hill Homeland Security Summit were challenged by every speaker to do one or more of the above.

The White House Office of Homeland Security needs to issue shortly its national strategy and work with state and local government and the business community to begin its effective implementation while Congress and the White House work together to put in place the newly proposed cabinet level Homeland Security Agency.

Within that framework, the diverse array of uncoordinated state and local homeland security initiatives need to be sorted through, coordinated, and those that prove to be most effective need to be funded and the results shared with other communities so they can replicate or modify and replicate the success stories.

More effective and well-coordinated communications systems must be established for first responders and the state and local offices of homeland security. Those systems need to be interoperable to facilitate mutual aid agreements across state boundaries. (These systems should include a linking of construction information and data vital to the life safety of potential victims on the disaster site.)

Training and more training involving both the private and public sectors needs to be done to help communities prepare for WMD (weapons of mass destruction), bioterrorism, and bomb attacks to vital infrastructure in our communities.

Insurance barriers to mutual aid and private sector response to disaster sites must be significantly reduced if not eliminated.

Building owners and operators need information and training as to how to make their buildings more secure from bioterrorism or blast attacks.

To make all of the above possible with the most efficient use of limited Federal, state, and local funding, stove pipe bureaucracies, if they cannot be eliminated or reduced then they need to be effectively communicated and coordinated across. In this context, we need to take a serious look at ways in which our building regulatory systems can be better coordinated with other public safety agencies and with the construction industry.

We all need to recognize that we are not going to return to "business as usual" world of pre- 9/11. We are in this for the long run and in addition to coordination, and cooperation we need to remain observant and vigilant against potential threats.

WHAT NCSBCS IS DOING TO HELP YOU PREPARE IN YOUR COMMUNITY, YOUR INDUSTRY

At the NCSBCS 34th Annual Conference in Orlando, Florida, last October, the NCSBCS Regulatory Affairs Committee announced that over the course of the coming year it would undertake two initiatives in the area of homeland security.

In the short term, the Regulatory Affairs Committee has (or will):

  1. Supported the work NCSBCS is doing through the National Alliance on Building Regulatory Reform in the Digital Age to develop an outline of a secure, nationwide, state-maintained database for first responders of as-built designs, evacuation plans and other key contact information.

    2. In that regard, NCSBCS has prepared a prototype proposal to assist states in designing and
    setting up such a system for critical structures within the state. Copies of that prototype are available to state government officials from the NCSBCS Executive Director by contacting him at NCSBCS headquarters (703) 437-0100, Extension 235. E-mail: rwible@ncsbcs.org.

  2. Listed on its website for member’s access, the guides and standards (such as the above referenced documents) that the private and public sector can use to enhance public safety in buildings.
  3. Worked with NCSBCS delegates and Association of Major City/County Building Officials (AMCBO) members who are on their governor’s/mayor’s homeland security teams to share useful information as to what their counterparts are successfully doing in their jurisdictions.
  4. Begin this summer forming a work group to develop model mutual aid agreements that states and localities can put in place to support their neighbors when the next disaster (manmade or natural) strikes.
  5. Begin to work with the NCSBCS International Academy for Professional Codes Administration (IAPCA) to provide training for state and local jurisdictions and the private sector on how to conduct risk assessments for the buildings and critical structures within their communities. For more information on this new service, please contact Carolyn Fitch at NCSBCS headquarters (703) 437-0100, extension 238 or email cfitch@ncsbcs.org.
  6. Participate in, support, and disseminate to NCSBCS members, the work products of The Infrastructure Security Partnership (TISP) in which NCSBCS is an active participant.
  7. Lead a presentation on homeland security targeted at elected and building officials and the construction community during the joint NCSBCS/AMCBO Annual Conference in Louisville, KY, this October 20-22.

In the longer term, the Regulatory Affairs Committee will:

  1. Work in conjunction with the National Alliance on Building Regulatory Reform in the Digital Age and the International Academy for Professional Codes Administration to provide training and support to state and local jurisdictions to streamline their building regulatory processes to make them more effective and efficient in their handling of disaster preparedness, prevention and response.
  2. Work in conjunction with the National Governors Association and state homeland security directors to assess, coordinate, and disseminate information on effective state building regulatory processes that enhance effective and efficient disaster preparedness, prevention and response.
  3. Work in conjunction with the National Institute of Standards and Technology to disseminate the results of research that will be done over the next two years by NIST in their analysis of lessons learned from the destruction of the World Trade Center.

Progress on these projects and demonstrations of software and hardware that can be used to streamline building regulatory processes and assist in better coordinating disaster response will be shared with attendees at the NCSBCS 35th Annual Conference in Louisville, KY, October 20-22. (See link for more information).

NCSBCS can assist you in your community or industry through your use of one or more of these work products and/or through your active participation on the Regulatory Affairs Committee over the coming year as they undertake these initiatives. Contact Carolyn Fitch at NCSBCS to learn more about these and other ways in which NCSBCS can be of assistance to you and your community to be better prepared.

Return to the NCSBCS Committees page.