Remarks by Secretary Tom Ridge to National League of Cities

Release Date: 03/10/03 00:00:00

U.S. Department of Homeland Security
Office of the Press Secretary
March 10, 2003
For Immediate Release

Washington Hilton Hotel
Washington, D.C. 

SECRETARY RIDGE:  Thank you, Mayor.  Thank all of you for that warm greeting.  Thank all of you for staying here and listening to the last speaker of the day.  (Laughter.)  

First of all, to my friend, Mayor Williams, as you know, the President asked me, when I served in the White House, to put together a Homeland Security Advisory Council.  And part of our effort was to reach out to organizations such as yours and to ask members representing different levels of government and different groups whose perspective I thought--the President thought was needed on an advisory council to participate.

You should know that Mayor Williams of Washington, D.C. has represented your interest very, very well.  He has worked tirelessly not only on the Homeland Security Advisory Council but many of you have asked for the Department of Homeland Security and the Advisory Council to develop a template to establish state wide, regional and urban security plans.  You know, what are the foundation needs that we have, what are the questions we need to ask ourselves in order to get--make the right decisions.

And there have been about 40 people from around the people that have engaged in that, state and local officials, first responders and others.  And I just want to thank him for his prodigious work with Governor Leavitt.  And you both chair and co-chair that effort.  And in the weeks ahead we hope to--not hope, we will be releasing that plan to your organization and to the mayors and the governors and homeland security advisors around the country.

So I thank him.  And I also want to thank the National League of Cities for your support in creating the new department.  Your advocacy was a huge help, and I thank you for that.  I want to thank you for your support of the state and local unit that is becoming a formal part of the new Department of Homeland Security.  

And I would be certainly remiss if I didn't not only thank you for the personal and professional support that the organization has given me, but I hope some of my friends from the cities from around Pennsylvania have remained, because I've got to thank them for the support they have sent my way, as well.  Are my friends from Pennsylvania here?  Once a governor, always a governor.  You know that, ladies and gentlemen.  

But I felt that perhaps one of the reasons that the President was so keen in getting state and local people involved in this Homeland Security Advisory Council and the President was keen in having a state and local unit within the new department, was he understood instinctively as a former governor himself that the partnership we need to build a national capacity to prevent terrorist attacks, to reduce our vulnerability and then to respond to an attack are partners with our governors and our mayors.

And so I thank you again for the opportunity to share with you some thoughts today.  

It's been just over a week that the Homeland Security Department took responsibility for nearly 180,000 men and women who go to work every day to secure our homeland.  We're putting the structure in place, we're reorganizing to build new and better and stronger capacities.  Now we must provide the resources and the leadership, resources that go directly to protecting Americans from terrorism and leadership at all levels of government, not just from the federal level, but from the state and local level, as well.

And I'd like to take a moment to share with you what will be spent this year on homeland security.  It's the fiscal '03 budget.  We've submitted an '04 budget.  I just want to share with you a couple thoughts about what you can expect in the next several months with regard to homeland security, all of it affecting you, some of it more directly than not.      

We have nearly doubled federal spending, government wide, for homeland security from the year before.  Now, many of you have heard me say this, and I believe it, we cannot secure the homeland, ultimately, from Washington, D.C.  We have to have partners at the state and local level.  And at the end of the day, the homeland is secure when the hometown is secure.  

And so in the 2003 budget, the funds aren't for many new programs in Washington, but for security enhancements, new equipment and resources in our homelands, in our hometowns, in our states, at our borders and in our cities.  This investment will create new capabilities to protect us against terrorism, and I frankly think we'll be able to integrate traditional security functions in a new and a much, much better way.  

Much of it builds on the progress we've made over the past 18 months.  The bottom line is that we believe these investments improve our ability to prevent a terrorist attack, not just prepare for one.  And you need to understand that while there's a lot of public discussion and debate about first responders--and we know that's one of the critical roles of the Department of Homeland Security, to build a national capacity so that we can respond as quickly as possible to a terrorist event -- the number one priority must be to prevent an attack from occurring in the first place.  

So the dollars that I'm talking about are for prevention, for reducing our vulnerability to attack, as well as preparing ourselves to respond to an event if it occurs.  

With an emphasis on prevention--and these are some things that I think you need to know, and if you are a border state or a border mayor, you'll understand it more dramatically than most.  The new investment in 2003 includes funding to hire more than 1,700 new inspectors at our ports of entry of land and sea and air, and an additional 600 border patrol agents.  So again, we have this responsibility to put as many people to--at our borders and at our ports--land, air and sea--and the 2003 budget adds an additional 2,300 people for that purpose.  

This budget will give us nearly $400 million toward the development-- continued development of an entry-exit visa system.  And I don't know how many of you have had the privilege of go to Ellis Island, and appreciate the stories associated with the building of America there.  We've got one side of our family-- actually could probably put two bricks there, but we've got a brick there that represents my mother's side of the family.  

We are a nation of immigrants.  We are open, we are welcoming, we are trusting, we are diverse.  We don't want to change that in the future.  But after 9/11, there are some changes we must make to the process of being open and trusting and diverse.  And part of that is the development of an entry-exit visa system.  We have to remain open to visitors.  Our economy depends upon it, our country depends upon it.  

But once the time has expired, once the time has elapsed, then we have to monitor and make sure those who have come in to this country leave the country, unless they have formally applied or there's another good reason to keep them here.  So there's a substantial investment in that effort, as well.  

Now, identifying and removing terrorists is only part of the battle.  We must be equally adept at stopping their deadly cargo.  Again, distinguishing between legitimate goods and people and illegitimate goods at people at our borders is one of the critical responsibilities of this new department.  

By the way, it's an enormous challenge, since we have not only 500 plus million people come back and forth across our borders and to our land, sea and airports, but we have hundreds of billions of dollars worth of cargo that comes across our borders and through our sea, air and land ports as well.              

I'll report to you that we've made great progress over the 18 months.  For the border states, you should note that we have forged agreements with Canada and Mexico to create smarter, 21st century borders, to keep terrorists out while obviously facilitating the movement of legitimate people and goods across those borders.  

One example is the NEXUS program, which we have with Canada, which reduces border delays for people known to both sides as non-terrorists, and which is now in operation at most of our major crossings along the northern border.  And Congress gave us substantial dollars as we go about making infrastructure improvements at the border to facilitate the development of these 21st century border agreements.  

We've got a Customs trade partnership agreement with over 2,000 companies.  And here we set up a very rigorous protocol with these companies.  They agree to a -- the acceptance of the protocol we design, that they have to follow all the way through their supply chain--all the way through their supply chain.  

Again, as we're building national partnerships, we have to include the private sector, as well.  So these companies agree on the protocol, they agree to be audited--very important expression, trust, but verify--you're going to sign up to, but we're going to audit you to do it, and from time to time, we're going to randomly inspect your trucks as they come across the border.  And that's a very, very significant improvement and a significant change in how we deal with commerce coming across our borders, as well.              

We've got a container security initiative that the Customs, leaning forward many, many months ago began.  I perhaps mentioned this to you before, but we get about 65 percent of our containers from 20 countries around the world -- huge volume we call the megaports.  Well, Customs has been out there negotiating with these countries, so we are going to put Customs officials in those ports, we're going to put non-intrusive technology in those ports, we're going to target many of those containers.  There's a new requirement that we get the manifests to these Customs agents before they even load these containers on those ships, so we can inspect them there, in these megaports.  

Obviously we want to apply that procedure to the rest of the ports around the world, but we needed to be focus--focused on those 20 megaports that generate about two-thirds of the commercial traffic.              

We have to make smart choices and smart investments, and technology is one of them.  We're investing in non-intrusive inspection systems.  As I mentioned before, we have mobile machines for inspections.  We can apply some of those at railroad yards, some of those at ports.  We have portable radiation detectors.  

Now with the consolidation of our border units -- because we felt that when you come across the border you shouldn't see three faces or four faces of America, you see one -- everybody at the borders will be equipped -- whether they formally worked at INS, they formally worked at APHIS, they formally worked at Customs -- they will all be equipped with portable radiation detectors.  

 I can't talk about securing our borders without talking about our Coast Guard, one of the most extraordinarily under-appreciated units of government this country has ever seen.  (Applause.)  I don't know if you've served on the Coast Guard, or you've got friends and neighbors or family.  An extraordinary group of people.  And they do a lot of things for us, with regard to protecting our sovereignty and our fisheries and rescue and those kind of things.  

But they've really enhanced their responsibility and role in port and border security.  Just in the past couple of years, they've conducted more than 35,000 port security patrols, 3,500 air patrols, and they've boarded more than 10,000 vessels.    

Which leads me to another observation I'd like to make to, hopefully, bring you more assurance, rather than less.  There's sometime, from time to time, when you get to see the talking heads on TV and they say, my god, they're only investigating two or three percent of the ships that come into the country.  I want to assure you it's not random.  They just don't wake up that morning and say, hmmm, I wonder how many ships are at sea; which ones should we board.  There's a targeting system they use, based on information they receive from a variety of different sources.  There are very specific reasons they have boarded those vessels.            

And as we continue to improve our data collection system -- and Congress gave us a lot of money to do that -- get more and better technology, and the Coast Guard ramps up -- and the budget, the 2003 budget provides the largest increase for Coast Guard operating expenses since World War II -- more targeting, more boarding, greater security.  Again, the Coast Guard at work, doing what it does so well and what it's been doing for 200-plus years, and that's protecting America.        

As I said before, our first objective is to prevent terrorism.  Our second is to reduce our vulnerability to an attack.  Congress is going to invest nearly $200 million on a program and a new unit in our department that's called the Information Analysis and Infrastructure Protection Directorate.  Isn't that a mouthful.  All that means, ladies and gentlemen, is that we're going to have our own little intelligence unit.  We're going to get information from Customs and from Transportation and from the Coast Guard and from a lot of other people.  But we're also going to have access to information from every other intelligence-gathering agency in the government.  Every one of them.  Even to the point where if we need to, we can go back and get raw data, regardless of the source, if we request it.            

And we're going to take that information and we're going to map it against different vulnerabilities that we might have, so that we can harden America; so that we can protect our infrastructure.  Not just government infrastructure -- 85 percent of it is owned by the private sector.  It's in your communities.  You deal with these corporate executives, you deal with these companies on a day-to-day basis.              

And so what the President has designed, and Congress has agreed is the creation of a unit whose primary responsibility is take that threat, map it against the vulnerabilities, see what kind of protective measures are out there.  And then make sure we've done everything we can to secure either that location, that economic sector, whatever the venue might be.              

And the Congress has leaned forward and given us some significant help.  So we've begun to identify and assess the threats.  We'll map those threats.  And this is also going to be the agency that, as of March 1st, issues the warnings to the country, but will also issue guidance to mayors and to the private sectors, to the kinds of things we hope you do under certain circumstances to improve your ability to prevent a terrorist attack or to reduce your vulnerability.  We have to be partners; we are partners, up and down the line.              

Our third objective is response and recovery.  And again I address you as partners in this effort.  Your police, your fire departments, your emergency medical technicians -- we know you're the first ones.  We know that if something happens in your community, they don't hit the phone and dial area code 202 -- they're not dialing Washington, D.C.  They may or -- they like to -- they want to get information from the Visitor's Bureau.  But they dial 911, they dial the folks at home.  So we know we've got a responsibility to assist you in that effort, as well.            

For the first time, again in the new Department of Homeland Security, what has been known as FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, will become the nation's all-hazard incident manager.  If it's a terrorist incident, if it's a natural disaster, whatever it is, this new department, through FEMA will be on the scene and manage the response.              

Now, we clearly know that there is a question of funding that has been discussed and will continue to be discussed, probably at this organization and quite a few others, not only today, but for the months and the years ahead.  And it needs to be discussed, and we will continue to discuss it.  Let me just tell you where we're coming from in 2003, and we need your help in 2004.            

First of all, as of today -- we just got the appropriations measure a couple weeks ago -- we just set up the department on March 1 -- but as of today, there's nearly $1.3 billion the department will be making available in '03 funding to help better equip and train your dedicated first responders.  (Applause.)            

Now, on Friday, the department made available nearly $600 million in grants for first responders through the Office of Domestic Preparedness.  You remember that program; it used to be in Justice.  It comes over to us.  And you know the money is used by state and locals, purchase new equipment, training, planning and exercises.  Those aps went up on Friday.            

Today we've announced that we will have $750 million available for the assistance to firefighters grant program, which is the largest increase in the history of the program.  Last year it was $345 million.  (Applause.)              

Here I'm going to need to ask your help.  There's a lot of money here -- three-quarters of a billion dollars.  And we've had this discussion before, we've had this conversation before.  Preserving the $345 million from last year was good; they added another $350 million plus on it to get you to the three-quarters of a billion.  But we didn't quite get the flexibility that I thought we needed for local communities to use these dollars, not just for fire equipment, but for equipment that can be used to respond to a terrorist incident.              

And so I'm going to ask you from your position of leadership -- and I might add, responsibility in your communities -- to take a look at not only what your communities are doing, but what the region is doing.  Because, as you know, this program operates -- the fire department can only get one grant.  So maybe, as you take a look around the region, you can develop mutual aid arrangements, so that one fire department picks up one kind of equipment; another picks up another kind of equipment; somebody else pays for some training and exercises with their money.  So you can really add value by putting together and pooling some of these resources and taking a regional approach toward securing these dollars.          

Mutual aid agreements with neighboring cities; developing new training programs; and buying equipment that perhaps have a dual use.  You can use if fighting fire, but you can also use it in response to a terrorist attack.  Now, that's the $1.3 billion.            

You should also know that the 2003 budget provides us about a billion plus, with the kind of flexibility that we wanted.  And we'll be working to get those applications out the door for your consideration as soon as possible.  As you know, I served in Congress for 12 years; earmarking is something that they've been doing in Congress for 200 plus years.  They're going to continue to do it forever.  But as we go to combat terrorism, I'm hopeful that in the years ahead, we can get even more money where there's flexibility for the state and locals to purchase what they decide they need, rather than what somebody thinks they want.  I figure you guys are in the better position -- (applause.)  You're in a better position.            

So you've been very supportive, you've been very supportive all along the line.  You helped me when we were in the Office of the White House as an assistant to the President.  You've been very supportive of the new department.  So we'll work with you as we work with Congress.  They ultimately appropriate the dollars; we respect that.  But I'd sure like to see you get some more flexibility.            

There's a long list of additional funding matters -- more money for urban search and rescue teams, for interoperable communications.  The 2003 budget is good.  We just didn't quite get the flexibility that we wanted, and we look forward to working with you to get improved and expanded flexibility in 2004.            

We're going to get nearly a half a billion dollars transferred in the new department -- and this is something I know you'll be interested in -- into our science and technology unit.  I'm convinced at the end of the day we have many, many advantages over those who would do us harm and bring death and destruction to us and to our enemies [sic.]  Many, many advantages.  One that we are going to focus on in our new department is the brilliance, the creativity, the ingenuity of the American mind, and how we can apply technology to prevention, reduction of vulnerability, and response to an attack.            

So we're going to get about a half a billion dollars this year.  We'll take a look at some on-the-shelf technology to see if it's as good as it says it is, to see if we can deploy it immediately -- the technology of detection, technology of protection, some new devises that are out there.  So this funding I think will go a long way in helping us create a national capacity that is driven by the technology sector of this great country.            

Finally, I would say to you that we've come a long way.  Many of you have been very helpful and supportive of the ready.gov initiative that we began promoting about a week and a half ago.  I must tell you that I've been the subject of quite a few duct tape jokes.  (Laughter.)  I'm starting to think it's pretty funny, too, I guess.  (Laughter.)  Actually, it is.  Because I think that humor is a very good way of dealing with some very difficult subjects.  And actually, if your local newspapers have any good political cartoons, send them into me.  I'm keeping a collection.  (Laughter.)  There are some really good ones.            

Somebody sent me one the other day with a duck that was taped to the wall, and said, "Now that my duck is taped, what else should I do?"  (Laughter.)  I had a couple ideas, but I couldn't -- (laughter.)  But you know, that whole period of time when people were talking about duct tape got everybody interested in the website that we put up, the ready.gov.  And you believe in your citizens like I believe in them -- if you inform them, give them information that they can deal with, then they can make choices and do things on their own.            

We've had over 100 million hits, over 100 million hits on that website.  Over 5 million people have stayed there for on the average of 15 minutes.  So, obviously, they're either taking notes or printing it out.  But, I mean, this is the kind of approach that we need to take.  Working together.  If you have a website up for your city or community, maybe you can make that connection, pull them into the ready.gov.        

Secretary Paige and I announced a website that speaks to school districts and makes some recommendations as to what they can do to prepare.  Because when we're armed with information, when we're armed with knowledge, we can act on that.  And individual citizens can take some, I think, comfort and hopefully reduce some of the anxiety associated with the notion of what am I supposed to do.            

And what we're saying to the rest of the country are, do these things; pay attention to what your school might have to do; if they don't have a contingency plan, help them with one; have your emergency kit, have your communication plan with your kids.  And then get on the business of being America.  Let your mayor worry about it.  Let your police chief and fire chief worry about it.  Let the Department of Homeland Security worry about it.  But you do these things for yourself and your community, and then let the professionals take care of everything else.            

So I report to you the past 10 days, great progress built on the progress of the previous year, much of which has been built upon the partnership we've established with the mayors in the cities across this country.  And you should know, both on a personal level, as well as a professional level, I look forward to an even stronger and better partnership in the months and the years ahead.            

So I thank you very much for inviting me today, and I wish you the very, very best.  Thank you.  (Applause.)

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This page was last modified on 03/10/03 00:00:00