Report: First responders lack funds to handle catastrophic attacks

Bureaucratic red tape and a lack of standards have resulted in woefully inadequate funding for first responders, according to a study released Monday by the Council on Foreign Relations.

The inadequate funding from government for first responders ? police, fire and emergency medical personnel ? has put them in the precarious position of being unprepared to handle a catastrophic attack on American soil, said the New York-based nonpartisan research group.

The federal government is expected to provide about $27 billion for first responders over the next five years. Additionally, state and local agencies likely will spend between $26 billion and $75 billion for first response.

But first responders will need about $98 billion more than what is planned, the group said.

If the nation doesn't take immediate steps to better identify and address the urgent needs of first responders, the next terrorist incident could be even more devastating than Sept. 11, 2001, the group warned.

Former Sen. Warren Rudman, R-N.H., and Richard Clarke, President Bush's former cybersecurity chief, led the 20-member task force that wrote the report, "Emergency Responders: Drastically Underfunded, Dangerously Unprepared."

In response to the report, the Department of Homeland Security stressed that it has already provided substantial funding to first responders and will continue to provide billions more in the months and years ahead.

"This department has distributed more grant money [to first responders] than ever before," said Gordon Johndroe, a DHS spokesman.

He said the department is distributing the money based on threat information and not on formulas used before Sept. 11, 2001.

The task force met with first-responder organizations across the nation to determine what additional programs they truly need to establish a minimum effective response to a terrorist attack involving biological, radiological, nuclear or high-impact conventional weapons.

The task force identified two major obstacles to the nation's emergency preparedness efforts. First, a lack of standards for equipment and technology is making it difficult for first responders to know what they need and how much it will cost.

Second, funding for first responders has been stalled because of a politicized appropriations process, slow distribution of funds by federal agencies, and bureaucratic red tape at all levels of government.

The task force's recommendations related to standards include