Homeland+Security+Edwards

Homeland Security- Protecting First Responders Our first responders are our first line of defense for homeland security. Yet we need to do far better to stand up for those who stand up for us. As we saw in 9/11, first responders can suffer terrible health consequences as a result of their heroism. We also need to do more to strengthen the organizational capacity and training of first responders. 0. Strengthen staffing: Edwards will strengthen the Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) Fire Fighters Act, which helps local governments meet the growing demands of our emergency preparedness requirements. 0. Help for frontline officers: Police on the front lines need better warning information, more security clearances, and improved access to newly-combined federal watch lists. Edwards will apply all available federal resources to ensure that local law enforcement agencies receive the information they need to respond to terrorist threats. 0. Protect the health of first responders: If we don’t take care of our first responders, they won’t be able to take care of us. Edwards would put an Incident Safety Management System in place to make difficult safety decisions and will give it the equipment, capabilities, and authority it needs. Edwards would also launch pilot programs for integrated safety management, conduct preparedness exercises, and train disaster management safety experts who can be deployed to lead the response at the site of an emergency. 0. Employ the National Guard more effectively. In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, our nation’s military response had significant shortcomings in the critical first few days. To learn the lesson from Katrina, Edwards would speed up National Guard response across state lines by making each National Guard unit capable of rapid deployment and having state governors ready to call up units and not just wait for volunteers. He would establish plans to use the Air National Guard or commercial air services to fly designated National Guard units to out-of-state emergencies. He would also create a new system of regional National Guard task forces to train regularly with local first responders, including law enforcement officials, as well as other units that are focused on counterterrorism and weapons of mass destruction. 0. Implement a COPS II program. Edwards would provide state and local law enforcement agencies the resources to hire intelligence analysts and counterterrorism officers. Edwards would also create a culture of “first preventers” and not just “first responders” so that state and local law enforcement offers get training and information to prevent terrorism, not just clean up after it. Tightening Our Border Security Our border is the line of first defense against those who would do us harm. Yet five and a half years after 9/11, we still have dangerous vulnerabilities, which run the risk of allowing a terrorist to transport weapons across our border. Edwards believes we should be far more aggressive with border security. 0. Borders: Edwards supports substantial increases in the ranks of the Department of Homeland Security, Border Patrol, and consular officials to secure our borders. 0. Seaports: Over 1 million passengers and pedestrians, 327,000 vehicles, and 70,000 shipping containers come into the United States through ports of entry each day. Only 80% of the country's ports have the ability to screen for nuclear and radiological materials and weapons. Edwards would require the following steps: 100% of all foreign ports should screen within five year, with no extensions; 100% of all U.S. ports should screen within three years; and “smart containers” should be made available to shippers that will detect and report entries into containers so anything dangerous can be quickly spotted. [DHS, 2006] 0. Air Cargo: The 23 billion pounds of air cargo that enter the U.S. annually are only partially screened today. Edwards would request a National Intelligence Estimate on the mid- to long-term threat