Executive Summary ~ Introduction ~ Federal Recommendations
Mission Statement I ~ Mission Statement II ~ Mission Statement III ~ Mission Statement IV ~ Additional Resources

| Executive Summary |

On September 11, 2001, a passenger on United Flight 93, Todd Beamer, and his fellow passengers -a simple gathering of ordinary businessmen and tourists-faced an imposing array of fanatical terrorists who had taken control of the plane, intending to crash it into some significant target and cause untold death, destruction and fear. Todd Beamer's words-"Let's roll!"-heard over his cell phone moments before he and other passengers forced the downing of their plane to prevent further loss of life at the hands of the terrorists, are as much a call to battle for America's freedom as were Captain Parker's historic words 226 years earlier. America's war for freedom against terrorism began on that day!

Much as the front line in America's first war for freedom was fought in the communities and the states, the front line of today's war for freedom against terrorism will be fought in communities and states. The "Minutemen" of today are state and local police officers, fire fighters, emergency responders, public health officers and National Guardsmen. The original 13 states, collectively, worked together under a national strategy to achieve America's freedom. So too, must the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and the territories work individually and collectively under a national strategy for homeland security to achieve freedom against terrorism.

To provide a framework for state action and cooperation, the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) appointed the Task Force on Protecting Democracy. It has been chaired by Arizona State Representative Wesley Marsh, Massachusetts State Senator Richard T. Moore, and Nebraska Legislative Clerk Patrick O'Donnell. The task force has met since the beginning of 2001 to develop recommendations and guidelines that can be used by the states to implement the National Strategy for Homeland Security. The task force has worked closely with federal agencies, especially the Office of Homeland Security (OHS) under the leadership of Director Tom Ridge, to ensure a seamless, coordinated approach to homeland security.

The task force has held six meetings to prepare this interim report. Meetings have been held in Washington, D.C. (twice); New York City; New Orleans; Chicago; and Denver.

• Organizational Meeting - February 8-9, 2002, Washington, D.C.: Discussion with Tom Ridge, Director of Homeland Security; Visit to Health and Human Services to discuss bio-terrorism; discussion of intelligence and communications issues; and discussion of homeland vulnerabilities.

• Second Meeting - March 9-10, 2002, New York, N.Y.: Discussion of the economic impact of terrorism using New York study; discussion of protecting the nation's infrastructure; discussion of Mission #4 regarding civic education; discussion of effectively marketing risk and preparedness; discussion of the issue of state driver's licenses; and tour of "Ground Zero," site of the World Trade Center.

• Third Meeting - April 19-20, 2002, New Orleans, La.: Members participated in briefings and discussion of recommendations for the Office of Homeland Security to provide state legislative input in the development of the National Homeland Security Strategy. In addition, the Task Force received briefings on continuity of government, crisis planning and communications, and bio-terrorism planning.

• Fourth Meeting - May, 2002, Washington, D.C.: Members participated in a briefing on identity security with the Immigration and Naturalization Service and the State Department. The Task Force also met with the U.S. Department of Agriculture on food safety and the Canadian Embassy on border security and received an update from the Office of Homeland Security.

• Special Session - June 20, 2002, Washington, D.C.: Several members of the task force and NCSL leaders met with leaders of the Business Roundtable's Digital Economy Task Force to discuss mutual interests in state public records privacy, identity theft, integrated criminal justice information systems, fighting crime with information, and the current legal regime on information privacy.

• Fifth Meeting - June 22, 2002, Chicago, Ill.: Members of the task force met with officials from the Office of Homeland Security to discuss the president's plan to create a cabinet level Department of Homeland Security and its relation to state governments and finalize the task force recommendations for the NCSL Annual Meeting in Denver.

• Sixth Meeting - July 23, 2002, Denver, Colo.: The task force presented its recommendations to the NCSL membership and participated in a number of panels to promote state involvement in homeland security.

The officers, members and staff of the task force wish to thank NCSL President Stephen M. Saland, staff chair Ramona Kenady and the Executive Committee for the opportunity to contribute to the development of NCSL policy on this important issue and to share in the national dialogue on strengthening our democracy and protecting the people and property of the states that comprise our nation.

The initial effort envisioned in the mission of the task force is now concluded. However, NCSL needs to develop a process for continued sharing of state actions to protect democracy and for state legislatures to continue to work cooperatively with the federal agencies to promote homeland security.

• Provide guidelines to coordinate the activities of, and facilitate exchanging information between and among states, local governments and the federal government to strengthen homeland security.

• Share information on the relevant informational, financial and physical resources of state and local governments and the federal government in an effort to maximize the contributions that each level of government can provide to improve homeland security.

• Assist legislatures to share expertise and advice on issues of public safety, homeland security, emergency preparedness and public health in order to protect our democratic institutions and way of life.

• Provide guidelines applicable to all levels of government to build upon Americans' renewed patriotism to strengthen all citizens' participation in democracy.

State Legislatures and Homeland Security
State legislatures' traditional roles-information gathering, lawmaking, the appropriation of funds and program oversight-are critical components in efforts to secure the American homeland. The task force believes that state legislatures should be aware of the following basic functions as they approach homeland security issues:

• Gather Information. Conduct hearings or other information-gathering activities to determine what actions the state has taken to improve protections against all forms of terrorism and to determine the level of preparedness of state and local agencies for terrorist attack or natural or technological disasters.
• Appropriate Funds. Ensure that all homeland security funds are appropriated according to state law. This becomes extremely critical to ensure the long term viability of new programs as future federal funding cannot be predicted and federal funds may require a maintenance-of-effort contribution from the state.
• Coordinate Activities. Require state and local activities to be consistent with the state-wide plan for preparedness and the national strategy for homeland security.
• Evaluate Programs. Exercise constitutional or statutory oversight to review and evaluate state and local programs in order to coordinate the state's activities. It is also important to ensure activities are consistent with the state-wide preparedness plan and the national strategy for homeland security.

The task force encourages legislatures to consider and act on these issues:

State Risk Assessments for Terrorism
As part of the Fiscal Year 2001 Emergency Supplemental Budget, the Department of Justice received an additional $212 million to provide formula grant assistance through the Office for Domestic Preparedness to state and local governments to help them prepare for terrorist attacks, including attacks involving weapons of mass destruction. Funds are available for equipment, exercises and training. States will receive the funds as part of their FY 2002 Domestic Preparedness Grant. In order for a state to receive these funds, it must have submitted and have approved a domestic preparedness plan. According to Department of Justice officials, as of June 12, 2002 forty eight states (Louisiana, Oklahoma, Guam and the Virgin Islands still do not have approved plans) had submitted and received approval on their domestic preparedness plan.

Agriculture and Food Safety
Although the food supply in the United States is one of the safest in the world, an assault on it through either biological weapons or the introduction of a foreign animal or crop disease or pest would be highly destructive. With a new heightened concern over the security of our food supply, early detection and containment play a vital role in the safety of the nation's food supply.

Continuity of Government
One of the single most important elements for achieving continuity of government is the preservation of leadership. In order to insure continuity of state government operations in periods of emergency, it is necessary to provide for prompt and temporary succession to the powers and duties of public offices.

Cyberterrorism/Cybersecurity
The United States is increasingly dependent on electronic information and its supporting technology. As this dependence increases, so too does the vulnerability of the critical infrastructure of our economy-telecommunications, banking and finance, transportation, electrical power, oil and gas, water supplies, emergency services and vital government operation.

Electronic Surveillance
Wiretaps ordered by federal and state authorities on cellular telephones, pagers, fax machines and e-mail have increased by nearly 20 percent from two years ago. Following the tragedies of September 11, support is increasing for giving law enforcement even more power to tap into private communications to thwart further acts of terrorism. State and federal policymakers face the challenge of balancing the need to prevent future crimes by granting more electronic surveillance power against the potential erosion of individual privacy.

Energy Security
The nation's energy system of power plants, power lines, gas pipelines and power facilities is vulnerable to terrorist attacks. The scope of the threat is great, and lawmakers can take steps to reduce the risks. The bulk of the nation's energy infrastructure has some level of risk. The question that legislators and industry need to address is: What risks are unacceptable?

First Responders
First responders are America's front-line soldiers in the event of a natural disaster or terrorist attack. In the United States today there are approximately 2.5 million public safety first responders. Their skills, equipment and morale are critical to America's
response to any emergency.

Geographic Information Systems
A geographic information system (GIS) assembles geographic information into useable form. GIS enables state, federal and local governments to more quickly and better portray, communicate, analyze and understand existing and potential conditions from a geographic perspective. Decision-makers can make more efficient and effective decisions to identify potentially vulnerable sites and determine the additional support needed to resist a potential attack. The public and other interested organizations can be better informed and more effectively involved in preparing for a potential attack.

Identity Security
States have traditionally maintained authority over the issuance of driver's licenses and state identification cards. Today, driver's licenses are used primarily as authorization for operation of a motorized vehicle and for securing automobile insurance. Driver's licenses are used for numerous other purposes, including proof and verification of identity and as documents to qualify for a variety of commercial, financial, educational, governmental and other services. The driver's licensing process and related regulatory activities are crucial for maintaining public safety, bolstering security and reducing fraud and counterfeiting.

Information Security
The United States has made great strides to ensure access to public information. Under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. § 552 (b), information concerning the following, however, is exempt from disclosure:

(1) National defense.
(2) Internal personnel rules and practices.
(3) Information specifically exempted from disclosure by statute.
(4) Trade secrets; commercial or financial information.
(5) Inter- or intra-agency memorandums.
(6) Personnel and medical files.
(7) Information compiled for law enforcement purposes.
(8) Examination, inspection, operating, or condition reports, and confidential supervisory information.
(9) Geological and geophysical information. and data, including maps, concerning wells.(1)

States also have laws regarding the protection and dissemination of information. In the aftermath of September 11, 2001, both federal and state policy have come under scrutiny.

Insurance Against Terrorist Acts
Concern that property and casualty insurance companies would deal with the financial uncertainties of terrorism by terminating property and casualty coverage from losses arising from terrorist events, or by radically escalating premium coverage to compensate for risks of loss that are not readily predictable, could seriously hamper construction, property acquisition and other business projects, generate a dramatic increase in rents and suppress economic activity.

The National Conference of Insurance Legislators, the insurance industry, and others have urged the federal government to provide temporary financial compensation to insured parties in order to help stabilize the U. S. economy during the national crisis while the financial services industry develops the systems, mechanisms, products and programs necessary to create a viable financial services market for private terrorism risk insurance.

Interoperability among Response Agencies
Interoperability refers to the ability of different public safety organizations to communicate electronically with each other. The approximately 2.5 million public safety first responders belong to many different jurisdictions without a central coordinating point for either law enforcement or the fire service. They use many different kinds of communications systems with different technologies and no single standard spread across ten spectral bands. The Oklahoma City bombing immediately dramatized the problems that result from the inability of local public safety organizations' inability to communicate readily.

Point of Entry Security
Land borders, sea ports, international airports, international mail and courier facilities all are points of entry-locations that travelers, goods, cargo, mail, drugs, money and counterfeit goods pass through daily. People and goods then are transported throughout the United States using every major transportation system. Since September 11, a number of activities are underway to shore up security at the nation's borders.

Public Health
It is possible that foreign terrorists and people and organizations in the United States possess or can obtain biological agents such as anthrax, small pox, tularemia, the plague, or botulism. These could be employed in the future. But the public health systems in most states require significant new investment in order to respond adequately to serious outbreaks of contagious diseases, whether from terrorism or other means. State legislators need to pose some difficult questions to state and local public health officials regarding their preparedness and response capacity. In addition, public health laws governing quarantine or possession of biological agents for research need to be reviewed.

Interstate Compacts
Interstate compacts are formal binding contracts, entered voluntarily by two or more states that require consent from Congress under the compact clause of the U.S. Constitution. Compacts allow states to solve multistate and regional problems through voluntary agreement. The advantages of regional control include familiarity with the issue and greater efficiency and responsiveness in regulation.

In 1993, Congress approved the Emergency Management Assistance Compact (EMAC), an emergency management assistance agreement among states. The compact allows states to share equipment and staff to respond to wildfires, ice storms, hurricanes and tornadoes. To date, 47 states (Hawaii, Wyoming and California are the remaining three states), the District of Columbia and two territories have ratified the compact.

Transportation Security
In the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks, the security and safety of transportation systems in the United States have come under scrutiny. Contemporary terrorists have increasingly made public transportation a theater of operation. In response, the states and the federal government have moved to strengthen the security of transportation systems, particularly in aviation, transit, hazardous materials transportation, and port and rail operations. Although the federal government has primary responsibility in many of these areas, states must prepare transportation systems to deal with terrorist caused emergencies. Also of concern is how to maintain the movement of goods and people

Water Infrastructure Security
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the FBI and the Centers for Disease Control minimize the threat of contamination to drinking water through terrorist activities. They point out that contaminants would have to be used in very large quantities and treatment processes already in place deactivate many contaminants. And, if for some reason a specific water system becomes unsafe for consumption or use, processes are currently in place for the system to inform consumers.

The possibility of attacks on the physical infrastructure and disruption to computer systems are of much greater concern to federal, state, local and private water professionals. Much of the nation's water delivery system is computerized, making a cyber attack a threat to the continued delivery of water to homes and businesses. Water system administrators particularly are concerned about state freedom of information act requirements and sunshine laws that require public access to assessments of the strengths and weaknesses of facilities.

Weapons of Mass Destruction
The 1996 Nunn-Lugar, Domenici Act on domestic preparedness for terrorism using weapons of mass destruction (WMD) directed federal agencies and departments to provide states the training and equipment needed to respond to acts of terrorism involving the use of radiological, biological and chemical weapons. The goal of the act is to train local law enforcement, fire, medical, and other emergency response personnel to respond to a WMD attack against the public. Concerns exist that the act has not been carried out in an effective or efficient fashion and that it has failed to meet its goals.

In response to this charge, the task force has distributed information to legislatures on federal funding available to the states in connection with homeland security issues. The full-length version of the task force interim report includes the following tables as well as instructions for gaining access to a federal database listing all federal government grant-in-aid programs available to state, territorial, tribal and local governments of the United States.

Table 1. $10 Billion for the President to Release without Congressional Approval

Table 2. $10 Billion for the President to Release with 15-day Notification to the House and Senate Appropriations Committees

Table 3. $20 Billion for Congress to Appropriate as Part of the FY 2002 Defense Appropriations Bills

Table 4. Select Grants Available to States from the FY 2001 Emergency Supplemental Budget

Table 4.1 Additional Detail

Table 4.2 Bioterrorism Allocations to States

Table 4.3 Distribution of $175 Million for Airport Security.

In carrying out this objective, the task force held six meetings from January through June, 2002, itemized in the introduction to this interim report. The task force has built a good working relationship with the Office of Homeland Security, which has provided a number of speakers for the task force, including Governor Tom Ridge.

NCSL staff have supported the mission of the task force with more than 20 publications, including five articles in State Legislatures magazine and The Model State Emergency Health Powers Act: A Checklist of Issues, a study of the Centers for Disease Control's recommended legislation on responses to health emergencies. NCSL staff have also collected information on introduced and enacted legislation in the states, responded to numerous requests for information and testimony from legislatures, and have sought external funding to expand NCSL's capacity to support legislative work on homeland security issues.

One of the most important parts of America's infrastructure is its democratic foundation and the system of education that helps to prepare the Nation's future citizens. If young people are not able to learn how to become active participants in democracy, if they have not experienced the democratic process, if they are uninformed and uninterested in the workings of democracy or the process by which America chooses its leaders and representatives and, sometimes, its policies, this part of the national infrastructure will be less resilient to the threat of terrorism.

State legislatures have become increasingly concerned with the health of our civic life. Participation in elections continues to decline. The public, especially our young people appear cynical - even hostile - toward representative democracy. In those states where citizen initiatives are permitted, some citizens - increasingly backed by big money interests and professional campaign consultants as nationally syndicated columnist David Broder documents in his 2001 book, Democracy Derailed : Initiative Campaigns and the Power of Money - have turned to direct democracy. They seek to change public policy through the ballot box rather than wait for the deliberative process of representative democracy.

In response to the neglect of civic education in the public schools, the National Conference of State Legislatures established the Trust for Representative Democracy - a bold new civic education initiative to engage young people and build their understanding and support for America's democratic institutions and to counter the recent heightened criticism and distrust of the legislative process. The NCSL has also embraced civic education initiatives such as "Project Citizen," and holds the final judging at its annual meeting.

State legislatures have an opportunity, as they continue to advance the cause of education reform, to direct the public schools of their respective states to return to a focus on education for citizenship through teaching of civics and government and through service learning experiences as requirements for high school graduation. How can legislatures advocate a return to civic education?

In addition to educating for citizenship, schools can encourage public service to help provide the elected and appointed officials and civil servants that will be needed by government at all levels. Fortunately, some factors are changing that might encourage young people to consider public service careers. No one doubts the impact of television on young people, and there are hopeful signs that television is giving a more positive, less cynical image to public service.

In addition to strengthening state and local career public service, legislatures need to consider means of attracting good people to serve in elective positions. One of the greatest factors that discourages talented people with high integrity from running for office is the concern that they will have their reputations sullied by the rough and tumble of political campaigns. Even those who may be "thick-skinned" enough to deal with negative campaign tactics are often deterred from running for public office out of concern for the effect of negative campaigns on their families or their businesses.

Consequently, state legislatures need to provide leadership in reforming the political process to promote campaigns that focus on positive aspects of each contestant. The media also shares in the responsibility of keeping campaigns positive and focused on genuine differences on issues and philosophies. Citizens, candidates and the media need to focus on ending the practice of negative, attack-based political campaigns and support efforts for positive, clean campaigns. The result will be a less cynical public attitude toward politics and the democratic process.