Security causes concern on Hill

Representative points to dearth in guidelines

By Jennifer Dobner
Deseret Morning News
Published: Wednesday, July 7, 2004 7:13 a.m. MDT
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When Rep. David Ure, R-Kamas, received a national survey for legislators in the mail recently, he read the questions with dismay. They were all related to homeland security and Ure said he found himself unable to answer them.

"Ninety-five percent of the questions on the survey I didn't have any idea how to answer, or where to go to get answers," Ure said Tuesday at a Capitol Hill meeting of the Legislature's administrative rules committee, of which he is a co-chairman.

Then when he went looking in state statute and administrative rule for homeland security information, Ure found he came up with more questions than answers.

"I knew there were rules concerning emergency management, but not homeland security, and to the best of staff's knowledge, there are no rules for homeland security," he said, directing his comments in part to staff from emergency management and the Department of Public Safety. "I don't want to this to be a turf battle between the Legislature, the division and the executive branch . . . but we ought to have some kind of idea with how the Legislature intertwines with homeland security. There are some things we need to know as legislators and we need to be able to have conversation back and forth."

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The only administrative rules on the books relating to homeland security govern the operations of state search and rescue teams, Rick Wyss, director of DPS' Administrative Services Division, said. Most of what the Division of Emergency Services and Homeland Security (DES) does is serve as a pass-through for the $27 million in federal funds that Utah has received for local first responders preparing to deal with a terrorist threat, including weapons of mass destruction, he said. That oversight has not been officially inscribed in administrative rule as each of the many grants has its own set of criteria, Wyss said.

"In my opinion it would be very cumbersome," said Wyss, adding that he could see a need for some legislative guidelines.

Wyss explained that currently, DES has entered into interlocal agreements with the various law enforcement, public health, utilities and other agencies that are part of the network of first responders. Those agencies make grant requests to DES, which then awards the funds. Under federal law, the state keeps 20 percent of federal grant funds, which is then divided among state-level agencies.

Ure also expressed concern that federally mandated homeland security initiatives might leave the state faced with big budget problems when federal grant monies dry up, as they often do.

Further, Ure said, someone in the legislative branch of government should be familiar with the state's homeland security operations, so that in the event of an emergency, lawmakers have some idea of how state law enforcement, health and other agencies will respond.

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