United States government efforts to prepare for another attack on America are grossly underfunded and will require an additional $98.4 billion over the next five years, the head of a think tank task force says.
Former Sen. Warren Rudman, chairman of the Council on Foreign Relations' emergency responders task force, says in a recent report that the government is still unprepared for another attack, particularly one involving chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear weapons.
Authors of the report interviewed police, fire, emergency, medical services, public hospitals, public health agencies and federal law enforcement officials. It cites such problems as fire departments without enough radios; police departments without proper protective gear, and laboratories lacking basic equipment and expertise.
The council says the Department of Homeland Security and other federal agencies need to spend $25 billion annually on first responders, a much larger amount than the $5.4 billion they currently spend.
In response, Department of Homeland Security spokesman Gordon Johndroe called the report's budget recommendation "grossly inflated."
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