Protect everyone, not just president, from EMP attack

Americans remain outraged by our federal government’s actions before and after Hurricane Katrina that inflicted $300 billion in damage to the Gulf Coast. Did you know that the federal government is acting to protect the president, but doing little or nothing to prevent $1 trillion to $2 trillion in damage from a known threat with the largest geographic footprint of any natural disaster according to the National Academies of Science? Sadly, that is the current reality.

As the ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee’s Subcommittee on Air and Land Forces, I’m pleased that the House National Defense Authorization Act for FY 2010, H.R. 2647, allocates monies to implement a Presidential Directive to protect senior leadership communications from a nuclear Electro-Magnetic Pulse (EMP) attack. However, a July 21, 2009 hearing by the House Homeland Security’s Subcommittee on Emerging Threats, Cybersecurity and Science and Technology documented that there is no similar effort under way to protect other Americans.

Nuclear Electro-Magnetic Pulse (EMP), Radio Frequency (RF) “Intentional Electromagnetic Interference,” or “IEMI” as well as solar geomagnetic storms that create Geomagnetically Induced Currents or “GIC” are historical events documented to inflict catastrophic damage to the electric grid and other electronic devices. At a National Defense University exercise last week, simulated cyber attacks on the grid caused a blackout twice as big as the 2003 Northeast blackout. There are outstanding recommendations from three congressional commissions, including two on EMP, two recent National Academies of Sciences studies as well as a pending request to Congress from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) for legislative authority to protect the grid from EMP, IEMI and GIC. However, most Americans and members of Congress are totally unaware of these threats to our critical electronic infrastructure.

On May 6, 2009, the House Armed Services Committee reviewed a new report, “America’s Strategic Posture,” by the bipartisan Congressional Commission on the Strategic Posture of the United States. In the executive summary, the commissioners wrote, “We note also that the United States has done little to reduce its vulnerability to attack with electromagnetic pulse weapons and recommend that current investments in modernizing the national power grid take account of this risk.” Additionally, “Prior commissions have investigated U.S. vulnerabilities and found little activity under way to address them.” Moreover, “EMP vulnerabilities have not yet been addressed effectively by the Department of Homeland Security.” Lastly, the report warned of the potential for wasting $11 billion in taxpayers’ money allocated to Smart Grid investments under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act” stimulus bill. Specifically, “Unless such improvements in the electric grid are focused in part on reducing EMP vulnerabilities, vulnerability might well increase.”

Members and witnesses at the July 21 Homeland Security subcommittee hearing discussed what the private sector and the federal government are doing about EMP. “No Actions are expected,” according to a Sept. 11, 2008 meeting of the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) Critical Infrastructure Protection Committee (CIPC) which represents utility and grid companies. EMP is among factors “under consideration” in the development of standards by four ongoing efforts coordinated by the National Institutes of Standards and Technology (NIST). EMP isn’t a priority for DHS that is focused on the higher probability threat of cyber attacks on the grid. A witness for the Department of Energy testified that DOE decided to award NO stimulus money for EMP.

An April 21, 2009 report from the National Academies of Sciences (NAS) concluded that a $100 million investment could reduce damage to the grid from GIC by 60-70 percent. H.R. 2195, introduced by Homeland Security Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), would protect our critical electronic infrastructure against cyber attack and cyber-vulnerabilities as well as both manmade and naturally-occurring EMP effects: EMP, RF weapons, and solar flares/geomagnetic storms GIC. Homeland Security Subcommittee Chairwoman Yvette Clark (D-N.Y.) asked that DOE Secretary Chu be informed that protecting all Americans from these threats is a priority of Congress. We can prove it by making H.R. 2195 a law.

Bartlett is ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee’s Subcommittee on Air and Land Forces.