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Massachusetts not yet adequately prepared for
terrorism, natural disasters, or public health emergencies
Senator Moore supports Post Audit Findings October 30, 2006... A state senator who once served in a senior federal emergency management post said the findings of the Senate Post Audit Committee’s review of the state’s emergency preparedness are “disturbing, but accurate.” Senator Richard T. Moore (D-Uxbridge), a member of the Senate Post Audit Committee and who was Associate Director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency during part of the Clinton Administration, expressed dismay that state and local government is not better prepared for major disasters five years after the September 11th Terrorist attacks and a year after Hurricane Katrina. “Given the time and money that’s been spent by the Romney – Healey Administration, we ought to be much safer, but we still have a long way to go,” Moore explained. He pointed to the Post Audit findings that state aid cuts during the 2001-3 recession left the state with over eleven hundred fewer local police officers and fire fighters, that communications for about ninety percent of local police and fire departments were still not interoperable, that public safety and public health officials need to work more closely on pandemic flu and health emergency planning, and that federal policies regarding National Guard deployment have seriously undercut disaster response plans. Moore pointed to a Post Audit finding that urges that the Adjutant General, the state’s top military person and the commander of the Massachusetts National Guard, should report directly to the Governor rather than through the Secretary of Public Safety. “I filed a bill (Senate Bill No. 1999) with the late Representative Edward Connolly of Everett last year to make this reform, but it was sidelined when the Romney Administration opposed the plan,” Moore stated. “Most states have the Adjutant General report directly to the Governor, as Massachusetts once did, because it makes for a better line of communication during emergencies,” Moore added. Senator Moore is also the sponsor of another bill that the Post Audit report said should be a priority. He is the primary sponsor of legislation to reform the public health emergency laws (Senate Bill No. 1368). Moore amended a request by Governor Romney for $36.5 million in pandemic flu emergency planning money by attaching the reform legislation to the Governor’s bill and re-writing provisions that would strengthen local public health resources. The bill, which received a favorable report from Moore’s Committee on Health Care Financing, has been stalled in the House Ways and Means Committee since last June. For more information on Senator Moore’s legislation or work in the Senate, log onto www.senatormoore.com |
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