Today, Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-NJ) and Rep. Peter T. King (R-NY), Member and Ranking Member of the Committee on Homeland Security, announced that they intend to introduce legislation that will make progress toward implementing the recommendations of the WMD Commission. The legislation will improve U.S. efforts to prevent, deter, detect, and respond to an attack by a weapon of mass destruction (WMD).

"The 9/11 Commission provided Congress with recommendations designed to guard against future attacks – however one area they did not address was how to respond to the threat of nuclear and biological weapons,” said Pascrell. The intent of our bipartisan legislation is to provide a truly comprehensive approach to securing the nation against weapons of mass destruction by looking at all angles - Prevention and Deterrence; Preparedness; Detection; Attribution; Response and Recovery. The WMD Commission has laid out our deficiencies quite starkly and now more than eight years after 9/11 is the time to act decisively to counter this great threat to the American people."

“Public reports from former intelligence community officials indicate that al-Qaeda is attempting to acquire or develop weapons of mass destruction. This should come as no surprise, nor should the fact that, if acquired, al-Qaeda intends to use them against Americans,” said King. “In fact, the WMD Commission offered the sobering finding that a WMD attack is ‘likely’ to occur somewhere in the world by 2013 and that the U.S. margin of safety is shrinking. Congress must enhance America’s capabilities to protect American lives from weapons of mass destruction. I am happy to partner with Bill Pascrell on this legislation.”

In December 2008, the WMD Commission, headed by Sen. Bob Graham and Sen. Jim Talent, issued its original report. In January 2010, the Commission issued a ‘report card’ that gave mixed grades for U.S. efforts, including three “F's” for U.S. failure to effectively prepare for a biological attack, failure to implement retention and recruiting programs for the next generation of national security experts, and failure on the part of Congress to reform Congressional oversight to better address intelligence, homeland security and other national security missions.

Previously, King introduced H.R. 5057, “The Weapons of Mass Destruction Prevention and Preparedness Act of 2010,” which is the House companion to S. 1649, introduced by Sen. Joseph Lieberman and Sen. Susan Collins. H.R. 5057 is co-sponsored by Rep. Dan Lungren (R-CA), Rep. Mike Rogers (R-AL), Rep. Candice Miller (R-MI), Rep. Pete Olson (R-TX), and Rep. Anh “Joseph” Cao (R-LA).

Tomorrow, Sen. Graham and Sen. Talent will testify at a Committee on Homeland Security hearing.

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