House OKs Plan To Safeguard Telecom Networks

Congress approved the proposed National Emergency Technology Guard, known as NET Guard, this week in the massive bill creating the Department of Homeland Security.

With its chamber almost deserted, the House used a voice vote to approve a final version of the bill containing technical changes this week made by the Senate, combining the Customs Service, Coast Guard and 20 other agencies into a single Cabinet-level department to challenge terrorism.

The new NET Guard was proposed by Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. Wyden said the nation needed a high-tech counterpart to the National Guard to keep its telecommunications infrastructure up and running during disasters.

NET Guard establishes a network of private experts and companies ready to organize after emergencies to rebuild a communications infrastructure. Teams would be required to have both expertise and access to equipment before being deployed in a disaster, Wyden said.

On the day of the Sept. 11 attacks, telephone and cell phone lines in New York City were so jammed that engineers who tried to warn about the collapse of the World Trade Center towers could not get in touch with emergency crews just a few blocks away, Wyden said.

"I firmly believe that technology is this country's best hope to detect, deter and respond to terror attacks -- conventional, biological or even nuclear assaults," Wyden said.

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