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Recent Events
InterCEP Testifies to Congress - Urges U.S. to "Prepare as it Repairs" and Forward New Certification
March 19, 2009 7:00 PM
InterCEP Director Bill Raisch testified to the U.S. House of Representatives Homeland Security Subcommittee on Transportation Security and Infrastructure Protection on March 11, 2009. He stressed the need for action in two key areas:
1) the new Private Sector Preparedness Certification Program - where funding by Congress and continued action by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is critical
2) a new policy to "Prepare as We Repair" - which calls for collaborative action to design and build-in resilience into our current stimulus infrastructure initiatives.
The new Private Sector Preparedness Program (PS-Prep) was called for by recent legislation that was championed by both House Homeland Security Committee and the Senate Homeland Security & Government Affairs Committee.
InterCEP's testimony underscored the unique opportunity that the PS-Prep Program offers to begin to establish corporate resilience as a core business discipline and to connect it with clear bottom-line benefits to assure ongoing commitment. To forward this program funding is needed by Congress and action by DHS including the designation of one or more preparedness standards, support of the accreditation body, and funding of new intiatives in training, business tools, first wave certification projects and key research including a cross-walk of critical infrastructure practices and long-term research on the financial impacts of corporate resilience.
Furthermore, the testimony stressed that "we have the opportunity to prepare while we repair our infrastructure." Adding resilience considerations at the design stage can yield tremendous returns in minimizing the impacts of future crises on our people and our economy.
A copy of the full testimony is available at: Download file