Electromagnetic Pulse

“Terrorists, rogue states, China or Russia could acquire—or in some cases already have—the capability to devastate our critical infrastructures, on a scale far greater than Hurricane Katrina, according to the congressional EMP Commission that I established. Five years ago, I sponsored and successfully passed legislation to establish a congressional commission to assess the EMP threat to the United States, and to make recommendations to protect us. Two years ago, the EMP Commission delivered its report to Congress. Although the Commission did conclude that EMP is potentially a catastrophic threat to our nation, the Commission report ultimately is a “good news” story. The Commission also concluded that there were many cost-effective steps that could be taken by federal, state, and local governments, and by the private sector, to protect the United States and to speed recovery from an EMP attack. Indeed, the EMP Commission proposed a 5-year plan that, if implemented, would not only protect our nation from EMP, but would also defend and make more recoverable the United States from other large-scale terrorist threats and natural disasters, like hurricanes. Last year, I sponsored legislation to extend the EMP Commission for eighteen months. The commission just held their first meeting this May, 2006. We need the Commission to continue so that it can advise Congress, federal, state, and local governments, and the private sector, on how to protecting us from EMP and from other threats to our critical infrastructures.”

The EMP Commission has developed numerous findings and are continuously working

towards finding ways how our Nation’s citizens can protect themselves.

• The EMP Commission after two years of work concluded in its report delivered to Congress in 2005 that terrorists, rogue states, China, Russia and other nations could make an EMP attack against the United States.

• The Commission further concluded that some nations already have the capability and contingency plans to make an EMP attack, and in other cases are actively seeking the capability to make such an attack against the United States, its military forces, and U.S. allies.

• The Commission further concluded that EMP attack is one of the few ways that terrorists or state actors could inflict such catastrophic damage on the United States that the U.S. would cease to exist as a military superpower and as a modern society.

• The Commission has designed a realistic blueprint for protecting and recovering the military and civilian infrastructures of the United States from the catastrophic consequences of EMP attack.

• The Commission plan for neutralizing the catastrophic consequences of the EMP threat can be implemented in three (3) to five (5) years at modest cost.

• The EMP Commission is the foremost national authority on the EMP threat, is the only body with a practical, affordable plan to neutralize this threat, and as such the Commission’s continuation is vital to U.S. national security.

• Accordingly, the proposed legislation re-establishes the EMP Commission for a period of four years, until the year 2010, long enough for the Commission to help implement its 3-5 year plan for neutralizing the catastrophic EMP threat.

• The EMP Commission continues to assess the development of the EMP threat, monitoring U.S. progress in addressing that threat, and advising and aiding the Congress, United States Government departments and agencies, and the private sector in taking steps necessary to neutralize the catastrophic consequences of an EMP attack.