NCDP Perspectives

The following are the prepared remarks of Jeff Schlegelmilch, Deputy Director of the National Center for disaster Preparedness at Columbia University’s Earth Institute, for the May 1 Public Meeting of the Blue Ribbon Study Panel on Biodefense to Discuss Budget Reform. I would like to thank the panel for the invitation to speak today, as well as for your continued work towards improving our nation’s biodefense capabilities. At the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University’s Earth Institute, we have been at the forefront of understanding these issues for over a decade by conducting primary research on preparedness, response and recovery, as well as conducting policy analysis and advocacy, and through the development of tools and trainings for the practice community. The nation has come a long way over the past decade and a half, due to the leadership of those of you on this panel, among many others. Our capacities have grown, our understanding of the threat landscape has become more sophisticated, and a new generation of leaders

This post was originally published on January 30, 2017 in The Hill. In December, the president signed into law the 2017 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). Each year, the NDAA authorizes activities at the Department of Defense and for other national defense programs. Tucked among the nearly 1,000 pages of this year’s bill is a critical provision that implements a major recommendation of the bipartisan Blue Ribbon Study Panel on Biodefense: the development of a strategy and implementation plan for national biodefense. In

This post was originally published on December 17, 2016 in The Hill. Recently, Congress passed a continuing resolution to fund

Today marks 15 years since the September 11, 2001 attacks that forever changed our nation. In some ways these events awakened us to threats of terrorism that we had previously failed to understand in their totality. In other ways, it permanently changed the way we calculate and respond to threats. It led to the largest reorganization of the federal government (and subsequently led to numerous state and local government reorganizations) since World War II, and it also forever changed the way we organize our lives and how we look at the world. This change in our thinking was done at great cost, measured financially in setting up new systems for homeland security, lives lost through failed or inadequate response from agencies reeling from hasty reorganizations, weakening of personal privacy protection in the interests of national security, and, through incalculable changes due to the fear introduced into our psyche. One hopes

This post was originally published on June 20, 2016 in The Hill – Contributors. Over the past year we have seen acts of terror perpetrated by individuals in Orlando and San Bernardino inspired by