Proposed Report Language for the Department of Homeland Security Appropriation

Science and Technology Directorate

The Committee understands that terrorists are people and terrorism is behavior, therefore understanding the importance of the behavioral, psychological and social sciences to countering terrorism and homeland security is paramount. As the DHS continues to evaluate and implement its research portfolio, the Committee strongly encourages DHS to support a full range of behavioral and social science research.

The Committee appreciates that the psychological consequences of a terrorist attack are likely to be widespread and long lasting and that the attacks in New York and Washington D.C. are known to have caused stress and anxiety in Americans of all ages, ethnicities, and geographical locations. Mental health practitioners must be trained to deal with the particular threats that such attacks impose. The Committee encourages DHS to ensure that mental health research is focused on how to respond, mitigate and inoculate the populace as effectively as possible.

The Committee also recognizes, however, that the social and behavioral sciences have a much larger role to play than the single domain of mental health. The technological devices and infrastructure that are created in support of counter-terrorism and homeland security efforts will be only as effective as the humans who interact with them. Because many instances of protection against devastating loss since 9/11 involved human alertness to unusual behavior, the Committee recognizes that a significant portion of the most effective defense against domestic attack will be human agents. In addition, the Committee acknowledges that as we devise innovative technological systems to thwart terrorists, the most dangerous terrorist will be one who knows how to modify his or her behavior so as to circumvent these systems. Therefore, the Committee believes that effective counter-terrorism technologies must be developed in concert with the social and behavioral sciences.

The Committee encourages DHS to pursue research on the assessment of the human dimensions (social, cultural, and behavioral) in which networks exist, such as first-response teams, emergency management teams, communication systems, intelligence networks, terrorist groups, and U.S. government (Federal, State, and local) departments and agencies. Systems analysis and systems engineering are powerful tools for understanding how these networks function. However, the Committee recognizes that these tools will be useful only to the extent those human behavioral variables are appropriately described and incorporated into the analyses.

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The Committee applauds the development of a Homeland Security Advisory System but also encourages DHS to include an on-going evaluation of its effectiveness. The Committee encourages DHS to support research on risk assessment and the communication of risk in order to understand the framework in which the communicator operates as well as the knowledge base and competence of the audience. The Committee recognizes that an effective and meaningful alert system involves knowing how to articulate the goals of the communication including whether to inform only, or to inform and change behavior.

The Committee encourages further development of animal models for the assessment of chemical, radiological and biological agents that might be used as weapons of attack and the pharmacological countermeasures required to neutralize or reverse their effects. The Committee recognizes that animal models are useful not only as indicators of the apparent physiological responses to such agents, but careful measurement of their behavior (motivation, learning, aggression) can serve as more sensitive indices of both long- and short-term effects of such weapons. Further, the Committee recognizes animals also are potential targets of attack in the agricultural sector, so that longitudinal data on animal behavior can serve as valuable baseline data against which to detect attacks by biological agents that may be either slow- or fast-acting.

The Committee recognizes that understanding how humans process information is critical to developing new technologies for information gathering and intelligence analysis. The Committee encourages additional research to ensure that such technologies optimally accommodate the human user. Further, the Committee encourages DHS to support research that applies basic learning algorithms to data-mining systems. Such systems can then become language-independent and analyze text for meaning rather than simply the identification of keywords.

The Committee recognizes the value of robotics in performing dangerous work and in substituting for human surveillance. The Committee encourages DHS to support research on human-machine interaction to optimize the functions of both the human and machine in this partnership. The Committee recognizes that it is imperative to understand how best to design robotic systems to interact effectively with their human controllers and partners. The Committee believes that human behavior cannot be perceived as a weak link in this interaction because human cognitive, perceptual and motivational capacities are a given and the machine system must be built to complement the human user.

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The Committee recognizes the profound effect that terrorism can have on social systems and encourages DHS to support research on how attitudes and beliefs about terrorism affect consumer confidence, population mobility, decisions about child-care, job behaviors, and attitudes towards immigrants, religion, political institutions and leaders. The Committee encourages further research on understanding the short- and long-term effects of stereotyping and marginalization of groups as well as research on hate-crimes and the emergence and maintenance of fundamentalist, extremist, and anti-government groups within the U.S. and outside the U.S.

The Committee recognizes the potential for massive disruption by those who would distribute erroneous or system-destructive information into the Internet, the telecommunications infrastructure, embedded/real-time computing systems, and dedicated computing devices. The Committee recommends DHS support research to analyze the behavior, motivations and social contexts of known instances of successful "hacking". The Committee encourages DHS to research effective safeguards that our consistent with the behaviors of the humans that use these systems.

The Committee recognizes that emergency management, evacuation, and the design of egress systems are operable only to the extent that we know how humans behave in emergency situations. The Committee encourages research on human behavior under duress and encourages research on designing emergency systems and infrastructure (operation and communication systems, buildings, roads and tunnels, stadiums) that facilitate the most effective behavior in emergency situations.

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Border and Transportation Security Directorate

The Committee applauds the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) for appointing behavioral scientists to its Scientific Advisory Panel However, significant challenges remain for the TSA and the new Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to ensure the successful performance of existing and proposed new initiatives to enhance public safety. The Committee recognizes that ALL such proposals involve four major features: new technologies, human users, new operational procedures, and changed organizational structures.

The Committee recognizes that much of this research falls under the rubric of human factors and ergonomics, a set of scientific and professional disciplines that are uniquely qualified to assist in the seamless integration of technologies, human users, procedures, and organizations so as to maximize the effectiveness of new security efforts. The Committee agrees with the National Research Council (NRC) Committee on Science and Technology for Countering Terrorism (Making the Nation Safer, National Academy Press, 2002), which stated:

"Recognition of human factors is important for ensuring that the role of people in providing security is not determined by default on the basis of what technology promises, but rather as a result of systematic evaluations of human strengths and weaknesses that technology can both complement and supplement. TSA can take the lead in making sure that human factors are fully considered in all security initiatives and at the earliest possible stages" (p. 15)

And pointedly, Recommendation 7.2 states that:

"TSA should collaborate with the public and private sectors to build a strong foundation of research on human factors and transportation operations and to make the evaluation of security system concepts a central element of its collaborative research program." (p. 234)

The Committee applauds TSA for its expansion of the aviation-focused human factors research program at the Hughes Technical Center and encourages the expansion of such research to include all other modes of transportation.

The Committee also recognizes the substantive expertise of the National Research Council (NRC) and strongly encourages TSA to collaborate with the NRC Committee on Human Factors in examining the consolidation and expansion of human factors research at TSA and DHS. The Committee believes that such collaboration could help identify existing human factors research findings and principles that could be applied to security-related problems now. Further, the Committee believes that such collaboration would help identify key human factors issues and research questions for future security initiatives.

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