Feingold Announces: Wisconsin to Receive a Full-time Weapons of Mass Destruction Civil Support Team Due to Legislation Feingold Authored, Wisconsin Will be Home to One of 12 New WMD-CSTs March 9, 2004 Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Russ Feingold announced today that Wisconsin will soon be home to one of the 12 new full-time National Guard Weapons of Mass Destruction Civil Support Teams (WMD-CST). In 2002, Feingold authored legislation requiring that at least one of these full-time National Guard teams be established in each state and territory, and it passed in 2002 as part of a larger bill. Since then, Feingold has led a bipartisan coalition aimed at establishing, implementing and fully funding full-time WMD-CSTs in each state and territory. Wisconsin will now have a full-time team, which will stand ready to assist local first responders in investigating and combating the new threats we face around the country. "I am pleased that Wisconsin will now have this added protection to face emerging threats in our society," Feingold said. "Chemical, biological, and other threats present new challenges to our military and to local first responders. I hope that these National Guard teams will never have to respond to the use of weapons of mass destruction, but we must be ready to respond. I thank the bipartisan coalition in Congress for working with me to get a majority of these teams in place. While Wisconsin will be home to a new full-time team, there are still states and territories without this added level of security. At a time when Wisconsinites and all Americans are increasingly concerned about their safety and the safety of their loved ones, we owe it to the public to establish the eleven remaining teams." When these new teams are certified, it will bring the total of full-time WMD-CSTs to 44. These teams are comprised of National Guardsmen and women dedicated to saving lives, working with first responders, protecting against new threats, and increasing protection. These teams are also deployed for large-scale events such as Major League Baseball's 2002 All-Star Game in Milwaukee. Minnesota's civil support team had to be called in for this event because of the lack of a full-time team in Wisconsin. "Wisconsin's new full-time team will improve our overall capability to prepare for and respond to potential threats in the future," Feingold said. "These civil support teams play a vital role in assisting local first responders in investigating and combating these new threats."

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