Attachment 1
The Joint Explanatory Statement and the Statement of Task
In the Joint Explanatory Statement for the 2008 Consolidated Appropriations Act (P.L. 110-161), Congress stated the following:
The Committees on Appropriations appreciate the difficulties the Secretary faces in certifying the ASP systems and provide sufficient resources to allow DNDO to enter into an agreement with the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) to assist the Secretary in his certification decisions. NAS will help validate testing completed to date, provide support for future testing, assess the costs and benefits of this technology, and bring robustness and scientific rigor to the procurement process.
Working with the Domestic Nuclear Detection Office, the National Research Council, the operating arm of the National Academy of Sciences, developed the following statement of task for this effort.
The chairman of the National Research Council will appoint a committee of experts to perform tasks addressing the Secretary of Homeland Security’s requirements for certification of advanced spectroscopic portals (ASPs) for secondary inspection and, to the extent possible, for primary inspection. The committee will evaluate the Domestic Nuclear Detection Office’s (DNDO’s) ASP assessments, performance tests, and analyses. Specifically the committee will
- Evaluate the adequacy of the DNDO’s past testing and analyses of the ASP systems;
- Evaluate the scientific rigor and robustness of DNDO’s testing and analysis approach;
- Evaluate DNDO’s cost-benefit analysis of ASP technology.
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