WASHINGTON -- On the same day members of the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate met with President Barack Obama in a health care media event, military officials visited Capitol Hill to testify about plans to respond to a Fort Hood-type internal threat.

The Defense Department must "plan more diligently" and "seek to envision" internal threats to prevent tragedies like the mass shooting at Fort Hood last year from happening again, an independent military panel told members of the U.S. Congress, according to a report from Lisa Daniel of the American Forces Press Service.

General Carter Ham, commander of U.S. Army Europe, told the House Appropriations Committee's Defense Subcommittee that the panel "was very impressed with the military and civilian response" to the November 5, 2009 shootings. Ham is an advisor to the Defense Department's Independent Review Related to Fort Hood, co-chaired by retired Navy Admiral Vernon E. Clark, a former chief of naval operations, and former Army Secretary Togo D. West Jr. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, who created the panel, received its report on January 15, 2010.

Initial responders to the shooting were "prompt and effective" and prevented deaths, Ham said in a prepared statement that was released to the public.

The alleged shooter at Fort Hood, Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan, is believed to have adopted a radicalized version of Islam leading up to the shooting in which 13 people were killed -- 12 military members and one civilian.

"DoD needs to develop a better understanding of the forces that cause a person to become radicalized, commit vulnerable acts, and make us vulnerable from within," Ham said. "DoD must exercise the foresight necessary to identify the looming menace; self radicalization and its often resultant violence; and act preemptively."

The panel's review revealed "shortcomings in the way DoD is prepared to deal with internal threats, and in particular, the threat posed by troubled and potentially dangerous individuals and groups," Ham said.