EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This Executive Summary, submitted pursuant to the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA), contains a summary of the activities that took place during the National Advisory Council (NAC) meeting on February 12-13, 2008. The complete transcript may be requested at FEMA-NAC@dhs.gov. Day One Summary – February 12, 2008 The National Advisory Council (NAC) convened at 8:30 am (EST) on February 12, 2008, at the Washington Marriott Hotel in Washington, DC. NAC Members Present: Dr. Kem Bennett, Chair Dr. Robert Gougelet, Vice Chair Dick Andrews Albert Ashwood David Barron Ann Beauchesne Joe Becker Joseph Bruno Stephen Cassidy Christina Catlett Irene Collins Robert Connors Russell Decker Nancy Dragani Cathey Eide Angelia Elgin Joanne Hayes-White John Hines Chuck Kmet Kurt Krumperman John Libby Mark Malcolm Michael Marchand Kenneth Miller Gerald Parker James Paturas Mark Shriver Hilary Styron Susanne Torriente Peter Verga DHS/FEMA Staff in Attendance: R. David Paulison, Administrator Harvey Johnson, Deputy Administrator Robert Shea, Associate Deputy Administrator Patty Kalla, Executive Officer Jeff Sterns, DHS HSAC Executive Director Georgia Abraham, DHS Committee Management Officer Al Martinez-Fonts, DHS Assistant Secretary for Private Sector Paul Conrad, FEMA Ethics Officer Patricia Stahlschmidt, Director, Office of Strategic Planning Cindy Taylor, Director, FEMA Private Sector Liaison Office Dennis Schrader, Deputy Administrator, National Preparedness Alyson Price, Designated Federal Official Jo Anne Sullivan, Designated Federal Official Meeting: The meeting was called to order at 8:30 am by Robert Shea, Associate Deputy Administrator. Recognition and Swearing in of New NAC Members * Mark Shriver – Save the Children * Joe Becker – American Red Cross Dr. Gerald Parker, Health and Human Services Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, was introduced to the council as he is in the process of being appointed as an ex-officio member. Following the swearing in, the meeting was presided over by Dr. Kem Bennett, NAC Chair. Chairman’s Remarks * Review of agenda for next two days * Review of operating guidelines o Topics can be generated by Administrator Paulison, senior leadership and/or NAC members. o 3 ways NAC will address issues: council at large, standing subcommittees and issue based subcommittees. o Subcommittees formed during this meeting will need to submit their proposed charge to NAC Chair within 2 weeks. o Subcommittees not subject to FACA regulations. Must have balanced membership, in terms of viewpoint, and may include outside subject matter experts. o All subcommittee recommendations must be presented to the Council at a public meeting for deliberation. * Current Standing Subcommittees o National Response Framework (NRF) – Albert Ashwood, Chair o National Incident Management System (NIMS) – Russ Decker, Chair Highlights from FEMA Headquarters * 18 Joint Field Offices (JFO) have been established – focused on recovery phase * Currently have the strongest FEMA budget in history ($9.7 billion) o Focuses more on business processes. o Top 3 priorities: IT, professional development/training, and adding 112 employees to FEMA workforce. * Key issues of concern at this time o Space satellite re-entry – First responder guide prepared and a game plan is in place. o Formaldehyde – Awaiting National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) Standard Test results from Centers of Disease Control (CDC) on levels in 522 travel trailers and mobile homes. o Louisiana – Meeting with Governor to discuss hurricane planning for upcoming season, Hazard Mitigation Grant Program (HMGP) mitigation issues and improving public assistance processes. o Transition planning – Career SES’ have been identified behind every political person that may leave with the change in Administration. Challenge is ensuring FEMA’s current initiatives survive the current Administration. o Integrated Planning System – New national system that is run by DHS. Outlines 15 planning scenarios, with accompanying strategic guidance and plans that are used for interagency coordination. o Joint housing solutions – Deploying pilot projects in Tennessee and Arkansas to come up with alternatives to travel trailers and mobile homes. National Response Framework (NRF) * 141 comments offered by the NAC – 31 accepted; 31 modified; 2 noted. * Major revision was on the planning chapter – institutionalized the Hazard Identification and Risk Analysis (HIRA) approach. * Consolidated the National planning scenarios. * Still need help in identifying possible barriers between FEMA’s relationships with major stakeholders. Integrated Planning System (IPS) * Driven by the Homeland Security Presidential Directive (HSPD)-8, Annex 1 and developed iteratively. * Key to success is early engagement with leadership. * Multilevel plan to prevent, protect, respond and recover. * Would appreciate NAC’s feedback via whitepapers and/or subcommittees. National Incident Management System (NIMS) * Received 5000 comments and a draft was completed. * Would like support from the NAC in the form of ideas and deliberations. Target Capabilities List (TCL) * Currently 37 Target Capabilities – working to make them easier to use and more measurable. * Considering using a tiered process with interagency coordination and program alignment. Administrator’s Remarks * Congress needs to re-open the Stafford Act for examination – not flexible enough to work in major disasters. * Work is being done to turn around the declaration process more quickly. * Needs the NAC to offer recommendations on how FEMA can do better and become more user-friendly. FEMA Strategic Plan * Majority of comments from NAC were on plan implementation and metrics. * Goal is to get the plan wrapped up asap so that it is published before the transition. * This plan is much more customer focused than previous plans. Private Sector Office * Requesting advice from NAC on three major focus areas: o Opening the lines of communication with the private sector o Engaging the private sector in realizing the vision of the new FEMA o Engaging the private sector in emergency management. Council Discussion * Potential subcommittee on surge support suggested – main working groups that would then be broken out into workgroups and sub-workgroups. Issues would be funneled into the surge support group. o Examples: Medical, logistics, pediatrics, special-needs and personnel * More work needs to be put into defining each topic, such as special-needs and delegated to appropriate subcommittees. * Motions were made, seconded and agreed upon that the following subcommittees be created: o Post Disaster Housing o Stafford Act o Private Sector Relationships o Special Needs o National Response Framework (NRF) o National Incident Management System (NIMS) * Amendment to agenda for Day 2: allow a "report out” from each subcommittee after their break out sessions. * Future meetings will have an executive session to address mode of operation and subcommittee report-backs. The meeting was adjourned at 5:00 pm (EST). Day Two Summary – February 13, 2008 The National Advisory Council (NAC) reconvened for the second day of its meeting at 8:30 am (EST) on February 13, 2008, at the Washington Marriott Hotel in Washington, DC. NAC Members Present: Dr. Kem Bennett, Chair Dick Andrews Albert Ashwood David Barron Ann Beauchesne Joe Becker Joseph Bruno Stephen Cassidy Irene Collins Robert Connors Russell Decker Nancy Dragani Cathey Eide Angelia Elgin Joanne Hayes-White John Hines Chuck Kmet Kurt Krumperman John Libby Michael Marchand Kenneth Miller Gerald Parker James Paturas Mark Shriver Hilary Styron Susanne Torriente Peter Verga FEMA Staff in Attendance: Robert Shea, FEMA Associate Deputy Administrator Patty Kalla, FEMA Executive Officer Alyson Price, Designated Federal Official Jo Anne Sullivan, Designated Federal Official Meeting: The meeting was called to order at 8:31 am (EST) by Robert Shea, Associate Deputy Administrator. Summary of Previous Day * Breakout sessions will be held today for 4 of the 6 subcommittees. Excluded will be NRF and NIMS. * Subcommittee charge o Draft charge needs to be discussed today. o Must be focused on what we can really do – not too broad. o Refined charges need to be submitted to NAC Chair within a two-week period for final approval. * NAC/RAC relationship taskforce o General Libby will develop a white paper on how these interactions should occur. * Tribal Affairs o Chuck Kmet to develop white paper to bring forward the sovereign differences. Subcommittee Report Outs * Post Disaster Housing – Joe Becker, Chair o Deliverable will provide FEMA with 3 components: a framework on transitional housing; a toolbox for transitional housing solutions; and a recommendation on the steps FEMA should take in this area. o Plan of work is to access FEMA’s current transitional housing program (NLT March 7th) then arrive at solid recommendations using this baseline. o Core team will be subcommittee – FEMA, HUD and HHS staff will be requested on an ad hoc basis. * Private Sector Relationships –Ann Beauchesne, Chair o Definition of Private Sector: “Everything outside of the federal government.” o Issue statement: Inconsistent public-private sector partnerships cause people to become disenfranchised when it comes to response. o Committee will research best practices to use as their foundation. o Partnerships are imperative and will be cultivated with the help of NEMA, Chamber of Commerce and other trade associations. o Committee will evaluate current information sharing trends. Use results to encourage and facilitate more effective information sharing at FEMA. o Protocols need to be defined on how we are sharing information and other things. o Public education will be a goal that needs to be addressed to institutionalize a culture of preparedness. o Training and exercising is difficult but is needed. After the planning stage is complete, you exercise and train to the plans. * Stafford Act – Albert Ashwood, Chair o Intertwines Stafford Act, 44CFR and published policies by FEMA. o Great deal of flexibility within Stafford depending on the interpretation. o Major goals subcommittee will address: conflict resolution during a situation; developing working groups to refine basic assistance programs; and enhanced support for the private sector’s critical infrastructure missions. o Research will be conducted on the nationwide consistency of the Stafford Act’s implementation. o Each member of subcommittee will submit a list of their top five issues to the Chair for deliberation at the May 2008 meeting. * Special Needs – Irene Collins, Chair o Definition of Special Needs (taken from NRF): “Populations whose members may have additional needs before, during and after an incident in functional areas including, but not limited to, maintaining independence, communication, transportation, supervision, and medical care. Individuals in need of additional response assistance may include those who have disabilities, who live in institutionalized settings, who are elderly, who are children, who are from diverse cultures, who have limited English proficiency and/or are non-English speaking, or who are transportation disadvantaged.” o Interagency Coordinating Council (ICC) will give a briefing to subcommittee on what is going on nationally. o Goal is to expand current FEMA disability office to include a section on children and the elderly. Presentation by Joe Bruno * New York City Office of Emergency Management sponsored an international contest in NYC to develop coastal storm plan housing solutions. 117 submissions from 30 countries. * Criteria used in judging: density, rapid deployment, unit flexibility, reusability, livability, accessibility, security, identity, sustainability and cost efficiency. * Top 10 chosen were given $10,000 to build out their plans. * Web accessible: www.nyc.gov/oem and click on “What If NYC.” Regional Advisory Council Update * Regional Advisory Councils (RAC) were established by PKEMRA to provide the regional administrator with advice on regional issues, just as the National Advisory Council (NAC) advises the Administrator on national issues. * Standard agenda item at future NAC meetings will be a RAC update – given by a regional administrator when at all possible. * All NAC-RAC communications must come through NAC Chair. * All 10 RACs have met at least once o Region 1: Discussed improvement of regional operations with focus on shelters, gap analysis, evacuation planning and public education. o Region 2: Focused on preparedness and mitigation grants and educating the public on preparedness. o Region 3: Discussed prudential standards, national infrastructure threats, establishment of preparedness-integration goals and coordination of risk assessments. o Region 4: Talked about fiscal impact of mandated NIMS/ICS courses on local governments, communications interoperability and better sharing coordination for evacuation planning. o Region 5: Focused on NIMS training, region-wide planning and prudential standards. o Region 6: Discussed elevated awareness of the various risk-based planning efforts and shortfalls in the area of special needs evacuation. o Region 7: Looked at implementing Homeland Security preparedness strategies and identified an urgent need to develop preparedness materials. o Region 8: Focused on public health agencies, special needs population requirements, need for integrating preparedness and private sector and their preparedness grants. o Region 9: Discussed relationship between NAC and RAC, updates on NRF and NIMS and prep grant transitions to the regions. o Region 10: Looking at overviews of the Oregon and Washington floods and talking about the regional pandemic influenza planning and coordination efforts. CLOSING REMARKS * Next meeting is May 14-15, 2008 in Chicago, IL. Agenda items include: o Transition report back relative to transition planning o Briefing on the infrastructure (major FY09 budget items relayed by the Deputy Administrator) o Presentation from Dr. Gerry Parker on disaster planning and operations as it relates to Health and Human Services o Subcommittees report back on their progress o Operations guidelines * Fourth meeting – August 13-14, 2008 in Washington, DC. The meeting was adjourned at 2:17 pm EST. I hereby certify that, to the best of my knowledge, the foregoing minutes are accurate and complete. ___________________________ G. Kemble Bennett Chairman National Advisory Council 1