Washington, D.C. - U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Director Kay Coles James issued a memorandum to heads of federal agencies and departments today on the identification of emergency personnel in federal agencies.

In the memorandum, James reminds agency heads of President George Bush's directive that all federal agencies plan and be prepared for any emergency - including natural disasters such as Hurricane Isabel today.

The memorandum reminds agency heads of their inherent responsibility and authority to designate those personnel that are essential to carrying out agencies' missions and goals and to develop guidelines for designating who is identified as emergency personnel. "Such designations should be part of your emergency response/continuity of operations plans and should be communicated in advance to those so designated," wrote James. "Employees need to know in advance if they have been designated as emergency personnel so that they can be prepared to support and sustain agency operations in an emergency."

Our mission is to ensure the Federal Government has an effective civilian workforce. OPM supports U.S. agencies with personnel services and policy leadership including staffing tools, guidance on labor-management relations and programs to improve work force performance.