Summary
Hurricane Katrina was the most destructive disaster in our nation's history and it highlighted gaps in preparedness for a catastrophic disaster. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), a component within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), is the lead federal agency responsible for developing a national preparedness system. The system includes policies and plans as well as exercises and assessments of capabilities across many public and private entities. GAO was asked to assess the extent to which FEMA has (1) developed policies and plans that define roles and responsibilities; (2) implemented the National Exercise Program, a key tool for examining preparedness; (3) developed a national capabilities assessment; and (4) developed a strategic plan that integrates these elements of the preparedness system. GAO analyzed program documents, such as after-action reports, and visited six states located in disaster regions. While the results of these visits are not generalizable, they show how select states carry out their efforts.
While most policies (41 of 50) that define roles and responsibilities have been completed, such as the National Response Framework, 68 percent (49 of 72) of the plans to implement these policies, including several for catastrophic incidents, are not yet complete. As a result, the roles and responsibilities of key officials involved in responding to a catastrophe have not been fully defined and, thus, cannot be tested in exercises. The lack of clarity in response roles and responsibilities among the diverse set of responders contributed to the disjointed response to Hurricane Katrina and highlighted the need for clear, integrated disaster preparedness and response policies and plans. Although best practices for program management call for a plan that includes key tasks and their target completion dates, FEMA does not have such a plan. With such a plan, FEMA would be better positioned to ensure that the policies and plans are completed and integrated with each other as intended as well as with other elements of the preparedness system. Since 2007, FEMA has taken actions to implement the National Exercise Program at the federal and state levels by developing, among other things, program guidance and systems to track corrective actions; however, FEMA faces challenges in ensuring that the exercises are carried out consistent with program guidance. For example, the Homeland Security Council (an interagency entity responsible for coordinating homeland security policy) and state participants did not systematically track whether corrective actions had been taken to address deficiencies identified by exercises as called for by program guidance. As a result, FEMA lacks reasonable assurance that entities have taken actions aimed at improving preparedness. FEMA has made progress in developing a system for assessing national preparedness capabilities by, among other things, establishing reporting guidance for state preparedness, but it faces challenges in completing the system and required reports to assess preparedness. While FEMA has developed a project management plan for the new system, the plan does not fully identify milestones and program risks for developing quantifiable metrics necessary for measuring preparedness capabilities. A more complete project plan that identifies milestones and program risks would provide FEMA with greater assurance that it can produce a system to assess capabilities and inform decisions related to improving national preparedness. FEMA's strategic plan for fiscal years 2008-2013 recognizes that each of its components need to develop its own strategic plans that integrate the elements of national preparedness. FEMA's National Preparedness Directorate has yet to develop its strategic plan, but instead plans to use a draft annual operating plan to guide its efforts. This plan does not include all elements of a strategic plan, such as how the directorate will integrate the various elements of the system over time to improve national preparedness. Having a strategic plan would provide FEMA with a roadmap for addressing the complex task of guiding and building a national preparedness system.
Recommendations
Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.
Director:
Team:
Phone:
William O. Jenkins Jr
Government Accountability Office: Homeland Security and Justice
(202) 512-8757
Recommendations for Executive Action
Recommendation: To ensure that key elements of the national preparedness system are developed in a timely and integrated fashion, the Administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency should direct the Disaster Operations Directorate and the National Preparedness Directorate to improve their approach to developing policies and plans that define roles and responsibilities and planning processes by developing a program management plan, in coordination with DHS and other federal entities, to ensure the completion of the key national preparedness policies and plans called for in legislation, presidential directives, and existing policy and doctrine, to define roles and responsibilities and planning processes, as well as to fully integrate such policies and plans into other elements of the national preparedness system. The program management plan, among other things, should (1) identify the specific schedule of activities that needs to be performed to complete, and identify dependencies among, all policy and planning development and integration activities; (2) identify the type and quantities of resources required to perform, and the schedule for completing, all policy and planning development and integration activities; (3) analyze activity sequences, durations (including the time required to partner and coordinate on an interagency basis with other federal entities), resource requirements, and schedule constraints to create and update the individual policy and plan development project schedules; and (4) control for changes to the project schedules precipitated by outside forces. When outstanding policies and plans are completed, FEMA should also integrate them into training and exercise efforts to ensure that roles and responsibilities are fully communicated and fully understood by emergency response stakeholders.
Agency Affected: Department of Homeland Security: Directorate of Emergency Preparedness and Response: Federal Emergency Management Agency
Status: In process
Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
Recommendation: To ensure that key elements of the national preparedness system are developed in a timely and integrated fashion, the Administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency should direct the National Exercise Division to improve its implementation of statutory and program requirements by coordinating with the Department of Homeland Security to develop policies and procedures for issuing after-action reports for National Level Exercises (i.e., TOPOFF (top Officials 4 Exercise)) in 6 months or less, as required by the implementation plan for the National Exercise Program.
Agency Affected: Department of Homeland Security: Directorate of Emergency Preparedness and Response: Federal Emergency Management Agency
Status: In process
Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
Recommendation: To ensure that key elements of the national preparedness system are developed in a timely and integrated fashion, the Administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency should direct the National Exercise Division to improve its implementation of statutory and program requirements by collaborating with the Homeland Security Council to establish policies and procedures for documenting corrective actions from Principal Level Exercises that are consistent with Homeland Security Exercise and Evaluation Program (HSEEP) guidance and the implementation plan for the National Exercise Program.
Agency Affected: Department of Homeland Security: Directorate of Emergency Preparedness and Response: Federal Emergency Management Agency
Status: In process
Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
Recommendation: To ensure that key elements of the national preparedness system are developed in a timely and integrated fashion, the Administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency should direct the National Exercise Division to improve its implementation of statutory and program requirements by collaborating with the Homeland Security Council to provide FEMA with the information it needs from past principal level exercises to enable it to conduct remedial action tracking and long-term trend analysis, as required by the Post-Katrina Act.
Agency Affected: Department of Homeland Security: Directorate of Emergency Preparedness and Response: Federal Emergency Management Agency
Status: In process
Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
Recommendation: To ensure that key elements of the national preparedness system are developed in a timely and integrated fashion, the Administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency should direct the National Exercise Division to improve its implementation of statutory and program requirements by ensuring compliance by states that receive grant funds with HSEEP requirements by revising FEMA's grant monitoring guidance, for example by including a checklist of specific HSEEP requirements for state validation and certification.
Agency Affected: Department of Homeland Security: Directorate of Emergency Preparedness and Response: Federal Emergency Management Agency
Status: In process
Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
Recommendation: To ensure that key elements of the national preparedness system are developed in a timely and integrated fashion, the Administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency should direct the National Exercise Division to improve its implementation of statutory and program requirements by involving the National Council on Disability on committees involved in the design and execution of national level exercises, especially on issues related to populations with special needs.
Agency Affected: Department of Homeland Security: Directorate of Emergency Preparedness and Response: Federal Emergency Management Agency
Status: In process
Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
Recommendation: To ensure that key elements of the national preparedness system are developed in a timely and integrated fashion, the Administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency should direct the National Exercise Division to improve its implementation of statutory and program requirements by developing internal control policies and procedures that validate the completeness and accuracy of data used to measure program performance. Such procedures could involve checking whether states and federal agencies are providing data and information needed to measure the performance of the program.
Agency Affected: Department of Homeland Security: Directorate of Emergency Preparedness and Response: Federal Emergency Management Agency
Status: In process
Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
Recommendation: To ensure that key elements of the national preparedness system are developed in a timely and integrated fashion, the Administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency should direct the National Exercise Division to improve its implementation of statutory and program requirements by revising the National Exercise Program Implementation Plan to require the use of FEMA's Corrective Action Program for all federal exercises that involve interagency testing of roles and responsibilities or require that federal agencies submit a report to FEMA on the status of their corrective actions resulting from such exercises.
Agency Affected: Department of Homeland Security: Directorate of Emergency Preparedness and Response: Federal Emergency Management Agency
Status: In process
Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
Recommendation: To ensure that key elements of the national preparedness system are developed in a timely and integrated fashion, the Administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency should direct the National Exercise Division to improve its implementation of statutory and program requirements by developing procedures for including "lessons learned" from real-world incidents in the Corrective Action Program system.
Agency Affected: Department of Homeland Security: Directorate of Emergency Preparedness and Response: Federal Emergency Management Agency
Status: In process
Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
Recommendation: To ensure that key elements of the national preparedness system are developed in a timely and integrated fashion, the Administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency should direct the Office of Preparedness Policy, Planning, and Analysis to improve its approach for developing a comprehensive assessment system by enhancing its project management plan to include milestone dates, an assessment of risk, and related mitigation strategies for (1) comprehensively collecting and reporting on disparate information sources, (2) developing quantifiable metrics for target capabilities that are to be used to collect and report preparedness information, and (3) reporting on the results of preparedness assessments to help inform homeland security resource allocation decisions.
Agency Affected: Department of Homeland Security: Directorate of Emergency Preparedness and Response: Federal Emergency Management Agency
Status: In process
Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
Recommendation: To ensure that key elements of the national preparedness system are developed in a timely and integrated fashion, the Administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency should direct the National Preparedness Directorate to take a more strategic approach to developing the national preparedness system by developing a strategic plan for implementing the national preparedness system that includes the key characteristics of a strategic plan, including coordination, integration, and implementation approaches.
Agency Affected: Department of Homeland Security: Directorate of Emergency Preparedness and Response: Federal Emergency Management Agency
Status: In process
Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
