Department of Commerce’s Role in Reconstruction and Stabilization

Objective

To conduct Department of Commerce (DOC) wide planning and execution in response to international contingency operations.  This involves evaluating how the Department as a whole can contribute to the USG efforts abroad in fragile state environments.

Structure

The R&S Office is the DOC’s planning unit for the Civilian Response Corps (CRC) and other contingency response efforts. The U.S. DOC is one of nine participating agencies in the CRC, which is led by the U.S. Department of State’s Office of the Coordinator for Reconstruction and Stabilization (S/CRS). The CRC provides the USG with a pool of qualified, trained, and ready-to-deploy U.S. Government professionals to support overseas reconstruction and stabilization (R&S) operations.  The CRC is made up of the following agencies: the Departments of State, Commerce, Agriculture, Justice, Homeland Security, Health and Human Services, Transportation, Energy, and the U.S. Agency for International Development.

The CRC consists of two funded components:

• The Active Component (CRC-A) members are full-time government employees whose specific job is to train for, prepare, and staff R&S efforts. They are able to deploy within 48 hours. 
• The Standby Component (CRC-S) members are full-time employees of their departments who have specialized expertise useful in R&S missions and are available to deploy within 30 days in the event of an R&S mission. CRC-S employees will remain in their present positions and will only be called upon in a major crisis as determined by the Secretary of State.

Distribution of DOC CRC

• CRC-Active (CRC-A) consists of 250 new U.S. Government employees, while CRC-Standby (CRC-S) consists of 2,000 current U.S. Government employees.
• Commerce will have 5 CRC-A (in ITA-2, CLDP-1, NOAA-1, NTIA-1) and 80 CRC-S (in ITA, NOAA, NTIA, BIS, ESA, PTO, NIST)

The following DOC bureaus are currently participating in the CRC:

• Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS)
• Commercial Law Development Program (CLDP)
• International Trade Administration (ITA)
• Economic and Statistical Administration (ESA)
• National Institute of  Standards and Technology (NIST)
• National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
• National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA)
• United States Patent and Trade Office (USPTO)

The R&S Liaison Network

• The Department of Commerce’s R&S Liaison Network is made up of volunteers from the above bureaus, the Office of the General Counsel, and the Office of the Secretary. The Network was launched in early 2008 and has been critical in mapping Commerce’s R&S capabilities, and facilitating Table Top Experiments and deployments.