Homeland Security
Managing First Responder Grants to Enhance Emergency Preparedness in the National Capital Region Gao ID: GAO-05-889T July 14, 2005After the tragic events of September 11, 2001, the National Capital Region (NCR)--the District of Columbia and nearby jurisdictions in Maryland and Virginia--was recognized as a significant potential target for terrorism. In fiscal years 2002 and 2003, about $340 million in emergency preparedness funds were allocated to NCR jurisdictions. In May 2004, GAO issued a report (GAO-04-433) that examined (1) the use of federal funds emergency preparedness funds allocated to NCR jurisdictions, (2) the challenges within the NCR to organizing and implementing efficient and effective preparedness programs, (3) any emergency preparedness gaps that remain in the NCR, and (4) the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) role in the NCR. The report made recommendations to the Secretary of DHS to enhance the management of first responder grants in the NCR. We also reported in September 2004 (GAO-04-1009) that the NCR's Governance Structure for the Urban Area Security Initiative could facilitate collaborative, coordinated, and planned management and use of federal funds for enhancing emergency preparedness, if implemented as planned DHS agreed to implement these recommendations.
A coordinated, targeted, and complementary use of federal homeland security grants is important in the NCR and elsewhere. These grants are one means of achieving an important goal: enhancing the ability of first responders to prevent, prepare for, respond to, and recover from terrorist and other incidents with well-planned, well-coordinated, and effective efforts that involve a variety of first responders from multiple jurisdictions. To oversee and coordinate federal emergency preparedness programs among federal, state, local, and regional authorities in the NCR, the Homeland Security Act established the Office for National Capital Region Coordination (ONCRC) within DHS. The ongoing security risk requires a comprehensive, coordinated, and carefully planned approach to the expenditure of federal first responder grants. This requires a NCR-wide strategic plan, performance goals, an assessment of preparedness gaps to guide priority setting, and continuing assessments of the progress made in closing identified gaps This testimony summarizes our prior work and provides information on the implementation of the three recommendations in our May 2004 report. First, we recommended that DHS work with the NCR jurisdictions to develop a coordinated strategic plan. DHS and NCR jurisdictions have completed a final draft for review that has been circulated to key stakeholders. Second, we recommended that DHS monitor's the plans implementation, which must await a final plan. To implement and monitor the future plan, data will be needed regarding the funding available and used for implementing the plan and enhancing first responder capabilities in the NCR--data that is not currently routinely available. The NCR, through the District of Columbia's Office of Homeland Security, has a system for tracking the use of Urban Area Security Initiative funds in the NCR as well as other homeland security grant funds available to Washington, D.C. However, the NCR does not currently track non-Urban Area Security Initiative funds available to and used by other NCR jurisdictions in an automated, uniform way. Rather, it obtains information about those funds through a variety of means, including teleconferences involving senior emergency preparedness officials. Third, we recommended that DHS identify and address preparedness gaps and evaluate the effectiveness of expenditures by conducting assessments based on established guidelines and standards. No systematic gap analysis has been completed for the region; however, by March 2006, the NCR plans to complete an effort to use the Emergency Management Accreditation Program (EMAP) as a means of conducting a gap analysis and assess NCR jurisdictions against EMAP's national preparedness standards. The result would be a report on the NCR's compliance with EMAP standards for emergency preparedness and an analysis of areas needing improvement to address in the short- and long-term. The ONCRC has not determined how this effort would be integrated with DHS' capabilities-based planning and assessments for first responders, pending the issuance of DHS' final version of the National Preparedness Goal in October 2005.
GAO-05-889T, Homeland Security: Managing First Responder Grants to Enhance Emergency Preparedness in the National Capital Region
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Testimony:
Before the Subcommittee on Oversight of Government Management, the
Federal Workforce, and the District of Columbia of the Committee on
Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, U.S. Senate:
United States Government Accountability Office:
GAO:
For Release on Delivery Expected at 9:30 a.m. EDT:
Thursday, July 14, 2005:
Homeland Security:
Managing First Responder Grants to Enhance Emergency Preparedness in
the National Capital Region:
Statement of William O. Jenkins, Jr., Director, Homeland Security and
Justice Issues:
GAO-05-889T:
GAO Highlights:
Highlights of GAO-05-889T, a testimony before the Subcommittee on
Oversight of Government Management, the Federal Workforce, and the
District of Columbia of the Committee on Homeland Security and
Governmental Affairs; U.S. Senate:
Why GAO Did This Study:
After the tragic events of September 11, 2001, the National Capital
Region (NCR)”the District of Columbia and nearby jurisdictions in
Maryland and Virginia”was recognized as a significant potential target
for terrorism. In fiscal years 2002 and 2003, about $340 million in
emergency preparedness funds were allocated to NCR jurisdictions. In
May 2004, GAO issued a report (GAO-04-433) that examined (1) the use of
federal funds emergency preparedness funds allocated to NCR
jurisdictions, (2) the challenges within the NCR to organizing and
implementing efficient and effective preparedness programs, (3) any
emergency preparedness gaps that remain in the NCR, and (4) the
Department of Homeland Security‘s (DHS) role in the NCR. The report
made recommendations to the Secretary of DHS to enhance the management
of first responder grants in the NCR. We also reported in September
2004 (GAO-04-1009) that the NCR‘s Governance Structure for the Urban
Area Security Initiative could facilitate collaborative, coordinated,
and planned management and use of federal funds for enhancing emergency
preparedness, if implemented as planned DHS agreed to implement these
recommendations.
What GAO Found:
A coordinated, targeted, and complementary use of federal homeland
security grants is important in the NCR and elsewhere. These grants are
one means of achieving an important goal: enhancing the ability of
first responders to prevent, prepare for, respond to, and recover from
terrorist and other incidents with well-planned, well-coordinated, and
effective efforts that involve a variety of first responders from
multiple jurisdictions. To oversee and coordinate federal emergency
preparedness programs among federal, state, local, and regional
authorities in the NCR, the Homeland Security Act established the
Office for National Capital Region Coordination (ONCRC) within DHS. The
ongoing security risk requires a comprehensive, coordinated, and
carefully planned approach to the expenditure of federal first
responder grants. This requires a NCR-wide strategic plan, performance
goals, an assessment of preparedness gaps to guide priority setting,
and continuing assessments of the progress made in closing identified
gaps.
This testimony summarizes our prior work and provides information on
the implementation of the three recommendations in our May 2004 report.
First, we recommended that DHS work with the NCR jurisdictions to
develop a coordinated strategic plan. DHS and NCR jurisdictions have
completed a final draft for review that has been circulated to key
stakeholders. Second, we recommended that DHS monitor‘s the plans
implementation, which must await a final plan. To implement and monitor
the future plan, data will be needed regarding the funding available
and used for implementing the plan and enhancing first responder
capabilities in the NCR”data that is not currently routinely available.
The NCR, through the District of Columbia‘s Office of Homeland
Security, has a system for tracking the use of Urban Area Security
Initiative funds in the NCR as well as other homeland security grant
funds available to Washington, D.C. However, the NCR does not currently
track non-Urban Area Security Initiative funds available to and used by
other NCR jurisdictions in an automated, uniform way. Rather, it
obtains information about those funds through a variety of means,
including teleconferences involving senior emergency preparedness
officials. Third, we recommended that DHS identify and address
preparedness gaps and evaluate the effectiveness of expenditures by
conducting assessments based on established guidelines and standards.
No systematic gap analysis has been completed for the region; however,
by March 2006, the NCR plans to complete an effort to use the Emergency
Management Accreditation Program (EMAP) as a means of conducting a gap
analysis and assess NCR jurisdictions against EMAP‘s national
preparedness standards. The result would be a report on the NCR‘s
compliance with EMAP standards for emergency preparedness and an
analysis of areas needing improvement to address in the short- and long-
term. The ONCRC has not determined how this effort would be integrated
with DHS‘ capabilities-based planning and assessments for first
responders, pending the issuance of DHS… final version of the National
Preparedness Goal in October 2005.
www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-05-889T.
To view the full product, including the scope and methodology, click on
the link above. For more information, contact William O. Jenkins, Jr.,
202-512-8757 or jenkinswo@gao.gov.
[End of section]
Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee:
I appreciate the opportunity to participate in today's hearing on
efforts to use federal first responder grants to effectively enhance
emergency preparedness in the National Capital Region (NCR). We
reported on this issue twice in 2004 and testified before the House
Committee on Government Reform on this topic in June 2004.[Footnote 1]
My statement today highlights the major findings and recommendations of
our prior work and provides some updated information on the status of
efforts by NCR jurisdictions and the Department of Homeland Security's
Office for National Capital Region Coordination (ONCRC) to implement
our recommendations.
Summary:
A coordinated, targeted, and complementary use of federal homeland
security grants is important in the NCR. These grants are one means of
achieving an important goal: enhancing the ability of first responders
to prevent where possible, prepare for, respond to, and recover from
terrorist and other incidents with well-planned, well-coordinated, and
effective efforts that involve a variety of first responders from
multiple jurisdictions.
The Office of National Capital Region Coordinator (ONCRC) was created
by the Homeland Security Act. [Footnote 2] It is responsible for
coordinating federal, state, and local efforts to secure the homeland
in the NCR and for assessing and advocating for the state, local, and
regional resources in the NCR needed to implement efforts to secure the
homeland.
In May 2004, we reported that ONCRC and the NCR faced three
interrelated challenges in managing federal funds in a way that
maximizes the increase in first responder capacities and preparedness
while minimizing inefficiency and unnecessary duplication of
expenditures. These challenges included the lack of (1) preparedness
standards; (2) a coordinated regionwide plan for establishing first
responder performance goals, needs, and priorities, and assessing the
benefits of expenditures in enhancing first responder capabilities; and
(3) a readily available, reliable source of data on the funds available
to first responders in the NCR and their use. Without the standards, a
regionwide plan, and data on spending, it will be extremely difficult
to determine whether NCR first responders have the ability to respond
to threats and emergencies with well-planned, well-coordinated, and
effective efforts that involve a variety of first responder disciplines
from NCR jurisdictions.
Our May 2004 report made three recommendations to the Secretary of the
Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which the Department agreed to
implement. Some progress has been made in implementing these
recommendations, but none has yet been fully implemented:
* Recommendation 1: Work with the NCR jurisdictions to develop a
coordinated strategic plan to establish goals and priorities to enhance
first responder capacities that can be used to guide the use of federal
emergency preparedness funds.
* Actions taken: According to a DHS ONCRC official, a final draft for
review has been completed and circulated to key stakeholders. According
to the Director, ONCRC, the plan will feature measurable goals,
objectives, and performance measures.
* Recommendation 2: Monitor the plan's implementation to ensure that
funds are used in a way that promotes effective expenditures that are
not unnecessarily duplicative.
* Actions taken: This recommendation cannot be implemented until the
final strategic plan is in place. Importantly, to establish regional
priorities and track progress in implementing the plan, data will be
needed regarding the funding for and use of all first-responder grants
available to NCR jurisdictions. The NCR, through the District of
Columbia's Office of Homeland Security, has a system for tracking the
use of UASI funds for the NCR and other homeland security grant funds
allocated to Washington, D.C., such as the State Homeland Security
Grants. However, at this time, it does not have an automated, uniform
system to track non-UASI grant funds available and used by other NCR
jurisdictions. Instead, the Office obtains information through a
variety of means, including teleconferences involving senior emergency
preparedness officials. The ONCRC recognizes the need to develop a more
systematic means of capturing all homeland security grant funds
available to and used through the NCR and its member jurisdictions.
* Recommendation 3: Identify and address gaps in emergency preparedness
and evaluate the effectiveness of expenditures in meeting those needs
by adapting standards and preparedness guidelines based on likely
scenarios for the NCR and conducting assessments based on them.
* Actions taken: No systematic gap analysis has been completed for the
region as a whole. However, by March 2006, the NCR plans to complete an
effort to use the Emergency Management Accreditation Program (EMAP) as
a means of conducting a gap analysis and assessing NCR jurisdictions
against EMAP's national preparedness standards. The result would be a
report on the NCR's compliance with EMAP standards for emergency
preparedness and an analysis of areas needing improvement that can be
addressed in the short-and long-term. How this effort would be
integrated with DHS' capabilities-based planning and assessments for
first responders has not yet been determined, pending the issuance of
DHS' final version of the National Preparedness Goal in October 2005.
The NCR now has a UASI governance structure that could provide the
regionwide coordination that is necessary for obtaining information and
the consensus or acquiescence of many stakeholders for drafting,
completing, and implementing a regional preparedness plan. We believe
that completing the implementation of the recommendations in our May
2004 report would be a major step toward developing the structure,
processes, and data needed to assess current first responder skills and
capabilities in the NCR and monitor the success of efforts to close
identified gaps and achieve designated performance goals for the NCR.
Background:
Since the September 11, 2001, attacks, the federal government, state
and local governments, and a range of independent research
organizations have agreed on the need for a coordinated
intergovernmental approach for allocating the nation's resources to
address the threat of terrorism and improve our security. The National
Strategy for Homeland Security, released in 2002 following the proposal
for DHS, emphasized a shared national responsibility for security
involving close cooperation among all levels of government and
acknowledged the complexity of developing a coordinated approach within
our federal system of government and among a broad range of
organizations and institutions involved in homeland security. The
national strategy highlighted the challenge of developing complementary
systems that avoid unintended duplication and increase collaboration
and coordination so that public and private resources are better
aligned for homeland security.
The national strategy established a framework for this approach by
identifying critical mission areas with intergovernmental initiatives
in each area. For example, the strategy identified such initiatives as
modifying federal grant requirements and consolidating funding sources
to state and local governments. The strategy further recognized the
importance of assessing the capability of state and local governments,
developing plans, and establishing standards and performance measures
to achieve national preparedness goals. In addition, many aspects of
DHS' success depend on its maintaining and enhancing working
relationships within the intergovernmental system as it relies on state
and local governments to accomplish its mission. In our view,
intergovernmental and interjurisdictional coordination in managing
federal first-responder grants is as important in the NCR as it is
anywhere in the nation.
The Role of DHS' Office of National Capital Region Coordination in
Enhancing Regional Preparednedness:
As noted in our May 2004 report and June 2004 testimony, the creation
of DHS was an initial step toward reorganizing the federal government
to respond to some of the intergovernmental challenges identified in
the National Strategy for Homeland Security. ONCRC was created by the
Homeland Security Act. According to NCR emergency management officials
we contacted during the time of our previous reviews, ONCRC could play
a potentially important role in assisting them to implement a
coordinated, well planned effort in using federal resources to improve
the region's preparedness. As we stated in the past, meeting the
office's statutory mandate would fulfill those key responsibilities.
The Homeland Security Act established ONCRC within DHS to oversee and
coordinate federal programs for, and relationships with federal, state,
local, and regional authorities in the NCR.[Footnote 3] The ONCRC's
responsibilities are primarily ones of coordination, assessment, and
advocacy. With regard to coordination, the ONCRC was mandated to:
* coordinate the activities of DHS relating to the NCR, including
cooperation with the DHS' Office for State and Local Government
Coordination;
* coordinate with federal agencies in the NCR on terrorism preparedness
to ensure adequate planning, information sharing, training, and
execution of the federal role in domestic preparedness activities;
* coordinate with federal, state, local, and regional agencies and the
private sector in NCR on terrorism preparedness to ensure adequate
planning, information sharing, training, and execution of domestic
preparedness activities among these agencies and entities;
* serve as a liaison between the federal government and state, local,
and regional authorities, and private sector entities in the NCR to
facilitate access to federal grants and other programs.[Footnote 4]
ONCRC also has responsibilities related to resource and needs
assessments and advocating for needed resources in the NCR, including:
* assessing and advocating for resources needed by state, local, and
regional authorities in the NCR to implement efforts to secure the
homeland; and:
* submitting an annual report to Congress that (1) identifies resources
required to fully implement homeland security efforts in the NCR, (2)
assesses progress in implementing homeland security efforts in the NCR,
and (3) includes recommendations to Congress regarding additional
resources needed to fully implement homeland security efforts in the
NCR. (According to the ONCRC, the first annual report is now with the
Office of Management and Budget for review).
We recognize that ONCRC's missions and tasks are not easy. The overall
job of promoting domestic preparedness in a large area with a huge
federal presence is daunting. The NCR is a complex multijurisdictional
area comprising the District of Columbia and surrounding county and
city jurisdictions in Maryland and Virginia. Coordination within this
region presents the challenge of working with numerous jurisdictions
that vary in size, political organization, and experience in managing
large emergencies.
As we noted in our May 2004 report on the management of funds in the
NCR, effectively managing first responder grant funds requires the
ability to measure progress and provide accountability for the use of
the funds. To do this, it is necessary to:
1. Develop and implement strategies for the use of the funds that
identify key goals and priorities;
2. Establish performance baselines;
3. Develop and implement performance goals and data quality standards;
4. Collect reliable data;
5. Analyze those data;
6. Assess the results of that analysis;
7. Take action based on those results; and:
8. Monitor the effectiveness of actions taken to achieve the designated
performance goals.
This strategic approach to homeland security includes identifying
threats and managing risks, aligning resources to address them, and
assessing progress in preparing for those threats and risks.
At the same time, it is important to recognize that the equipment,
skills, and training required to prepare for and respond to identified
terrorist threats and risks may be applicable to non-terrorist risks as
well. For example, the equipment, skills, and training required to
respond effectively to a discharge of lethal chlorine gas from a rail
car is much the same whether the cause of the discharge is an
accidental derailment or a terrorist act.
Our May 2004 Report Showed the Need to Improve Management of First-
Responder Grants in the NCR:
As we reported in May 2004, in fiscal years 2002 and 2003, the
Departments of Homeland Security, Justice, and Health and Human
Services awarded about $340 million through 16 first-responder grants
to NCR jurisdictions to enhance regional emergency preparedness. Of
these funds, $60.5 million were from the UASI grant, designated for
regionwide needs. The remaining funds, about $279.5 million, were
available to local jurisdictions for a wide variety of needs, such as
equipment and training, and local jurisdictions determined how these
funds were to be spent. Local jurisdictions used or planned to use
money from those grants to buy equipment and to implement training and
exercises for the area's first responders, as well as improve planning
for responding to a terrorist event. We have not reviewed how funds
were spent since the issuance of our May 2004 report; however, spending
could not be based on a coordinated plan for enhancing regional first
responder capacities and preparedness because such a plan does not yet
exist, although one is being prepared.
In May 2004, we reported that ONCRC and the NCR faced 3 interrelated
challenges in managing federal funds in a way that maximizes the
increase in first responder capacities and preparedness while
minimizing inefficiency and unnecessary duplication of expenditures.
These were the lack of (1) preparedness standards; (2) a coordinated
regionwide plan for establishing first responder performance goals,
needs, and priorities, and assessing the benefits of expenditures; and
(3) readily available, reliable source of data on the federal grant
funds available to first responders in the NCR and their use. Without
the standards, a regionwide plan, and data on available funds and
spending, it will be extremely difficult to determine whether NCR first
responders have the ability to respond to threats and emergencies with
well-planned, well-coordinated, and effective efforts that involve a
variety of first responder disciplines from NCR jurisdictions.
Moreover, without such data, it is not clear how the ONCRC can fulfill
its statutory mandate to assess and advocate for resources needed by
state, local, and regional authorities in the NCR to implement efforts
to secure the homeland.
During our review we could identify no reliable data on preparedness
gaps in the NCR, which of those gaps were most important, and the
status of efforts to close those gaps. The baseline data needed to
assess those gaps had not been fully developed or made available on a
NCR-wide basis. We also noted that at the time our May 2004 report was
released, DHS and ONCRC appear to have had a limited role in assessing
and analyzing first responder needs in NCR and developing a coordinated
effort to address those needs through the use of federal grant funds.
ONCRC has focused principally on developing a plan for using the UASI
funds--funds that were intended principally for addressing region wide
needs. In its comments on a draft of our May 2004 report, DHS said that
a governance structure approved in February 2004 would accomplish
essential regionwide coordination. We agree that this structure has the
potential to accomplish essential regionwide coordination, but it is
not clear how it can do so effectively without comprehensive data on
funds available for enhancing first responder skills and capabilities
in the NCR, their use, and their effect on meeting identified
performance goals.
Recommendations in Our May 2004 Report Not Yet Fully Implemented:
To help ensure that emergency preparedness grants and associated funds
are managed in a way that maximizes their effectiveness, our May 2004
report included three recommendations to the Secretary of the
Department of Homeland Security. As discussed in more detail below,
some progress has been made in implementing these recommendations, but
none has yet been fully implemented.
* Recommendation 1: Work with the NCR jurisdictions to develop a
coordinated strategic plan to establish goals and priorities for
enhancing first responder capacities that can be used to guide the use
of federal emergency preparedness funds.
* Actions taken: According to an ONCRC official, a final draft for
review has been circulated to key stakeholders. According to the
Director, ONCRC, the plan will feature measurable goals, objectives,
and performance measures.
* Recommendation 2: Monitor the strategic plan's implementation to
ensure that funds are used in a way that promotes effective
expenditures that are not unnecessarily duplicative.
* Actions taken: Monitoring implementation of the strategic plan cannot
be accomplished absent a plan. Importantly, to monitor the plan's
implementation, data will be needed on funds available and spending
from all first responder grants available to jurisdictions in the NCR,
such as the State Homeland Security Grant Program. The NCR, through the
D.C. Office of Homeland Security, has a system for tracking the use of
UASI funds in the NCR and other homeland security grant funds available
to D.C., such as the State Homeland Security Grants. However, at this
time, it does not have an automated, uniform, system to track non-UASI
grant funds available and used by other NCR jurisdictions. Information
on the projects funded in NCR jurisdictions by funds other than UASI is
obtained through the monthly meetings and weekly conference calls of
the Senior Policy Group and full-day quarterly meetings of
jurisdictions in the Mid-Atlantic area, sponsored by the Office of
Domestic Preparedness (ODP). These meetings provide contacts for
obtaining information, as needed, on grant allocations and expenditures
in jurisdictions both within and outside the NCR in the mid-Atlantic
region. The ONCRC recognizes the need to develop a more systematic
means of capturing all homeland security grant funds available and used
through the NCR.
* Recommendation 3: Identify and address gaps in emergency preparedness
and evaluate the effectiveness of expenditures in meeting those needs
by adopting standards and preparedness guidelines based on likely
scenarios for NCR and conducting assessments based on them.
* Actions taken: To date, no systematic gap analysis has been completed
for the region as a whole. The NCR plans to use the Emergency
Management Accreditation Program (EMAP) as a means of conducting a gap
analysis and assessing NCR jurisdictions against EMAP's standards for
emergency preparedness--an effort expected to be completed by March
2006. How this effort would be integrated with DHS' capabilities-based
planning and assessments for first responders has not yet been
determined, pending the issuance of DHS' final version of the National
Preparedness Goal in October 2005. At the national level, DHS' efforts
to develop policies, guidance, and standards that can be used to assess
and develop first responder skills and capabilities have included three
policy initiatives: (1) a national response plan (what needs to be done
to manage a major emergency event); (2) a command and management
process--the National Incident Management System--to be used during any
emergency event nation-wide (how to do what needs to be done); and (3)
a national preparedness goal (how well it should be done). Since our
May 2004 report, DHS, as part of developing the national preparedness
goal, developed 15 scenarios (12 terrorist events, a flu pandemic, a
hurricane, and an earthquake) of "national significance" that would
require coordinated federal, state, and local response efforts; the
critical tasks associated with these scenarios; and the capabilities--
in terms of planning, training, equipment, and exercises--that first
responders would need to develop and maintain to effectively prepare
for and respond to major emergency events. The 300 critical tasks and
36 capabilities were intended as benchmarks first responders could use
to assess their relative level of preparedness and capacity to prevent,
mitigate, respond to, and recover from major emergency events,
including terrorist attacks. Because no single jurisdiction or agency
would be expected to perform every task, possession of a target
capability could involve enhancing and maintaining local resources,
ensuring access to regional and federal resources, or some combination
of the two. The January 25, 2005 proposal for the EMAP assessment
program does suggest one way in which the NCR may include the DHS
scenarios, critical tasks, and capabilities in the EMAP assessment
project. The proposal states: "Should the NCR or local jurisdictions
within the region desire to conduct (a) hazard identification, risk
assessment, and impact analysis activities, and/or (b) capabilities
assessment against catastrophic scenarios using federally provided
technical assistance during the period of this project, EMAP
representatives will coordinate with local and regional personnel to
ensure that assessment activities and products are complementary."
Concluding Comments:
The need for comprehensive, coordinated emergency planning and
preparedness is important in the National Capital Region. As we noted
in the recent past, the ongoing security risk to the NCR requires a
comprehensive, coordinated, and carefully planned approach to the
expenditure of federal first responder grants. This requires a
regionwide strategic plan, performance goals, an assessment of
preparedness gaps to guide priority setting, and continuing assessments
of the progress made in closing identified gaps. The NCR has completed
a draft strategic plan and has established a process for assessing
existing preparedness gaps. But it still needs to develop a means of
routinely obtaining reliable data on all funds available for enhancing
emergency preparedness in the NCR and their uses. It is important to
know how all first responder funds are being spent in the NCR for
setting priorities and assessing the results of funds spent. The NCR
has selected the EMAP emergency preparedness standards as its
performance standards for the region, but it will be necessary to
integrate the EMAP standards with the set of 36 performance
capabilities for first responders that DHS has developed as part of its
National Performance Goal.
The NCR, in common with jurisdictions across the nation, faces the
challenge of implementing DHS requirements for its three key policy
initiatives--the National Incident Management System, National Response
Plan, and the National Preparedness Goal. Successfully accomplishing
all of these things will require a sound strategic plan; effective
coordination; perseverance; and reliable data on available funds, their
use, and the results achieved. As we noted in our September 2004
report, the NCR's UASI Governance Structure represents a positive step
towards instituting a collaborative, multijurisdictional, regionwide,
planning structure. Fully implementing the recommendations in our May
2004 report would, in our view, be a major step toward developing the
structure, processes, and data needed to assess current first responder
skills and capabilities in the NCR and monitor the success of efforts
to close identified gaps and achieve designated performance goals for
the NCR.
That concludes my statement, Mr. Chairman. I would be pleased to
respond to any questions you or other members of the Committee may
have.
Contacts and Acknowledgments:
For questions regarding this testimony please contact William O.
Jenkins, Jr. on (202) 512-8777. Ernie Hazera also made key
contributions to this testimony.
FOOTNOTES
[1] Homeland Security: Management of First Responder Grants in the
National Capital Region Reflects the Need for Coordinated Planning and
Performance Goals, GAO-04-433, (Washington, D.C.: May 28, 2004);
Homeland Security: Effective Regional Coordination Can Enhance
Emergency Preparedness, GAO-04-1009 (Sept. 15, 2004); and Homeland
Security: Coordinated Planning and Standards Needed to Better Manage
First Responder Grants in the National Capital Region, GAO-04-904T,
June 24, 2004).
[2] P.L. 107-296 §882
[3] P.L. 107-296 §882
[4] The Office for National Capital Region Coordination was also
mandated to provide state, local, and regional authorities in NCR with
regular information, research, and technical support to assist the
efforts of state, local, and regional authorities in NCR in securing
the homeland; and develop a process for receiving meaningful input from
state, local, and regional authorities and the private sector in NCR to
assist in the development of the federal government's homeland security
plans and activities.
