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Release Date: September 7, 2006
(Remarks as Prepared)
Good morning Chairman Gregg and Senator Byrd. Thank you for the opportunity to appear before this Committee to discuss the important issue of our nation’s level of preparedness as it relates to prevention, protection, response, and recovery.
While much focus has been placed on hurricanes in light of Katrina, the Department of Homeland Security is taking steps to ensure that we pursue a broader national preparedness agenda that focuses on an all-hazards risk management approach. Our focus is not simply one of looking to the last emergency or disaster to identify enhancements needed. The Department now has a sustained process that unites lessons from crises past and current and increases our understanding of those that loom on the horizon and beyond. It is an effort that cuts across all threats and hazards. Key to this effort is the understanding that national preparedness actions must complement and not conflict with state and local activities, and that these actions require sustained commitment among Congress, federal agencies, local and state governments, the private sector, and the American people.
We have made considerable progress as a Department in strengthening and uniting the pieces that collectively encompass what must become a “culture of preparedness.” To many, preparedness is simply a name on an organizational chart, or a step in the cycle of emergency management. It must be more. Secretary Chertoff said in announcing the Second Stage Review that in the broadest sense, preparedness is the full range of capabilities in the Department of Homeland Security. This guides our efforts working every day to internally connect the full capabilities of the Department better, including with our external partners. But there is more to be done. For starters, individual responsibility is a big piece to this big picture.
The Department approaches individual responsibility from the ground up and the top down. The Citizen Corps program, established under the USA Freedom Corps initiative shortly after 9/11, operates in every state and all 6 U.S. territories at the community level to empower every American to take responsibility for his or her safety and security—as well as that of their neighbors. This is important. A better prepared America will be achieved when government, the private sector, and the American people each do their part.
In 2003 the Department of Homeland Security and the Advertising Council launched Ready, a national public service advertising campaign designed to educate and empower Americans to prepare for and respond to emergencies including natural disasters and potential terrorist attacks. The goal of the campaign is to get the public involved and ultimately to increase the level of basic preparedness across the nation. We understand that government is expected to act decisively in the face of adversity. The American people must as well.
September is National Preparedness Month. To highlight this, the Department has engaged local, state and federal officials as well as community, business, and nonprofit partners to join us in our effort to educate Americans about emergency preparedness and encourage them to make their own “individual” plans. As an example, the Department recently announced a partnership with AARP, the American Red Cross, the National Organization on Disability, and the National Fire Protection Association. This joint effort allows us to broaden our message to older and disabled Americans, two of many particularly vulnerable populations that may bear the worst effects of any disaster.
Additionally, Citizen Corps Councils and its Program Partners and Affiliates across the country have organized outreach efforts, training opportunities, and exercises on all-hazards preparedness to bring National Preparedness Month home. As of August 30:
This past June, a study conducted by the Ad Council on behalf of the Department’s Ready Campaign recorded significant positive increases in preparedness behaviors by individual Americans. It found:
While there is still a long way to go to ensure that all Americans have taken steps to prepare, there are strong indications of progress. Mr. Chairman, as buoyed as we are with the progress we have made among the American people, we recognize that our nation’s preparedness is a shared national responsibility.
Accordingly, let me first discuss what we are doing at the federal level, then offer state and local snapshots before my esteemed colleagues Admiral Thad Allen from the United States Coast Guard and the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Director Dave Paulison, discuss in further detail, specific hurricane preparedness activities related to their components.
Implementation of Katrina’s Lessons: Federal Perspective
Despite advances made after 9/11, Hurricane Katrina demonstrated that as a nation we are not truly ready to respond to a catastrophic event. Since Katrina, one of the most fundamental things we have done with the White House, Senate, and House of Representatives After Action Reports, is to take the combined number of recommendations (224) from the three reports and identify the critical actions that had to be accomplished in advance of the upcoming hurricane season— above all else. Secretary Chertoff and President Bush have made the accomplishment of these actions top priorities and are holding people accountable for progress.
Forty two percent of the recommendations included in the White House, Senate, and House of Representatives Hurricane Katrina After Action Reports centered on the need for improved planning— an area which has not traditionally been the top funding priority for states. As the After Action Reports’ recommendations indicate, States need to increasingly focus their resources on planning activities. The Department is furthering its emphasis to better target federal resources on planning modernization.
I would also like to acknowledge that we have made critical changes to the National Response Plan identified by the Administration and Congressional reports. Secretary Chertoff’s direction was clear—to marginalize bureaucracy and streamline decision-making, and to make sure that the plan is responsive and robust— and able to deal with the full range of expected events including those that are catastrophic.
DHS and its partner agencies have also further clarified the concept of the Principal Federal Official (PFO) and the Joint Field Office (JFO). When a declared Incident of National Significance (INS) overwhelms a single jurisdiction or has region-wide impact, effective response hinges on combined action and a centralized coordination structure. We have taken the initiative to better co-locate local, State, and Federal authorities into one Joint Field Office (JFO) to better integrate command, streamline communication and situational awareness and improve coordination. Admiral Allen will talk about these important organizational modifications in greater detail.
We also now have a Common Operating Picture (COP) in place with tools to make sure that the decision makers across the Federal government in coordination with our state and local partners have the information they need to make mutually-supportive decisions on a timely basis. Everyone must have access to the best information possible as quickly as possible.
It’s important to note that at the Assistant Secretary level, the Deputy Secretary level, and at the Cabinet Secretary level, a series of table top exercises have been conducted over the past four months to ensure our ability to integrate across the federal interagency a comprehensive federal response to a national hurricane threat. The progress made by Dave Paulison and his team at FEMA, in logistics management enhancements, and the work of Admiral Allen and his team at the U.S. Coast Guard on search and rescue coordination represent just two examples of how lessons learned from Katrina are translating into departmental action. It is not just FEMA preparing for hurricane season- it’s the entire Department of Homeland Security and the Federal government.
State and Local Coordination for Preparedness
States and communities in America do an exceptional job every day in dealing with the vast majority of emergencies. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the Nationwide Plan Review requested by this Congress and the President showed that we are not where we need to be as a Nation with regard to our shared responsibility to manage catastrophic events. However, that shortfall should not be construed in any way to reflect a lack of dedication or effort by individual States and communities. Rather it reflects the lack of a shared vision for how prepared we really need to be— individually and collectively— and a shared system for comprehensive national approach to preparedness to focus our efforts and provide the standard tools and processes we need to get us there.
In an evaluation of whether States’ basic plans outlined a general sequence of actions before, during, and after a catastrophic incident, only 41% of states were rated as ‘Sufficient,’ 54 % were considered ‘Partially Sufficient,’ and 5% were rated ‘Not Sufficient.’ The Nationwide Plan Review serves as an important baseline assessment of current capabilities for catastrophic events nationwide. This information will help us target resources such as federal grants, technical assistance, training, and exercises with our local, state, and private sector partners.
An Integrated Approach
Until the promulgation of the National Response Plan in conjunction with the National Preparedness Goal, 15 Planning Scenarios, and the Target Capabilities List, we did not have a shared national vision of preparedness so that communities, States, the private sector and the Federal interagency community could all be focused on the same goal, a shared culture of preparedness.
Another key change being made at the department is an integrated Federal agency, and an intra-Departmental approach to preparedness. Just several weeks ago in the midst of a major terrorist threat to America, the focus of the Department was making sure that we were working with both our federal inter-agency and our state and local partners to put in place stringent measures necessary to prepare for a possible terrorist attack. While the Transportation Security Administration was implementing measures to protect and prevent, FEMA was developing contingency plans for response and recovery. FEMA would have played a role in coordinating Federal response in support of state and local authorities had the plot not been thwarted.
Preparedness is not simply about getting ready for disasters. Preparedness is about uniting all of our tools of national power to manage risk. As Admiral Allen will discuss in greater detail in the context of specific U.S. Coast Guard initiatives, interagency coordination and outreach are critical activities for our success in advancing a national culture of preparedness.
We have a collective vision now. We are beginning to see improved coordination of like missions and assignments across a multitude of DHS entities that are responsible for prevention and protection and response and recovery— whether it’s FEMA, TSA, Infrastructure Protection, Customs and Border Protection or other components. We are targeting our federal operational readiness, risk management, information flow, and grant programs with state and local and private sector partners in a manner that fosters coordination and cooperation. Keeping American safe and secure requires interdependence, not independence.
One example of this intersection is the collaboration that is happening in the Southwest border States. The Office of Grants and Training, Customs and Border Protection, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement are offering critical support to State and local governments so that they can support our efforts to secure the nation’s borders.
Another example is the ability to leverage satellite technology. This technology will help Admiral Allen in the case of an oil spill off the coast of America. It will help Director Paulison be better able to define the parameters of a major natural disaster and will also give us the tools to understand the vulnerabilities if we become aware of terrorist a plot targeting a specific facility.
A Risk Based Approach to Providing Grants
The Department, prior to Katrina, recognized the need for a more risk-based approach in delivering federal resources to cities and states. Therefore, we have incorporated a system of assessing risk as a large factor in determining how to better target limited resources to address the most pressing threats throughout the nation. Risk analysis is a dynamic process. Our data collection and analysis methods are designed to inform grant decision making in the face of an evolving and complex 21st Century risk environment.
In this same vein we have targeted funding to much of the Gulf Coast this hurricane season in recognition of the greater vulnerabilities and vacillating infrastructure there. The Federal government has provided more than $110 billion in resources to the Gulf Region. This funding is helping fulfill vital needs, including relocation, rental assistance, infrastructure repair, flood insurance payments, education, and debris removal. Over $77 billion of the $110 billion (or 70%) either has been dispensed or is available for States to draw from.
This is critical because our ability to help restore the Gulf Coast infrastructure will increase their resiliency and ability to prepare for another hurricane.
Improved Coordination with the Private Sector
We are taking a collective integrated approach to a vision of “national preparedness” through our collaborative effort with the private sector. Last month our cyber security experts worked quietly with their counterparts at Microsoft to address a critical software vulnerability. In the interim between identification of the vulnerability and development of the solution, the Department was closely monitoring Internet activity for additional exploitation of the vulnerability. Once a patch was available, the Department’s U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT) coordinated an alert with Microsoft. DHS issued an alert through the National Cyber Alert System urging the public, private industry, as well as federal users to apply the security patch in order to protect their systems. Overshadowed in the news media by the successful foiling of the U.K. terror threat, this collaboration is typical of the kind of behind-the-scenes, day-to-day public-private activity taking place in cyber security and many other areas of preparedness.
Conclusion
Mr. Chairman, based on my nearly 25 years of professional involvement in preparedness, I have never seen the Federal Government in a stronger posture: more institutionally and organizationally integrated; more forward leaning; more capable of leveraging the comprehensive tools of national power; and finally, more prepared to initiate, anticipate, and respond to the threat continuum. We get better each and every day.
There is a new paradigm of leadership inside the Department of Homeland Security. Sitting before you today represents 90 years of leadership in crisis management. From search and rescue to fire fighting to disaster response, to dealing with terrorist attacks, the leadership team that is before you at this table is an archetype of the phenomenal leadership that Secretary Chertoff has assembled at the Department of Homeland Security.
At the end of the day, the American people care less about plans and process and more about success and action. Success and action depend on good, strong, quality leadership. The President has led by example as evident in not only the number of visits to the Gulf Coast region but also in the number of meetings he has had with Secretary Chertoff to address the nation’s preparedness, particularly on hurricane preparedness. President Bush is holding the Department accountable by setting high expectations, and we are working hard to meet those expectations.
In addition to ensuring the safety of the American people, and regaining their trust, we are making significant progress towards transitioning Americans away from preparing for the challenges of next week, and instead preparing for the challenges of the next decade.
Thank you once again for providing me the opportunity to speak with you today and for your continued support to the Department. I look forward to answering any questions you may have.
This page was last modified on September 7, 2006