Lack of coordination stalls emergency response planning

Agencies have failed to collaborate in developing emergency response plans, making it more difficult to support state and local authorities during a terrorist attack or natural disaster, according to a report released on Monday by the Government Accountability Office.

The Federal Communications Commission and agencies in the Homeland Security Department are responsible for emergency response programs, with lesser responsibility falling to the Commerce, Interior and Justice departments. But "limited collaboration and monitoring" among those agencies "jeopardize progress in emergency communications, even as the federal government has taken significant and strategic steps to assist first responders," GAO said in a report.

DHS leads the development of equipment standards and technological innovation for first responders. As part of that responsibility, it issued in July 2008 the National Emergency Communications Plan, the first strategic document focused on improving emergency communications nationwide. The Federal Emergency Management Agency is responsible for distributing grant funding, maintaining and providing emergency communications assets, and developing assessment and planning tools for state and local jurisdictions, and FCC currently is developing a nationwide, interoperable broadband network for public safety.

The Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration is responsible for managing spectrum the federal government uses, and the Justice Department is following through on its 2001initiative to provide secure, seamless and interoperable wireless communications for federal agents and officers engaged in law enforcement, homeland defense and disaster response.

Despite those shared responsibilities, "DHS and FCC have not established a common vision or mutually reinforcing strategies for a nationwide broadband public safety policy," GAO said. For example, FCC officials described the interoperable broadband network for public safety and the National Emergency Communications Plan as two separate, but parallel efforts, but GAO argued that they could be better aligned.

While DHS provides technical assistance and guidance to state and local jurisdictions, less assistance is given to other federal agencies, some of which have no formal emergency communications plan. DHS officials said one reason for the limited engagement is lack of incentives. Grant funding is one means of encouraging state and local government to participate in emergency response plans, for example, but because federal agencies aren't eligible for federal grants, "DHS has limited authority to compel [them] to participate or align their emergency communication," GAO said.

Delays in establishing the Emergency Communications Preparedness Center, which will be jointly operated by a number of federal agencies including DHS, FCC, Justice and Commerce, also undermine implementation of the National Emergency Communications Plan, GAO reported. The 2006 Post-Katrina Act required the center be established to manage disaster response, GAO reported. As of June 2009, the agencies were still working on the memorandum of understanding that would provide goals and realistic performance measures from participating agencies.

GAO recommended DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano complete the Memorandum of Understanding for the Emergency Communications Preparedness Center and provide guidance to agencies that are developing formal emergency communications plans. GAO also recommended Napolitano work with the Julius Genachowski, chairman of FCC, to establish a forum to discuss how to better collaborate on each agency's emergency communications efforts.

Homeland Security and the Federal Communications Commission generally agreed with the recommendations included in GAO's report, and noted that steps were already under way to implement them.