[Infowarrior] - DHS to Tout Still Incomplete Community Preparedness Plans

[Richard Forno]

une 12, 2007 ­ 7:02 p.m.
DHS to Tout Still Incomplete Community Preparedness Plans
By Eileen Sullivan, CQ Staff
http://public.cq.com/docs/hs/hsnews110-000002530174.html

The Department of Homeland Security plans to trumpet several incomplete
preparedness documents as part of its nationwide effort to promote community
preparedness.

Corey Gruber, acting deputy administrator for National Preparedness at the
Federal Emergency Management Agency, is expected to tell House lawmakers
Wednesday about the ways the department helps the public prepare for a
myriad of disasters from tornadoes to terrorist attacks, according to a
draft of his testimony obtained by Congressional Quarterly.

Americans are not any better prepared for a natural disaster or terrorist
attack than they were in 2003, according to the department¹s most recent
citizen preparedness research, released in fall 2006.

Several of the documents and plans that Gruber is expected to tout are still
in draft form or undergoing revisions. Gruber is expected to testify before
the House Homeland Security Committee regarding the Interim National
Preparedness Goal and its list of target capabilities, state and urban area
homeland security strategies, Homeland Security Grant Program guidance, and
the National Response Plan.

Homeland Security Presidential Directive 8 (HSPD-8), issued on Dec. 17,
2003, called for creating a National Preparedness Goal ­ a standard to which
preparedness can be measured. This goal should outline preparation measures
for first-responders, including training, exercising and equipment, to face
a wide range of natural and man-made hazards. An Interim National
Preparedness Goal was issued in March 2005. The department has yet to issue
the final goal. DHS has not finalized the Target Capabilities List either.

The president called for the creation of a National Response Plan in
February 2003. That plan was published in January 2005, but it has been
going through revisions since Hurricane Katrina, which struck the Gulf Coast
later that year. A final plan was to be published this month, but the
department missed the deadline. FEMA Administrator R. David Paulison told
lawmakers his goal is to have the National Response Plan out by July 1, but
sources familiar with the rewrite say it¹s going to be later this summer.

³Here we are today amidst another hurricane season, still waiting on the
Department of Homeland Security to publish guidance needed to empower
community and citizen preparedness around the country,² Chairman Bennie
Thompson, D-Miss., said in an e-mail to Congressional Quarterly. ³The
Department often states that partnerships with states and localities are the
path to preparedness, yet time and time again we see frustration filling the
void where direction and strategies should have been.²

FEMA spokesman Aaron Walker said the department and FEMA already have
functioning plans, particularly the National Response Plan. The revisions to
the plan will make it more user-friendly, he said. ³There is a misconception
that FEMA doesn¹t have a plan. That¹s just not accurate,² Walker said. ³The
plan we have works.² As for the National Preparedness Goal, DHS said the
document is under final review and should be released soon.

Officials from the National Council on Disability, the Texas Association of
Regional Councils, the National Volunteer Fire Council and the Partnership
for Disaster Response are also scheduled to testify at Wednesday¹s hearing.

Eileen Sullivan can be reached at esullivan at cq.com.