[Senate Hearing 112-517] [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office] S. Hrg. 112-517 FROM EARTHQUAKES TO TERRORIST ATTACKS: IS THE NATIONAL CAPITAL REGION PREPARED FOR THE NEXT DISASTER? ======================================================================= JOINT HEARING before the OVERSIGHT OF GOVERNMENT MANAGEMENT, THE FEDERAL WORKFORCE, AND THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA SUBCOMMITTEE AND AD HOC SUBCOMMITTEE ON DISASTER RECOVERY AND INTERGOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS of the COMMITTEE ON HOMELAND SECURITY AND GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS UNITED STATES SENATE ONE HUNDRED TWELFTH CONGRESS FIRST SESSION __________ DECEMBER 7, 2011 __________ Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.fdsys.gov/ Printed for the use of the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental AffairsU.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 72-561 PDF WASHINGTON : 2012 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office Internet: bookstore.gpo.gov Phone: toll free (866) 512-1800; DC area (202) 512-1800 Fax: (202) 512-2104 Mail: Stop IDCC, Washington, DC 20402-0001 COMMITTEE ON HOMELAND SECURITY AND GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS JOSEPH I. LIEBERMAN, Connecticut, Chairman CARL LEVIN, Michigan SUSAN M. COLLINS, Maine DANIEL K. AKAKA, Hawaii TOM COBURN, Oklahoma THOMAS R. CARPER, Delaware SCOTT P. BROWN, Massachusetts MARK L. PRYOR, Arkansas JOHN McCAIN, Arizona MARY L. LANDRIEU, Louisiana RON JOHNSON, Wisconsin CLAIRE McCASKILL, Missouri ROB PORTMAN, Ohio JON TESTER, Montana RAND PAUL, Kentucky MARK BEGICH, Alaska JERRY MORAN, Kansas Michael L. Alexander, Staff Director Nicholas A. Rossi, Minority Staff Director and Chief Counsel Trina Driessnack Tyrer, Chief Clerk Joyce Ward Publications Clerk and GPO Detailee ------ OVERSIGHT OF GOVERNMENT MANAGEMENT, THE FEDERAL WORKFORCE, AND THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA SUBCOMMITTEE DANIEL K. AKAKA, Hawaii, Chairman CARL LEVIN, Michigan RON JOHNSON, Wisconsin MARY L. LANDRIEU, Louisiana TOM COBURN, Oklahoma MARK BEGICH, Alaska JERRY MORAN, Kansas Lisa M. Powell, Majority Staff Director Jessica K. Nagasako, Professional Staff Member Eric Tamarkin, Counsel Rachel R. Weaver, Minority Staff Director Jena N. McNeill, Professional Staff Member Aaron H. Woolf, Chief Clerk ------ AD HOC SUBCOMMITTEE ON DISASTER RECOVERY AND INTERGOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS MARK L. PRYOR, Arkansas, Chairman DANIEL K. AKAKA, Hawaii RAND PAUL, Kentucky MARY L. LANDRIEU, Louisiana SCOTT P. BROWN, Massachusetts JON TESTER, Montana RON JOHNSON, Wisconsin Amanda Fox, Professional Staff Member John Vocino, GAO Detailee Brandon Booker, Minority Staff Director Kelsey Stroud, Chief Clerk C O N T E N T S ------ Opening statement: Page Senator Akaka................................................ 1 Senator Pryor................................................ 2 Prepared statement: Senator Pryor................................................ 33 WITNESSES WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 7, 2011 Steward D. Beckham, Director, Office of National Capital Region Coordination, Federal Emergency Management Agency, U.S. Department of Homeland Security................................ 5 Dean S. Hunter, Deputy Director, Facilities, Security, and Contracting, U.S. Office of Personnel Management............... 7 William O. Jenkins, Jr., Director, Homeland Security and Justice Team, U.S. Government Accountability Office.................... 9 Richard Muth, Executive Director, Maryland Emergency Management Agency, State of Maryland...................................... 11 Hon. Terrie L. Suit, Secretary of Veterans Affairs and Homeland Security, Commonwealth of Virginia............................. 13 Paul A. Quander, Jr., Deputy Mayor for Public Safety and Justice, District of Columbia........................................... 15 Alphabetical List of Witnesses Beckham, Steward D.: Testimony.................................................... 5 Prepared statement........................................... 35 Hunter, Dean S.: Testimony.................................................... 7 Prepared statement........................................... 40 Jenkins, William O., Jr.: Testimony.................................................... 9 Prepared statement........................................... 46 Muth, Richard: Testimony.................................................... 11 Prepared statement........................................... 70 Quander, Paul A., Jr.: Testimony.................................................... 15 Prepared statement........................................... 91 Suit, Hon. Terrie L.: Testimony.................................................... 13 Prepared statement........................................... 85 APPENDIX Questions and responses for the Record from: Mr. Beckham.................................................. 106 Mr. Hunter................................................... 115 Mr. Muth..................................................... 118 Ms. Suit..................................................... 125 Mr. Quander.................................................. 131 Background....................................................... 143 Statement submitted by David F. Snyder for the Record............ 151 FROM EARTHQUAKES TO TERRORIST ATTACKS: IS THE NATIONAL CAPITAL REGION PREPARED FOR THE NEXT DISASTER? ---------- WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 7, 2011 U.S. Senate, Joint Hearing with the Oversight of Government Management, the Federal Workforce, and the District of Columbia Subcommittee and the Ad Hoc Subcommittee on Disaster Recovery and Intergovernmental Affairs, of the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, Washington, DC. The Subcommittees met, pursuant to notice, at 2:32 p.m., in Room SD-342, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Hon. Daniel K. Akaka, Chairman of the Subcommittee on Oversight of Government Management, the Federal Workforce, and the District of Columbia, and Hon. Mark L. Pryor, Chairman of the Ad Hoc Subcommittee on Disaster Recovery and Intergovernmental Affairs, presiding. Present: Senators Akaka and Pryor. OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR AKAKA Senator Akaka. I call this joint hearing of the Subcommittee on Oversight of Government Management, the Federal Workforce, and the District of Columbia and the Ad Hoc Subcommittee on Disaster Recovery and Intergovernmental Affairs to order. I want to welcome our witnesses today. I want to say aloha and thank you for being here. Today, we will examine the National Capital Region's (NCRs) preparedness and response to natural and manmade disasters. The NCR is a region defined by statute including the District of Columbia, Maryland, Virginia, 11 local jurisdictions, three branches of the Federal Government, and over 5 million residents. More than 20 million tourists visit the NCR every year, and 340,000 Federal employees work in the area. So this is the size of that area. This is an appropriate time to explore the NCR's emergency preparedness and response capabilities as we celebrate the 70th anniversary of the surprise attacks on Pearl Harbor and we recently marked the tenth anniversary of September 11, 2001 attacks. Both tragic events tested our Nation's preparedness, and September 11, 2001, exposed shortfalls in this region's readiness. The OGM Subcommittee's oversight of NCR's preparedness has spanned several Congresses. In partnership with my former colleague and dear friend Senator Voinovich, we held a series of hearings on this issue in 2005, 2006, and 2007, focusing largely on the region's poor strategic planning. This hearing will help us evaluate the NCR's latest strategic planning activities. The responses to recent emergencies, including the January 26, 2011 snowstorm that led to many hours of gridlock, and the East Coast earthquake in August have renewed concerns that the NCR still faces serious challenges in disaster preparedness and response 10 years after September 11. I was particularly troubled that the public, including Federal employees, received very little guidance in the immediate aftermath of the earthquake. I look forward to discussing how we can improve regional situational awareness and information sharing. NCR members must be able to communicate with each other, make informed decisions, and provide clear, consistent information to the public. Additionally, it is important for family members to be able to connect in the crucial hours after an unexpected event. Coordinating so many jurisdictions is challenging. However, it is essential that the region operates as a cohesive and unified body during emergencies. A Washington Post editorial argued for creating a regional structure with authority to direct incident response. NCR officials have recommended improvements within the existing framework. Recently, Senator Pryor and I requested that the Government Accountability Office (GAO) review whether the NCR's current system for preparedness and response is effective and efficient. I look forward to discussing how the NCR can be best prepared to protect the millions of people who live and work in the NCR and to preserve the many national treasures located here. I commend the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) for revising its dismissal and closure guidance in response to the January 2011 snowstorm and working with partner agencies and the Council of Governments (COGs) to get their input. These changes should help avoid future widespread gridlock, improve safety for Federal employees and others, and enhance continuity of Government operations. I also commend the Council of Governments for its review of the snowstorm and practical recommendations to improve coordination and information sharing. While today's hearing focuses on the Washington, D.C. area, the issues of preparedness and response are important for regional coordination in cities and States across the country. I would like to thank the members of the NCR for all of their hard work to keep us safe from harm. Let me now recognize Senator Pryor for his opening statement. Senator Pryor. OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR PRYOR Senator Pryor. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and I would like to start today by recognizing that today's hearing coincides with the 70th anniversary of the surprise attacks on Pearl Harbor and reflect on that fateful day about the heroism that still inspires us today. But, Mr. Chairman, if you could, I know that you were actually an eyewitness to that event. Senator Akaka. Yes. Senator Pryor. Would you mind telling the Subcommittee here in just a couple of minutes about your recollections about that? Senator Akaka. Yes. Well, thank you, Senator Pryor. It was on Sunday, December 7, 1941. In Hawaii at that time, there were scattered clouds. It was a pretty nice day and we were getting ready for church. I was in a boarding facility there in the hills above Pearl Harbor, and about, oh, I would say about 7:45, we detected some commotion down at Pearl Harbor and immediately heard some blasts. So we looked out of our windows and could see Pearl Harbor clearly. I must tell you, I saw them torpedo the battleships that were moored there and watched them sink in place, some of them, and also a squadron of Japanese planes flew over us. And we looked up and I was so surprised. They were green in color and they had those rising suns on the wings, so we knew it was from Japan. By then, the radio was beginning to report what was happening there, that Pearl Harbor was being attacked and that people should stay home. So that squadron that flew over us bombed and strafed Kanoehe Marine Station over the mountains. That was the beginning of a new era for the world and our Nation. The school that I was attending at that time was a military type of school. We were activated and sent up into the mountains for about a month, because we got information that there may be paratroopers landing in the hills and we had to protect the water systems. So, in a sense, immediately, we were engaged. What I did not know until later, when I read it, is immediately, the military government took over, and so Hawaii went under martial law and General Walter Short was placed as military Governor. I remember his first announcement was, ``All citizens in Hawaii will obey the commands of military officers,'' and that was the beginning. It was quite a sight, and for days, Virginia just burned. Black smoke kept rising for days out of those battleships. But our country did respond, and it took us some time, but we fought and won the war. The war changed this country and ultimately made it better, as well as the rest of the world. So thank you for giving me that opportunity. I do not usually talk about this, nor do I tell people about what I just told you, but that is what happened to me. Senator Pryor. Well, thank you for sharing that. The reason I wanted you to do that is because, obviously, that is an event that shaped the world and shaped United States history, but it also helped to shape you as a man and as a Senator---- Senator Akaka. Yes. Senator Pryor [continuing]. So thank you for your service and thank you for sharing. I have a longer opening statement that I will submit for the record, but Washington, D.C. has gone through some recent weather events and other things and we see continued gridlock in communications. We see gridlock in traffic. It just raises questions about are there leadership gaps here? Is there bureaucratic fragmentation that needs to be addressed, without knowing who is responsible in an emergency? It is a good time for us to sit back and ask these sometimes hard questions about what is going on in the D.C. region. Now, I will say that the emergency responders work tirelessly to keep the Capitol itself safe and keep the Capital Region safe from harm, and they deserve our recognition for their great service. The size of this metropolitan area and the multiple State and local governments that have to be coordinated is quite a challenge, and also the unique threats to this area present a challenge, and we understand that, but I think this is part of our oversight, to ask these questions. But there is a huge risk in not being prepared. The Federal Government in Washington, D.C. obviously is the nerve center, command and control for all the Nation's military, all of our diplomatic missions, all of our government, all of our emergency response all over the country in the event that we have another September 11, 2001, or Pearl Harbor type of event, heaven forbid that we do. This area is absolutely critical to keeping things going around the country and around the world as we need them to. So we also have to understand that in this very difficult budget cycle and this economy, with revenues being down and we are seeing layoffs, we are seeing tightening of belts in the various public entities, from the Federal Government on down to local government, we understand that it is a time to also look at efficiencies and try to make sure that we eliminate any inefficiencies, any wasted steps, and try to make sure that we squeeze every single dollar we can for preparedness and get us over the finish line like we want to. So today, we are talking about improving coordination here in the National Capital Region for emergency preparedness, but we also need to keep our eye on the larger ball of preparedness around the Nation. One example in our region would be Memphis, Tennessee, which is a big metropolitan area. It has the heaviest population in that little region of the country. But Memphis and that area has a very large impact on Eastern Arkansas, Northern Mississippi, Western Tennessee, and even the southern parts of Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri, down in there, because they all sort of touch down in that area. And so if something terrible were to happen in Memphis, because it is such a huge transportation and media and health services center, it would clearly have an impact on the rest of the region. In October, our two Subcommittees collaborated on a Government Accountability Office request asking for further examination of the National Capital Region's current system of an all hazards preparation. Today's hearing will serve as a jumping off point for GAO. It will also help us determine what we can do and Congress to ensure that our Nation's cities are equipped to respond effectively to emergencies. So, Mr. Chairman, thank you, and I look forward to hearing from the witnesses. Senator Akaka. Thank you very much, Senator Pryor. I look forward to hearing from our panel of witnesses, also, and I want to say mahalo, thank you, again, for your participation. We have Steward Beckham, the Director of the Office of National Capital Region Coordination at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA); Dean Hunter, Deputy Director of Facilities, Security, and Contracting at the Office of Personnel Management; Bill Jenkins, Director of the Homeland Security and Justice Team at the Government Accountability Office; Richard Muth, Executive Director of the Maryland Emergency Management Agency; Terrie Suit, Secretary of Veterans Affairs and Homeland Security for the Commonwealth of Virginia; and Paul Quander, Deputy Mayor for Public Safety and Justice for the District of Columbia. It is the custom of this Subcommittee to swear in all witnesses. I would ask that each of you stand and raise your right hand. Do you solemnly swear that the testimony you are about to give this Subcommittee is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you, God? Mr. Beckham. I do. Mr. Hunter. I do. Mr. Jenkins. I do. Mr. Muth. I do. Ms. Suit. I do. Mr. Quander. I do. Senator Akaka. Thank you very much. Let it be noted for the record that the witnesses answered in the affirmative. Before we start, I want you to know that your full written statement will be part of the record, and I would also like to remind you to please limit your oral remarks to 5 minutes. Mr. Beckham, will you please proceed with your statement. TESTIMONY OF STEWARD D. BECKHAM,\1\ DIRECTOR, OFFICE OF NATIONAL CAPITAL REGION COORDINATION, FEDERAL EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCY, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY Mr. Beckham. Thank you. Good afternoon, Chairman Akaka, Ranking Member Johnson, Chairman Pryor, and Ranking Member Paul, and other distinguished Members of the Subcommittees. I am Steward Beckham, Director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency's Office of National Capital Region Coordination (ONCRC). I appreciate the opportunity to appear before both Subcommittees today to discuss the way FEMA coordinates with our local, State, and Federal partners in the National Capital Region. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- \1\ The prepared statement of Mr. Beckham appears in the appendix on page 35. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- NCRC was established by Congress in the Homeland Security Act of 2002. Along with other preparedness offices, NCRC was transferred to FEMA after passage of the Post-Katrina Emergency Management Reform Act (PKEMRA), in 2007. NCRC's mission is to oversee and coordinate Federal programs for and relationships with State, local, and Federal authorities. My office works closely with Federal, State, local, and private sector partners to enhance preparedness in the National Capital Region. My participation with the NCR Senior Policy Group (SPG), is one example of NCRC's engagement with stakeholders. As the NCRC Director, I represent the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and FEMA. As you will hear from my colleagues, Richard Muth and Terrie Suit, the SPG is comprised of the Homeland Security Advisors and Chief Emergency Managers for Virginia, Maryland, and the District of Columbia. The SPG plays a key role in sustaining a coordinated regional approach to homeland security and strengthening integrated decisionmaking and planning. Other partners include the Joint Federal Committee, which is comprised of members from the Legislative, Executive, and Judicial Branches, the Emergency Preparedness Council, the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments, and many other NCR officials. NCRC actively engages with chief administrative officers, public health officials, first responders, emergency managers, leaders from the private sector, and nonprofit communities and other stakeholders in support of homeland security efforts. With NCR partners, NCRC plans, leads, or participates in exercises, drills, and events that occur with frequency in this region. Consistent with our statute, NCRC provides the technical support to State and local partners. Interoperability, and regional risk are two examples. Additionally, NCRC provides NCR-specific situational awareness to NCR partners through the FEMA-NCR Watch Desk. The NCR Watch Desk is the sole source of NCR-specific situational awareness at DHS. The Watch Desk links Federal, State, and local partners. This includes selected Federal agencies that are strategically located but that would otherwise not be a part of the homeland security or emergency management information system. The above efforts bolster information exchange and integrated planning. In accordance with the National Response Framework, emergencies are managed locally. During a disaster, the States and the District maintain their sovereign authorities and work with FEMA Region III to obtain direct assistance for unmet needs or other aid approved by the President under the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act. During an incident, FEMA's operational entities have lead for the agency. If needed, NCRC is able to augment FEMA Region III and support the Federal Coordinating Officer by providing enhanced situational awareness and consequence analysis capabilities, coordination with NCR partners and agency representatives through NCR Operation Centers. Unfortunately, sometimes non-Stafford Act incidents take on a greater significance because of the sheer amount of commuter traffic within the National Capital Region. This occurred during the winter storms when Federal Government operations in the NCR were officially suspended. Federal agencies follow the guidelines set by the Office of Personnel Management to ensure the safety of their employees. NCRC and State and local partners worked with OPM and provided input as the agency developed its newly released guidelines. The decision to close Federal Government operations in the region rests with OPM. The Subcommittee has asked me to say a few words about the NCR's Homeland Security Strategic Plan, which was created by the NCR, the Emergency Preparedness Council (EPC). The EPC includes elected and appointed officials from Federal, State, and local government as well as private sector and nonprofit leaders. I participate along with these other leaders. During 2010, NCR partners updated the Strategic Plan. The NCR Strategic Plan, along with other State, local, and national plans serves as a road map for strengthening capabilities to realize the NCR's vision for a safe and secure region. Major goals included in the NCR Strategic Plan are enhanced interoperable communications, enhanced information sharing and situational awareness, including the communication of accurate, timely information with the public, the enhancement of critical infrastructure protection and further development of core capabilities such as mass care and coordinated alert and warning systems. In drafting the 2010 Strategic Plan, NCR partners built on the principles agreed to in developing the 2006 strategic plan. The four principles are inclusion of NCR partners, provision of a variety of forms for stakeholder involvement, respect for jurisdictional authority, and assuring the preparedness needs are reflected across all jurisdictional boundaries. There was a thorough process to provide extensive input and review by subject matter experts in the public, private, and nonprofit sectors. NCR leaders on the Emergency Preparedness Council, which is responsible for the Strategic Plan, as well as the SPG and chief administrative officers provided input at all stages of the process. In conclusion, FEMA will continue to support and collaborate with our regional partners to prepare for, prevent, protect against, respond to, recover from, and mitigate all hazards. Building on decades of regional collaboration, Federal, State, local, and regional partners remain committed to a common vision of working together toward a safe and secure NCR. Chairmen Akaka and Pryor, Ranking Members Johnson and Paul, and Members of the Subcommittee, this completes my prepared statement. I would be pleased to respond to any questions that you may have at the conclusion of these remarks. Senator Akaka. Thank you very much, Mr. Beckham. Mr. Beckham. Thank you. Senator Akaka. Mr. Hunter, will you please proceed with your statement. TESTIMONY OF DEAN S. HUNTER,\1\ DEPUTY DIRECTOR, FACILITIES, SECURITY, AND CONTRACTING, U.S. OFFICE OF PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT Mr. Hunter. Good afternoon, Chairman Akaka, Chairman Pryor, Ranking Member Johnson, Ranking Member Paul, and distinguished Members of the Subcommittees. My name is Dean Hunter and I am the Deputy Director for Facilities, Security, and Contracting at the U.S. Office of Personnel Management. In this position, I have primary responsibility for security and emergency management at OPM. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- \1\ The prepared statement of Mr. Hunter appears in the appendix on page 40. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to appear before you today to discuss OPM's role in hazards affecting the operational status of the National Capital Region as well as our partnerships with FEMA and other Federal, State, and local emergency management entities. By law, individual Federal agencies possess the authority to manage their workforces and to determine the appropriate response during emergencies. Nonetheless, in order to facilitate a consistent and coordinated approach on a region- wide basis, Federal, State, and local authorities have traditionally looked to OPM to determine the operating status of the Federal Government across the D.C. area. OPM maintains a 24-hour operations center to actively monitor unfolding events. As emergencies arise, our standard protocols include participation in conference calls hosted by the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments (MWCOG) in order to develop situational awareness, facilitate the exchange of information, and coordinate communications and response efforts among Federal, State, and local agencies and other stakeholders. Participants in these structured calls typically include over 100 Federal, State, and local partners in all applicable disciplines, including weather, transportation, emergency management, law enforcement, utility companies, and school districts. The collaborative feedback of this network of stakeholders drives OPM decisions during emergencies. Ultimately, OPM's decision serves to carefully balance the safety and security of the Federal workforce and the public with the need to maintain the continuity of government operations. Once made, a rapid dissemination of the OPM decision takes many forms, from direct notification to media outlets, to posting on the OPM webpage and call-in line, notification to COG, Chief Human Capital Officers (CHCO), the White House and Congress, to e-mail alert notifications to subscribed employees, Washington Area Warning Alert System (WAWAS) notification, and updating social media, including Twitter and Facebook. We review and update our dismissal and closure policies on an annual basis in order to continue to ensure that we are able to make the most well informed and timely decisions. For example, Federal offices in the National Capital Region were closed for four consecutive days during the historic snowstorm of February 2010. Partly in response, last year, we updated our policies to add ``Unscheduled Telework'' as a new operating status option for agencies to provide their employees the ability to telework and maintain continuity of operations. This year, we participated in an interagency review effort with our partners in COG to examine potential emergency management improvements in the National Capital Region. The resulting COG report, issued on November 9, details a number of recommendations to improve regional coordination and communication, including the establishment of a Regional Incident Coordination (RIC) Program as well as a Virtual Joint Information Center (VJIC) to provide consistent messaging. Our collaboration with COG and the Chief Human Capital Officers also led to the incorporation of additional options to our D.C. Dismissal Guide, including shelter in place, an early dismissal with a fixed final departure time, and an immediate departure option. We do not contemplate issuing these announcements very often, but have added them to our tool kit to illustrate the full range of potential emergency situations that agencies might face, which will help agencies plan for emergency situations. We are committed to making operating status decisions as far in advance as feasible in order to reduce uncertainty and minimize demands upon transportation infrastructure. It will always remain our goal to have employees home safely prior to the onset of a dangerous condition. For anticipated late afternoon weather events, OPM will consider the most strategic options. For example, OPM could use unscheduled leave/unscheduled telework at the beginning of the day to reduce traffic into the city and, if necessary, followup with a staggered departure announcement with a final departure time after the workday has begun if conditions deteriorate sooner than originally forecast. OPM maintains a strong working relationship with FEMA's Office of National Capital Region Coordination. Working together, we have developed a strategic plan and concept of operations plan for catastrophic events as well as two tabletop emergency preparedness training exercises. We are expanding our efforts in the coming year to develop a Web-based preparedness course and an NCR Federal Workforce Preparedness brochure. We will continue to leverage those relationships and utilize the lessons learned from each of them to improve decisionmaking and communication in the interest of enhancing the safety of the Federal workforce and the public. Thank you for this opportunity. I am happy to address any questions you might have. Senator Akaka. Thank you very much, Mr. Hunter. Mr. Jenkins, will you please proceed with your statement. TESTIMONY OF WILLIAM O. JENKINS, JR., \1\ DIRECTOR, HOMELAND SECURITY AND JUSTICE TEAM, U.S. GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE Mr. Jenkins. Thank you, Chairman Akaka and Chairman Pryor. I appreciate the opportunity to participate in today's hearing on the status of efforts to enhance disaster preparedness in the National Capital Region. My statement today focuses on the NCR's latest Strategic Plan, issued in 2010. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- \1\ The prepared statement of Mr. Jenkins appears in the appendix on page 46. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Basically, preparing for disasters requires identifying risk and potential consequences and identifying what needs to be done, by whom, and how well it should be done. For example, this includes identifying, first, the nature of the risk faced in specific geographic areas; second, the types and scale of the potential consequences arising from these risks; third, the desired outcomes in addressing those consequences; fourth, the capabilities needed to achieve those desired outcomes, including command and control; fifth, who should fund, develop, and maintain specific capabilities; and sixth, metrics for assessing whether needed capabilities are available for deployment. Well crafted and executed operational plans are critical to effective disaster preparedness and response, but sound strategic planning is also critical. A coordinated strategy to establish and monitor the achievement of regional goals and priorities is fundamental and can provide a guide and framework for operational planning. We compared the NCR's 2010 Strategic Plan and its supporting documents with six desirable characteristics we have identified for strategic plans to support complex undertakings, such as NCR preparedness. We reviewed the content of the plan and its associated documents, such as investment plans, but we did not evaluate whether or how well NCR has fostered and implemented or coordinated its capability efforts. Work remains in completing the plans, tasks, milestones, and metrics for implementing the Strategic Plan and we are initiating work on the NCR's preparedness in response to a request from these two Subcommittees. Overall, we found that the Strategic Plan generally addressed each of the six characteristics and is more comprehensive than its 2006 predecessor. Briefly, with regard to each characteristic, we found, first, the purpose, scope, and methodology of the plan is reasonably clear. It focuses on investments in new and existing capabilities, primarily those funded by Urban Area Security Initiatives (UASI) grants, and the support of NCR jurisdictions' execution of their own operational plans. Second, problem definition and risk assessment. The plan generally addresses the particular problems and threats identified for the region. It clearly updates and prioritizes goals from the previous version and the NCR says it will be making decisions soon about the timing and methodology of the next risk assessment. Third, goals, subordinate objectives, and activities and performance measures. The strategy describes what it is intended to achieve and steps over the next 3 to 5 years to do that. However, the performance plan to monitor progress is not yet complete and NCR officials said that subject matter experts are currently completing progress reports on the metrics to be used for each of the strategy's initiatives. Fourth, resources, investments, and risk management. The strategy includes information and processes designed to help address what it will cost to implement the strategy, including the investments needed and the sources and types of resources to support them. The strategy includes 16 investment plans that are currently out for NCR partner comment. We did not evaluate how well each investment plan's content is designed to achieve the objectives it is intended to support. One concern we have is the Strategic Plan's principle focus on UASI grant resources. Beginning in our 2004 report on the NCR, we have expressed the need for the NCR to explicitly and fully consider the totality of resources available within the region to achieve preparedness objectives. Moreover, the plan does not identify or explicitly consider in-kind resources that may be available from the Department of Defense, the National Guard Bureau, or the Department of Health and Human Services. Fifth, organizational roles, responsibilities and coordination. The Strategic Plan's Governance Appendix details the roles and responsibilities of the various NCR organizations involved in all hazard preparedness. For example, the Emergency Preparedness Council is described as the body providing oversight of the Regional Emergency Coordination Plan and the Strategic Plan to identify and address readiness gaps. Finally, sixth, integration and implementation. The strategy addresses how it is intended to integrate with the various NCR jurisdictions, strategies, goals, objectives, and activities and their plans to implement the strategy. An appendix describes how NCR's strategic plan aligns with national, State, and local strategies with the goal of identifying common goals, objectives, and initiatives to be implemented by the region. In conclusion, a well defined, comprehensive Homeland Security Strategic Plan whose implementation is tracked and measured is an essential component of effective preparedness. The ultimate value of a Strategic Plan, no matter how well done, is its usefulness as a guide for policy and decisionmakers in setting priorities, allocating resources, and balancing risk and resource limitations. Having developed a generally good Strategic Plan, the NCR now faces the challenge of effectively implementing it and we will be following the NCR's efforts as it does so. Mr. Chairman, that concludes my remarks. I would be pleased to respond to any questions you or other Members of the Subcommittee may have. Senator Akaka. Thank you very much, Mr. Jenkins. Mr. Muth, will you please proceed with your statement. TESTIMONY OF RICHARD MUTH,\1\ EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, MARYLAND EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCY, STATE OF MARYLAND Mr. Muth. Good afternoon Members of the Subcommittee. It is an honor to be invited here today to discuss our shared commitment to ensure the National Capital Region is prepared for emergencies. My name is Richard Muth and I am the Executive Director of Maryland Emergency Management Agency. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- \1\ The prepared statement of Mr. Muth appears in the appendix on page 70. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- I bring nearly 40 years of experience at both the local and State level to bear on these issues. I have been the State Director for Emergency Management for about 4 years. Previous to that, I spent 33 years at the local level, first as a firefighter, emergency medical technician, and then retiring as the Baltimore County Emergency Manager to come to the State. The reason I state that is I am not your academic on this Subcommittee. I am kind of the rubber-hits-the-road type of guy here. The Maryland Emergency Management Agency is the lead agency for coordinating emergency preparedness planning, response, and recovery during and after significant events, and that is for the entire State of Maryland. Local police, fire, and emergency medical personnel are almost always the first to respond to emergencies. When they exhaust their capabilities or need additional resources, they turn to the State. We coordinate the Maryland State and local agencies while also working with our regional partners in the District of Columbia and Virginia. We work not just during disasters, but every day with our local jurisdictions and our regional partners to improve the National Capital Region's response. We do this based on a strong regional strategic plan, through everyday interactions and exercises and standing regional work groups, as well as by supporting innovative communications and technology tools. The first moments of any emergency event that occurs without warning are inherently chaotic and confusing. Initial confusion often leads to cascading effects as the individual decisions aggregate into a broad, far-reaching consequence. That is what happened during the earthquake. Initial confusion led to the public reaction and resulted in congested roads, slow transit, and tied-up networks, et cetera. Public safety radio communications, however, were not impacted during either the January 26 storm or the earthquake. This is a result of significant effort in the region to ensure that our first responders have interoperable and redundant communications systems no matter the situation. Our focus in Maryland is and will continue to be to build a resilient community. A resilient community has three primary elements: Resilient systems and utilities, resilient community planning, and a resilient citizenry. Resilient utilities quickly come back online after disruption because of redundancy. A resilient communications network is both redundant and robust for first responders. A resilient citizenry has been educated on what to do and can support emergency responders by keeping themselves safe and out of harm's way. Since January of last year, we have made changes that we believe will continue to improve our capabilities. We have invested in the Virtual Joint Information Center that will improve our coordinated and public messaging, invested in regional situation awareness, including the new Regional Information Center, and we continue to invest significant time, effort, and funds to build resilient communications for our responders. We have not stopped our efforts there. Other critical systems have been improved, as well. Maryland has expanded the availability of shared video cameras from 45 in 2009 to just under 600 today. In August, we launched a new Public Emergency Management Mapping System called OSPREY, to get needed information to the public during an emergency, and just in the past quarter, it has had over a quarter-of-a-million hits. Everyone in the region also uses a single incident management software, WebEOC, that allows us to seamlessly share information, and that system is constantly being improved. I wanted to talk a little bit about the evacuation comments that come up from time to time. For the first time in recent memory, Maryland had a mandatory evacuation of the barrier islands of Ocean City during Hurricane Irene, and we also had a hospital and two nursing homes evacuate. This successful, orderly, and proactive evacuation of approximately a quarter- of-a-million people took just under 24 hours to complete. An evacuation of the District or the NCR would be exponentially more complicated and a significantly more time consuming effort, even if prior notice is available. One thing to keep in mind is evacuation is an option of the last resort, not an option of the first resort. Maryland, together with regional partners, has developed an integrated model for evacuation plans that is being used not just throughout the National Capital Region, but also in other States to create fully coordinated plans. New state-of-the-art computer models are being used to validate, test, and improve these plans. To conclude, I would like to urge a shared investment in the foundations of preparedness, building this resilient community I mentioned and its citizenry. The region, the State of Maryland, and the Nation should look for ways to educate young people in how to be ready for an emergency. We should work to engage private businesses in preparedness and for their support during a response. Maryland is already working toward those goals. My agency on January 1 will be launching the Maryland Office of Resiliency. We must educate our citizens and engage them in their own preparedness. A prepared public will help to lift the heavy burden placed on emergency workers, whether during a snowstorm or a terror attack, by keeping themselves safe. Thank you. Senator Akaka. Thank you very much, Mr. Muth. Ms. Suit, please proceed with your statement. TESTIMONY OF HON. TERRIE L. SUIT,\1\ SECRETARY OF VETERANS AFFAIRS AND HOMELAND SECURITY, COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA Ms. Suit. Chairman Akaka, Chairman Pryor, on behalf of Governor McDonnell and the Commonwealth of Virginia, I want to thank you for the opportunity to testify here before you today. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- \1\ The prepared statement of Ms. Suit appears in the appendix on page 85. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Virginia shares an outstanding relationship with our partner jurisdictions and responders in the National Capital Region. I would like to recognize our outstanding public servants, the area's first responders, who are among the finest in the Nation. They responded in an exemplary manner on September 11, 2001 when Arlington, Virginia, was attacked at the Pentagon by terrorists, and they continue to respond every day to the emergencies in this region. We could not be prouder of them. Virginia is home to nearly 48 percent of the NCR's citizens. Our local counties and cities have what is called a manager form of government as opposed to an elected executive or a strong mayoral chair. These managers are the appointed administrative officers and are vested with the authority necessary to manage the operations of their respective jurisdictions. Our emergency professionals follow the National Incident Management System (NIMS) during emergency events. With the exception of Arlington, highways as well as secondary roads in Virginia are managed by the State through the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT). Virginia works with our NCR partners to accomplish strategic planning and training through multiple organizations, such as the NCR Senior Policy Group, the Chief Administrative Officers (CAOs) Homeland Security Executive Committee, the NCR Emergency Preparedness Council (EPC), the Regional Emergency Support Function (RESF) Committees--there are 16 of those--and the Regional Programmatic Working Groups, five, all of which collaborate to assist the SPG and the CAOs with the evaluation and the updating of the NCR Strategic Plan. We spend a lot of time together here in the capital. NCR preparedness is ongoing. Virginia has recently completed our updated evacuation plan for Northern Virginia, and participants in this planning included both local, Federal, and District partners. Considerable planning has been done to prepare for both subsequent attacks on the Pentagon, to include annual exercises with participants from across the region, and other potential emergencies. NCR health partners have collaborated on response plans for biological, radiologic, and chemical events. NCR decisionmakers coordinate in advance of and during emergencies through numerous information sharing platforms. These include e-mail, text alert, conference calls facilitated via RICCS as well as information sharing tools such as WebEOC, the Metropolitan Area Transportation Operations Coodination (MATOC), which is transportation related, and common operating pictures through VIPER and RITIS. These are geospatial pictures. The Washington Area Warning and Alert System provides a ``when all else fails'' means for communications to over 200 facilities. To facilitate face-to-face decisionmaking, Virginia has colocated our regional decisionmakers for the Virginia Department of Transportation, Emergency Management, and State Police in a 24/7 operations center at the Fairfax, Virginia Public Safety Tactical Operations Center (PSTOC). In addition to daily use radios, we have two strategic radio caches in the NCR. Each cache contains over 500 portable radios, satellite communications capabilities, and interoperability devices that can connect NCR jurisdictions as well as Federal entities. General preparedness messaging is ongoing. Virginia is currently engaged in our Winter Preparedness Campaign and citizens can learn how to prepare for the season by accessing www.readyvirginia.gov, and this information is available to all of the NCR residents. For commuters, this is the time to prepare vehicles and acquire appropriate winter wear. Most importantly, commuters need to be prepared to stay in place when travel conditions are projected to be unsafe. Transportation capacity is always an issue in the NCR. On a normal workday, the workforce has a staggered commute. In an emergency, the workforce tends to leave all at once, which creates gridlock. Staying in place is critical for managing through current and preventing subsequent emergencies, and staying in place means that citizens need to plan in advance for the care of loved ones, know the emergency plans for their children's schools and care centers, and share their own plans with care providers and loved ones in advance in case the phone and cell service in the region is interrupted. These are all the messages that we are constantly putting out and aggressively putting out today. Citizens need to monitor weather and commuting conditions. The NCR Public Information Officer (PIO) Committee has established the NCR Virtual Joint Information Center, which just went live 2 days ago. This is at www.capitalregionupdates.gov, and this is a single web stop for the public to access all current NCR event information and to sign up for text and e-mail alerts. Emergencies are localized events. The vast geography of the NCR means it may be sunny in one part of the area but snowing in another, and that is why bottom-up incident management is the national standard. Responders and emergency officials on the ground are empowered with delegated authorities from their principals to make the public safety decisions necessary to protect our citizens. This is NIMS. This is the National Response Framework. All of our responders are Incident Command System (ICS) trained and that is how we manage incidents, from the bottom up. Every incident provides the opportunity for lessons learned. The events of January and the earthquake have helped to change policy, and we embrace the new policies that OPM has committed to enact going forward. By abiding by the National Response Framework and employing the National Incident Management System, we are able to successfully manage our events, and understanding these systems, avoiding policy decisions that will confuse or conflict with this doctrine is critical to our ability to continue to effectively respond to emergencies. Mr. Chairman, thank you for allowing me to testify today. Senator Akaka. Thank you very much, Ms. Suit. Mr. Quander, will you please proceed with your statement. TESTIMONY OF PAUL A. QUANDER, JR.,\1\ DEPUTY MAYOR FOR PUBLIC SAFETY AND JUSTICE, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA Mr. Quander. Thank you. Good afternoon, Chairman Akaka and Chairman Pryor. My name is Paul Quander. I serve the District of Columbia as the Deputy Mayor for Public Safety and Justice. In that role, it is my responsibility to provide direction, guidance, support, and coordination to the District's public safety agencies to develop and lead interagency public safety initiatives that improve the quality of life in the District of Columbia. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- \1\ The prepared statement of Mr. Quander appears in the appendix on page 91. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- As the Nation's Capital, we share our borders with the Commonwealth of Virginia and the State of Maryland. In the 68.3 square miles that we call home, there are 40 bridges and numerous tunnels and overpasses. There are 1,500 miles of public roads in the city. All three branches of our Federal Government are located within the boundaries of the city. Additionally, the District hosts 45,300 businesses, 17 colleges and universities, and four military installations. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the District of Columbia has over 601,000 residents and our population increases every day. New construction projects continue and signs of growth and vitality show themselves every day. Each day, we welcome between 600,000 and 1,000,000 people-- commuters, visitors, and students--into the District on our roads and our rails. These commuters come into the city from Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Delaware every day. Further, the city hosts more than 15 million visitors annually, according to information gathered from Destination D.C. and the National Park Service (NPS). One of the many agencies that I provide oversight to is the D.C. Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency (HSEMA), whose mission is to support and coordinate homeland security and emergency management efforts, ensuring that the District of Columbia's all hazards emergency operations are prepared to protect against, plan for, respond to, and recover from natural and manmade hazards. This is accomplished by developing plans and procedures to ensure emergency response and recovery capabilities for all emergencies, coordinating emergency response allocation for emergencies in disaster incidents, providing training for all emergency responders, and coordinating all major special events and street closings. In addition and in furtherance of this mission, HSEMA also provides public awareness and outreach programs as well as a 24-hour emergency operations center which has special capabilities and serves as one of the region's central points of communication during regional emergencies. One of the agency's unique capabilities is that it serves as the Regional State Administrative Agency (SAA), for the Homeland Security Grant Program for the National Capital Region. HSEMA has served in this role since 2007. From 2007 through 2011, HSEMA has been responsible for administering more than $471 million to jurisdictions within the NCR. Historically, most of the funding has been in UASI which, as you know, provides funding to address the unique planning, organization, equipment, training, and exercise needs of high- threat, high-density urban areas. This funding has provided the NCR with the opportunity to provide meaningful support to jurisdictions, allowing us to ensure that as a region we are addressing our challenges and preparing and equipping the boots on the ground, our first responders. As we transition to discuss regional issues, we are not able to do so without speaking of the collaboration that the National Capital Region enjoys because of the work of the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments. The MWCOG provides an opportunity for partners from across the region to discuss and strategize around regional issues. These issues, from City Council Administrative Homeland Security, Emergency Preparedness Council, the National Capital Regional Senior Policy Group, and others. As a practical matter, the District of Columbia could not do what it does each day in serving its constituents and stakeholders if it did not have a strong relationship with partners within our borders, to include our Federal partners. Each day, we work with any number of entities from the National Park Service and the Park Police to the FBI, and Secret Service, to the Department of Homeland Security and the Office of the National Capital Region Coordination of FEMA and the Office of Personnel Management. Effective coordination and relationship building cannot wait for a crisis. It must be developed and nurtured on an ongoing basis. Likewise, we work on a daily basis with our colleagues from the Commonwealth of Virginia, the State of Maryland, and cities and counties from each jurisdiction that make up the National Capital Region. Aside from the regularly scheduled calls that the Senior Policy Group has to discuss regional issues, the District's representatives and the Director and Deputy Director of HSEMA attend monthly meetings. One of the issues and one of the goals that we have reached has been mentioned earlier, and that is the MATOC program and strengthening our multi-agency coordination among transportation agencies. The District, in our 24-hour, 365-day Joint All Hazards Center, we have combined our Traffic Management Center function as an improvement so that we can coordinate services. The District and its partners are involved in training and exercise activities from planning through execution. We have several members who have a seat on the Regional Exercise and Training Oversight Panel. Mr. Chairman, this concludes my remarks and I look forward to responding to any questions that you may have. Thank you for the opportunity to present this testimony. Senator Akaka. Thank you very much, Mr. Quander, for your statement, and to all of you, thank you very much for your statements. Mr. Hunter, you testified before a House Subcommittee in October that OPM had communication challenges in coordinating with NCR partners after the August 23 earthquake which resulted in the delayed announcement on the operating status of the Federal Government. My question to you is, would you please further explain these problems and whether they have been resolved. Mr. Hunter. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We initially had difficulties in our communications capabilities from both our Government Emergency Telecommunications System (GETS) cards, to operate on traditional landline phones, as well as our wireless priority for cell service. Those difficulties were fairly short lived. As my colleague, Ms. Suit, mentioned, we were able to obtain some situational awareness through the Washington Area Warning Alert System during that point in time. We were able to also make contact with D.C. HSEMA as well as FEMA's Office of National Capital Region Coordination. So while we did have some initial difficulties in communication and we are working in an after-action capacity with FEMA and other agencies to look at how to strengthen those capabilities, we did have success through the Washington Area Warning Alert System. But if I could add, one of the things that we noted in dealing with the earthquake, as also my colleague, Mr. Muth, testified, is that in the initial response to any no-notice event, it is very chaotic. And through the fog, you will need to take some time to develop some level of situational awareness. That hampered our capabilities from the standpoint that we did not have immediate damage assessments, nor were we fairly certain at the initial onset exactly what had happened. So it takes time to gather that information and to make that decision. One of the things that we noted and we have strengthened in our D.C. Dismissal Guide Policy is that need for individual agencies to be able to act when there is an immediate need for the safety and security of their employees. They have that authority, and to not wait for OPM's decision when they need to proceed immediately. Senator Akaka. Thank you very much. This next question is for the five other witnesses as a followup question. It took nearly an hour and a half after the earthquake for NCR decisionmakers to participate in a regional conference call. The question is, were other NCR decisionmakers having trouble communicating, and what lessons were learned about NCR communication and coordination after the earthquake? Mr. Beckham. Mr. Beckham. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Because the August 23 event not only occurred or affected the National Capital Region, it also impacted other parts of Virginia and Maryland, as well, and I will leave it to my colleagues to restate this, but they had responsibilities that were statewide and were probably or most likely engaged in dealing with their particular leadership at the State level as well as their personnel to do the assessments not only in the National Capital Region, but the other parts of Maryland and Virginia. As Mr. Hunter did state, there was communication. He mentioned WAWAS. We also had our WebEOC operational as well as the fact that all Emergency Operations Centers were able to talk to each other at that time. The Regional Information and Coordination Communication System (RICCS), was also operational and was transmitting messages back and forth to all of the distribution on that system, including all of us here at the table, so that we did have our situational awareness and we were sharing information through that type of media. The conference call that you mentioned, I believe a page went out to the COG, which is the manager of the conference call, and they designated the time when everybody would be available, and as you mentioned, an hour and a half after the incident is the time when everybody could get together and answer any questions or resolve any issues that were occurring. Senator Akaka. Thank you. Mr. Jenkins. Mr. Jenkins. We have not looked at that issue. We are going to look at this issue and a number of others in response to the Committee's request, including the after action reports and lessons learned. But we have not looked at that issue at this point. Senator Akaka. Mr. Muth. Mr. Muth. It is interesting. As we are going back through this, in my mind, I was reminded that it took me a while to even figure out myself what was going on, as never experiencing that before. And our initial reaction at the State was to make sure all those nuclear power plants and other critical infrastructures were safe and up and running. So that took our initial attempt probably an hour or longer to even start. And being that--we have the responsibility for the whole State, so at no time did we say, OK, let us see what is going on in the NCR. We were monitoring traffic and everything else from Maryland's side, as I am sure Virginia was doing, as D.C. was. But from my office, speaking on my office alone, Emergency Management, we were not concentrating on the NCR at that point when that earthquake hit. So it may be that we need to work on identifying somebody that immediately concentrates on that piece. Senator Akaka. Thank you. Ms. Suit. Ms. Suit. When you say the decisionmakers, we abide by NIMS, by ICS. The decisionmakers are the boots on the ground during an emergency. We do not micro-manage the emergency response from the top down. The decisionmakers had the authorities necessary, already vested with them, to do what they needed to do during the initial response. They receive those authorities through code, through an Executive Order, and through both our State Virginia Emergency Response Plan, our Operations Plan--we call it the COVEOP--as well as the Local Emergency Operations Plan. So the people responding are not waiting for a decisionmaker on high to say it is OK to do this or to do that. They are acting. They are doing what they need to do. From a managerial level, we have colocated our decisionmakers for transportation, emergency management, and safety, public safety, with the State Police at the PSTOC in Fairfax. That is where I was also located. And so we were talking face-to-face. And I was also immediately communicating with the Governor. As you are aware, the earthquake was centered in Mineral, Virginia, and so we had a lot going on. I did know it was an earthquake. I went to high school in San Diego and immediately dove under my desk when an earthquake started. Senator Akaka. Thank you. Mr. Quander. Mr. Quander. When an event takes place like the earthquake, the event is first local, that local response where we have to assess the damage and respond immediately to the pressing issues. Once that is done, then we can inform our regional partners what issues we face and then we can take a look at the region, what is happening. But as Ms. Suit indicated, it is from the bottom up. We have to respond to the emergency. We have to address that emergency. Then we take a look at where we are in our respective jurisdictions and then where are we regionally. How are we responding. But we first have to put out the fire and then we deal with the other issues. Senator Akaka. Thank you. Senator Pryor. Senator Pryor. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would like to start down on this end of the table with the State and the District people, if I could, Mr. Chairman, and that is last January we had a snowstorm, and I am curious from all of your perspectives if that is a fair comparison to our preparedness in a terrorist event or if that is an apples and oranges comparison. Mr. Muth. Mr. Muth. Certainly. I do not think it is a comparison. First of all, what we experienced, what you experienced, was up and down the whole East Coast. So it was not the NCR that was gridlocked. It was the whole East Coast that was gridlocked. The reason for that was the storm in the morning was ice. They salted the roads. There was an increase in the temperatures. We had storms come through in the afternoon that were not of a frozen type that washed all the salt off. Before everything had a chance to be reapplied, it refroze again. It just happened to freeze again right at rush hour. So you had this perfect storm, no pun intended, that was all coming together at the same time. So I do not think a snowstorm and all its inherent problems that come along with that really can be a comparison to evacuations in any other term. I think each one is its own and has to be assessed on its own. That would be my thoughts. Senator Pryor. Yes, that is why I said it. Ms. Suit. Ms. Suit. I would absolutely agree. I was on 395 and had the misfortune of watching the plane go into the Pentagon and then was in the traffic for about 4 hours making my way out of the NCR that day. In the snowstorm, you had the added situation of the weather. We had people abandoning their vehicles, which is extremely problematic for our highway personnel, to get up there, get tow trucks and move those vehicles. I would not compare the two at all. What I would say is that we have had an opportunity to review what took place and to establish new policies, and I applaud OPM for embracing two things, an earlier decision and not bringing the workforce in when we have bad weather projected, but also embracing a strategy of staying in place. In any event it is safer for the public, for our citizens to stay in place. If we have a terrorist attack, if we have any kind of contamination, leaving the building exposes them to much higher levels of contamination and of unsafe situations than staying in place, and that is the biggest message that we need to really get out there with our citizens. Stay. Wait. Wait for more information. Do no harm. Stay where you are until we get you more additional information. Senator Pryor. Mr. Quander. Mr. Quander. I concur, but I also realize, as we all do, that disasters are rarely announced, and because of the events in January, because of the circumstances almost being a perfect storm, it caused severe problems for us. But we, I believe, have learned from that. When traffic does not move, citizens cannot get to where they need to be. They cannot get home. They cannot take care of their children. They cannot take care of their other responsibilities. So it has an impact. Although there may be different reasons, different scenarios, the result is the same, and we need to learn, and I think we have learned. We have made changes and improvements. And I think we have to look at the take-aways from January. What are we doing differently now? What are the changes? And that is the significance, I believe. Senator Pryor. Ms. Suit, let me followup on one thing you said about stay in place, and Mr. Quander alluded to it there, and that is the issue--one of the issues would be your children being in school. I know that what you are saying is staying in place is rational, it is the right policy and all those things, but when it is a parent and their child or children, they are going to try to get to those children, and that is just human nature and we understand that. So how should we handle that? Would you recommend, or have you all considered trying to work with the schools to sort of have safe places in school, communicate that to the parents, that if there is some event, they are going to be safe at school? I mean, what do you do? How does that piece of the puzzle fit in? Ms. Suit. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. There are several things we are doing. One, we utilized the Catastrophic Planning Grant Funds to do a very, very comprehensive study through the University of Virginia of citizens in the NCR. It was about, 2,500 or 2,600 citizens who were surveyed for 30 minutes on their behavior, their projected behavior during an incident, and the incident was a dirty bomb incident. What we found was that they will stay in place if they have confidence that their children are safe. So through those catastrophic grants, we are now doing a follow-on phase two pilot program of working with select businesses in the District and working with them on having a program in place for their employees to be prepared and understand things like what is their school preparedness plan? What is going on with their children? After the earthquake, when those businesses were surveyed, we found that because of that pilot program and the ongoing training, their response was they waited until after 5 o'clock and had the best commute of their lives. And so it does work. It takes extra effort. It takes more intense training. We are already putting out just in our broad general preparedness messaging, know your children's school plans. Communicate your plan to family members in advance so that if phone service is out, they know you are safe and you are not rushing to get together. But that is huge cultural, behavioral changes and it will take time. Senator Pryor. I am going to ask the panel a good question, but it is kind of unfair how I am going to ask it because I am going to ask the five of you a question about Mr. Beckham's shop, and that is basically the question will be is how-- ONCRC's placement in FEMA is designed to help create efficiency and better communication, more streamlined, et cetera, and I do not want to ask Mr. Beckham this because I want to hear from you guys, how is that working? Is it beneficial to you all to have his office in FEMA where it is and doing the various functions it does? Go ahead. Mr. Muth. From my perspective, they were already in place when I came aboard at the State level, so I have no knowledge of how it was before that. But my interaction since I have been there in the just about 4 years has been very positive in that it provides an immediate conduit, if you will, to other information that we might need from FEMA within that NCR region. So I think they are now where they belong in life, it really does not matter to me. I think it kind of makes sense that they are in FEMA and they are dealing directly with us. We certainly get a lot of information pushed from that office almost daily on things that are happening and occurring. So I would have to say, from Maryland's perspective, anyway, it has been a positive interaction. Senator Pryor. Anybody else? Ms. Suit. Ms. Suit. I think we could utilize them more than we do, and that is probably more on my shoulders, reaching out to them, having them help us with introductions and coordination with Federal agencies that we do not have relationships with already, and we need to push that more within our Virginia decisionmaking area. As far as where they are located, the only way I can answer that is just from my own experience as being a member of a bureaucracy. Bureaucracies are very chain of command oriented. They are very rank oriented. And when you are at a certain level, then your peers work with you based on you being at that level. I think that if ONCRC was reporting directly to the Secretary, they would have probably more gravidas with the other Federal agencies. But I think because of the people at ONCRC, because of the relationships they have and the reputation they have, that they have that gravidas personally while they may not have the optimal amount positionally. Senator Pryor. OK. Mr. Quander. I agree with that assessment, but I will go further. We have had great access and great benefit as a result. Where the group sits, I am not sure as to the optimum position. But it has been effective. As an example, last week, we conducted a tabletop exercise and Mr. Beckham and his team participated and assisted in making sure that other Federal agencies, we had business groups there and it was an exercise that was a severe weather event. And so we had more than 200 individuals that participated. So when you have that type of partnership and you actually can make things happen, it is a benefit. Senator Pryor. Mr. Beckham, are you satisfied with all those answers? [Laughter.] Mr. Beckham. Yes, Mr. Chairman. I would mention, as I said in my opening statement, yes, we did start with the Office of Homeland Security when Governor Ridge stood it up right after September 11. We continue to have access to the DHS Office of the Secretary through the Assistant Secretary for Intergovernmental Relations Office, also the Under Secretary of Management's Office. We report through the Protection and National Preparedness Directorate, which is run by Deputy Administrator Manning. However, I must point out, while he has the administrator function for our office, we also report to Craig Fugate, the FEMA Administrator, Deputy Administrator Serino, as well as the Chief of Staff on a regular basis on a variety of issues, depending on what the issues are. I am fortunate that--I have been there 2 years--I inherited a staff that has the legacy and the institutional history of working in this program and have been able to leverage their relationships and been able to reach out to the various partners throughout the National Capital Region, both on the Federal and on the State level. Players do change with election cycles and what have you, but they are all committed to the mission. They have all been experts in--if they did not have particular expertise, they were not afraid to reach out and get it, and I think it has made it a beneficial experience. Senator Pryor. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Senator Akaka. Mr. Jenkins, GAO was instrumental in helping my Subcommittee to examine the NCR's strategic planning efforts by providing recommendations to the region during the Subcommittee's 2005 and 2006 hearings on this topic. Would you comment on what improvements have been made between the NCR's 2006 Homeland Security Strategic Plan and its current plan. Mr. Jenkins. There were two 2006 plans. The first one was, in a word, terrible, and then the second one really tried to address these six characteristics that I talked about and we did sort of outline, in broad fashion, roles and responsibilities. The big difference, I think, in the 2010 plan is they have taken that foundation and gotten much more specific in the various areas in terms of trying to identify the goals, have subordinated objectives that match those goals, as well as initiatives that would help them achieve the objectives. So it is much more structured. It is much more systematic than it was before. It is much more specific, as well, and they are, in terms of the initiatives they are taking, they are on the right track in terms of trying to develop, give responsibility to somebody and some group for achieving different objectives and setting measures for how they are going to achieve those. So I think they have made considerable progress since 2010. Senator Akaka. Thank you. Mr. Jenkins. Since 2006. Senator Akaka. Thank you. Mr. Hunter and Mr. Beckham, I am concerned about protecting Federal employees during emergencies. As we saw with the earthquake, we must be prepared for unexpected events. In this area, acts of terrorism are a constant threat, as well. So I am asking you to please discuss what efforts your offices have made to prepare Federal employees in the D.C. area for unexpected emergencies, such as a tornado or radiological dirty bomb. Mr. Hunter. Mr. Hunter. Thank you. First, we at OPM conducted a press conference just last week to roll out our new procedures, our new D.C. Dismissal Guide, and, in fact, FEMA was a partner with us at that press conference as well as the District of Columbia. So we provided information through the press conference itself, but we also did a webcast for Federal employees, as well, and the focus of the webcast is just not to lay out the new policies associated with our new D.C. Dismissal Guide but also to reiterate to our Federal employees that this really is a partnership, that we need their assistance to make this work, from developing a family plan to making sure that they have telework agreements in place and that they have found alternative ways to come and go into the city. So in addition to the press conference itself and the webcast, together with Steward's group and the Office of National Capital Region Coordination, we have worked through the Joint Federal Committee during the course of the last year to do some training exercises for emergency managers and to, again, to have them take that information back to Federal employees. We are participating with FEMA on NCRC in developing a web- based training program, as well as a Federal preparedness brochure in the coming year. Senator Akaka. Thank you. Mr. Beckham. Mr. Beckham. Just to elaborate on what Dean just said, in the Federal Preparedness Program, it is an initiative in partnership with him, that OPM has started in our office, and the main focus of that initiative is to get DHS employees to have individual and family preparedness efforts underway and maintained and exercised so that if they have responsibilities in their employment, in their Federal employment, they do not have to worry about their family members, their children or adult day care or adult care issues that they may have. The hope is that once we get the program up and running and we reach out to DHS, we would envision having it extended to the entire Federal family so that they can go through this web- based training and be able to identify those types of issues that they need to shore up in their own personal lives so that they cannot only take care of themselves, but make sure that their families are safe, as well. Senator Akaka. Thank you very much. Mr. Hunter, as has been discussed, OPM recently announced sheltering in place as an operating status option to protect the Federal workforce during severe weather events or emergencies. The term ``shelter in place'' may suggest that employees would need to stay in their offices for a prolonged period of time. Would you please discuss how OPM intends the sheltering in place to be used. Mr. Hunter. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We implemented the shelter in place option to our D.C. Dismissal Guide to add an additional option to our tool kit. There has been much play about how we would invoke that during a snow emergency, but I would like to emphasize that it really has a broader role, and we have talked about terrorism capabilities here, but particularly for chemical, biological, nuclear, radiological types of threats, this could be an option that we would put in for a longer-based capacity. It is also important to note that individual agencies typically have their own building based shelter in place plans as a result of, or incorporated into their Occupant Emergency Plans. So, again, the intent is for this to be used really in extreme circumstances along the lines of chemical or biological threats. But we do see that there could be a very short-term utility for a snow event. But I would also want to caveat that with, again, it would be our intent to have people home before we got to those extreme circumstances. We would lean forward very proactively the day before a storm, perhaps, to announce an unscheduled leave, unscheduled telework policy whereby we bring less people into the city in the first place. We would perhaps follow that up if a storm occurred during the day with a staggered departure with a final departure time, for instance, having people leave no later than 3 p.m. And after that point in time, if in consultation with our colleagues in the emergency management capacity and law enforcement, if there was a need for us to request people to be off of the roads so that the transportation entities could keep the roads clear in a snowstorm, we would do that, but again, it would be on a very temporary, short-term basis. Senator Akaka. Thank you very much. As a followup question to Ms. Suit, you use the phrase ``staying in place'' rather than sheltering in place. Is there a difference between Virginia's policy and OPM's revised policy? Ms. Suit. No, and actually, OPM at the recent Emergency Preparedness Council meeting also was more apt to use the phrase ``stay in place.'' I think the media has co-opted that a bit into the sheltering in place. Sheltering in place is not as well received with the public and we find from a standpoint of a public message and crafting public messaging, sheltering in place does not have the same comfort level with the public as staying in place. Staying in place has more of a temporary connotation, an hour, 2 hours, 6 hours, long enough for the emergency to pass. Sheltering in place does insinuate in the mind of the public longer times. Now, I will say this. In the event of a radiological event, and we just had a report released on Monday from our working group here in the NCR on radiological and nuclear detection issues, we had a huge study that was done and this is brand new information, and that study does go into great depth as far as the number of hours and possibly days to stay in place, or shelter in the event of going beyond 6 hours, in place and how much more lives that will save by staying where they are as opposed to getting out and becoming exposed. And so this is all information that we are obtaining and acquiring, greatly in part because of the grants that you all have given us. They are working. They are informing our policies going forward and now we will take this information and incorporate that in the future into our strategic plan and additional things and investments that we make in the NCR and messaging going forward. Senator Akaka. Thank you. Senator Pryor. Senator Pryor. Thank you. Let me start with Mr. Beckham. I know it is hard enough to try to coordinate with all the various governmental entities that you have to deal with, and I know you have a myriad of them in this region that all need to interface and interconnect somehow, and it sounds like you are doing a great job there. But my question is, are you also trying to coordinate with the business community? Mr. Beckham. Yes, sir, and as was pointed out again in some of the testimony, first of all, talking about the Emergency Preparedness Council, the Director of the Metropolitan Washington Board of Trade sits on that council and represents the business community and their interests and their points of view. I cannot speak to how he disseminates the information from the Preparedness Council, but I do know that they have monthly meetings and I actually attended one when I first got here and they bring that information out to their membership. Another group we meet with, while not necessarily business, is the Consortium of Universities. We meet with the emergency managers and the preparedness officials with that organization and attend some of their training and exercises, and they are very engaged in those efforts that we have going here in the National Capital Region. We also worked with the Golden Triangle Business Improvement District (BID), which is in the center of the District, and used the work that we are doing with them as a model to hopefully reach out to the other BIDs around the District and use that to have them do some of the Occupant Emergency Planning and make sure that they have their workforces coordinated if there had to be a release for whatever reason and that they do not put additional stress on the transportation assets of the National Capital Region. Senator Pryor. Great. That is great. Mr. Hunter, let me ask you a similar question. When OPM does the various things that you do, when you set your policies and all that, do you consult with the business community to try to coordinate with them in any way? Mr. Hunter. As Mr. Beckham mentioned, during our policy revision this year, we coordinated our policy with the Washington Board of Trade and members associated with the Emergency Planning Committee. We recognize that the private sector often follows our lead from how they develop their own policies, so we did coordinate that policy in conjunction with the EPC and COG. Senator Pryor. OK. And do you do just the policy coordination, or do you also, when you have to make a decision that day on whether something closes or whatever and you actually make the call, do you try to coordinate with them at that point, or do they just key off of the decisions that you are making? Mr. Hunter. They key off the decisions. They are typically not involved in the COG calls. Senator Pryor. Yes. The reason I was asking is we talked a minute ago, one of the witnesses talked about sort of a phased leaving of the city or coming into the city or whatever effort during or after an event, probably, and I just did not know if you try to coordinate with the business community, because if you look at their numbers, Even though government is a huge industry here in this area, the private sector is quite a bit larger with a lot more people in this area. Let me ask about the ready.gov program. On the ready.gov Web site, it talks about make a plan and try to have a plan for yourself. What is the experience with that? Are people making plans? And if there is something going on, whether it is an earthquake or a snowstorm or whatever it happens to be and maybe the communication is not real clear in the beginning and everybody is unsure about really what is happening, are they sticking with their plan? Do we know? Mr. Beckham, maybe you might be best for this. Mr. Beckham. Obviously, ready.gov is a program that was rolled out nationally as well as in the NCR, but to the statistical request that you have, we would have to get back to you with the effectiveness of that program at this point. Senator Pryor. All right. Let me ask you about this, as well, then. The August earthquake, like September 11, 2001, and other types of incidents like that, not just in this area but elsewhere, in those type of events, often the region's telecommunication system is just very quickly congested. It is not inoperable, but it is just so jammed that it is not--not very many people are able to get on it, or, I should say, a lot of people are not able to get on it. Do you feel like the D.C. area has sufficient capacity in an emergency to keep all the lines of communication open or are we going to continue to see sort of a clogged telecom capacity here? Mr. Beckham. I understand that there was some overloading of the cell phone system here in the National Capital Region, but one of the messages that we are going to push out, and we are pushing out, is many folks use text messaging and Twitter, which require less bandwidth. I am not an expert on this---- Senator Pryor. Right. Mr. Beckham [continuing]. But we are going to push out that if you want to get in communication with folks, using Twitter or text messaging capacity, you will have a better success rate of pushing your message forward. There was some congestion, as I mentioned, in the cell phone towers, but I think about an hour to an hour and a half or so after that, it began to reduce and it was back to a near- normal state. Senator Pryor. Yes. One of the things we did on our Subcommittee--Mr. Chairman, that would be on this half of the table over here--but one of the things we did on our Subcommittee is that we had a hearing on social media and the impact that social media has in these events now. I thought it was very interesting. When you look around the country at some things that have happened recently, whether it is ice storms or tornadoes or whatever it may be, floods, people are wanting to communicate and really have that two-way communication all instantaneously which can be an amazing asset in a situation like that. So the people, if they have access to the bandwidth they need, et cetera, they are going to respond and they are going to participate and they are going to communicate and that is a very good thing. Did you have something you wanted to add? Ms. Suit. Just two things. Going back to your original answer about the plans, there was a survey that was done of the New York area after Katrina and we found that they went from 17 percent to 19 percent, only a 2-percent rise in the number of families that had an emergency plan. We expected that it would have gone up higher because of Katrina. So that is a little bit of information. I mean, it is the New York area, not the whole Nation, but it gives you a little information. What we have also found is that by doing the more intense work directly with the business community like we are doing through the Catastrophic Planning Grant, we raise that to 80 to 90 percent of the participants of that training. So the more we can use those Catastrophic Grant funds and other grant funds as well as our own investments to go into those kinds of more intensive, direct training programs, the more we see success in that area. And as far as bandwidth, bandwidth is finite. I mean, right now, we have the big issue taking place right here that I am sure you all are weighing in on with the D Block. Our public safety responders desperately need that extra bandwidth for public safety, and then the ability also to allow the private sector to lease back some of that space for use. But it is finite. The more you have smart phones and people downloading videos and doing games, that all uses up that same space and it cuts us off. And people have a natural tendency to go straight to the mobile phone when they want to communicate as opposed to defaulting to text messaging, which uses up much less space. And finally, it used to be we all had landlines at home. Now, even at home, you are going over the Internet for the most part with your communications. So the culture has changed and we have to change with it in how we respond from a policy standpoint. Senator Pryor. I do not know the difference in the numbers in New York versus New Orleans, but one of the things I learned in Katrina, again, as part of the Committee's work after Katrina, was that a lot of folks, a very high percentage of people down there, do have a plan because this is kind of ingrained in them from the beginning that you live in this certain area and it is prone to X, Y, and Z happening. It is going to vary region to region, and just given the experience and the expectations in that area. Mr. Chairman, thank you. That is all I have. Senator Akaka. Thank you. Mr. Hunter, I have been a strong supporter of increasing the use of telework in the Federal Government and I applaud OPM's efforts to implement my Telework Enhancement Act. As you stated, building a strong telework culture is important to making sure that government operations continue during emergencies. Will you please elaborate on how OPM is working to make sure agencies have integrated telework in their continuity of operations plans. Mr. Hunter. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. In updating our policy, our D.C. Dismissal Guide Policy, we provided additional information on incorporating telework. But I also want to point out that we have been working with the interagency community, both FEMA, GSA, the National Archives and Record Administration, to work toward an update of Federal Continuity Directive 1, to provide additional guidance on not only the training of employees for telework but also testing those capabilities and exercising them on a frequent basis. And we also have some encouraging news from the Employee Viewpoint Survey that we recently have received the results from that has showed us that in the National Capital Region, we have about 18 percent of people, Federal respondents, that indicated that they are teleworking at least once a week, and 47 percent have indicated that they have the capability to telework at least some of the time. So we see that this has very positive implications for us on the emergency planning side. Senator Akaka. Thank you very much for that response. My last question is for the panel. A recent Washington Post editorial argued that the reluctance of area jurisdictions to cede power in decisionmaking to a central authority has hampered the NCR during a crisis and could exact a terrible price in the future. There is no one entity or person with the ability to make regional decisions when an emergency involves multiple NCR jurisdictions, and the multiple authorities have complicated communication among decisionmakers and the public. So what I would like to ask you is how do you respond to these concerns and how will you make sure that there is a seamless response to the next regional emergency? Mr. Muth. Mr. Muth. Thank you. First of all, we have--I am not sure I agree with that editorial. We have very robust mutual aid plans that are used every day, in and out of the Capital and Maryland to Virginia and vice-versa, that are very well versed and very robust. The resources that we are, I assume, we are talking about are resources that belong to local governments or State Governments, and to say that somebody would have overall authority to strip those from a State or a county and reassign those would be an interesting concept, to say the least. I think you might be infringing on the States' rights there. I think we have a very refined Incident Command System, as Terrie and others have mentioned today, and that allows for that expansion of the Incident Management System, if necessary. So where if we have something on the border, we do not necessarily worry about whose it is. We just go and do it and then we work on that Incident Command System as it grows. So is there one regional person in charge? No, there is not, and that is because you have independent governments that are involved in this whole thing. That does not mean that the governments cannot all work together in an emergency, and I think they absolutely would. I think there is still a long way to go to refine that and to make that operational and just not from the planning stage, because that is where it is right now. But I think it is there, and I still have to reiterate, going back, that Montgomery and Prince George's County are responding into D.C. every day and vice-versa and it works seamlessly. Nobody knows about it because it works seamlessly and it is there. It does not change just because there is an emergency. It is still the same system, the same process, et cetera. I think the only area where it may be worth looking at a little bit more is the non-traditional first responder equipment and getting more into public works, snowplows and those types of things, which generally are not thought of as a mutual aid response, in and out continuously. But the last thing I will add to that is that we all at State and local governments have very finite resources. Those are already taxed and engaged in whatever we are dealing with statewide, NCR being one of our parts of the State. And so there is no cache of equipment sitting somewhere like there is with radios to say that in a regional emergency, we will bring this cache of snowplows together and operators. It is all equipment that is used every day and it is already being used during an event. So I think the process needs to be working down the line, but if Washington calls for assistance from us, we are going to jump in and help Washington if at all possible. That is the way we do it every day and we will continue to do that. Thank you. Senator Akaka. Thank you. Ms. Suit. Mr. Chairman, I would answer that by saying that there is not one central decisionmaker in any disaster, any emergency situation. We use NIMS. We use ICS. The writer of that article needs to go online to FEMA's Web site and take ICS-100, and then they need to follow that on and take NIMS- 700. They need to learn ICS and incident management and how the National Response Framework is designed. It works. It worked at the Pentagon on September 11, 2001. When that plane hit the Pentagon, I was able to get a cell phone call out, one call out to the Governor. At that time, it was Governor Gilmore. I got the call out to his office. I said, I am on the highway. I have just watched a plane go into the Pentagon. By the time we hung up, Arlington County fire trucks were already at the Pentagon. Jim Schwartz, the Assistant Fire Chief, took incident command of that situation at the Pentagon. That is how ICS worked. It was not mandated then. It was not required for grant usage then. Now, it is required. Now, we make sure everyone is NIMS compliant or they cannot receive a dime of Federal Homeland Security money. That doctrine works, and folks that criticize that bottom-up response do not understand it. They need to go in. They need to learn how we do emergency management. The Governor's office becomes involved with messaging, with guidance, with issuing emergency declarations, but we never manage the emergency on the ground from a central decisionmaker's office from on high. That is not how emergencies work. And I would further say that the District is not unique. NCR is not unique. When we are dealing with a hurricane in Hampton Roads, we are dealing with the evacuation of the North Carolina Outer Banks up through the Virginia highway system. We are dealing with the largest Naval base in the world. We are dealing with one of the largest ports in this country and working with the Coast Guard on whether or not to shut down that port and when to move bridges and when to allow people to evacuate. It is always unified, working together in these decisionmaking cross-cutting manners with our Federal partners, our local partners, and our intrastate and interstate partners. So NCR is not unique in that. But if we all work through the National Response Framework and we understand it, and we do not make policy changes to confuse it, we will be OK. Senator Akaka. Mr. Quander. Mr. Quander. From the District's perspective, a centralized decisionmaker is not the point. It is an operational issue. It is from the bottom up. It is using the system, the NIMS system that we have, and we operationalize it. That is how you address the issues. One of the things that--the Mayor announced today that the District has undertaken and has completed a system of cabling, fiber optics, that will increase the capability within the District of 100 gigabytes bandwidth. It will be the largest usage or availability of bandwidth anywhere in the world, more so than Silicon Valley, more so than in New York, anyplace in the country, anyplace in the world. So agencies will be able to tie into a greater resource that will be available--that is available now. We did not have that in the past. We have that now. So we will be able to communicate more by using some of the electronic means and less on cell phones when we are able to communicate and get our messaging out. One of the other things that we are doing, again, not from who makes the decision but what we are doing, we spoke about developing family plans. We spoke about teleworking. We spoke about public awareness. We spoke about involving the business community. These are the things that we need to do to make sure that when we know that we have to act, we will know how to act, and that is where our focus really needs to be, not on who makes the call. That is really not the focus. It is following the plan, bottom up, using NIMS, and that is where we are going to see our greatest success. Thank you, sir. Senator Akaka. Thank you very much, Mr. Quander. Any other comments? Mr. Beckham. Mr. Beckham. Yes, sir. I concur with my colleagues and just want to mention that Secretary Suit mentioned that under the ICS system, it is designed for the smallest incident all the way up to the very large incident. ICS is designed not only for cross-functional purposes, but for cross-jurisdictional purposes and it can always expand into a unified command, which would bring in all of those decisionmakers, again, as I mentioned, whether it is function related or jurisdictionally related. Senator Akaka. Any other further comments? Mr. Jenkins. Mr. Jenkins. Mr. Chairman, I would just make one sort of fundamental point when I read the Post editorial, is that if you look at the NCR itself, the NCR is not an operational entity. It is a coordination entity, and there could be issues in how they coordinate and how they make decisions, but as the other witnesses point out, part of the problem with having a single person in control is that it assumes that the NCR is an operational entity in and of itself, which it is not. Senator Akaka. Mr. Hunter. Mr. Hunter. Just to add to what my colleagues said, I think what is equally important rather than having a single decisionmaker is to make sure that we are all operating with the same set of facts or from a common operating perspective. I think that is really key and I applaud the District of Columbia for some of their efforts with COG to look at how we are going to implement the concept of Regional Information Center and how we might share that type of information. Senator Akaka. Thank you very much. I would like to thank all of our witnesses for being here today and for your excellent responses. It is clear that the NCR has improved its emergency coordination considerably since September 11, 2001. However, serious challenges still remain. I look forward to working closely with my colleagues in the Senate and with the NCR stakeholders to improve regional coordination and make sure that the millions of residents and visitors to the NCR are safe. This has been, I feel, a good hearing and thank you again so much for your contributions. The hearing record will be open for 2 weeks for additional statements or questions other members may have. This hearing is adjourned. [Whereupon, at 4:14 p.m., the Subcommittees were adjourned.] A P P E N D I X ----------
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