[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 137 (Wednesday, November 12, 2014)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1548-E1549]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   RECOGNIZING THE CONTRIBUTIONS OF MS. ALICE LIPPERT IN DEVELOPING A 
    CRITICAL INFORMATION-SHARING SYSTEM TO COORDINATE THE EMERGENCY 
    RESPONSE SERVICES OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT AND POWER COMPANIES 
                      FOLLOWING NATURAL DISASTERS

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. GERALD E. CONNOLLY

                              of virginia

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, November 12, 2014

  Mr. CONNOLLY. Mr. Speaker, I rise to recognize and congratulate my 
constituent, Ms. Alice Lippert of Fairfax, Virginia, on being selected 
as a 2014 Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medal finalist in the 
homeland security and law enforcement category.
   The nonprofit, nonpartisan Partnership for Public Service presents 
the Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medals annually to pay tribute 
to America's dedicated civil servants. These prestigious medals honor 
and celebrate an esteemed group of Federal employees that have achieved 
significant accomplishments in the course of serving their country. 
Honorees are public servants who represent a broad and diverse array of 
disciplines and career fields. All nominees exemplify the ideal Federal 
employee with respect to their strong commitment to mission, and the 
creativity and spirit of innovation each brings to his or her 
respective agency.
   Ms. Lippert is one of three United States Department of Energy 
officials who are being recognized for their significant contributions 
to the development of the groundbreaking data visual platform, known as 
EAGLE-I. EAGLE-I is our Nation's first-ever system that can gather and 
share real-time emergency situation information on power and natural 
gas infrastructure. As one disaster program manager at the U.S. Army 
Corps of Engineers noted, before EAGLE-I, ``It was difficult to get a 
clear picture of what was going on. Now we rely on the DOE as the 
authoritative source.''
   According to the Partnership for Public Service, Ms. Lippert, a 
senior technical advisor in the Department of Energy's Office of 
Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability, was instrumental in 
recognizing that our country's inability to collect and access real-
time data on energy infrastructure during an emergency represented a 
critical vulnerability that hampered the Federal Government's ability 
to effectively coordinate the response to major natural disasters, such 
as the destructive Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
   Ms. Lippert was not satisfied with the status quo emergency response 
system, which was antiquated and cumbersome in requiring Department 
personnel to directly contact energy companies to obtain data that 
would have to be manually entered into a data base. This process could 
take hours and did not provide Federal, State, and local first-
responders with the real-time data they needed to gain situational 
awareness of a locality's battered power and natural gas 
infrastructure.
   Ms. Lippert took the initiative by contacting two colleagues with 
subject matter expertise in advanced grid modeling and computer 
programming. Together, these civil servants worked in-house to build 
EAGLE-I, which now covers 75 percent of all U.S. electricity customers. 
However, it was not until October 2012 that EAGLE-I was put to the 
test, and the true value of Ms. Lippert's leadership and hard work was 
realized.
   In the aftermath of the damaging Hurricane Sandy, our Nation's 
first-responders and emergency managers had access to regular updates 
on the grid status in the hard hit areas, enabling decisions to be 
guided by accurate and up-to-date data and information. As the 
Department's Assistant Secretary for Electricity Delivery and Energy 
Reliability noted, ``These reports were critical to decisions by 
federal, state and local officials in responding to and recovering from 
the catastrophe. The power outage reports gave insight to senior DOE 
leadership and responders that allowed them to make informed decisions, 
reducing

[[Page E1549]]

both the human and economic impacts associated with the storm.''
   Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues to join me in extending our highest 
praise and congratulations to Ms. Alice Lippert on being selected as a 
finalist for the 2014 Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Homeland 
Security and Law Enforcement Medal. It has been my great privilege and 
honor to represent Ms. Lippert and the tens of thousands of exceptional 
Federal workers who hail from Virginia's 11th Congressional District. 
They all deserve our deep gratitude and respect.

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