Hearing Of The Subcommittee On Emergency Communications, Preparedness, And Response Of The House Committee On Homeland Security - "Preparedness: State Of Citizen And Community Preparedness"

Statement

Today, Committee on Homeland Security Chairman Bennie G.
Thompson (D-MS) delivered the following prepared remarks for the Emergency Communication,
Preparedness, and Response Subcommittee hearing entitled "Preparedness: State of Citizen and
Community Preparedness":
"I want to join Chairman Cuellar in welcoming the FEMA Deputy Administrator for National
Preparedness, Tim Manning, to his first appearance before the Committee on Homeland Security.
Mr. Manning, congratulations on your confirmation. I look forward to working with you to help FEMA
fulfill its mission to the American people. I believe you are well-qualified to confront and address
the challenges facing FEMA. During your tenure in New Mexico, you were the Director of
Emergency Management and then the Director of the Governor's Office of Homeland Security.
In 2007, you became the State's first Director of the new Department of Homeland Security and
Emergency Management. Your experience in integrating traditional homeland security functions
and emergency management functions into one Department with one mission will serve you well at
FEMA.
You face no shortage of challenges as head of the Preparedness Directorate.
The first challenge this Committee wants to work on with you is promoting individual and
community preparedness.
As Chairman Cuellar mentioned in his statement, FEMA's 2009 Personal Preparedness in America
Survey shows where we stand with individual readiness.
The survey found that too many Americans are unaware about the hazards facing their community
and unprepared to respond when an emergency happens.
I want us to focus on where we need to go with FEMA's community preparedness initiatives and
how we are going to get there.
The Preparedness Survey makes a lot of good recommendations for achieving greater levels of
preparedness and participation.
One of the recommendations includes further study on how the type of disaster may affect an
individual's willingness to prepare.
This recommendation is based on the finding that 81% of individuals felt that prior planning would
help them handle a natural disaster.
But just 60% believed prior planning would help them respond to an act of terrorism.
I am interested in learning how FEMA intends to address this stark difference, and put into practice
the other recommendations in the Preparedness Survey.
Mr. Manning, moving past the preparedness survey, FEMA has responsibility for the Citizen Corps
program and the Ready Campaign.
GAO has reviewed both Citizen Corps and the Ready Campaign for this Committee. Their
preliminary observations are that both programs lack a comprehensive strategy for fostering citizen
preparedness.
Mr. Manning, we want to better understand what plans this administration has for Citizen Corps and
the Ready Campaign.
And we want to learn how these two programs fit into FEMA's overall strategy for promoting citizen
preparedness.
I am pleased that joining Mr. Manning is Mr. Jenkins of GAO, Ms. Wendy Smith, Assistant City
Manager for McAllen, Texas, and Ms. Suzanne DeFrancis from the American Red Cross.
Individual preparedness is a shared responsibility that FEMA can't do alone. I am eager to hear the
panel's ideas on how FEMA can better support local preparedness efforts."

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