Hearing of the Emergency Preparedness, Response and Communications Subcommittee of the House Homeland Security Committee - Defense Support of Civil Authorities: A Vital Resource in the Nation's Homeland Security Missions

Hearing

"Nearly ten years ago, Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast and devastated the communities in
its path.

During the response and recovery efforts, we learned painful lessons about planning and training gaps
that undermined successful response efforts.

One of the most important lessons that emerged after Hurricane Katrina was the failure to coordinate
Federal, State and local assets to allow for rapid deployment of much-needed resources.

In Mississippi, for example, household goods supplied by the Federal government never made it into the
hands of disaster survivors, and were given instead to State agencies.

In the storm's aftermath, I worked with my colleagues in Congress to enact the Post-Katrina Emergency
Management Reform Act, which provided a mechanism for the FEMA Administrator to be elevated to the
President's Cabinet during a disaster and directed FEMA to develop pre-scripted mission assignments for
Federal agencies, including the Department of Defense.

Although Hurricane Katrina triggered many reforms to improve the ability to leverage defense support of
civil authorities during emergencies, it is important to note that Hurricane Katrina was not the first time that
defense resources were not effectively leveraged during a disaster response.

Following the September 11th attacks, Federal Reservists tried to respond to ground zero, but there was
no legal authority to put them to work - so an on-the-fly approach was employed.

In the weeks and months that followed, Congress and the Executive Branch began to reassess the
Department of Defense's role in domestic responses to terrorist attacks and major disasters.

While some progress was made to bolster DoD's role in certain civil response activities, Hurricane Katrina
demonstrated that critical gaps remained.

For example, our National Response Plan did not distinguish the type of defense support that might be
required during a small disaster versus a catastrophic disaster.

The Plan did not include detail about how defense support would be provided, whether resources would
be supplied by Federal forces or the National Guard, nor how long it would take to deliver defense assets.
Most notably, we did not conduct training exercises for catastrophic disasters in which DoD assets were
fully deployed.

Accordingly, Military, Federal, State, and local responders were determining what defense assets could be
supplied and who would supply them while response efforts were underway.

For example, in Mississippi, Governor Barbour initially called up about 1,000 National Guard troops, and
put an additional 600 on standby -- which was consistent with the State's response to Hurricane Camille
but did not account for the population increase.

The military deserves credit for its response to Hurricane Katrina-- 50,000 National Guard Troops and
20,000 Federal troops were ultimately deployed, which undoubtedly saved lives.

That said, the response would have been more effective had appropriate plans been in place before the
Hurricane.

Nearly three-years ago, Hurricane Sandy pummeled the northeast, and it was the first time many of the
post-Katrina reforms were utilized.

Although efforts to bolster and clarify the role of the dual status commander after Hurricane Katrina did
appear to improve coordination between National Guard troops and Federal forces during Hurricane
Sandy relief efforts, many involved in the response did not fully understand the chain-of-command.
Additionally, Hurricane Sandy revealed challenges presented by multi-state disasters, in which more than
one dual status commander is appointed but no coordinating process exists.

I will be interested in learning what training is underway to help those in the chain-of-command better
understand the role of the dual status commander and how DoD and FEMA are working together to
improve response capabilities for multi-state disasters.

I will also be interested in learning how FEMA is working with DoD to identify capability needs and develop
pre-scripted mission assignments at the regional level to ensure that defense assets can be deployed in a
timely manner.

Finally, I will be interested to understanding how defense resources have supported the response to the
horrific flooding in Texas and Oklahoma."

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