{ "id": "R43560", "type": "CRS Report", "typeId": "REPORTS", "number": "R43560", "active": true, "source": "EveryCRSReport.com, University of North Texas Libraries Government Documents Department", "versions": [ { "source": "EveryCRSReport.com", "id": 449306, "date": "2015-05-13", "retrieved": "2016-04-06T19:04:33.827169", "title": "Deployable Federal Assets Supporting Domestic Disaster Response Operations: Summary and Considerations for Congress", "summary": "For most disasters across the nation, the affected local, state, or tribal governments have sufficient capabilities to respond to the incident. However, for disasters with consequences that require unique capabilities or that overwhelm the existing capabilities of a respective state or tribal government, Congress has authorized and appropriated a suite of deployable federal assets to support domestic disaster response operations. This report reviews several key concepts about these federal assets, and highlights possible issues Congress may consider when evaluating their authorization and appropriation. \nIn this report, a deployable federal asset generally means sets of specially trained federal employees whose mission is to provide on-scene assistance to communities by supporting their disaster response. Deployable federal assets can be described as the federal government\u2019s \u201cfirst responders\u201d to a disaster. They typically only provide assistance at the request of states or tribes and in circumstances where the capabilities of non-federal government entities are insufficient. The federal government also scopes its assistance to provide only the assets that are required by the situation. The maximum disaster consequences that the federal government is prepared to address with its full set of response capabilities is largely unknown. \nGiven the diversity of deployable federal assets, there are many legal authorities and executive branch policies that guide their use in response operations. Some of the most notable authorities are the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. \u00a75121 et seq.), Title XXVIII of the Public Health Service Act, the Homeland Security Act of 2002 (6 U.S.C. \u00a7101 et seq.), and the Posse Comitatus Act (18 U.S.C. \u00a71385 et seq.). Some primary federal policies guiding the use of deployable federal assets include the National Response Framework (NRF) and accompanying Federal Interagency Operational Plan (FIOP), the National Incident Management System (NIMS), and the Defense Support for Civilian Authorities (DSCA). \nCongress may consider several policy issues as it evaluates the future authorization and appropriations for deployable federal assets, and in its oversight of the assets\u2019 response capabilities. There may be theoretical benefits gained by the provision of deployable federal assets, including the pooling of disaster risk across the nation and greater efficiency in the supply of response capabilities. There may also be theoretical disadvantages, including that the provision of deployable federal assets creates a moral hazard resulting in greater disaster risk for the nation, and that federal investment may crowd out the investment of non-federal entities in similar response capabilities. Congress may also assess the various models for staffing these assets, including the benefits and costs of conditional employments, dedicated staffing versus multiuse staffing, and \u201cfederalizing\u201d staff into temporary federal employment for response operations. Congress may evaluate whether the provision of deployable federal assets should grant federal officials greater decision-making authority in the management of response operations. Finally, there are a number of challenges that may inhibit congressional oversight, such as the small sample size of incidents available to evaluate the effectiveness of deployable federal assets and the lack of specificity in many of the authorizations and appropriations for these assets. \nThis report also provides brief summaries of examples of deployable federal assets. These assets are managed, either solely or jointly, by a variety of federal departments and agencies, including components of the Departments of Agriculture, Defense, Homeland Security, and Health and Human Services; the Environmental Protection Agency; the National Transportation Safety Board; and others. A synopsis of these assets is provided in Table 1.", "type": "CRS Report", "typeId": "REPORTS", "active": true, "formats": [ { "format": "HTML", "encoding": "utf-8", "url": "http://www.crs.gov/Reports/R43560", "sha1": "768350fd38edb250ca7d1f772635640fbc1035d4", "filename": "files/20150513_R43560_768350fd38edb250ca7d1f772635640fbc1035d4.html", "images": null }, { "format": "PDF", "encoding": null, "url": "http://www.crs.gov/Reports/pdf/R43560", "sha1": "790d5f4ae3b03c01ac8bd607df81bd15fcbd6729", "filename": "files/20150513_R43560_790d5f4ae3b03c01ac8bd607df81bd15fcbd6729.pdf", "images": null } ], "topics": [ { "source": "IBCList", "id": 4089, "name": "Emergency and Disaster Response" } ] }, { "source": "University of North Texas Libraries Government Documents Department", "sourceLink": "https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc306441/", "id": "R43560_2014May16", "date": "2014-05-16", "retrieved": "2014-07-08T21:53:44", "title": "Deployable Federal Assets Supporting Domestic Disaster Response Operations: Summary and Considerations for Congress", "summary": "This report discusses deployable federal assets, which generally refers to specially-trained federal employees whose mission is to provide on-scene assistance to communities by supporting disaster response.", "type": "CRS Report", "typeId": "REPORT", "active": false, "formats": [ { "format": "PDF", "filename": "files/20140516_R43560_e439679456be7dc989392a013710fb53c4cb2b13.pdf" }, { "format": "HTML", "filename": "files/20140516_R43560_e439679456be7dc989392a013710fb53c4cb2b13.html", "source": "pymupdf" } ], "topics": [ { "source": "LIV", "id": "Federal budgets", "name": "Federal budgets" }, { "source": "LIV", "id": "Disaster relief", "name": "Disaster relief" }, { "source": "LIV", "id": "Funds", "name": "Funds" } ] } ], "topics": [ "Appropriations", "Energy Policy", "Environmental Policy", "Health Policy", "National Defense", "Science and Technology Policy", "Transportation Policy" ] }