Florida Emergency Management and Homeland Security Statutory Authorities Summarized

Florida Emergency Management and Homeland Security Statutory Authorities Summarized

Order Code RS21784
March 26, 2004
CRS Report for Congress
Received through the CRS Web
Florida Emergency Management and
Homeland Security Statutory Authorities
Summarized
Keith Bea
Specialist in American National Government
Government and Finance Division
L. Cheryl Runyon and Kae M. Warnock
Consultants
Government and Finance Division
Summary
The State Emergency Management Act sets out emergency powers and provides for
mutual aid agreements. Seven entities are vested with specific statutory responsibilities
in relation to emergency management. One notable agency is the Florida Domestic
Security and Counter-Terrorism Intelligence Center, the role of which is to gather
terrorism related data. The governor may assume full control of emergency management
functions in an emergency. State financial assistance for the administration of state and
local emergency management activities is derived from an emergency management fund.
Continuity of government laws cover elected officials and the judiciary, and are geared
toward effectively filling vacant positions, following lines of succession and relocating
government during an emergency. Emergency management plans and emergency
medical capabilities are exempt from standard public information provisions.
This report is one of a series that profiles the emergency management and
homeland security statutory authorities of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, the
Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico,
American Samoa, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Each profile identifies the more
significant elements of state statutes, generally as codified. Congressional readers may
wish to conduct further searches for related provisions using the Internet link presented
in the last section of this report. The National Conference of State Legislatures provided
primary research assistance in the development of these profiles under contract to the
Congressional Research Service (CRS). Summary information on all of the profiles is
presented in CRS Report RL32287. This report will be updated as developments
warrant.
Congressional Research Service ˜ The Library of Congress

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Entities with Key Responsibilities
Governor: The governor is authorized to assume direct operational control over all
or part of the emergency management functions in an emergency that is beyond local
control. The governor is authorized to: suspend provisions of any regulatory statute that
would prevent or hinder emergency management; transfer functions and personnel of state
agencies; direct or compel the evacuation of threatened areas; limit or suspend utility
services; commandeer or utilize private property; and take other action (Fla. Stat.
§252.36).
Division of Emergency Management: The Division of Emergency Management
(DEM) was created by statute and must prepare and maintain a state comprehensive
emergency management plan that includes evacuation, shelter, response and recovery
components (Fla. Stat. §252.35(a)). DEM must provide, within or without the state,
necessary support from available personnel, equipment, and other resources to reinforce
emergency management agencies in areas stricken by emergency (Fla. Stat. §252.41).
State agencies: Each agency head must identify an “emergency coordination officer”
for the agency responsible for planning and response activities with DEM (Fla. Stat.
§252.365).
Office of Financial Regulation: The director is authorized to make temporary
modifications to, or suspensions of, the financial institutions codes to expedite the
recovery of communities affected by a disaster or other emergency. An order issued by
the Comptroller continues for 120 days unless terminated, and may be extended one
additional period of 120 days (Fla. Stat. §252.62).
Department of Law Enforcement/Chief of Domestic Security Initiatives: The
executive director of the Department of Law Enforcement, or the designee, serves as
chief of domestic security initiatives and coordinates the ongoing assessment of the state’s
vulnerability to, and ability to detect and respond to, acts of terrorism. The chief prepares
recommendations for the governor and legislative leadership, and may use regional task
forces and public or private resources to support these activities (Fla. Stat. §943.0311).
Also, the legislature requires coordination of counter-terrorism efforts by and through the
Department of Law Enforcement, working closely with the Division of Emergency
Management (Fla. Stat. §943.03101).
Florida Domestic Security and Counter-Terrorism Intelligence Center: The Center
gathers documents and analyzes active criminal intelligence and criminal investigative
information related to terrorism (Fla. Stat. §943.0321).
Political Subdivisions: The statute gives specified emergency management powers
to political subdivisions, including the maintenance of emergency management agencies,
with functions and leadership qualifications specified (Fla. Stat. §252.38) and the issuance
of emergency management rules (Fla. Stat. §252.46).
State Hazardous Materials Emergency Response Commission: The statute
established the Emergency Response Commission charged with implementing provisions
of the federal Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (Fla. Stat.
§252.81 to 90).

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Preparedness
See “Entities with Key Responsibilities”—Division of Emergency Management
Declaration Procedures
The governor is authorized to declare a state of emergency by executive order or
proclamation, which may not continue for longer than 60 days, unless renewed. The
legislature may terminate the state of emergency at any time. The declaration must
identify whether the emergency is to be classified as a “minor, major or catastrophic
disaster” (Fla. Stat. §252.36(b)(2), (3)(c)).
Types of Assistance
The executive order or proclamation declaring a state of emergency activates the
response, recovery, and mitigation aspects of the state and local emergency management
plans (Fla. Stat. §252.36(b)(3)). If a major or catastrophic disaster is declared, licensed
health care practitioners from other states may assist in providing such care in the disaster
area (Fla. Stat. §252.36(c)(1)). If a catastrophic disaster is declared, a formal request for
mobilization of the military is authorized, with communication required to the President
(Fla. Stat. §252.36(c)(2)).
Families “totally without shelter” or that face the loss of shelter due to household
disasters such as fire, flood, earthquake, or other accident, are eligible for one month’s
payment (rent, mortgage, or emergency housing cost) in any 12-month period (Fla. Stat.
§414.16).
Mutual Aid
The statute authorizes governing bodies of political subdivisions to develop and enter
into mutual aid agreements within the state for reciprocal emergency aid and assistance.
The governor may enter into a compact with any state (Fla. Stat. §252.40).
The Emergency Management Assistance Compact is codified (Fla. Stat. §252.921-
252.933).
Florida Mutual Aid Act: The statute provides for voluntary or requested mutual aid
agreements between two or more law enforcement agencies or a law enforcement agency
and school board or state university that employs school or university police officers. The
state law enforcement mutual aid plan must prepare for the distribution and allocation of
state resources, including the national guard. The statute outlines the duties of the
executive director of the Department of Law Enforcement regarding the mutual aid plan,
and extends the same powers, duties, rights, privileges, and immunities to agency
employees providing aid to those accorded to employees of agency requesting aid (Fla.
Stat. §23.12 to 23.127).
The statute creates a mutual aid plan to coordinate national guard efforts to cope with
emergencies (Fla. Stat. §250.540 to .549).

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Funding
The statute established the Emergency Management, Preparedness, and Assistance
Trust Fund, which is funded by an annual surcharge of $2.00 on residences of every
homeowner, mobile homeowner, tenant homeowner, and condominium unit owner, and
a $4.00 surcharge on commercial fire, commercial multiple peril, and business owner
property insurance policies. Money in the fund may not be used to supplant existing
funding. The rules for the allocation of funds are: 60% to implement and administer state
and local emergency management programs (training, specified percentages of which go
to counties and local agencies), 20% for state relief assistance for non-federally declared
disasters, and 20% for grants and loans to state or regional agencies, local governments,
and private organizations to implement projects that will further state and local emergency
management objectives (Fla. Stat. §252.371 to .372).
Hazard Mitigation
The governor must, on a continuing basis, consider actions to mitigate the harmful
consequences of emergencies relating to severe land shifting, subsidence, flood, or other
catastrophic occurrences, whether manmade or natural. State agencies, in conjunction
with DEM, are to study land use and building construction practices and recommend
changes in zoning regulations, other land use regulations, or building requirements to
mitigate the impact of emergencies (Fla. Stat. §252.44).
Continuity of Government Operations
The legislature has the power to provide for prompt and temporary succession to all
public offices, and to adopt measures as may be necessary and appropriate to insure the
continuity of governmental operations during an emergency (Fla. Const. Art. II, Sec. 6).
Emergency Interim Executive and Judicial Succession Act: The statute enables local
governing bodies of cities, towns, villages, townships and counties to enact resolutions
or ordinances for filling vacancies and to provide for emergency interim successors to
offices. It also authorizes officers of political subdivisions and of school, fire, power and
drainage districts to designate emergency interim successors and specify their order of
succession. In addition, it authorizes emergency interim successors, the acting governor,
and special emergency judges provided for in the act to exercise their duties only after an
attack upon the United States. Emergency interim successors or special emergency judges
may be removed or replaced by the “designating authority” at any time, with or without
cause (Fla. Stat. §22.05 to 09).
When, due to an enemy attack or an anticipated attack, it becomes imprudent or
impossible to conduct the affairs of state government at its regular location, the governor
may declare an emergency temporary location for the seat of government within or
without the state. The emergency temporary location remains the seat of government until
the legislature, by law, establishes a new location or until the emergency is terminated
by the governor (Fla. Stat. §22.15).
When, due to an enemy attack or an anticipated attack, it becomes imprudent or
impossible to conduct the government of a political subdivision at its regular location, the

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governing body may establish an emergency temporary location of government, which
may be within or without the state. The emergency temporary location remains as the seat
of such government until a new seat is established, or until the emergency is teminated
(Fla. Stat. §22.20).
Other
Information that identifies or describes the name, location, pharmaceutical cache,
contents, capacity, equipment, physical features, or capabilities of individual medical
facilities, storage facilities, or laboratories is exempt from public information
requirements as part of the state’s plan to defend against an act of terrorism (Fla. Stat.
§381.95).
Portions of a comprehensive emergency management plan that address the response
of a public or private hospital to an act of terrorism are exempt from public information
requirements (Fla. Stat. §395.1056).
State agencies that contract with providers for the care of persons with disabilities
or limitations must include emergency and disaster planning provisions in those contracts
(Fla. Stat. §252.356).
The state must have sufficient hurricane evacuation space identified by 1998 and
thereafter (Fla. Stat. 252.385).
Key Terms
Table 1. Key Emergency Management and Homeland Security
Terms Defined in Florida Statutes, with Citations
Terms
Citations
Attack
Fla. Stat. §22.03(4)
Catastrophic disaster
Fla. Stat. §252.34.1
Disaster
Fla. Stat. §252.34.1
Emergency
Fla. Stat. §252.34.3
Emergency interim successor
Fla. Stat. §22.03(2)
Emergency Management
Fla. Stat. §252.34.4
Family in an emergency situation
Fla. Stat. §414.16
Local emergency management agency
Fla. Stat. §252.34.5
Manmade emergency
Fla. Stat. §252.34.6
Natural emergency
Fla. Stat. §252.34.7

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Terms
Citations
Technological emergency
Fla. Stat. §252.34.9
Terrorism
Fla. Stat. §775.30
For Further Research
The citations noted above and other elements of the state code for Florida may be
searched at:
[http://www.flsenate.gov/statutes/index.cfm?Mode=ViewStatutes & Submenu=-1].