Deployable Federal Assets Supporting Domestic Disaster Response Operations: Summary and Considerations for Congress
Abstract
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. In 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 governments first responders 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. Given 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. 5121 et eq.), Title XXVIII of the Public Health Service Act, the Homeland Security Act of 2002 (6 U.S.C. 101 et seq.), and the Posse Comitatus Act (18 U.S.C. 1385 et seq.).
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- May 13, 2015
- Accession Number
- AD1172069
Entities
People
- Bart Elias
- David M. Bearden
- Frank Gottron
- Jared T. Brown
- John D. Moteff
- Jonathan E. Medalia
- Jonathan L. Ramseur
- Katie Hoover
- Lawrence Kapp
- Nicole T. Carter
- Sarah A. Lister
Organizations
- Library of Congress