# Presentation: 064980

## U.S. Senate Sergeant at ArmsLegislative Branch Emergency Preparedness Program

- Planning for Continuity of Operations
- (COOP)
- December 2002

## Motivation

**Joint Bipartisan Directive on September 6, 2000**
- Ensure that the constitutional functions of the Congress can be performed under any circumstances.
- Develop a comprehensive Legislative Branch emergency preparedness program.
- Program shall consist of an integrated architecture which will address all hazards which could impede the continuity of essential Legislative Branch functions.
- Plans will include, at a minimum, emergency preparations, response, mitigation and stabilization activities, and recovery operations.

## Phase I:  Senate Chamber Relocation
Phase II:  SAA Emergency Preparedness
Phase III:  Senate office Emergency Preparedness

- Phase II:  SAA Emergency Preparedness
- Phase III:  Senate office Emergency Preparedness

- Approach

**To satisfy the motivation for the project, we implemented a three-phased project structure.**

## Project Team

**A core project team was comprised of staff from:**
- Sergeant at Arms
- Secretary of the Senate
- U.S. Capitol Police
**Additional organizational resources who assisted with this project include:**
- SAA Departments, Rules Committee, AoC, SoS, GSA, USCP, House of Representatives, and General Accounting Office (GAO)

## Goals and Objectives

- Phase I - To ensure capability to continue Senate Floor operations in the event the Senate Chamber and adjacent rooms become unusable
- Requires the selection and preparation of an alternate facility within the Capitol Complex
- Ensures a supporting Infrastructure is in place

**Develop a plan to ensure operational and organizational stability for the Senate**

## Goals and Objectives (continued)

- Phase II - Develop a viable Continuity of Operations (COOP) plan for the Senate Sergeant at Arms (SAA) and Secretary of Senate (SoS)
- Essential Functions and Mission Critical Systems
- Vital Records
- Alternate Emergency Personnel/Successors
- SAA Readiness (TT&E)
- Interagency Agreement with the General Services Administration, Office of Emergency Management
- Phase III - Assist Member and Committee offices with developing a Continuity of Operations capability plan

## Major Plan Components 

- Delineates the essential functions and operations
- Enables the Department or Office to respond to a localized or wide-spread emergency event
- Will be implemented using a time phased approach:
- Phase I:  0-12 hours (Activation /Relocation)
- Phase II:  12 hrs - Termination (Alternate Facilities Operation)
- Phase III:  Reconstitution (Return to normal operation
- Identified vital records and systems

- To assure the consistency and quality of the SAA COOP, each of the 17 departments and offices authoring 22 plans followed the same guidelines and template.  Each plan:

## Major Plan Components (continued) 

- Alternate Computing Facility requirements
- A system for addressing the safety and well being of the employees
- Provisions for the training, testing and exercise of COOP plans on a regular basis
- A regular review and update procedure

- Plans also include:

## SAA COOP Planning Assumptions 

- The SAA will notify the Senate Leadership of a COOP event
- The SAA COOP Action Officer will serve as the SAA Executive Office COOP Action Officer
- During a COOP event, it will not be “business as usual”
- The United States Capitol Police will most likely be the first to respond to any COOP event
- Relocation of the SAA Executive office will be in accordance with the Chamber relocation action plan

## Planning Assumptions (continued)

- Additional space required within the Capitol Complex for SAA Departments/Offices during a COOP event will be provided by the Committee on Rules and Administration
- Due to interdependencies or proximity of certain Senate operations, the activation of a COOP plan may require the activation of other COOP plans.  For example, if the Secretary of the Senate COOP plan is activated, the SAA COOP plan may be activated
- SAA essential functions will be established within 12 hours according to the capabilities identified within each Departmental/Office COOP plan

## Accomplishments: Phase I

- Project Team recommendation to select and setup an alternate chamber facility
- SAA/SoS recommendation letter to Senate Majority and Minority Leadership to prepare alternate chamber facilities
- Leadership Approved Recommendation
- Developed Chamber Relocation Action Plan
- Revalidated Occupant Requirements
- Developed Budgets

## Accomplishments: Phase II

- Identified a process for the SAA and SoS to respond and reconstitute for any type of disaster or emergency
- Increased the awareness of employees about potential business interruptions
- Identified a process to maintain the vitality of the SAA and comply with the Emergency Preparedness program

**The goal of the SAA COOP program is to enable the SAA and SoS to increase our operational readiness in case of an emergency.**
**We have:**

## Accomplishments: Phase II 

- Identified essential functions and services
- Identified emergency personnel and their successors
- Identified vital records and systems
- Identified requirements for space and people, if the SAA or individual department/office has to relocate to an alternate facility

**The development of the SAA COOP is an internally owned project.  Each department and office was responsible for defining their individual requirements and authoring their plan.  In the process, we have:**

## Accomplishments: Phase II

- Identified interoperable communications requirements of our systems with other Legislative branch entities
- Identified procedures and parameters for keeping the plan updated
- Identified strategies for ensuring the service of the information systems (mainframe and LAN/servers) is uninterrupted

**We have....**

## Accomplishments: Phase II

- Strengthened the relationship between the SAA and SoS by coordinating COOP development
- Strengthened relationships with GSA, USCP and other Legislative Branch entities
- Strengthened the relationships between the SAA organization, our employees, and gained a better understanding of the functions, facilities, and systems required to maintain operations and the services we provide to the Senate

**Ultimately, we have....**

## Developed a template for Member and Committee offices
Provided an orientation program for Member and Committee offices
Implemented a COOP development program for the Member and Committee offices
Worked with Member and Committee Offices to prepare COOP plans

- Provided an orientation program for Member and Committee offices
- Implemented a COOP development program for the Member and Committee offices
- Worked with Member and Committee Offices to prepare COOP plans

- Phase III activities

**A project plan is being executed to enable the SAA to satisfy the third requirement of the Joint Bipartisan Directive.**
- Following the process used to develop the SAA COOP, the SAA/SoS has:

## Other Actions

- SAA has designated an SAA COOP Action Officer and Deputy COOP Action Officer
- SAA has obtained emergency spending authority
- Developed and implemented COOP policies
- Approved recommendation for Alternate Computer Facility
- Approved COOP budget
- Approved Delegation of Authority
- Developed Interagency Agreement with GSA for emergency resource support