drawings in order to perform the dangerous 
work of searching through the rubble for sur-
vivors. One union hall located in Tribeca was 
converted into a Red Cross Disaster Service 
Center that helped connect affected residents 
with critical relief services. 
(C) Members of the Independence Plaza 
North Tenants’ Association in lower Manhattan 
effectively directed streams of people to safety 
and away from the World Trade Center com-
plex; they organized ‘‘urgent needs’’ crews to 
canvass the area around ‘‘Ground Zero’’ looking 
for homebound residents who required assist-
ance; and they acted as volunteers for local 
businesses when paid employees could not get 
to the area. 
(D) The Seamen’s Church Institute of 
New York and New Jersey, headquartered in 
lower Manhattan, dedicated its cooking facilities 
to feeding rescue and recovery workers; mem-
bers of the Episcopal churches in the area took 
turns staffing the kitchen. 
(5) Effective communication by government and 
emergency officials helps facilitate the public’s pro-
ductive responses to disasters: 
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(A) According to the Presidential/Congres-
sional Commission on Risk Assessment and 
Risk Management, risk communication and 
analysis should be integrated at all stages of 
the risk management process so emergency 
managers and government officials address 
issues of concern to the public and share infor-
mation in a way that facilitates effective action 
and creates public confidence. 
(B) According to the New York Academy 
of Medicine’s report, ‘‘Redefining Readiness: 
Terrorism Planning Through the Eyes of the 
Public’’, officials cannot effectively commu-
nicate risk to the public until they first learn 
the full range of risks the public would actually 
face in particular disaster situations. 
(C) According to the Heritage Foundation 
Executive Memorandum, ‘‘Beyond Duct Tape: 
The Federal Government’s Role in Public Pre-
paredness’’, the most vital role the Federal Gov-
ernment can have in enhancing the public re-
sponse to a terrorist attack is to ensure that its 
communications are understandable, credible, 
and actionable. 
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SEC. 3. GOALS. 
The goals of this Act are as follows: 
(1) To promote the development of disaster 
plans that will protect the maximum number of citi-
zens; to foster public trust, confidence, and coopera-
tion with these plans; and to encourage greater pub-
lic participation in homeland security by allowing the 
American people to have a direct and influential role 
in developing and modifying community disaster pre-
paredness, response, recovery, and mitigation plans 
in collaboration with government officials, emergency 
managers, health authorities, and professional re-
sponders. 
(2) To create a working group composed of 
Federal officials and State, county, local, and tribal 
Citizen Corps Council members to coordinate the ef-
forts of different government agencies in identifying, 
developing, and implementing strategies to allow the 
American public to have such a role. 
(3) To encourage greater public participation in 
homeland security and to improve disaster plans by 
enabling the States and localities to effectively incor-
porate volunteers from the general public to assume 
a direct and influential role in community-based dis-
aster preparedness, response, recovery, and mitiga-
tion planning efforts in collaboration with State and 
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local government officials, emergency managers, 
health authorities, and professional responders, 
thereby integrating these volunteers’ collective expe-
riential knowledge into disaster plans which will ulti-
mately protect many more citizens than would other-
wise be possible. 
(4) To encourage integration of risk commu-
nication and analysis protocols into all stages of the 
risk management process within the Department of 
Homeland Security and the Department of Health 
and Human Services so that emergency managers, 
health officials, and government officials can better 
address issues of concern to the public and can 
share that information in a way that more effectively 
facilitates action and promotes greater public con-
fidence and safety. 
SEC. 4. WORKING GROUP TO INCREASE PUBLIC PARTICIPA-
TION IN COMMUNITY-BASED DISASTER PLAN-
NING EFFORTS. 
(a) ESTABLISHMENT.—The Secretary of Homeland 
Security and the Secretary of Health and Human Serv-
ices, acting jointly, shall establish a working group to per-
form the duties described in subsection (b). 
(b) DUTIES.—The working group shall— 
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(1) assist the Department of Homeland Secu-
rity and the Department of Health and Human 
Services— 
(A) to promote the development of disaster 
plans that will protect the maximum number of 
citizens, to foster greater public trust, con-
fidence, and cooperation with these plans, as 
well as to encourage greater public participation 
in homeland security, by identifying, developing, 
and reviewing strategies that provide the Amer-
ican people the means to volunteer to develop 
community-based disaster preparedness, re-
sponse, recovery, and mitigation plans, and to 
modify pre-existing disaster plans, in collabora-
tion with State and local government officials, 
emergency managers, health authorities, and 
professional responders; 
(B) to help State and local officials provide 
the necessary means and infrastructure for the 
American public to volunteer to assume a direct 
and influential role in community-based disaster 
preparedness, response, recovery, and mitiga-
tion planning efforts, and to modify pre-existing 
disaster plans, in collaboration with State and 
local government officials, emergency managers, 
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