380 
(1) IN
GENERAL.—In carrying out a review 
under this title, the Board shall— 
(A) conduct the review to determine the 
facts, conditions, and circumstances relating to 
the loss of life, human injury, and economic in-
jury due to an incident; 
(B) following an initial assessment of an 
incident by the Board, notify any individual or 
organization that the Board anticipates will be 
affected by the review as to the extent of the 
expected review response of the Board; 
(C) use the results of the review under 
subparagraph (A) to— 
(i) determine how and why people die 
and are injured during an incident; and 
(ii) issue recommendations to prevent 
or mitigate the loss of life, human injury, 
or economic injury due to similar incidents; 
and 
(D) report on the facts and circumstances 
of the incident review, including the pre-inci-
dent resilience or vulnerabilities of the incident 
area or population.
381 
(2) GENERALIZED
NATURE
OF
REVIEWS.—A 
review of loss of life and injury conducted by the 
Board shall— 
(A) be generalized; 
(B) focus on trends across an incident; and 
(C) not aim to determine the exact indi-
vidual cause of death or injury of any affected 
people. 
(3) FACT-FINDING
PROCEEDING.—Any review 
of an incident by the Board under this title shall be 
a fact-finding proceeding with no adverse parties. 
(4) LIMITATION OF APPLICABILITY OF OTHER 
ACTS.— 
(A) ADMINISTRATIVE PROCEDURE ACT.— 
Any review proceedings of the Board under this 
title shall not be— 
(i) subject to the Administrative Pro-
cedure Act (5 U.S.C. 551 et seq.); or 
(ii) conducted for the purpose of de-
termining the rights, liabilities, or blame of 
any person, as the review is not an adju-
dicatory proceeding. 
(B) PAPERWORK REDUCTION ACT.—Chap-
ter 35 of title 44, United States Code (com-
monly known as the ‘‘Paperwork Reduction
382 
Act’’), shall not apply to the review proceedings 
of the Board under this title. 
(C) 
FEDERAL
ADVISORY
COMMITTEE 
ACT.—The Federal Advisory Committee Act (5 
U.S.C. App.) shall not apply to the Board. 
(5) INITIATING REVIEWS.—The Board shall ini-
tiate a review of an incident by monitoring the situa-
tion and assessing available facts to determine the 
appropriate review response, without interfering in 
any ongoing lifesaving and life sustaining efforts un-
derway by other entities. 
(6) ALIGNMENT AND COORDINATION.—In car-
rying out this title, the Board shall coordinate with 
Federal, State, local, and Tribal entities to— 
(A) establish or adopt standard methods of 
measuring the impacts of natural hazards and 
accessing response capacity and capabilities to 
maintain consistency and allow for the analysis 
of trends over time; 
(B) ensure that the standard data sets and 
formats necessary for reviews developed under 
subparagraph (A) are propagated among Fed-
eral, State, local, and tribal entities that may be 
involved in response operations;
383 
(C) leverage, to the extent practicable, 
data collected using standard data sets and for-
mats established under subparagraph (B) by 
Federal entities involved in response operations 
to avoid any duplication of data collection; and 
(D) during incident response operations, 
coordinate with partners active in the operation 
to collect data remotely or take other actions 
that the Board finds necessary to align and co-
ordinate the requirements of the review with 
ongoing operations, including through the re-
quirements of paragraph (7). 
(7) INCIDENT COMMAND.—The Board shall— 
(A) recognize the role of incident command 
systems to address incidents; 
(B) observe the incident command system 
to identify and coordinate review needs related 
to the preservation and collection of information 
and evidence; and 
(C) shall collect information and evidence 
from the incident command in a timely and rea-
sonable manner so as not to interfere with the 
operations of the incident command. 
(8) PARTIES TO THE REVIEW.—
384 
(A) PARTICIPANTS.—Subject to subpara-
graph (B), the Board may invite one or more 
entities to serve as a party in a review on a vol-
untary basis, and any party participant shall be 
required to follow all directions and instructions 
from the Board. 
(B) ELIGIBLE ENTITY.—In designating an 
entity to serve as a party under subparagraph 
(A), the Board may designate only a Federal, 
State, or local government agency or private or-
ganization whose employees, functions, activi-
ties, or products were involved in the incident, 
including responsible parties, and that can pro-
vide suitable qualified technical personnel to ac-
tively assist in the review. 
(C) REPRESENTATIVES OF ELIGIBLE ENTI-
TIES.—To the extent practicable, a representa-
tive proposed by an entity designated as a party 
under subparagraph (A) to participate in the 
review may not be an individual who had direct 
involvement in the incident under review. 
(D) REVOCATION OF PARTY STATUS.—A 
designation as a party under subparagraph (A) 
may be revoked or suspended by the Board if 
the party fails to comply with assigned duties
385 
and instructions, withholds information, or oth-
erwise acts in a manner prejudicial or disrup-
tive to a review. 
(E) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.—Nothing in 
this paragraph shall be construed to establish a 
right for any entity to participate in a Board 
review as a party. 
(F) INTERNAL REVIEW BY A PARTY.—To 
assure coordination of concurrent efforts, a 
party to a review that conducts or authorizes an 
internal review of the processes and procedures 
of the party as a result of an incident that the 
Board is reviewing shall— 
(i) inform the Board of the nature of 
the review; and 
(ii) provide to the Board findings 
from the review. 
(9) REVIEW PROCEDURES.—In addition to any 
procedures required under this title, the Board shall 
determine and publish detailed review procedures as 
the Board determines necessary. 
(10) PRODUCTS.—The Board may use any me-
dium that will effectively convey the findings and 
recommendations of the Board to the targeted audi-
ence of such findings or recommendations.