The federal government’s response to major disasters and emergencies in the United States is guided by the Department of Homeland Security’s National Response Framework. The framework is based on a tiered, graduated response; that is, incidents are managed at the lowest jurisdictional level and supported by additional higher-tiered response capabilities as needed. Overall coordination of federal incident- management activities is generally the responsibility of the Department of Homeland Security. Within the Department of Homeland Security, FEMA is responsible for coordinating and integrating the preparedness of federal, state, local, and nongovernmental entities. In this capacity, FEMA engages in a range of planning efforts to prepare for and mitigate the effects of major disasters and emergencies. For example, FEMA is currently developing regional all-hazards and incident-specific plans intended to cover the full spectrum of hazards, including those that are more likely to occur in each region. FEMA expects to complete its current regional planning cycle by 2018. Local and county governments respond to emergencies daily using their own capabilities and rely on mutual aid and other types of assistance agreements with neighboring governments when they need additional resources. For example, county and local authorities are likely to have the capabilities needed to adequately respond to a small-scale incident, such as a local factory explosion, and therefore would not request additional resources. For larger-scale incidents, when resources are overwhelmed, local and county governments will request assistance from the state. States have resources, such as the National Guard of each state,that they can marshal to help communities respond and recover. If additional capabilities are required, states may request assistance from one another through interstate mutual aid agreements, such as the Emergency Management Assistance Compact, or the governors can seek federal assistance. Various federal agencies play lead or supporting roles in responding to major disasters and emergencies, based on their authorities and capabilities, and the nature of the incident when federal assistance is required. For example, the Department of Energy is the lead federal agency for the reestablishment of damaged energy systems and components, and may provide technical expertise during an incident involving radiological and nuclear materials. DOD supports the lead federal agency in responding to major disasters and emergencies when (1) state, local, and other federal capabilities are overwhelmed, or unique defense capabilities are required; (2) it is directed to do so by the President or the Secretary of Defense; or (3) assistance is requested by the lead federal agency. When deciding whether to commit defense resources to a request for assistance by the lead federal agency, DOD evaluates the request against six criteria: legality, lethality, risk, cost, readiness, and appropriateness of the circumstances. A number of DOD organizations have roles in planning for and responding to major disasters and emergencies. The Assistant Secretary of Defense for Homeland Defense and Americas’ Security Affairs: The Assistant Secretary of Defense for Homeland Defense and Americas’ Security Affairs serves as the principal civilian advisor to the Secretary of Defense on civil support issues. The Joint Staff: The Joint Staff coordinates with NORTHCOM and PACOM to ensure that civil support planning efforts are compatible with the department’s war planning and advises the military services on the department’s policy, training, and joint exercise development. Combatant commands: NORTHCOM and PACOM are responsible for carrying out the department’s civil support mission, and have command and control authority depending on the location. The NORTHCOM area of responsibility for civil support is comprised of the contiguous 48 states, Alaska, and the District of Columbia. Outside of this area, NORTHCOM may also support civil authorities’ major disaster and emergency response operations in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. PACOM has these responsibilities for the Hawaiian Islands and U.S. territories in the Pacific. Other Defense Organizations: Other DOD organizations, such as the Army Corps of Engineers, the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, and the Defense Logistics Agency, support FEMA during major disasters and emergencies by providing power generation capabilities, fuel, and logistics support as lead of several emergency support functions cited in the National Response Framework. The Army Corps of Engineers in particular serves as the lead for Emergency Support Function 3, Public Works and Engineering. National Guard Bureau: The National Guard Bureau serves as the channel of communications on all matters relating to the National Guard between DOD and the States. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, NORTHCOM assigned a defense coordinating officer with associated support staff (known as a defense coordinating element) in each of FEMA’s 10 regional offices. Defense coordinating officers are senior-level military officers with joint service experience, and training on the National Response Framework and the Department of Homeland Security’s National Incident Management System. Defense coordinating officers work closely with federal, state, and local officials to determine DOD’s understanding of what additional or unique capabilities DOD can provide to mitigate the effects of a major disaster or emergency. Figure 1 shows the 10 FEMA regions. According to DOD officials, dual-status commanders—active duty military or National Guard officers who coordinate state and federal responses to civil support incidents and events—have been used for select planned and special events since 2004, and more recently for civil support incidents. The dual-status commander construct provides the intermediate link between the federal and the state chains of command and is intended to promote unity of effort between federal and state forces to facilitate a rapid response to save lives, prevent human suffering, and protect property during major disasters and emergencies. The Secretary of Defense must authorize, and the Governor must consent to, designation of an officer to serve as a dual-status commander. During Hurricane Sandy, dual-status commanders served in New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island. The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012 provided that a dual-status commander should be the usual and customary command and control arrangement in situations when the armed forces and National Guard are employed simultaneously in support of civil authorities, including major disasters and emergencies. When serving in a title 32 or state active duty status, the National Guard of a state is under the command and control of the state’s governor. DOD and National Guard personnel serving on federal active duty, sometimes referred to as being in Title 10 status, are under the command and control of the President and the Secretary of Defense. Dual-status commanders operate in both statuses simultaneously and report to both chains of command. Command and control refers to the exercise of authority and direction by a properly designated commander over assigned forces in the accomplishment of the mission. NORTHCOM and PACOM are updating their existing civil support plans to include a complex catastrophe, as directed, but the plans will not identify capabilities needed to execute their plans that could be provided to execute the plans, as required, until FEMA completes its regional planning efforts in 2018. In the interim, combatant command officials have not determined how they will incorporate into their civil support plans regional capability information from those FEMA regions that have completed their plans. NORTHCOM and PACOM are updating their civil support plans to include a complex catastrophe. However, the commands are delaying the identification of capabilities needed to execute the plans, as required by the Joint Staff, until FEMA completes its regional planning efforts. The Secretary of Defense’s July 2012 memorandum directed NORTHCOM and PACOM to update their civil support plans—to include preparing for a complex catastrophe—by September 2013 and September 2014, respectively. In September 2012, the Joint Staff issued more specific guidance to the commands; directing them to, among other things, identify within the civil support plans required DOD forces and capabilities for responding to a complex catastrophe by the September 2013 and September 2014 deadlines. NORTHCOM officials told us that they expect the command to update its civil support plan by September 2014, and that the plan would describe some general strategic-level complex catastrophe scenarios and identify general force requirements, such as the types of military units that would be needed to respond to a complex catastrophe. However, according to NORTHCOM officials, the command will not identify DOD capabilities that could be provided to civil authorities during a complex catastrophe until FEMA completes its plans. According to PACOM officials, PACOM also expects to update its civil support plan by September 2014. These officials told us that PACOM’s plan will describe a complex catastrophe scenario that begins with an infectious disease, followed by a typhoon that leads to an earthquake that triggers a tsunami. PACOM also plans to identify critical infrastructure likely to be impacted by this scenario. However, officials stated that PACOM’s civil support plan will not identify capability needed to execute the plan, despite the requirement specified in the Joint Staff’s planning guidance. Rather, NORTHCOM and PACOM plan to continue to work with FEMA to identify those DOD’s capabilities that could be provided to respond to a complex catastrophe and include them in subsequent versions of the civil support plans once FEMA has completed its plans for each of the 10 FEMA regions during the next few years. According to FEMA officials, DOD’s civil support concept plans are intended to be coordinated with FEMA’s regional all-hazards and incident- specific plans but these plans are not scheduled to be completed until 2018. FEMA is currently working with each of its regions to update both all-hazards and incident-specific plans, which are updated every 5 years. FEMA’s all-hazards plans are intended to cover the spectrum of hazards, including accidents; natural disasters; terrorist attacks; and chemical, biological, nuclear, and radiological events. Incident-specific plans are intended to address those specific hazards that are believed to have a greater probability of occurring in a region when compared to other types of hazards and have unique response requirements. Each FEMA region has a collaborative team that is responsible for developing a regional all- hazards plan that details capabilities required at the regional level for supporting emergency response.