State and local entities are typically responsible for disaster response efforts, but federal law establishes the process by which a state may request a presidential disaster declaration to obtain federal assistance. The Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (Stafford Act), as amended, permits the President to declare a major disaster after a governor of a state or chief executive of an affected tribal government finds that a disaster is of such severity and magnitude that effective response is beyond the capabilities of the state and local governments and that federal assistance is necessary. The act also generally defines the federal government’s role during disaster response and recovery and establishes the programs and processes through which the federal government provides disaster assistance. Figure 1 shows the number of major disasters declared in the United States since Hurricane Katrina, from fiscal years 2005 through 2014. Federal financial assistance for a major disaster comes through the Disaster Relief Fund, a source of appropriated funding that provides grants and other support to state, local, and tribal governments during disaster recovery. The fund is also used by FEMA for its administrative costs related to providing and managing disaster assistance, and for contracts in support of disaster relief efforts. For example, FEMA awarded contracts worth more than $347 million in fiscal years 2013 and 2014 to provide technical support—such as architecture and engineering services—to the public assistance program that helps states and local governments rebuild damaged infrastructure. FEMA’s contracting efforts are supported by a contracting workforce in OCPO, located in FEMA headquarters and in its 10 regions. This office is led by FEMA’s Chief Procurement Officer, who is also the Head of Contracting Activity. Figure 2 shows the current structure of the OCPO, which reflects a recent reorganization effective January 1, 2015. FEMA’s contracting officers in headquarters support a variety of functions, including supporting information technology, activities to prepare for and mitigate disasters, and disaster response. The disaster and field operations division manages contracting for disaster response efforts including logistics—delivering goods and services to support disaster survivors and communities, including life-sustaining commodities such as meals, blankets, and electricity generators, response—coordinating capabilities needed immediately following a disaster, such as air and ground evacuation services and emergency sheltering, and recovery—primarily supporting rebuilding efforts, including technical assistance programs. In fiscal years 2013 and 2014, FEMA’s headquarters contracting offices primarily responsible for supporting disaster relief efforts—including logistics, response, and recovery—obligated $631 million in contracts and task orders. While the majority of FEMA’s contracting workforce is located in headquarters, contracting officers are also located in each of FEMA’s regional offices. Figure 3 identifies the location of FEMA’s headquarters and 10 regional offices. While they support a variety of contracting functions for their respective regions, these contracting officers serve as the first response for contracting if a disaster occurs in their region. During a disaster, the regional offices can request additional contracting support from headquarters if needed. Contracting officers are typically located in each regional office’s mission support division, which provide essential administrative, financial, information technology, and acquisition support for the region. Regional contracting officers report to both their mission support division supervisors and their OCPO supervisor in headquarters, as shown in figure 4. Each region is headed by a Regional Administrator who reports directly to the head of FEMA. In fiscal years 2013 and 2014, FEMA’s regional contracting offices obligated almost $137 million for various efforts, including contracts for regional support, such as supplies and services to support regional offices, as well as disaster support. Like FEMA’s overall workforce, the contracting staff consists of a combination of employees hired under different authorities. The authority under which employees are hired affects the type of work all employees— including contracting staff—can support at FEMA: Title 5 employees are both permanent and temporary employees who make up FEMA’s day-to-day workforce and are responsible for administering the agency’s ongoing program activities in headquarters and regional offices. During disasters, these employees can be deployed as needed. These employees are hired under title 5 of the United States Code which established the law for managing human resources in the federal government. Stafford Act employees provide support for disaster-related activities and augment FEMA’s disaster workforce at facilities, regional offices, and headquarters. Stafford Act employees include a Cadre of On-Call Response/Recovery Employees, who have 2- to 4-year renewable appointments and can be deployed to fulfill any role specifically related to the incident for which they are hired and qualified, such as contracting, during disaster assistance response and recovery efforts. They also include reservists, who work on an intermittent basis and are deployed as needed. FEMA contracting officials explained that this means title 5 contracting officers can award and administer all types of FEMA contracts, while Stafford Act employees are limited primarily to disaster-related contracting efforts. Most FEMA contracting offices, at headquarters and in the regions, include a combination of both title 5 and Stafford Act employees. The contracting workforce includes professionals in several job series, with qualifications that are standard across civilian government contracting. These job series include the following: Contracting specialists in the 1102 series, which includes contracting officers who have warrants that authorize them to obligate and commit government funds. Some warrants are unlimited; others are limited to a specific dollar amount or functions, such as construction. To maintain their warrants, contracting officers must meet core education, training, and experience requirements set by the Office of Federal Procurement Policy. Purchasing agents in the 1105 job series who are qualified to contract for smaller purchases, typically under $150,000. For the purposes of this report, we refer to staff in the contracting specialist job series, not purchasing agents, as the contracting workforce. After a major disaster is declared, FEMA establishes a joint field office, a temporary office through which it coordinates disaster response and recovery efforts with state and local governments and organizations. Led by a federal coordinating officer, the joint field office is supported by incident management staff of various FEMA teams that are deployed to support the disaster. One of these teams includes contracting support staff that may come from headquarters or regional offices. Once the need for disaster response and recovery ends and a joint field office is closed, the contracts supporting the disaster are returned to the cognizant regional contracting office. In cases where long-term recovery is needed, FEMA may transition a joint field office into a long-term recovery office. For example, the joint field offices established in New York and New Jersey to support Hurricane Sandy in 2012 became long-term recovery offices in 2014. PKEMRA was enacted to address various shortcomings identified in the preparation for and response to Hurricane Katrina. In a November 2008 report, we identified more than 300 provisions associated with PKEMRA and we described actions that DHS and FEMA had taken toward implementation of the law. These included 4 provisions related to FEMA’s contracting: restricting the contract period to 150 days for noncompetitive disaster support contracts justified as an urgent need, identifying products and services suitable for advance contracts—for example, food and cots for survivors and engineering services—and establishing such contracts, providing a contracting preference to local vendors for disaster response contracts, justifying awards made to non-local vendors, and transitioning any contracts awarded prior to disasters, such as housing inspection contracts, to local vendors, and limiting the use of subcontracts to 65 percent of the cost of cost- reimbursement contracts, task orders, or delivery orders. This applies to contracts and orders that exceed $150,000 and are used to support disaster response and recovery efforts. In our 2008 report, we reported that FEMA had taken preliminary action on the PKEMRA provisions we reviewed. For example, we found that FEMA had drafted a regulation to limit the use of subcontracting in certain contracts, but it was still under review at the time of our report. FEMA’s contracting officer workforce has grown significantly since Hurricane Katrina, but the agency has struggled with attrition at times. Turnover in FEMA’s contracting officer workforce has had particular impact on smaller regional offices which, with only one or two contracting officers, face gaps in continuity. FEMA’s workforce increases are due in part to the creation of the Disaster Acquisition Response Team (DART) in 2010, headquarters staff charged with supporting disasters. DART has gradually assumed responsibility for administering the majority of FEMA’s disaster contract spending, but FEMA does not have a process for how the team will prioritize its work when they are deployed during a disaster. Further, in 2011, FEMA established an agreement between the regions and headquarters to revise regional contracting staff reporting responsibilities; however, we found challenges with how the agreement is being implemented, particularly in that it heightens the potential for an environment of competing interests for the regional contracting officers. FEMA has not updated the agreement, even though the agreement states it will be revisited each year, leaving it in conflict with more recent guidance that increases contracting officer training requirements. The size of FEMA’s contracting officer workforce at the end of fiscal year 2014 was more than triple the size of its workforce at the time of Hurricane Katrina. When Hurricane Katrina struck in 2005, FEMA had a total of 45 contracting officers in its headquarters and regional offices. In addition to hiring headquarters and regional contracting officers after Hurricane Katrina, FEMA also established long-term recovery offices to assist with lengthy recovery efforts in Louisiana and elsewhere. By the time Hurricane Sandy landed in 2012, the workforce had grown to over 170 contracting officers. This number has declined slightly since then, with FEMA having 163 contracting officers by the end of fiscal year 2014. See figure 5 for additional information. During this period of growth, FEMA struggled with attrition at times, experiencing years in which the number of contracting officers leaving the job series outpaced the number of new additions.