Section 1107 of the NDAA for Fiscal Year 2013 established the Committee on National Security Personnel within the Executive Office of the President. The Committee was required to include, at a minimum, representatives from OMB, OPM, the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs, DOD, and the Departments of State and Homeland Security. As part of the implementation of the section 1107 Interagency Rotation Program, the statute required the policies, processes, and procedures included in the Strategy to provide that the program be carried out in at least two Interagency Communities of Interest—Emergency Management and Stabilization and Reconstruction—and that no fewer than 20 executive branch employees be assigned to participate in the program in each of the first 4 fiscal years after the enactment of the NDAA for Fiscal Year 2013—fiscal years 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2017. Section 1107 indicated that the purpose of the program was to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the government by fostering greater interagency experience among executive branch personnel on national security and homeland security matters involving more than one agency. Section 1107 defines an “Interagency Community of Interest” as positions in the executive branch of the government that (1) as a group, are positions within multiple agencies of the executive branch of government; and (2) have significant responsibility for the same substantive, functional, or regional subject area related to national security or homeland security that requires integration of the positions and activities in that area across multiple agencies to ensure that the executive branch of the government operates as a single, cohesive enterprise to maximize mission success and minimize cost. Additionally, the Strategy defines “Community of Practice” as a Community of Interest that has, among other things, identified members to engage in joint activities, experiences, and discussions and share information as an identified network. For example, according to the charter for the Emergency Management Community of Practice, the community will advance whole-of-government goals pertaining to national preparedness through unified, collaborative, interagency approaches to the prevention of, protection from, response to, recovery from, and mitigation of manmade and natural disasters. This will be accomplished by providing integrated education, training, and experiential activities to promote familiarization with emergency management missions, operations, and interagency structures across the federal government and to optimize operational planning and execution. Prior to the establishment of the section 1107 program, in May 2007, Executive Order 13434 established the National Security Professional Development Executive Steering Committee and designated OPM as its chair. Executive Order 13434 also called for the development of a strategy that set forth a framework that would become the National Security Professional Development (NSPD) Program—we will discuss the status of this program later in the report. The NSPD Program’s goal was to promote the education, training, and experience of current and future professionals in national security positions. To facilitate the implementation of the NSPD Program, the Executive Steering Committee established an Integration Office, which was originally housed at DOD and staffed by employees from other departments and agencies on temporary detail assignment. In 2012, the NSPD Integration Office was moved from DOD to OPM. Appendix I provides key dates in the establishment and implementation of both the section 1107 Interagency Rotation Program and NSPD Program. In 2010, we identified 225 professional development activities available for national security professionals that have a goal of improving interagency collaboration. Of the 225 activities, 7 were interagency rotation programs. Five of these seven programs involved rotating personnel between civilian agencies and the defense community. During that review, many departments and agencies reported the existence of other interagency assignments, but we found that the departments and agencies did not manage these as professional development programs and they lacked an explicit goal of improving interagency collaboration. The NSPD Program, which resulted from Executive Order 13434, was included as one of the professional development activities identified by this review. GAO also has a large body of work on the need for interagency coordination and collaboration to facilitate the federal government’s response to natural disasters and homeland security issues, among other things. Although this body of work does not directly call for an interagency rotation program similar to the section 1107 Interagency Rotation Program, it highlights the continued importance of improving interagency coordination and collaboration, more than a decade after catastrophic events such as the terrorist attacks of September 2001 and Hurricane Katrina in August 2005. For example, in 2006, we found that key issues with the federal response to Hurricane Katrina—the largest, most destructive natural disaster in our nation’s history—were reminiscent of the issues identified in the wake of Hurricane Andrew in 1992. Among other things, clearly defining and communicating leadership roles, responsibilities, and lines of authority for catastrophic event response and clarifying and applying procedures for activating the National Response Plan could have improved the federal government’s response efforts after Hurricane Katrina. See Appendix II for additional information on our prior work identifying the need for interagency coordination and collaboration. In March 2014, the Committee issued the Strategy required by section 1107 of the NDAA for Fiscal Year 2013. The Strategy complies with most of the statutory requirements and describes the basic policies, processes, and procedures for the section 1107 Interagency Rotation Program. However, implementation of the program has languished because there has been limited leadership and oversight of the program, and no national security personnel had been assigned for rotations as of September 2015. The departments and agencies also cited various actions that needed to be taken in order for the section 1107 program to be implemented in a timely manner. Examples of these actions include the development and issuance of guidance outlined in the Strategy. In addition to establishing the Committee on National Security Personnel, section 1107 of the NDAA for Fiscal Year 2013 required the Committee to develop and issue a National Security Human Capital Strategy that provided for the implementation of an interagency rotation program. On March 29, 2014, the Committee issued the required National Security Human Capital Strategy—entitled The Human Capital Strategy for Interagency Personnel Rotations. Our analysis of the Committee’s actions and the Strategy showed that they address most of the statutory requirements set forth in section 1107. Section 1107 included 19 requirements related to the development and issuance of the Strategy and the subsequent implementation and monitoring of the section 1107 program. However, for 2 of these requirements we had no basis to judge, because these requirements are contingent on actions that had not yet occurred, and, therefore, we did not assess these requirements. We found that the Committee’s actions and its Strategy address 13 of the 17 statutory requirements we assessed, for example, by (1) including provisions that specifically address the requirements, such as by including specific policy requirements; (2) assigning various departments and agencies tasks, such as developing policy or guidance; and (3) directing other organizations, including the Communities of Practice, to carry out the section 1107 program. We also found that the Committee’s actions and the Strategy partially address 2 and do not address 2 of the 17 statutory requirements we assessed. Appendix III includes our assessment of the Committee’s and Strategy’s compliance with each of the 17 section 1107 requirements we could assess. Among the 13 requirements addressed, we found that the Strategy identifies Interagency Communities of Interest for the purposes of carrying out the section 1107 program. The Strategy specifically identifies the two Communities called for in section 1107—Emergency Management and Stabilization and Reconstruction—but also names other possible Communities, including cyber-security, climate change adaptation, and energy security, among others. We also found that the Strategy discusses (1) training and education requirements; (2) prerequisites or requirements for participation; and (3) performance measures, reporting requirements, and other accountability devices associated with participation in and evaluation of the program. We found that the Strategy partially addresses 2 of the 17 requirements. Those are the requirements that (1) the Committee issue a National Security Human Capital Strategy within 270 days of enactment of the statute and (2) the Strategy designate agencies to be included or excluded from the program. The Committee issued the Strategy on March 29, 2014, but it was 6 months late and, therefore, did not meet the required deadline. In addition, the Strategy states that the Committee will determine which departments and agencies will participate as each Community is formed, and that a process will be described in further detail in a subsequent part of the Strategy. We determined that these statements make reference to a process for making decisions about which agencies and departments will participate; however, we found that the Strategy does not designate which departments and agencies will be included or excluded, as called for in section 1107. The Strategy does, however, state that agencies with national security missions will incorporate the Strategy into their training priorities. We found that the Strategy does not address 2 of the 17 requirements. Specifically, it does not address the requirements for the Strategy’s policies, processes, and procedures to provide that in each of the 4 fiscal years after enactment of the NDAA for Fiscal Year 2013 (1) the section 1107 Interagency Rotation Program shall be carried out in at least two Communities of Interest—one of which should be Emergency Management and the other Stabilization and Reconstruction; and (2) at least 20 employees should be assigned to participate in the program. We found that the Strategy only reiterates that the statute identifies the Emergency Management and the Stabilization and Reconstruction Communities and allows for additional Communities to be added, subject to approval by the Committee. However, the Strategy does not provide that, at a minimum, the program would be carried out in at least the two designated Interagency Communities of Interest or by at least 20 employees in each of the first 4 fiscal years after the NDAA was enacted. Specifically, the Strategy is silent on the number of participants that would rotate through the program and does not provide assurance that the rotations should occur each year in at least the two named Communities.