Natural, accidental, or intentional hazards produce disasters of varying severity and consequence in the nation every day. Local, state, or tribal governments respond to the significant majority of these disasters without support from the federal government. This is especially true in the initial phase of disaster response—often generalized as the first 72 hours after the originating incident. However, on an as-needed basis, the federal government can provide significant assistance to support the local, state, or tribal response operation through deployable federal assets. This report examines a variety of deployable federal assets that can support a disaster response operation. These assets may be able to support the response to certain types of consequences from certain disasters (e.g., radiological exposure from a nuclear incident) or consequences common to all disasters (e.g., command and control support, or communications assistance). This report provides a general analysis of key concepts involving deployable federal assets, including what it means to be a deployable federal asset; when the assets will be used to support response operations; what the main authorities and policies are that guide the use of assets; and what level of support the federal government is prepared to provide for response operations. This report also examines several issues Congress may wish to consider as it evaluates the future authorization and funding for various deployable federal assets. Issues examined in the report include the potential policy benefits and disadvantages of federal investment in deployable federal assets, the cost-effectiveness of different staffing models for the assets, the methods for financing the deployment of the assets, whether federal assets should have greater operational control in response operations, and the challenges Congress may face in its oversight of the use of the assets. This report concludes by providing summaries of examples of deployable federal assets, including available information on their authorization, funding, and past uses in disasters. Brief information on the selected assets is condensed and presented in Table 1 . A deployable federal asset is not a generally recognized term in the field of domestic emergency management, but rather is a term developed for the purposes of this report to characterize a broad swath of federal resources. The term is used to classify sets of specially trained federal employees whose mission, though not necessarily exclusive mission, is to provide on-scene assistance to communities by supporting their disaster response. To aid a community, these deployable federal assets may provide unique capabilities not frequently available at a local, state or tribal level; or they may be able to supplement existing capabilities that have been overwhelmed in significant disasters. A capability , as defined in federal law, is "the ability to provide the means to accomplish one or more tasks under specific conditions and to specific performance standards. A capability may be achieved with any combination of properly planned, organized, equipped, trained, and exercised personnel that achieves the intended outcome." In combination with specialized personnel and capabilities, a deployable federal asset may provide federally owned commodities, such as power generation or telecommunications equipment. A deployable federal asset also operates on an "alert" status so that they can deploy to a no-notice incident in a community expeditiously, often within the first 24 hours or less. Colloquially, deployable federal assets can be described as the federal government's "first responders" to a disaster. However, even within the confines described above, some of the deployable federal assets summarized later in the report do not comply with one of the defining elements. For example, the National Urban Search and Rescue (US&R) Task Forces are not federal employees, though they can be deployed in a federal capacity at the direction of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and receive significant funding to maintain national response capabilities. This report does not discuss, and the term deployable federal asset does not include, other forms of federal assistance that can be used to support a domestic disaster response, including financial assistance, such as numerous grant and loan programs; logistics assistance, such as aiding in the delivery of water, food, and medical commodities; and technical assistance, such as legal counsel, engineering expertise for infrastructure damage assessments, or scientific expertise on natural hazards. The term deployable federal asset also does not include the significant number of federal government personnel that are already permanently "deployed" throughout the nation. These federal personnel may support a local, state, or tribal government through their normally authorized activities, in both normal and disaster situations. For example, Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) air traffic controllers provide a daily public service to a community, and they strive to continue that service in disasters to support the community. Likewise, the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS's) field personnel, such as Custom and Border Protection agents, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, and Secret Service agents, perform essential homeland security and emergency management duties on a regular basis in communities across the nation. In particular, the U.S. Coast Guard provides significant emergency management and homeland security capabilities through regionally based personnel throughout the nation, in fulfillment of its maritime security and safety missions. The field personnel of scientific government agencies can also provide on-scene technical expertise to support disaster response operations, such as personnel from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). When a hazard produces a disaster in a community, the assets and resources needed to address the consequences of the incident are generally provided by local, state, or tribal governments. This complies with general principles of federalism found in emergency management policy, and the often repeated truism that "all disasters are local." However, due to the magnitude of the disaster, a local, state, or tribal government may (a) be unable to respond to the unique consequences of a disaster (e.g., it lacks a capability to eliminate a certain biological contaminant), or (b) have its capability to respond become overwhelmed by the scale of consequences (e.g., there are too many survivors requiring temporary shelter assistance). In either circumstance, the community may first request assistance through an Emergency Management Assistance Compact (EMAC) or similar mutual-aid agreement with a neighboring jurisdiction. These mutual-aid agreements allow communities to leverage the resources of the surrounding region before requesting assistance from a higher level of government, such as how neighboring fire departments may be called upon to assist during particularly challenging incidents. In general, to obtain federal assistance to address unmet needs arising from the disaster, an official request must be made through the jurisdictional chain relevant to the community (i.e., from a city to county, county to state, and then state to federal; or from a mayor to county executive, a county executive to a governor, and a governor to the President). Generally, tribal governments may appeal for assistance directly to the federal government, but may also seek the assistance of a relevant state or other local government first. There are many federal laws and regulations that prescribe how a request for assistance may be made, but the most prominent is the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. §5721 et seq. ; henceforth the Stafford Act). The federal government may also provide assistance without a request in more limited circumstances. For example, a request does not need to be made by a state or tribal government when the primary responsibility for the response rests with the federal government. This most frequently occurs because the incident involves an issue or hazard for which, under the Constitution or a federal law, the President or other federal authority has exclusive or preeminent responsibility and authority. Likewise, there are situations when the federal government or a federal asset will provide immediate assistance, primarily to prevent the direct loss of life or significant property damage, without the request rising through the "normal" request procedures. For instance, the Department of Defense (DOD), through its Defense Support of Civil Authorities (DSCA) regulations and policies, authorizes local DOD officials to provide immediate assistance without a formal request rising through the state and lead federal officials. Called the "immediate response authority," regulations state that In response a request for assistance from a civil authority, under imminently serious conditions and if time does not permit approval from higher authority, DOD officials may provide an immediate response by temporarily employing the resources under their control, subject to any supplemental direction provided by higher headquarters, to save lives, prevent human suffering, or mitigate great property damage within the United States. For many reasons, the federal government attempts to scale its support for any disaster response operation appropriately. Most obviously, the federal government scales its support so as not to waste federal resources, but also to avoid overwhelming the community with excess assets and inhibiting an efficient response. This scalability of support by the federal government can include denying the requests of local, state, and tribal governments for more commitment of resources. For example, a duly authorized federal official receiving a request may determine that the use of an asset is not required by the conditions in the relevant incident. Under the Stafford Act process, this can mean the denial of a request for a major or emergency disaster declaration, or the provision of certain types of direct federal assistance and not others under a major disaster declaration. The federal government may also provide a different type of asset than the one requested to address an unmet need. In theory, in the most extreme of catastrophic disasters, all applicable resources of the federal government could be directed to support response operations under the authority of the Stafford Act. The full resources of the DOD could also be used to support a disaster response under what DOD claims is its "inherent emergency power." An exemption in the Antideficiency Act relating to "emergencies involving the safety of human life or the protection of property" may also allow the use of federal resources, to include deployable assets, without sufficient funding having been previously provided by Congress. It is difficult, if not impossible, to project the magnitude of consequences that the full resources of the federal government would be able to respond to sufficiently. Additionally, government plans that provide detailed assessments of a maximum response capacity are likely to be classified, given the sensitivity of that information for national security.