There are several federal legislative and executive provisions that support preparation for and response to emergency situations. The Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (the Stafford Act) primarily establishes the programs and processes for the federal government to provide major disaster and emergency assistance to states, local governments, tribal nations, individuals, and qualified private nonprofit organizations. FEMA has responsibility for administering the provisions of the Stafford Act. Upon a governor’s request, the President can declare an “emergency” or a “major disaster” under the Stafford Act, which triggers specific types of federal relief. The Stafford Act defines an emergency as any occasion or instance for which, in the determination of the President, federal assistance is needed to supplement state and local efforts and capabilities to save lives and to protect property and public health and safety, or to lessen or avert the threat of a catastrophe in any part of the United States. Under an emergency declaration, the federal government has authority to engage in various emergency response activities, debris removal, temporary housing assistance, and the distribution of medicine, food, and other consumables. The Stafford Act places a $5 million limit on federal emergency assistance, but the President may exceed the limit, followed by a report to Congress. The Stafford Act defines a “major disaster” as any natural catastrophe or, regardless of cause, any fire, flood, or explosion, in any part of the United States, which the President determines causes damage of sufficient severity and magnitude to warrant major disaster assistance under the Stafford Act to supplement the efforts and available resources of states, local governments, and disaster relief organizations in alleviating damage, loss, hardship, or suffering. Under a major disaster declaration, the federal government has the authority to engage in the same activities authorized under an emergency declaration, but without the $5 million ceiling. In addition, major disaster assistance includes a variety of assistance not available in the context of an emergency. For example, in a major disaster, the federal government may provide unemployment assistance, food coupons to low-income households, and repair, restoration and replacement of certain damaged facilities, among other things. For Hurricane Katrina, the President issued emergency declarations under the Stafford Act for Louisiana on August 27, 2005 and Mississippi and Alabama on August 28, 2005. The President made major disaster declarations for Florida on August 28, 2005, and Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama on August 29, 2005, the same day that Hurricane Katrina made final landfall in the affected states. The Homeland Security Act of 2002 required the newly established DHS to develop a comprehensive National Incident Management System (NIMS) and a comprehensive National Response Plan (NRP). NIMS is intended to provide a consistent framework for incident management at all jurisdictional levels regardless of the cause, size, or complexity of the situation and to define the roles and responsibilities of federal, state, and local governments, and various first responder disciplines at each level during an emergency event. NIMS established the Incident Command System (ICS) as a standard incident management organization with five functional areas—command, operations, planning, logistics, and finance/administration—for management of all major incidents. It also prescribes interoperable communications systems and preparedness before an incident happens, including planning, training, and exercises. The Homeland Security Act of 2002 also required DHS to consolidate existing federal government emergency response plans into a single, coordinated national response plan. In December 2004, DHS issued the National Response Plan (NRP), intended to be an all-discipline, all-hazards plan establishing a single, comprehensive framework for the management of domestic incidents where federal involvement is necessary. It is to operate within the framework of NIMS. The NRP only applies to incidents of national significance, defined as an actual or potential high-impact event that requires a coordinated and effective response by an appropriate combination of federal, state, local, tribal, nongovernmental, and/or private-sector entities in order to save lives and minimize damage, and provide the basis for long-term community recovery and mitigation activities. The NRP does not apply to the majority of incidents occurring each year that are handled by local jurisdictions or agencies through established authorities and existing plans under the planning assumption that incidents are typically managed at the lowest possible geographic, organizational, and jurisdictional level. The NRP states that the Secretary of Homeland Security, as the principal federal official for domestic incident management, designates incidents of national significance, pursuant to the criteria in Homeland Security Presidential Directive 5 (HSPD-5). HSPD-5 requires one or more of the following to qualify as an incident of national significance: (1) a federal department or agency acting under its own authority has requested the assistance of the Secretary of Homeland Security, (2) the resources of state and local authorities are overwhelmed and federal assistance has been requested by the appropriate state and local authorities, (3) more than one federal department or agency has become substantially involved in responding to an incident, or (4) the Secretary of Homeland Security has been directed to assume responsibility for managing a domestic incident by the President. The Secretary of Homeland Security provides overall coordination for incidents of national significance. Under the NRP, a principal federal official (PFO) is to be personally designated by the Secretary of Homeland Security for a particular incident and is to be the primary point of contact and provide local situational awareness for the secretary. Under the NRP, the PFO is to coordinate the activities of the senior federal law enforcement official for the incident, the federal coordinating officer (FCO) who manages and coordinates federal resource support activities related to Stafford Act disasters and emergencies, and other federal officials involved in incident management activities acting under their own authorities. The PFO does not have directive authority over these officials, but is to play a coordinating function under the NRP. The Stafford Act requires that a FCO be appointed to coordinate relief for major disasters and emergencies declared by the President. The FCO retains this coordination authority notwithstanding the appointment of a PFO under the NRP. The NRP can be partially or fully implemented in anticipation of or in response to an incident of national significance. The NRP base plan includes planning assumptions, roles and responsibilities, concept of operations, and incident management actions. Annexes (i.e. appendixes) to the NRP provide more detailed information on emergency support functions such as transportation and communications and functional processes and administrative requirements such as financial management and international coordination. Incident annexes address contingency or hazard situations that require specialized application of the NRP for incidents of national significance. The Catastrophic Incident Annex of the NRP references “catastrophic incidents.” The NRP defines a catastrophic incident as any natural or manmade incident, including terrorism, resulting in extraordinary levels of mass casualties, damage, or disruption severely affecting the population, infrastructure, environment, economy, national morale, and/or government functions. A catastrophic incident could result in sustained national impacts over a prolonged period of time; almost immediately exceeds resources normally available to state, local, tribal, and private- sector authorities in the impacted area; and significantly interrupts governmental operations and emergency services to such an extent that national security could be threatened. The Catastrophic Incident Annex describes an accelerated, proactive national response to catastrophic incidents. The annex establishes protocols to pre-identify and rapidly deploy key essential resources that are expected to be urgently needed or required to save lives and contain incidents. Expedited assistance can be provided in one or more areas, such as mass care, housing, human services, urban search and rescue, and public health and medical support. A draft of a more detailed and operationally specific Catastrophic Incident Supplement for the NRP’s Catastrophic Incident Annex had not been approved at the time of Hurricane Katrina, although the NRP’s 120-day schedule for implementing the supplement had passed. The draft supplement is intended to provide the operational framework for implementing the annex. The draft supplement, for example, includes operations to be carried out by local, state, and federal responders; detailed execution schedules and implementation strategies; functional capability overviews (such as coverage for transportation support); and key responsibilities of federal departments and agencies. The draft supplement language says it is designed for catastrophic incidents that occur with little or no notice, without an opportunity for advance planning and positioning of resources. The Secretary of Homeland Security is to make a catastrophic incident designation to activate the provisions of the Catastrophic Incident Annex. Otherwise, the basic provisions of the NRP will apply to the incident. The Secretary of Homeland Security declared Hurricane Katrina an incident of national significance on August 30, 2005, but never declared it a catastrophic incident. I will now turn to the four major topics I identified at the beginning of my testimony. Four key themes, based on our preliminary work, underpin many of the challenges encountered in the response to Hurricane Katrina and reflect certain lessons learned from past catastrophes. These are generally consistent with the themes I highlighted in a statement to the House Select Committee. They include the central importance of (1) clearly defining and communicating leadership roles, responsibilities, and lines of authority for the response at all levels in advance of a catastrophic disaster, (2) clarifying the procedures for activating the National Response Plan and applying them to emerging catastrophic disasters, (3) conducting strong advance planning and robust training and exercise programs to test these plans in advance of a real disaster, and (4) strengthening response and recovery capabilities for a catastrophic disaster, including those such as emergency communications, continuity of essential government services, and logistics and distribution systems underpinning citizen safety and security. They have been among the topics covered in this committee’s hearings and were also highlighted among the many factors in the House Select Committee report and the White House report.