At the hearing, Bill Jenkins Jr. from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) presented a preliminary report, Emergency Management Preliminary Observations on FEMA’s Community Preparedness Programs Related to the National Preparedness System, which said that FEMA does not currently have an overall strategic plan for community preparedness or the ability to accurately measure the performance of its various citizen readiness initiatives.

“The operating budgets for community preparedness programs currently represent less than one-half of 1 percent of FEMA’s total budget,” the report noted. “In fiscal year 2009, FEMA’s overall budget was about $7.9 billion, of which about $5.8 million was dedicated to operating community preparedness programs and $2.1 million was for the Ready Campaign.”

FEMA’s Deputy Administrator for National Preparedness Timothy Manning who also testified on the panel, said he not yet had a chance to closely examine the brand new GAO report (though he said he didn’t disagree with much of Jenkins’ testimony to the Subcommittee). And in his own written testimony, Manning made this instructive statement: ”Since September 11, 2001, and the creation of the Department of Homeland Security, the United States has invested tens of billions of dollars in bolstering government’s [his italics] preparedness, while paying little attention to personal and community preparedness.”

At the end of the hearing, Cuellar requested that Manning over the next two weeks develop a preliminary outline of a FEMA strategic plan for community and citizen preparedness that will include the vision, objectives and ways to measure success, and return to the Subcommittee to present it. Cuellar said he wasn’t blaming Manning, who was confirmed just five months ago, and the new FEMA management for the lack of a strategic plan. But by putting a quick turnaround deadline on the request, the Congressman wanted to underscore the need for fast action and for renewed focus on the issue.

Earlier in the week, DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano delivered a major speech on preparedness to mark the end of National Preparedness Month. She said that in order to improve our nation’s readiness all Americans should “raise your hand and ask, ‘What’s our plan?’” at meetings of their local community organizations. In some ways, Rep. Cuellar did exactly that at the Subcommittee hearing in regard to the nation’s overall community preparedness plan.

In his testimony, Manning made this pledge: “Increasing individual and community preparedness and resiliency is a FEMA priority; it is also a national priority, and I will make it a personal priority during my tenure.”

The hearing was called in part to examine a recent Citizen Corps survey which had many interesting findings (most of which highlighted shortcomings in public preparedness) and a number of useful recommendations (most of which urged far more attention be given to the subject).

Also testifying at the hearing were Suzy C. DeFrancis, Chief Public Affairs Officer, American Red Cross and Wendy Smith, Assistant City Manager, McAllen, Texas.

In his opening remarks, Cuellar mentioned a recent post from this blog, “On Sept 11, Some Ideas To Improve Emergency Preparedness & Engagement,” and introduced it into the hearing record.

In a statement after the hearing, Cuellar explained why he requested Manning produce a preliminary plan and return to the Subcommittee within a couple weeks:

“There is a new administration overseeing FEMA and I look forward to seeing their vision for how we can create a national preparedness strategy which puts an emphasis on citizen preparedness…It’s been eight years since the attacks of 9/11 and while we’ve been fortunate to not experience an event as devastating we see local emergencies unfolding across the country everyday. Fires, floods, tornadoes, snow storms, hurricanes. During these events, Americans continue to show they’re willing to respond when disaster strikes…We need FEMA to draft a strategy on how we harness that willingness to contribute before the crisis occurs.”

In fact, even the events of the past two weeks — significant terrorism arrests in several parts of the nation, major flooding in Georgia and other Southeastern states, the American Samoa tsunami, Asian earthquakes and H1N1 spreading in all 50 states — would seem to only reinforce the need for bolstering community preparedness. And, with all these crises in the news, one might have thought this hearing would have received a good deal of attention. Yet, there was only one reporter there (Matthew Korade from CQ Homeland Security), which just seems to highlight one theme of the hearing that despite the apparent importance of community and individual preparedness the subject is often overlooked.

“The economic crisis could result in a serious rollback of the progress we’ve made since September 11, 2001 and Hurricane Katrina to better prepare the nation for emergencies,” said Jeff Levi, PhD, Executive Director of TFAH. “The 25 percent cut in federal support to protect Americans from diseases, disasters, and bioterrorism is already hurting state response capabilities. The cuts to state budgets in the next few years could lead to a disaster for the nation’s disaster preparedness.”

The report also offers a series of recommendations for improving preparedness, including:

*Restoring Full Funding. At a minimum, federal, state, and local funding for public health emergency preparedness capabilities should be restored to FY 2005 levels.

*Strengthening Leadership and Accountability. The next administration must clarify the public health emergency preparedness roles and responsibilities at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

*Enhancing Surge Capacity and the Public Health Workforce. Federal, state, and local governments and health care providers must better address altered standards of care, alternative care sites, legal concerns to protect community assistance, and surge workforce issues.

*Modernizing Technology and Equipment. Communications and surveillance systems and laboratories need increased resources for modernization.

*Improving Community Engagement. Additional measures must be taken to engage communities in emergency planning and to improve protections for at-risk communities.

*Incorporating Preparedness into Health Care Reform and Creating an Emergency Health Benefit. This is needed to contain the spread of disease by providing care to the uninsured and underinsured Americans during major disasters and disease outbreaks.

The report identified strategic objectives the federal government should pursue for improved cyber security. It examined the challenges facing the economic, physical, and human infrastructures and asserted that cyber security needs to be a national priority.

“Moving toward a more secure information infrastructure will require a concerted and committed effort on multiple fronts with the government playing a major role in creating and managing an effective national research and development effort,” the report concludes. “The new Administration has a major opportunity to direct and coordinate cyber security research and development efforts in ways that could provide protection from threats in the near term.”

Of particular interest to this blog is that the study authors point out one of those “multiple fronts” on the cyber security effort is the user public. The report identified priorities for the next 5-10 years, one of which is to better educate and engage citizens of all ages. Noting that the “human dimension of security must be address,” the report recommends:

“…awareness raising and educational campaigns directed at the public and private sectors as well as the general public must be developed. At the same time, IT ethics and security training must be built into K-16 curricula to ensure that the next generation becomes a positive force in the quest for better security.”

Cyber security is a growing concern of homeland security experts and policymakers I have spoken to, including recently former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff. A Obama cyber security transition adviser also last week said that the nation is not prepared for a ‘cyber Katrina’. Though much of the necessary high-tech cyber security work is being (and will be) done by government and the private sector, average computer users should realize that they have a role as well.