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4/8/2011 4:44 PM 

On March 30th, President Obama signed a Presidential Direction on the subject of “National Preparedness”, reflecting upon H1N1, Deepwater Horizon Christchurch and Sendai events - and lessons learned since the previous December 2003, Bush-era policy. 

Unusually, the text was released today, only the second of his six directives released to date, per the Federation of American Scientists. They say the directive, “generally calls for development of systematic response plans for natural and manmade disasters, and seeks to enlist broad engagement in the process.” Presidential Policy Directives carry the force of executive orders, but originate from the National Security Council and can be classified.

According to National Journal’s breaking article,

the Obama directive places significant emphasis on an "all-of-nation" "all-hazards" approach to disasters, fusing together the capabilities of federal, state, and local authorities to respond to crises. It refocuses government resources on mitigation - preventing catastrophes from getting worse - and resilience - how communities actively respond to and recover from a major disaster.

The Department of Homeland Security will set up a National Preparedness System to enable the nation to achieve the preparedness goal and undertake a national preparedness campaign and an annual National Preparedness Report for accountability. Better communications from the government to communities (a nod to IPAWS & OPEN?!) are called for as well as more collaboration with businesses.

Other commentary, by Eric Holdeman and Government Executive generally reiterated this.

My quick summary of the actual directive:
    Everyone has to help with preparedness
    The Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism shall develop an implementation plan within 60 days to create a “national preparedness goal” within 180 days.
    The plan shall “assign departmental responsibilities and delivery timelines for the development of the national planning frameworks and associated interagency operational plans” described in the balance of the directive.
    “The national preparedness goal shall define the core capabilities necessary to prepare for the specific types of incidents that pose the greatest risk to the security of the Nation, and shall emphasize actions aimed at achieving an integrated, layered, and all-of-Nation preparedness approach that optimizes the use of available resources.”
    A description of a National Preparedness System shall be submitted to the President within 240 days, with annual progress reports thereafter.
    “The national preparedness system shall be designed to help guide the domestic efforts of all levels of government, the private and nonprofit sectors, and the public to build and sustain the capabilities outlined in the national preparedness goal. The national preparedness system shall include guidance for planning, organization, equipment, training, and exercises to build and maintain domestic capabilities. It shall provide an all-of-Nation approach for building and sustaining a cycle of preparedness activities over time.”
    Calling for a “framework of integrated planning frameworks”, it sounds like more work needs to be done to integrate the National Response Framework, NIMS and ICS – and that conformance to all these must remain inconsistent nationally.
    All federal agencies need a conops; lists of tasks and responsibilities; detailed resource, personnel, and sourcing requirements; & provisions to rapidly integrate resources and personnel
    Everyone everywhere should develop plans
    Guidance for planning, resources, equipment, training and exercises shall come from on high.
    National consistency of approach and methodology and measurement towards the big goal is desirable.
    DHS shall create a comprehensive campaign to build and sustain national preparedness with lots of programs at various levels
    Roles and Responsibilities are set out.
    Directive replaces 17 Dec 2003 Homeland Security Presidential Directive (HSPD)-8 (National Preparedness) & 4 Dec 2007 HSPD-8 Annex I (National Planning).

Overall, I say it means that the nation needs a consistent framework, terminology and plan for dealing with threats to our livelihood – apparently as the current frameworks aren’t consistent/well crafted/followed. All this is worthwhile certainly, but the devil’s in the details – and whether the updated frameworks are well architected.

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