FEMA has an extraordinary and very complex mission, but it’s one of the most important within the federal government. Bottom line, every day we strive to help people before, during, and after disasters. The vision that we’ve put forward and what we’re working for through the strategic plan is to create a prepared and resilient nation. Very simply put, the plan has three overarching goals that we’re asking all of our partners to embrace. First, we have to create a true culture of preparedness. Quite often these disasters have shown that our citizens are the true first responders, and that in many cases we have to go back out and reevaluate the “Be Ready” program and the things that we’re doing and how are asking people to be prepared.
Building a Culture of Preparedness throughout the Nation requires every segment of our society, from individuals to government, and industry to philanthropy, to be encouraged and empowered with information needed to prepare for the inevitable impacts of future disasters.
Building more resilient communities requires that we incentivize investments that will reduce risk and make larger investments in mitigation before disasters occur. We have to better understand future hazards so that we can plan calculated investments to contain disaster impacts.
We’ll never be able to eliminate all risk, so it must be managed responsibly. FEMA will work with communities and insurers to close the insurance gap across the Nation. Managing risk through insurance, including the National Flood Insurance Program, helps communities to recover faster following disasters and reduces costs for taxpayers.
When disaster strikes, individual citizens are the first on the ground to help a neighbor, colleague, or friend. Equipping individuals and communities with the right information at the right time will build a more resilient nation.
Preparedness will never be enough, however. Disasters will continue and FEMA must be ready to provide the highest level of service to the Nation. To do so, we must actively learn from past disasters and continuously improve outcomes for the survivors and communities we serve.
A true culture of preparedness requires building resilience and self-sufficiency – so individuals and communities are positioned to withstand and recover more quickly when disasters do occur.
Goal 2 is dedicated to readying the nation for catastrophic disasters. Specifically we have to make sure that we are ready to go to truly help America on its worst days. Bottom line is, is we have to prepare for low- to no-notice events such as New Madrid earthquakes, Cascadia events or nation-state threats, but we also have to break down the walls of FEMA and we have to do much more integrated planning.
The important value that FEMA provides to the Nation is delivered through its people. FEMA must build and sustain a scalable incident workforce that provides our team with the strength needed to face any scenario. Whether large or small, we must always be ready and equipped to meet the needs of state, local, tribal, and territorial partners as they confront any hazard.
To that end, FEMA will establish closer relationships in advance of disasters by embedding with our partners in the field through FEMA Integration Teams. We will embed FEMA staff with our partners, working side-by-side, every day so that we are well-coordinated both before and after disasters occur.
FEMA can’t support catastrophic incidents alone; we are part of the team, but not the whole team. We must maximize our collaboration with private industry and other Federal agencies to provide life-saving and life-sustaining commodities, equipment, and personnel as quickly as possible.
Likewise, we must ensure the Nation’s communication capabilities are robust and resilient. If we cannot communicate, we cannot coordinate. Continuity is essential to understanding the situation and delivering the necessary resources to our partners in need.
Goal #3 is reducing the complexity of FEMA. There’s two parts to this goal. One, we have to streamline our business processes internally as an agency. The other side of this goal is streamlining the types of assistance that we render to not only the disaster survivor, but to the grantees and communities that are impacted by major disasters.
We will streamline the disaster survivor and grantee experience itself by reducing the steps necessary for impacted individuals and communities to quickly receive the assistance they need. This effort will help FEMA better deliver its mission.
Jurisdictions affected by catastrophic disasters face recovery challenges impacting every aspect of the community. The National Disaster Recovery Framework (NDRF) offers a structure to organize long-term Federal support to these jurisdictions. FEMA will work with its interagency partners to mature the NDRF, to better build and align the capabilities of other Federal agencies, and offer unified commitment to the recovery priorities identified by affected communities.
FEMA must also innovate and ensure that our systems and business processes enable our employees to rapidly and effectively deliver the Agency’s mission. Truly positive outcomes can arise from enterprising employees who think of different, and more simple ways to do business. Breaking down silos can spur cross-cutting projects that help deliver the Agency’s mission.
Speed is important, however it cannot become the enemy of accuracy. FEMA must provide the assistance needed as quickly as possible to alleviate suffering and accelerate recovery, but we must also continue to be the responsible stewards of resources to which we are entrusted. We will balance these needs by strengthening grants management while also increasing transparency and leveraging data to drive decision-making through improved analytics.
Having spent my entire career in emergency management and recently being appointed as Administrator of FEMA, one of the things that I wanted to do right off the bat was not only create a strategic plan that guides the way the agency goes, a plan that’s easy to understand and executable but also ambitious, I want to also extend to our state, local, and tribal partners to adopt the concepts behind this plan so that collectively we are moving forward in a unified manner.