Related Legislation

H.R. 5351
the National Emergency Management Reform and Enhancement Act of 2006

Introduced by: Reps. Weichert (R-WA), Pascrell (D-NJ), Thompson (D-MS), King (R-NY)
Cosponsors:  51

Brief Summary

H.R. 5351 is the House Homeland Security Committee’s solution to the government’s flawed response to Hurricane Katrina.  This bipartisan bill passed HSC unanimously.

Among other things, the HSC bill would:

• establish a Directorate of Emergency Management in DHS, the head of which is an Under Secretary for Emergency Management who will assume the functions of the FEMA Director;
• provide that the Under Secretary will have Cabinet status and report directly to the President during an “Incident of National Significance”; and,
• protect the budget of the Directorate from reprogramming by DHS.

Human Capital Provisions

HR. 5351 includes several elements relating directly to human capital, including provisions to:

• establish an Office of Training and Exercises;
• establish a Homeland Security Education Program for senior federal and selected state and local officials;
• establish a fraud prevention training program;
• allow DHS prevention grant funds to be used by state, local or tribal governments to hire intelligence analysts;
• require a NAPA study on the implementation of the Act’s organizational changes to DHS, and direct that NAPA “provide assistance in the creation and implementation of the Directorate of Emergency Management”;
• require a GAO report on, and assessment of, the overall inventory and status of training programs for emergency responders in DHS and other federal agencies and the extent to which such programs are coordinated; and,
• direct GAO to recommend improvements in training programs.

Links

National Emergency Management Reform and Enhancement Act of 2006
May 11, 2006