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GAO-13-250R 1 (2013-03-22)

handle is hein.gao/gaobachaa0001 and id is 1 raw text is: JGAO Accountablty *Integrity * Reliability United States Government Accountability Office Washington, DC 20548 March 22, 2013 The Honorable Bennie G. Thompson Ranking Member Committee on Homeland Security House of Representatives Subject: FEMA Reservists: Training Could Benefit from Examination of Practices at Other Agencies Dear Mr. Thompson: Hurricane Sandy made landfall on October 29, 2012, in New Jersey, leaving extensive flooding, loss of life, and property damage across the eastern United States in its wake. Within 3 days of the hurricane's landfall, more than 2,300 Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) personnel were working to support response operations, including search and rescue, power restoration, communications, and logistical support in states affected by the storm. Hurricane Sandy was one of 46 federal major disaster declarations in fiscal year 2012. From fiscal year 2007 through fiscal year 2012, there have been 422 federal major disaster declarations in which FEMA has obligated $39 billion in major disaster assistance payments.1 Within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), FEMA is tasked with leading the nation in mitigating, responding to, and recovering from major disasters, both natural and man-made. To carry out its mission, FEMA relies heavily upon its Reservist Program, an on-call reserve workforce that is deployed when needed to assist disaster survivors. As of February 2013, there were 6,795 reservists, who constituted 36 percent of FEMA's disaster workforce. In April 2012, FEMA announced that it was transforming its reservist workforce, formerly known as Disaster Assistance Employees. Among other things, the transformation to the Reservist Program transitioned reservist assignments from a regionally based structure to a nationally managed program. We have identified several challenges related to FEMA's reservist training practices. Specifically, in May 2012, we reported that FEMA's reservist training was not consistent with key attributes of effective training and development programs that could help to ensure that its training and development investments were targeted strategically. We recommended that FEMA establish a plan to ensure all reservists have opportunities to participate in training and are qualified and that FEMA develop a systematic process to track training costs.2 FEMA officials agreed with the recommendations. In October 2012 the agency launched the FEMA Qualification System (FQS) and the Incident Qualification Certification System (IQCS) to track reservist training and qualifications.3 According to the officials, they anticipate that IQCS will 1This includes obligations for Individual Assistance, Public Assistance, and Hazard Mitigation, only for major disaster declarations declared from fiscal years 2007 through 2012. 2GAO, Disaster Assistance Workforce: FEMA Could Enhance Human Capital Management and Training, GAO-12- 538 (Washington, D.C.: May 25, 2012). 3FQS establishes qualification and performance standards for FEMA's disaster workforce, including reservists. IQCS is the information system managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), originally used to track training and GAO-13-250R FEMA Reservists

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