This statement describes a range of historical and present challenges to building and maintaining the nation's biodefense and biosurveillance. It is based on prior work issued from December 2009 through March 2016 on various biodefense and biosurveillance efforts, and reviews the 2015 report of the Blue Ribbon Study Panel on Biodefense for selected updates.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is in the process of reviewing and refreshing NIMS and is seeking stakeholder input on the draft. National engagement provides an opportunity for interested parties to comment on the draft NIMS, so that it reflects the collective expertise and experience of the whole community. The National Engagement period concludes at 5:00pm on May 9, 2016.
Following the federal response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the Post-Katrina Act was enacted in 2006, requiring the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to establish a national preparedness system and assess the nation's overall preparedness. This statement addresses FEMA's progress in strengthening federal preparedness efforts and managing preparedness grants.
The Obama Administration released a new National Security Strategy (NSS) on 6 February 2015. It was the second NSS document to be published by the Administration. The 2015 document retains much of the underlying thought of the 2010 version. This report details the similarities and differences between the two documents and potential oversight questions for Congress.
This assessment's findings represent an improvement in scientific confidence in the link between climate change and a broad range of threats to public health, while recognizing populations of concern and identifying emerging issues. These considerations provide the ability to identify, project, and respond to future climate change health threats.
The FEMA Damage Assessment Operations Manual is part of an effort to provide a user-friendly, streamlined post-disaster damage assessment process that builds on the existing knowledge and expertise of state, tribe, and local partners to identify damage after a natural or manmade disaster.
This report focuses primarily on public health data that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) collects - for surveillance of disease, injury, and exposure to health threats - from state, tribal, local, and territorial health departments, including their public health laboratories, and from hospitals and other healthcare providers.
The evolution of the Weapons of Mass Destruction threat, revised policy and guidance, and feedback from the workforce and stakeholders led the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) to reexamine and update their strategic plan. The revised strategic plan addresses the strategic changes needed to achieve their vision to be the nation's premier countering weapons of mass destruction (CWMD) workforce and solutions provider.
A team of students enrolled in the National Preparedness Leadership Initiative at Harvard is working on a project to examine the collaboration, cooperation, and connectivity in the federal and state relationship, as it applies to the national core capability of critical infrastructure systems (transportation systems, water and wastewater systems, etc.). To help this team gather data and information from stakeholders to support their project, please take the anonymous survey. Survey completion requested by Friday, 15 April 2016.
This second edition Future Trends report recognizes that the most significant changes in the geospatial industry come from linking multiple technologies and policies. The first part of the report focuses on the new and emerging trends, while the second half of the report incorporates changes that have occurred in the trends identified in the first edition.
