News of humans infected with Ebola in West Africa, avian influenza in China, polio in the Middle East, and dengue fever in the Caribbean are examples of reports that heighten concerns about the health screenings of people arriving in the United States. Congress plays an important oversight role, particularly when concerns involve contagious diseases or potential pandemics.
This report marks the 3rd National Preparedness Report. Required annually by Presidential Policy Directive 8: National Preparedness, the National Preparedness Report summarizes progress in building, sustaining, and delivering the 31 core capabilities described in the National Preparedness Goal.
From 2014 to 2018, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) will focus on five strategic priorities, institutionalizing key improvements while building agency capacity and strengthening national capabilities for disaster preparedness.
This report provides insights on the changes of the past 10 years and the continuing emerging threats that still face the United States. Issues mentioned in this report include: the struggle against terrorism being far from over; cyber readiness lagging behind the threat; and counterterrorism fatigue and a waning sense of urgency among the public.
Biosecurity incidents - such as the potential exposure of staff in Atlanta laboratories at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention - highlight the importance of maintaining biosafety and biosecurity protocols at high-containment laboratories. The U.S. Government Accountability Office summarizes the results of past work on the oversight of high-containment laboratories.
In 2012, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO) developed the radiation legal preparedness (RLP) project to examine state and local legal authorities related to the response to and recovery from incidents in which members of the public become contaminated or potentially contaminated with radioactive material.
This report examines National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) security reforms. In this report, the U.S. Government Accountability Office examined: (a) Department of Energy (DOE), NNSA, and contractors' implementation of the 2009-2012 security reforms, including any benefits or drawbacks they identified for NNSA and its sites; and (b) NNSA's actions or plans to improve security performance and oversight after the Y-12 security breach.
The Government Accountability Office was asked to assess the Department of Defense (DOD) actions to adapt its U.S. infrastructure to the challenges of climate change. This report describes potential impacts, evaluates DOD efforts, assesses how DOD is accounting for climate change, and evaluates the extent to which DOD incorporates adaptation.
This report represents the Department of Defense's response to the threat of weapons of mass destruction (WMD). It specifies desired end states, prescribes priority objectives, delineates a strategic approach for achieving those objectives, and outlines the countering WMD activities and tasks necessary for success.
This report details that the Department of Homeland Security will continue to adhere to the five basic homeland security missions set forth in the first Quadrennial Homeland Security Review report in 2010, but these missions must be refined to reflect the evolving landscape of homeland security threats and hazards.
