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• Fireline Handbook

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  This document is a handbook for firefighters covering a variety of topics ranging from logistics to operations to firefighter safety.

  National Wildfire Coordinating Group (U.S.)

  2004-03
• Responding in the Pentagon [Eyewitness Testimony Regarding the September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attack at the Pentagon]

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  This document contains testimony of various eyewitnesses to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C.

  United States. Department of the Army. Office of the Surgeon General. Office of Medical History
• Disaster Contracts Quarterly Report: Fourth Quarter, Fiscal Year 2016 (Fiscal Year 2016 Report to Congress)

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  "This document responds to the language set forth in the Fiscal Year (FY) 2007 Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Appropriations Act (P.L. 109-295) and the Joint Explanatory Statement that accompanies the same Act. P.L. 109-295), Section 691 (d) of title VI states: At the end of each fiscal quarter, beginning with the first fiscal quarter occurring at least 90 days after the date of enactment of this Act, the Administrator shall submit a report on each disaster assistance contract entered into by the Agency by other than competitive procedures to the appropriate committees of Congress. The Joint Explanatory Statement that accompanies P.L. 109-295 (Conference Report 109-699) states: FEMA shall provide a quarterly report to the Committees on Appropriations regarding all contracts issued during any disaster. The report shall include a detailed justification for any contract entered into using procedures based upon the unusual and compelling urgency exception to competitive procedures requirements under section 303(c)(2) of the Federal Property and Administrative Services Act of 1949 (41 U.S.C. 253(c)(2) or section 2304(c)(2) of title 10, United States Code. Justification details by individual contract are to include, at least: the amount of funds, the timeframe, the contractor, a specific reason why the contract could not be competed and how action may be taken to ensure competition of the contract in the future without impeding timely disaster response."

  United States. Department of Homeland Security

  2016-11-21
• Khobar Towers Tragedy and Response

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  "For some Americans, the catastrophic events of September 11, 2001 may have overshadowed the Khobar Towers bombing of June 25, l996.Yet as horrific as the attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center were, the bombing in Dhahran-terrible in its own right-should still command our attention. There is no distinguishing of the importance among these, or any other terrorist events, to those who lost their loved ones in them. That the Khobar Towers tragedy was followed by ones even larger in scale does not diminish its importance: it furthers it. The 'Bleeding Kansas' of the 1850s prefigured a far bloodier Civil War in the 1860s, and the blasted facade of Building 131 anticipated the yet more deadly terrorism of the twenty-first century. This history is based largely on tape-recorded oral history interviews conducted by the author and held by the Air Force Historical Studies Office, on Bolling Air Force Base, Washington, D.C. Other historians contributed a few more of these sessions and those sources are identified in the endnotes and backmatter. Where I conducted the interview, the endnotes describe it as an interview 'with' the participant; where another historian asked all or most of the questions, the notes call it an interview 'of' the participant. In the endnotes which have shortened citations, the use of one of these prepositions or the other tells the reader whether the interview cited was conducted by the author or another historian. In every case, the AFHSO [Air Force Historical Studies Office] holds copies of these taped interviews. Many of the interviewees offered painfully vivid accounts of the Khobar Towers bombing and its aftermath. Their stark honesty made it difficult to quote some parts of their interviews. I tried to describe accurately the horrors of a terrorist attack and at the same time to respect the feelings of those who survived the bombing that night and of the families of those who did not."

  Air Force History and Museums Program (U.S.)

  Jamieson, Perry D.

  2008
• Serial No. 106-15: E-Commerce: the Benefits and Pitfalls of Conducting Business over the Internet: Hearing before the Committee on Small Business, U.S. House of Representatives One Hundred Sixth Congress, First Session, May 26, 1999

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  From the opening statement of Christopher Shays: "Earlier today we heard testimony in closed session from those familiar with very specific and very sensitive aspects of the threats posed by terrorists to U.S. citizens and property at home and abroad. That information provided some depth and clarity to the subcommittee's ongoing oversight of government wide terrorism issues. But terrorism also has a very public face. Using fear and panic as weapons, terrorists seek to amplify and transform crimes against humanity into acts of war. The growing and changing threat of terrorism requires an ongoing public discussion of the appropriate strategy, priorities and resources to protect public health and national security. That discussion brings us here this afternoon. As this point in the evolution of our post cold war response to the new realities of a dangerous world, we should have a dynamic, integrated assessment of the threat posed by foreign and domestic-origin terrorism. We should have a truly national strategy to counter the threat. And to implement that strategy, we should have a clear set of priorities to guide Federal programs and funding decisions." Statements, letters, and materials submitted for the record include those of the following: Daniel O. Hill, Harris N. Miller, Andrew B. Whinston, Alan W. Anderson, and Brian Hanson.

  United States. Government Printing Office

  1999
• Ground Dog Day: Lessons Don't Have to be Relearned in the Use of Dogs in Combat

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  "Currently, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan involve the US fighting insurgents. The nature of the fight in highly populated areas negates traditional American strengths in technology and mechanization. One of the potential tools in this fight is the expanded use of military working dogs (MWD), also called war dogs or K-9s. The increased use of dogs on the battlefield has the potential to save lives. The problem is that this lesson seems to have to be relearned with every prolonged conflict the US enters. The delay by the military leadership recognizing dogs utility on the battlefield has historically cost US servicemen's lives. The purpose of this thesis is to determine whether lessons that have been learned could be applied to the current MWD program to enhance the effectiveness of using dogs in combat. The intent is not to convince the reader that every lesson or particular conclusion or recommendation presented is the final solution to creating a perfect MWD program. The aim, instead, is to offer a spectrum of options or alternative methods that may be of use to those involved in MWD programs and to suggest areas for further research and exploration."

  Naval Postgraduate School (U.S.)

  Hammerstrom, Michael L.

  2005-12
• Improving Protection Against Viral Aerosols Through Development of Novel Decontamination Methods and Characterization of Viral Aerosol

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  From the Thesis Abstract: "Although respirators and filers are designed to prevent the spread of pathogenic aerosols, a stockpile shortage is anticipated during the next flu pandemic. Contact transfer and reaerosolization are also concerns. An option to address these potential problems is to decontaminate used respirators/filters for reuse. In this research a droplet/aerosol loading chamber was built and used in decontamination testing to proved a fair comparison of the performance of different decontamination techniques, including antimicrobial chemical agents, microwave irradiation and ultraviolet (UV) irradiation, which were incorporated into filtration systems and tested. The inactivation efficacy of dialdehyde cellulose and starch filters s biocidal filters was investigated. In sufficiently humid conditions both media showed higher removal efficiency and better disinfection capability at lower pressure drop than conventional media."

  Air Force Research Laboratory (Tyndall Air Force Base, Florida). Materials and Manufacturing Directorate

  Woo, Myung-Huei

  2012-04-16
• Disaster Assistance: FEMA Should Take Additional Actions to Strengthen Fraud Risk Management for Public Assistance Emergency Work Grants, Report to Congressional Requesters

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  From the Highlights: "FEMA has obligated over $10 billion in PA [Public Assistance] grants for emergency work to applicants in the three states and two territories recovering from hurricanes and wildfires in 2017. FEMA faces challenges balancing the need to quickly deliver disaster funds while minimizing the risk of fraud-- challenges increased by the size and scope of the 2017 disasters and the complexity of the PA grant program. Fraud schemes have included false documentation for debris removal. GAO [Government Accountability Office] was asked to review a range of disaster response and recovery issues following the 2017 disaster season. This report addresses the extent to which (1) FEMA's efforts to assess fraud risks to PA emergency work grants align with leading practices, and (2) FEMA helps ensure PA applicants are able to meet their responsibilities for managing fraud risks. GAO assessed FEMA's procedures against leading practices in the Fraud Risk Framework."

  United States. Government Accountability Office

  2020-09
• Hurricane Frances Post-Storm Transportation Analysis

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  This report addresses transportation and clearance time issues during Hurricane Frances including the roadway network's ability to meet evacuation traffic demand, how quickly the public responded to evacuation orders, the volume of traffic during the evacuation, the duration of the evacuation event relative to clearance times, and traffic problems experienced during the evacuation.

  United States. Federal Emergency Management Agency

  2005-09
• Understanding the Fundamental Principles Underlying the Survival and Efficient Recovery of Multi-Scale Techno-Social Networks Following a WMD Event (a)

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  "Motivation: Understanding the fundamental principles underlying the functional robustness of Techno-Social Networks (TSN-s) is a tall, but inevitable challenge. As the society becomes increasingly dependent on infrastructure transport networks, the implications of large-scale disruptions (e.g., due to WMD events) of these systems also become increasingly important. In our ever more connected and interdependent world, small perturbations can have far reaching effects. Large-scale events, such as cascading failures (e.g., the East coast blackout on Aug. 14, 2003) or epidemics (SARS [Severe acute respiratory syndrome] and most recently Ebola) are typical to complex networks, and they serve as warnings about the type of behaviors one can expect in strongly interconnected systems. As a result, we demand ever-increasing predictive power and ability to evaluate the impact of potential failures. There has been, however, little to no mathematical and analytical methodology that would allow a realistic assessment of the consequences of large-scale failures in critical infrastructure TSN-s, largely due to two major aspects of these networks: i) Multivariate and heterogeneous constraints. Real-world TSNs typically operate under a wide range of constraints and limitations imposed both from the technical (physical) side and the social (usage) side. Physical constraints include geographical embeddedness; energy limitations (transportation costs, battery life); device capacity, latency and bandwidth, while usage constraints include software limitations, communication protocols and regulations. To advance empirical applications, network models will need to address these constraints since they strongly influence the response and failure modes of a network in case of WMDs. The dynamics of constrained complex networks, especially if they are directed, weighted and hierarchical are not well understood. The adaptive capabilities, including recovery of TSNs facing major destructive events has been a relatively uncharted territory"

  United States. Defense Threat Reduction Agency

  Toroczkai, Z. (Zoltan); Vespignani, Alessandro, 1965-

  2016-07
• Exposure to Death, Disasters, and Bodies

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  "This is the fourth of a series of six volumes addressing the various psychological and behavioral factors of performance and medical care delivery in a chemical and biological warfare (CBW) environment. This volume addresses the unique stress of exposure to death and disaster both for individuals and for a community. In December 1985, the U.S. Army suffered its largest peacetime loss when a chartered plane carrying 248 soldiers crashed in Gander, Newfoundland. This tragedy resulted in 248 soldiers killed, all of whom were from one Army Post, Fort Campbell, Kentucky. This was one-third of a force which had been deployed to the Sinai Desert in a multi-national peacekeeping effort. The impact of this disaster upon the soldiers, unit and community at Fort Campbell, and the impact to the body recovery and body identification process at Dover Air Force Base, Delaware, are the focus of this volume. Such research is conducted to obtain answers which will assist in establishing programs that will be in place and be available when disaster, tragedy, or CBW strike."

  Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences. Department of Psychiatry

  Ursano, Robert J., 1947-

  1988-06
• Interrogation: A Review of the Science: High- Value Detainee Interrogation Group

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  From the "Scope of the Report" section of the document: "The objective of this report is to provide a systematic review and evidence synthesis of the science related to interrogation. It is not intended as a manual or practitioners' guide. The emerging science of interrogation relies on a variety of relevant disciplines and fields of study for its theoretical and scientific foundations, many of which have provided decades of data. For instance, research on interrogations in the criminal justice system has been steadily accumulating for decades, providing data on topics such as effective and ineffective interrogation and interview methods, the conditions under which victim, witness, and suspect memories are most vulnerable, valid cues to deception, and the conditions under which individuals confess to crimes they did not commit. During the same period, there has been an emergence and growth of science on negotiation and social influence, persuasion, resistance, priming and embodied cognition, and cognitive-based cues to deception. To the extent that this research is relevant to an interrogation, it is included in this report. This report provides a comprehensive review of HIG-funded [High-Value Detainee Interrogation Group] research and other science relevant to interrogations: assessing cooperation and countering resistance (Chapter 1), influencing tactics (Chapter 2), interview methods (Chapter 3), and detecting truth and deception (Chapter 4). Based on the comprehensive research and field validation studies detailed in this report, it is concluded that the most effective practices for eliciting accurate information and actionable intelligence are non-coercive, rapportbased, information-gathering interviewing and interrogation methods."

  United States. Federal Bureau of Investigation

  2016-09
• S. Hrg. 115-333: FDA User Fee Agreements: Improving Medical Product Regulation and Innovation for Patients, Part Il, Hearing of the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, United States Senate, One Hundred Fourteenth Congress, First Session, Examining FDA User Fee Agreements, Focusing on Improving Medical Product Regulations and Innovation for Patients, April 4, 2017

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  This is the April 4, 2017 hearing on "FDA User Fee Agreements: Improving Medical Product Regulation and Innovation for Patients," held before the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, United States Senate. From the opening statement of Lamar Alexander: "This is our second hearing on reauthorization of the Food and Drug Administration medical device and drug user fees. FDA is the agency responsible for making sure that patients benefit from the promising research driven by the 21st Century Cures Act, which this committee worked on last year in a bipartisan way, and which Majority Leader Senator McConnell called the most important piece of legislation last year. Two weeks ago, this committee heard from experts at the FDA who told us that a timely reauthorization of these user fee agreements is integral to helping patients and continuing implementation of the 21st Century Cures Act. I asked the witnesses at the last hearing what will happen if we do not reauthorize by the end of July, 20 days before the authority to collect user fees expires, and here is what they said. Dr. Janet Woodcock, head of FDA's drug center, agreed that cancer drugs would be delayed and said that patients developing resistance to existing cancer drugs might soon not have innovative ones approved soon enough to help them." Statements, letters, and materials submitted for the record include those of the following: Kay Holcombe, David R. Gaugh, Scott Whitaker, and Cynthia Bens.

  United States. Government Publishing Office

  2018
• SDI: Technology, Survivability, and Software

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  It puts Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) technologies in context by reporting the kinds of ballistic missile defense (BMD) system architectures that the SDI organization has considered for "phased deployment." It reviews the status of the various SDI technologies and system components. It analyzes the feasibility of producing dependable software of the complexity that advanced BMD systems would require. Finally, it summarizes what is now known-and unknown-about the probable survivability of such systems against concerted enemy attacks of various kinds. The study found that major uncertainties remain concerning the probable cost, effectiveness, and survivability of the kinds of BMD system (which rely on kinetic rather than directed-energy weapons) that might be deployable in the "phase-one' proposed for the mid to late 1990s. In addition, OTA believes several more years of SDI research would be needed to determine whether it is feasible to construct the kinds of directed-energy weapons contemplated as follow-ons to SDIO's "phase one" BMD system. The survivability of both short-term and longer-term BMD systems would depend heavily on the outcome of a continuing competition in weapons and countermeasures between the United States and the Soviet Union. Finally, developing dependable software for advanced BMD will be a formidable challenge because of the difficulty of testing that software realistically.

  United States. Government Printing Office

  United States. Congress. Office of Technology Assessment

  1988-05
• Serial No. 110-5: Solving the Affordable Housing Crisis in the Gulf Coast Region Post-Katrina, Part I: Field Hearing Before the Subcommittee on Housing and Community Opportunity of the Committee on Financial Services, U.S. House of Representatives, One Hundred Tenth Congress, First Session, February 22, 2007

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  From the opening statement of Kathleen Babineaux Blanco: "The immediate recovery of the Gulf Coast region depends on solutions to affordable housing and there is definitely a crisis in trying to bring back housing, affordable and otherwise. So I want to thank you for providing a forum to help identify steps that we can all take to expedite this recovery. […] Today, you are going to hear from a number of experts who are well-versed in the details that you may want to talk about. They will be well-versed in the program specifics. An example of someone who will testify before you is Mr. Walter Leger; he is a member of the Louisiana Recovery Authority. So my goal with you today is to provide an overview of the State's actions to expedite the Road Home Program, to discuss our rental program and public housing, and to recommend Federal actions." Statements, letters, and materials submitted for the record include those of the following: C. Donald Babers, Edward J. Blakely, Kathleen Babineaux Blanco, Dominique G. Blom, Stephen Bradberry, Ben Dupuy, Gil Jamieson, William J. Jefferson, Donna Johnigan, James R. Kelly, Walter J. Leger, C. Ray Nagin, Emelda Paul, James H. Perry, Isabel Reiff, Mark Rodi, Paul R. Taylor, Oliver M. Thomas, Tracie L. Washington, Sherece Y. West, and Gloria Williams.

  United States. Government Printing Office

  2007
• S. Hrg. 112-791: The Need for Privacy Protections: Perspectives from the Administration and the Federal Trade Commission, Hearing Before the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, United States Senate, One Hundred Twelfth Congress, Second Session, May 9, 2012

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  This is the May 9, 2012 hearing "The Need for Privacy Protections" held before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. From the opening statement of John D. Rockefeller, IV: "Every day, tens of millions of Americans go online to search for information. They want to shop. They want to pay their bills, or they're accessing social networking. To state the obvious, the Internet has fundamentally transformed every aspect of our lives. What is less obvious is the level of information that is collected about us each time we visit a website or watch a video or send an e-mail or make a purchase. Now consumers have had no choice but to place an enormous amount of trust in the online world, trust that their information is safe, that it will be secure, and it will be used appropriately, whatever that means. But the incentive to misuse consumers' information is very great. A consumer's personal information is the currency, in fact, of the web." Statements, letters, and materials submitted for the record include those of the following: John D. Rockefeller, IV, John D. Leibowitz, Cameron F. Kerry, and Maureen K. Ohlhausen.

  United States. Government Printing Office

  2013
• S. Hrg. 114-231: Federal Reserve's First Monetary Policy Report for 2016, Hearing Before the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, One Hundred Fourteenth Congress, Second Session, February 11, 2016

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  This is the February 11, 2016 hearing on "Federal Reserve's First Monetary Policy Report for 2016," before the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs. From the opening statement of Richard C. Shelby: " The semiannual Monetary Policy Report to the Congress is an important statutory tool for oversight of the Federal Reserve, which was created by Congress over 100 years ago as part of the Federal Reserve Act. The act grants the Fed a certain degree of independence, but in no way does it preclude congressional oversight or accountability to the American people. There is broad consensus that the Fed should communicate in a manner that helps Congress and the public understand its monetary policy decision making. How the Federal Open Market Committee makes its decisions remains a point of contention, however. [...] The need to preserve Fed independence is very real, but surely it does not justify objection to any reform. Independence and accountability should not be viewed as mutually exclusive concepts. In fact, accountability is even more crucial given the Federal Reserve's role as a financial regulator. But instead of allowing international bodies to serve as de facto U.S. regulators, the Fed should appropriately vet these rules and answer important questions. For example, are those international requirements appropriately tailored for our domestic financial institutions? Are they even necessary given existing rules? Are they harming our economy or placing U.S. firms at a disadvantage?" Statements, letters, and materials submitted for the record include those of the following: Janet L. Yellen.

  United States. Government Publishing Office

  2016
• Hurricanes Katrina and Rita: Outstanding Need, Slow Progress: Hearing Before the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, United States Senate, One Hundred Tenth Congress, First Session, January 29, 2007

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  Mary Landrieu: "We lost--1,836 people died in the rising tides and the water. We have had thousands, Mr. Chairman and Senator Obama, die from broken hearts since. We have had 90,000 square miles flooded, which is larger than the size of Great Britain; 650,000 people displaced; 275,000 homes destroyed, more than 200,000 of which were in Louisiana; and thousands of renters who did not own homes but had some modest shelter that also lost their rental units. We had over a quarter of a million jobs lost, 875 schools ruined in Louisiana alone, 20,000 businesses destroyed, billions and billions of dollars of property damage, 22 levee breaks that put 20 feet of water in a city in an urban area that sat sometimes in two hurricanes, so we were flooded not once, but twice. For 6 to 8 weeks, the water stood in many places. Two million people lost power. We still have people without power, without lights, and without clean water; thousands of people still living in trailers with no permanent placement and resettlement options; 16 National Wildlife Refuges closed; 1.3 million acres of forest destroyed, and etc. We had $4 billion donated by the public, private individuals--we are grateful for every check that was sent of any amount; $600 million by corporations; we are grateful for every corporation that stood up to help us. And over 70 countries have pledged aid. To this unprecedented international enterprise and endeavor, we are grateful. But today we want to focus on how better FEMA can work with HUD, how better the Small Business Administration can step up, identifying what has not worked and making those changes." Statements, letters, and materials submitted for the record include those of the following: Donald E. Powell, Steven C. Preston, Pamela H. Patenaude, Gil H. Jamieson, Gregory D. Kutz, C. Ray Nagin, Walter J. Leger, Suzanne T. Mestayer, Melvin I. Holden, Mary Landrieu, and Charmaine Caccioppi.

  United States. Government Printing Office

  2007
• Analysis of the Treatment of a Biological Weapon Spread Through a Transportation Network

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  From the thesis abstract: "Biological weapons are one of the top five threats identified by the Department of Defense in the United States. While most people commonly associate weapons of mass destruction only with atomic bombs, biological agents still have the ability to inflict mass casualties and panic. By strategically placing bioweapon detection units, known as BioWatch, in various airports, a disease spread could be detected and mitigated before country wide dispersal of the disease occurs. Key cities to invest this program are investigated through network analysis of flight itineraries with large volumes of traffic. In addition to analyzing an airport network, there is also the possibility that an attack could still succeed and infect a city. Should this occur, the current Center for Disease Control policy is to trace sources of infections and vaccinate people suspected of harboring the disease. Kaplan et al., as well as others, have argued for mass vaccination rather than the trace policy. Kaplan et al.'s model is extended to consider policies to respond to potential outbreak scenarios."

  Air Force Institute of Technology (U.S.). Graduate School of Engineering and Management

  MacAndrew, Michael V.

  2014-04-27
• Multi-hazard Loss Estimation Methodology: Hurricane Model, Hazus-MH 2.1: User Manual

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  "The Hurricane Model allows practitioners to estimate of the economic and social losses from hurricane winds. The information provided by the model will assist state and local officials in evaluating, planning for, and mitigating the effects of hurricane winds. The Hurricane Model provides practitioners and policy makers with a tool to help reduce wind damage, reduce disaster payments, and make wise use of the nation's emergency management resources. The Hurricane Model is the first component of a planned Hazus Wind Model. When fully implemented, the Wind Model will address the wind hazard and effects associated with hurricanes, tornadoes, thunderstorms, extratropical storms, and hail. The need for Hazus to treat the different meteorological phenomena is indicated in Figure 1-2, where it is seen that different regions of the United States are affected by different types of windstorms. In many regions of the country, damaging winds are produced by more than one meteorological phenomenon."

  United States. Federal Emergency Management Agency
• S. Rept. 113-113: Strengthening America's Schools Act of 2013, Report of the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, United States Senate, Together with Additional Views, to Accompany S. 1094, October 11, 2013

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  This Senate Report includes information about the School Security and Resource Center in Sec. 4127 and the National Center for School and Youth Safety in Sec. 4128. "The Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions to which was referred the bill (S. 1094) to amend the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, and for other purposes, having considered the same, reports favorably thereon with an amendment and recommends that the bill (as amended) do pass."

  United States. Government Printing Office

  2013-10-11
• USAF Ability to Survive and Operate Procedures in a Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical (NBC) Environment: Air Force Handbook 32-4014, Volume 4 (March 1998)

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  "This handbook implements AFPD 32-40, Disaster Preparedness, and AFMAN 32-4005, Personnel Protection and Attack Actions. AFH 32-4014, Volume 4, provides key information, procedures, and actions needed to prepare for, survive, and restore mission capability after, a nuclear, biological, chemical, or conventional attack. The primary emphasis, however, is the CB environment. This handbook is designed for all USAF personnel stationed in, or deployable to a CB high threat area. Information on planning and analysis, CB hazards, and CB defense equipment can be found in Volumes 1, 2, and 3 respectively."

  United States. Department of the Air Force

  1998-03-01
• Serial No. 108-110: 25th Anniversary of the Inspector General Act - Where do We Go from Here?: Hearing before the Subcommittee on Government Efficiency and Financial Management of the Committee on Government Reform, House of Representatives, One Hundred Eighth Congress, First Session, October 8, 2003

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  From the opening statement of Todd Russell Platts: "Twenty-five years ago this month, Congress created Inspectors General throughout the Federal Government in response to serious and widespread internal control breakdowns that resulted in significant monetary losses and reduced effectiveness and efficiency in Federal activities. Since their creation, IGs have been largely successful in carrying out their mission, reporting billions of dollars in savings and cost recoveries, as well as thousands of successful criminal prosecutions. There are currently 57 Inspector General offices with 11,000 employees and a total budget of nearly $1.5 billion. Twenty-nine IGs are appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate, and 28 are appointed by agency heads in Designated Federal Entities [DFEs]. Inspector General offices are responsible for conducting and supervising audits and investigations, promoting economy, efficiency and effectiveness and preventing and detecting fraud and abuse in their agencies' programs and operations. IGs serve an important function in our system of separation of powers. Their autonomy and independence provide a crucial balance between the executive branch and the Congress Today, we will look at the progress that has been made in the past 25 years since the IG Act was passed and what, if any, legislative changes are needed to help the IG community ensure efficiency, accountability and effectiveness within the Federal Government." Statements, letters, and materials submitted for the record include those of the following: Gaston Gianni, David M. Walker, Jim Cooper, Clay Johnson III, Todd Russell Platts, Barry Snyder, and Edolphus Towns.

  United States. Government Printing Office

  2004
• Disaster Contracts, First Quarter, Fiscal Year 2015 (Fiscal Year 2015 Report to Congress)

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  "The FY 2007 DHS Appropriations Act (P.L. 109-295) requires the Administrator of FEMA to provide a quarterly report on all contracts issued during any disaster, which shall include a detailed justification for any contract entered into by means other than competitive procedures. To fulfill this requirement, FEMA gathered data from its contract writing system of record, the Automated Acquisition Management System (AAMS). [...] The data in this report are not considered procurement sensitive and are accurate as of December 31, 2014. The data export from AAMS was generated on January 8, 2015, for the period ending December 31, 2014 [first quarter, FY 2015]."

  United States. Department of Homeland Security; United States. Federal Emergency Management Agency

  2015-02-18
• Port Security Strategy 2012

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  "U.S. Navy and commercial ships have been lucrative targets for terrorist organizations. Realizing that ships are most vulnerable while in-port, adequate measures must be employed by port facilities to ensure vessel security. Commercial and naval ports have been set as a national priority in Homeland Security Presidential Directive 13. A successful terrorist strike against a port could produce long-term economic impact. In an attempt to develop a system of systems to prevent and defeat terrorist attacks against foreign and domestic ports, this study approached the threat from three different aspects: terrestrial, seaborne, and internal. This report uses the Systems Engineering Design Process to define the problem, generate alternatives, model scenarios, and analyze results to produce feasible and cost-effective solutions. No single system can address all issues prevalent in the port security problem. The recommended solutions individually address specific threats, namely vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices, small boat swarm tactics, importation of contraband or weapons of mass destruction, and employee sabotage. Although each solution effectively increased port security, improved port security measures resulted in greater cost. Some solutions yielded only marginal gain in effectiveness with drastic increases in cost."

  Naval Postgraduate School (U.S.)

  Ames, Morgan; Chan, Chun Man; Cole, Andrew

  2007-06-15
• Algorithm and Simulation Development in Support of Response Strategies for Contamination Events in Air and Water Systems

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  "Chemical/Biological/Radiological (CBR) contamination events pose a considerable threat to our nation's infrastructure, especially in large internal facilities, external flows, and water distribution systems. Because physical security can only be enforced to a limited degree, deployment of early warning systems is being considered. However to achieve reliable and efficient functionality, several complex questions must be answered: 1) where should sensors be placed, 2) how can sparse sensor information be efficiently used to determine the location of the original intrusion, 3) what are the model and data uncertainties, 4) how should these uncertainties be handled, and 5) how can our algorithms and forward simulations be sufficiently improved to achieve real time performance? This report presents the results of a three year algorithmic and application development to support the identification, mitigation, and risk assessment of CBR contamination events. The main thrust of this investigation was to develop 1) computationally efficient algorithms for strategically placing sensors, 2) identification process of contamination events by using sparse observations, 3) characterization of uncertainty through developing accurate demands forecasts and through investigating uncertain simulation model parameters, 4) risk assessment capabilities, and 5) reduced order modeling methods. The development effort was focused on water distribution systems, large internal facilities, and outdoor areas."

  Sandia National Laboratories

  2006-01
• NATO Handbook on the Medical Aspects of NBC Defensive Operations AMedP-6(B)

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  "The purpose of this handbook is to provide a guide for medical officers on the medical aspects of NBC [Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical] operations. The handbook is intended as a compilation of reference material and as a source of information for training. It does no constitute an official position of NATO nations; certain aspects, however, are already covered by STANAGs and this is being extended. In addition, it provides the basic philosophy for the development of concepts of operations and in the management, including evacuation and treatment, of NBC casualties as well as conventional battle casualties in a NBC environment. There are many unresolved problems and it must be appreciated that a number of the philosophical concepts presented are provisional; their validity will require reassessment in the light of future trials and exercises. The handbook is in three parts, Part I-Nuclear, Part II-Biological, and Part III-Chemical. Each part is self-contained and presented separately. There is some necessary overlap and several aspects are common to all three, for example: combined injuries; the effect of radiation on the response to infection and on the healing of thermal and chemical burns; psychological factors and morale; public health aspects; and medical care in a mass casualty situation. It should be noted that detailed information on the treatment of burns and traumatic injuries is contained in the Emergency War Surgery Handbook covered by STANAG 2068, which should be used in conjunction with this handbook."

  United States. Department of the Army

  1996-02-01
• Continuous Biometric Authentication for Authorized Aircraft Personnel: A Proposed Design

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  Today, there is no way to ensure that the personnel working within the cockpit of an aircraft in flight are authorized to be there. The primary goal of this thesis is to propose a hypothetical design for the use of a non-intrusive mechanism on the flight deck of an aircraft to provide continuous or periodic authentication of authorized aircraft personnel. The mechanism should answer questions such as: "Is the person who is flying the plane actually the person who they say they are?" and "Is the correct person in control of the aircraft throughout the whole flight segment?" This thesis investigates biometrics as a possible security mechanism. In this thesis, various biometric methods are examined and their application in the flight deck is shown. Studies that have been conducted on real biometric devices are examined and their results are reported. Also examined are the current practices and procedures that take place in the flight deck, so that the proposed designs can be understood to not interfere with current activities therein. Two biometric solutions (i.e. proposed designs) to provide continuous or periodic authentication of authorized personnel in the flight deck are introduced. The proposed designs are general and can be used with different types of biometric device(s), and can be extended to include multi-biometrics.

  Naval Postgraduate School (U.S.)

  Carrillo, Cassandra M.

  2003-06
• Modular Emergency Radiological Response Transportation Training, Independent Study Manual

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  This manual accompanies "IS-302: Modular Emergency Radiological Response Transportation Training," an independent study course sponsored by FEMA's Emergency Management Institute. This course includes the following topics: radiological basics, biological effects, hazard recognition (markings, labels, and placards), initial response actions, radioactive material shipping packages, on-scene patient handling, radiological terminology and units, assessing package integrity, radiation detection instrumentation, and radiological decontamination.

  United States. Federal Emergency Management Agency; Emergency Management Institute (U.S.)

  2007
• Case Study of a Community Affected by the Waldo Fire - Event Timeline and Defensive Actions

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  "This work attempts to reconstruct the fire timeline in MSC [Mountain Shadows Community] with special focus on burning structures. The extent and type of defensive actions that were undertaken during the first ten hours after the Waldo Canyon Fire reached MSC are presented. An assessment of the quality, quantity and uncertainty related to data used to reconstruct the fire timeline and defensive actions is also conducted. The data collected and synthesized demonstrated the effectiveness of defensive actions as well as examined the extent of ignitions due to the wildland fire front. New concepts of defensible space are highlighted. The information presented in this report represents the first steps required for further examination of structure response to the fire exposure. The information generated from this case study can provide input, together with additional research, to improve WUI [Wildland Urban Interface] building and landscaping (construction) codes and standards, and best practices. Extensive research is also needed to provide first responders with effective pre-fire, during-fire and post-fire tools and standard operating protocols to efficiently tackle WUI fires such as the Waldo Canyon Fire. Only then will hazard mitigation technologies for new and existing constructions together with improvements in firefighting response significantly reduce structural losses from WUI fires."

  National Institute of Standards and Technology (U.S.); United States. Department of Commerce; United States. Forest Service . . .

  Maranghides, Alexander; McNamara, Derek; Vihnanek, Robert E., 1951- . . .

  2015-11