NLE 2011 After Action Report

Readers of this blog may remember that I recommended cancellation of the NLE 2011 exercise or at least postponement because of the disasterous outbreak of tornadoes in April and May this year. The exercise was held and now it will be of interest to learn of the lessons captured and read any after action report.

The After Action Report is being prepared under the auspices of a former FEMA SES Gil Jamison who rose from the DAE cadre in Tropical Storm Agnes that occurred in 1972 and its aftermath to a position of power and influence in the Hurricane Katrina recovery operation. Gil was a protege of Bill Tidwell also a career SES and Acting Regional Director in many FEMA regions over his career and Chief of Staff under Director Julius Becton.
The demise of the relationship between Bill Tidwell and Director James Lee Witt had a direct impact on Gil but his career eventually found fruition in the disaster program in which he started out in a predecessor organization to FEMA, specifically HUD's FDAA (Federal Disaster Assistance Agency).

Oddly perhaps, the FDAA while it existed under President's Ford and Carter was the only time that it was led by someone that believed that disaster outlays should not be administered as a general relief program to eliminate economic distress but in fact to target assistance to not make the next disaster more serious. This was accomplished by its leaders Thomas Dunne and William Wilcox, two extremely capable administrators both of which should be given the benefit of a biography by some historian. Both were mentors which was always in the past and is currently a rare commodity in FEMA leadership.

Well looking forwards to any and all information released about NLE 2011. This is the exercise series replacing the so-called TOPOFF series. Hoping many senior officials in DHS and FEMA played the exercise just in case that play forecasts some event during the remainder of the Obama Presidency.

NLE Part 2

Buried in Public Law 109-295, the DHS appropriation act for 2007, signed on October 4, 2006, was TITLE VI-National Emergency Preparedness, the statutory basis of the "new" FEMA and effective March 31, 2007. Under that title referred to as PKEMA 2006 by this blogger, Subtitle C--Comprehensive Preparedness System, in its Chapter 1--National Preparedness System were three sections with mandates on exercises. These included Section 648-TRAINING AND EXERCISES paragraph (b) National Exercise Program; Section 649-COMPREHENSIVE ASSESSMENT SYSTEM; AND Section 650--Remedial Action Program.

My assumption is that the author or authors of the Secretary DHS memo to Administrator Fugate on August 17, 2010 was or were familiar with the statutory mandates. After all the legal presumption has always been that we are all presumed to know the law, whether or not we have received actual notice of its adoption. The Federal Register is one way the feds give legal notice.

My point is a simple on-does the memo encompass the statutory mandates? My conclusion is NO and see part 3 of the NLE posts. Steven Aftergood of the FAS has also posted the exercise memo on the FAS web site on the FEMA page.