FEDERAL SECTOR UPDATES AND IMPLICATIONS ON EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT PLANNING AND RESPONSE
Remarks of Anne Rader, Member, National Council on Disability
December 13, 2007

Good morning. My name is Anne Rader. Thank you for having the National Council on Disability (NCD) here today on this panel. NCD is an independent federal agency making recommendations to the President and Congress on issues affecting in excess of 51 million Americans with disabilities. It is composed of 15 members appointed by the President and confirmed by the U.S. Senate.

Under its congressional mandate, NCD is charged with the responsibility to gather information on the development and implementation of federal laws, policies, programs, and initiatives that affect people with disabilities. Since 2003, one area of increasing interest to NCD has been emergency preparedness, disaster management and relief, and reconstruction.

What have we learned from NCD’s research?

In 2003, NCD began an evaluation of Federal Government work in the area of emergency preparation and disaster relief as they affect Americans with disabilities. NCD’s first evaluation findings were issued in April 2005 in the report, Saving Lives: Including People with Disabilities in Emergency Planning.
As the letter of transmittal accompanying the NCD Saving Lives report to the President states: “All too often in emergency situations the legitimate concerns of people with disabilities are overlooked or swept aside. In areas ranging from the accessibility of emergency information to the evacuation plans for high-rise buildings, great urgency surrounds the need for responding to these people’s concerns in all planning, preparedness, response, recovery, and mitigation activities.”
Saving Lives was eerily prophetic. At a Congressional Briefing on November 10, 2005, according to Representative Jim Ramstad, Co-Chair of the Congressional Bipartisan Disability Caucus, “Certainly, the disaster in the Gulf Coast region exposed the enormous gaps in the emergency planning preparedness and management for people with disabilities. ...In a truly remarkable show of foresight, the National Council on Disability (NCD) released a report last April outlining steps that the federal government should take to include people with disabilities in emergency preparedness, disaster relief, and homeland security.”

Saving Lives provided examples of emergency preparation and disaster relief efforts that work. It provided an overview of steps the Federal Government must take to include people with disabilities in America’s emergency preparedness, disaster relief, and homeland security programs. These steps involve access to technology, physical plants, programs, and communications, procurement and emergency programs and services.

In the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, we witnessed the consequences of the lack of cooperation and coordination among federal, state, and local agencies that were responsible for evacuating people who lived in the path of the storm and resettling them. Not surprisingly, the most vulnerable residents of the affected areas-people with disabilities and older people, particularly those in hospitals and nursing homes-were among those who suffered the most during and after the storm. These events remind us all that we need to redouble our efforts to remove the barriers that prevent agencies at all levels from working together to safeguard our citizens and communities as well as support independent living among people with disabilities and promote their inclusion in all aspects of society.

Subsequent to issuing Saving Lives, NCD issued two other evaluations. In July 2006, NCD released a paper titled, The Needs of People with Psychiatric Disabilities During and After Hurricanes Katrina and Rita: Position Paper and Recommendations. In August 2006, NCD issued The Impact of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita: A Look Back and Remaining Challenges. In both papers, like the earlier report, while the focus is on the emergency preparedness and response to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, many of the problems addressed are systemic in nature and were not caused solely by the hurricanes.

Not surprisingly, over the past two years, federal policymakers have used NCD’s research and input and lessons learned to design promising solutions. As a result of Congressional hearings and Executive Branch evaluations of the America’s response to Katrina and Rita, we now confront a specific set of legislated federal policy and organizational changes that will affect Americans with disabilities.

What are those changes?

A host of critical changes occur as a result of the Homeland Security Appropriations bill (H.R. 5441) signed by President Bush on October 4, 2006.  Some of the more notable changes targeted to Americans with disabilities are that the Administrator of FEMA:

• Will appoint a Disability Coordinator who will assess the coordination of emergency management policies and practices;
• Will interact with stakeholders regarding emergency planning requirements and relief efforts in case of  disaster;
• Will  revise and update guidelines for government disaster emergency preparedness;
• Will carry out and will test or evaluate, a national training program to implement the national preparedness goal, National Incident Management System, and National
• Will assess the Nation's prevention capabilities and overall preparedness, including operational readiness;
• Will identify and share best practices, after action reports to participants, and conduct long-term trend analysis;
• Will  coordinate and maintain a National Disaster Housing Strategy;
• Will develop accessibility guidelines for communications and programs in, shelters, and recovery centers;
• Will set up evacuations standards and requirements, and help all levels of government  in the planning of evacuation facilities that house people with disabilities.

A few critical changes occur as a result of the Pets Evacuation and Transportation Standards Act of 2006 (PETS Act). The PETS Act requires FEMA to ensure that state and local emergency preparedness operational and evacuation plans take into account the needs of individuals with household pets and service animals before, during, and after a major disaster or emergency.

Conclusion

The challenges faced by people with disabilities - and their governments - during and after the Hurricanes, while unique in scope and proportion, were similar to the challenges people with disabilities face on a day-to-day basis. Many of the federal policy and organizational changes reflected in legislation passed by the 109h Congress - related to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita - echo NCD’s emergency preparedness and management research, as well as NCD’s previous research on improving the daily quality of life of people with disabilities. That is, when America embraces the twin principles of inclusion and accessibility for everyday programs, policies, and infrastructure, Americans with disabilities surely will be counted among the survivors of the next disasters.

Thank you for listening.