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Federal Policy Following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center buildings, the United States increased its focus on security; the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was established, and several presidential directives regarding national security, emergency response procedures, agroterrorism, and bioterrorism were written. Brief summaries of the Homeland Security Presidential Directives (HSPD) relevant to this guide are provided below. HSPD 5 (11) directs DHS to: 1. Develop and administer a National Incident Management System (NIMS), which includes a core set of concepts, principles, terminology, and technologies covering all aspects of emergency response, and provides a consistent approach for all levels of government to work effectively and efficiently together to prepare for, respond to, and recover from all types of domestic incidents. 2. Develop and administer a National Response Plan, now called the National Response Frame- work (NRF), which integrates all federal domestic prevention, preparedness, response, and recovery plans into a single plan encompassing all disciplines and all hazards. The NRP, using the NIMS, will provide the structure and mechanisms for national level policy and operational direction for federal support to state and local incident managers, and for exercising direct federal authorities and responsibilities, as appropriate. Recognizing the roles of state and local authorities in domestic incident management, DHS will coordinate with state and local governments to ensure adequate planning, equipment, train- ing, and exercise activities. The Secretary will also assist state and local governments in developing all-hazards plans and capabilities, including those of greatest importance to the security of the United States, and ensure that the state, local, and Federal plans are compatible. According to the directive, the NIMS and the NRP will be developed, reviewed, and approved by 2003, and federal departments must adopt NIMS as a requirement for participation in federal programs, grants, and contracts. The directive authorizes the Secretary of DHS to develop guide- lines for determining whether a state or local entity has adopted the NIMS. HSPD 8 (1) is a companion to HSPD 5 and directs the DHS to: 1. Establish a national domestic all-hazards preparedness goal to help ensure the preparedness of the Nation to prevent, respond to, and recover from threatened and actual domestic terrorist attacks, major disasters, and other emergencies. The directive states that federal preparedness assistance will be predicated on adoption of statewide comprehensive all-hazards preparedness strategies by September 30, 2005. The strate- gies should be consistent with the national preparedness goal; assess the most effective ways to 34 A P P E N D I X A Agroterrorism Policy Background
enhance preparedness; and address areas facing higher risk, especially to terrorism, as well as local government concerns and Citizen Corps efforts. Federal preparedness assistance will support state and local efforts, including planning, training, exercises, interoperability, and equipment acquisition for major events. However, such assistance is not primarily intended to support the existing capacity for addressing normal, local first responder operations, but to build the capacity for addressing major events, particularly those related to terrorism, and includes such prevention activities as terrorism-related information gathering, detection, deterrence, and collaboration. HSPD 9 (12) establishes a national policy to defend the agriculture and food system against terrorist attacks, major disasters, and other emergencies. The Secretary of Homeland Security, in coordination with the Secretaries of Agriculture, Health and Human Services, the Attorney General, and the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, are directed to: 1. Ensure that the combined Federal, State, and local response capabilities are adequate to respond quickly and effectively to a terrorist attack, major disease outbreak, or other disaster affecting the national agriculture or food infrastructure. These activities will be integrated with other national homeland security preparedness activities developed under HSPD-8 on National Preparedness. 2. Develop a coordinated agriculture and food-specific standardized response plan that will be integrated into the National Response Plan. This plan will ensure a coordinated response to an agriculture or food incident; delineate the appropriate roles of Federal, State, local, and private sector partners; and address the subject of risk communication with the public. State and Local Policies In response to the presidential directives mandating that state and local agencies be NIMS- compliant in order to receive federal preparedness grants, states began to work on ensuring their own emergency response plans were NIMS compliant, and to assist their counties and cities in meeting the requirements, as well. At the state level, emergency management agencies maintain state emergency response plans. These plans are usually arranged by emergency type or response function, and they often include a chapter or an annex dedicated to animal or agricultural emergencies. Oftentimes, a stateâs Department of Agriculture (or equivalent agency) maintains its own agricultural emergency response plan. This plan may be a public document or internal to the organization. It should comply with the principles of the NIMS and include incident command structures that assign response duties in accordance with the National Response Plan. Most state plans assume a response independent of federal government assistance to prepare to meet their citizensâ needs in the event that the federal government is overwhelmed and unable to provide assistance for a period of time. Many states assisted their counties in meeting the NIMS compliance requirements by offer- ing NIMS and ICS training, and developing templates of compliant response plans for counties to modify and adopt. In addition, some states are offering specific foreign animal disease response training, and helping counties to develop FAD response plans. Policies and plans vary from state to state, and the level of implementation at the county level varies even more. Even with assistance from the state, local agencies have to make choices on how to use their emergency preparedness resources, considering that agricultural emergency preparedness competes with natural disaster, human disease outbreak, and traditional terrorism preparedness. Agroterrorism Policy Background 35
