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May 10, 2004MEMORANDUMTo: CommissionersFrom: Team 8Subj:
Recommendation on National Preparedness StandardsIssue. Staff
Statement No. 15 at the upcom ing hearing includes preliminary
findings thatmay lead the Commission to support the adoption of the
National F ire ProtectionAssociation Standard (NFPA) 1600 as a
voluntary national standard for developing aprivate sector
preparedness and continuity of business plan. This course of action
hasbeen recommended to the Commission by the American National
Standards Institute(ANSI). Following the Commission's November
hearing on emergency preparedness,ANSI developed a recommendation
for the Com mission's consideration at the Chair andVice Chair's
request.At next w eek's hearing, S ecretary Ridge will testify on
the topic of preparedness, and wehave asked him to comment
specifically on this recommendation. DHS staff has beenapprised of
this issue throughou t the process and attended the meetings during
which therecommendation was developed. DHS has not yet taken a
position.The issue is whether or not the Commission wishes to
formally adopt thisrecommendation prior to the hearing and announce
it at the hearing's conclusion.Pros: It wou ld lift the end of a
difficult hearing with a positive, proactive statement toconcretely
help preparedness in the future. The recommendation is for the
adoption of a voluntary high-level standard, one that iscurrently
being used by the public sector through DHS to rate state and
localgovernment preparedness. It is already in use and thus not
controversial, and is high-level enough not to cause private sector
companies who have plans in place to doadditional work, and was
supported by a wide-range of private sector companies. The issuance
of this recommendation relates well to the hearing content and
wouldflow naturally from the proceedings. Holding off on the
recommendation until the end of July may lose the impetus andget
lost in the other recommendations that are more w ide-ranging and
policy drivenwhereas this one is directly related to safety.Cons:
Commissioners may decide to wait on all recommendations until the
final report. There may not be enough time to thoroughly vet these
recommendations byCommissioners and get follow-on support from all
interested parties. DHS support is not yet guaranteed even though
they have been briefed andbroughtalong in this process The story of
the day could be the fire/police issues and this recommendation
could getlost in the press coverage of more "controversial" issues
that fall out from thehearing.
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History of the Commission's Work with ANSI on National
Preparedness StandardsAs part of the Commission's investigation,
Commission staff interviewed manycompanies located in the World
Trade Center and learned about the evacuation,communication, and
continuity of business issues they faced that day. These issues
werefurther examined at the Commission's Fifth Public Hearing at
Drew University.Following this hearing, the Chair and Vice Chair
asked the American National StandardsInstitute (ANSI) to convene
their Homeland Security Standards Panel (HSSP) to
developrecommendations for the Commission's consideration.Th e HSSP
Panel met from January to April of this year to discuss an d
develop arecommendation to the Commission. Commission staff
attended these meetings, alongwith DHS and GAO representatives, and
staff coordinated with these agencies to ensurethat they were
involved in the process and ready to assist in the implementation
of thesevoluntary standards should they be recommended by the
Commission.More than 100 professionals from the standards and
conformity assessment communitygathered for the second plenary
meeting of the American National Standards InstituteHomeland
Security Standards Panel (ANSI-HSSP) on April 29-30, 2004. On April
29,the Vice Chair attended the reception hosted by ANSI to receive
a recommendation onprivate sector emergency preparedness and
business continuity. Presented by ANSIpresident and CEO Dr. Mark W.
Hurwitz, the Institute recommended a voluntary nationalpreparedness
standard based on criteria developed by the National Fire
ProtectionAssociation (NFPA).Recommendation. "In response to the
January 23, 2004 letter from the 9-11 CommissionChairman Kean and
Vice Chairman Hamilton, the American National Standards
Institute(ANSI) convened safety, security and business continuity
experts from a wide range ofindustries and associations, as well as
from federal, state and local governmentstakeholders, to consider
the need fo r standards fo r private sector emergencypreparedness
and business continuity. These parties, brought together under the
auspicesof ANSI's Homeland Security Standards Panel (ANSI-HSSP),
have concluded that ahigh-level, voluntary standard applicable to
all businesses regardless of industry, size, orlocation, is needed
to establish a common framework for emergency preparedness.
Onbehalf of these experts and stakeholders:
ANSI proposes that the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks
Upon theUnited States include in its recommendations to Congress
and the President of theUnited States, the position that the
high-level, voluntary American NationalStandard on
Disaster/Emergency Management and Business Continuity Programs(NFPA
1600) be accepted as the common framework for private-sector
nationalpreparedness (hereinafter known as the National
Preparedness Standard). Thisdocument was developed by the National
Fire Protection Association (NFPA)using due process and
consensus-based procedures approved by ANSI.
The National Preparedness Standard establishes a common set of
criteria andterminology for private-sector disaster management,
emergency management, andbusiness continuity programs for a variety
of hazards. Recognizing that an y truly viablestandard is open to
continuous improvement, the parties also developed several
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recommendations for further enhancements to the standard. These
comments havealready been submitted to the NFPA disaster management
technical committee.A national implementation strategy is necessary
to support the use of this standard.ANSI recommends that the
Commission request the U.S. Department of HomelandSecurity (DHS),
and other federal agencies as appropriate, to undertake this
initiative, hiaddition, ANSI will continue to collaborate with the
Working Group on Private SectorPreparedness (PSP-WG) to develop
incentives for private-sector implementation of thisvoluntary
standard and to market, promote and educate the public about its
existence.The Institute also stands ready to take additional steps
that may be deemed appropriate infurtherance of this
initiative."The participants in the panel workshops which developed
this recommendation were thefollowing:Experts from the following
organizations participated in the process:3MAlliance for
Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS)American Electric Power
(AEP)American Management ServicesAS IS InternationalAssociation for
Cooperative Operations Research and Development (ACORD)Attainium
CorporationBank of New YorkBattelleBechtel NevadaBooz Allen
HamiltonCanadian Standards Association (CSA)Chiron CorporationThe
Conference BoardCongressman Christopher Shays' (R-CT) OfficeDeere
& CompanyDMJM TechnologyDRI International (DRII)EAI
CorporationEmergency CorpsEmergency Management Accreditation
Program (EMAP)Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)Goldman
SachsGreater New York Safety CouncilHomeland Security Industries
Association (HSIA)IBMInsurance Services Office (ISO)Lucent
TechnologiesMarsh USA Inc.Micro-News NetworkMicrosoft
CorporationMidwest Research Institute (MRI)National Biometric
Security Project (NBSP)
