Recommendation: We recommend that the FEMA Administrator comprehensively assess operations to identify any additional updates to its management controls—such as policies, procedures, or training—that could enhance future response and recovery from large-scale and severe wildfires. (Recommendation 1)

Agency: Department of Homeland Security: Directorate of Emergency Preparedness and Response: Federal Emergency Management Agency
Status: Open

Comments: DHS concurred with this recommendation. On 7/28/2020, FEMA provided updates on three separate efforts to help states carry out sheltering and housing missions and a larger effort to standardize its continuous improvement process. FEMA officials said they have begun deploying sheltering and housing field teams to disaster affected areas, as necessary, to develop strategies. Officials described efforts to update direct housing guidance and expect to incorporate results of a JFO-level review into a new version (3) of the guidance by June 2021. Officials also described efforts to administer a pilot program for state-administered direct housing grants for temporary housing and permanent construction authorized by the Disaster Recovery Reform Act of 2018 (pilot authority expires October 2020). FEMA expected the grant program would help states, territories, and tribes build capacity and capability to administer disaster housing missions in a manner that proactively addresses hazards (including wildfires) that are common within a particular jurisdiction. According to officials, FEMA developed guidance for this effort in November 2019 and shared the draft with OMB for interagency review in December 2019. Upon issuance of the guidance, FEMA planned to begin assisting with developing housing strategies and administrative plans required to qualify for a grant, following a presidentially-declared major disaster declaration. (FEMA did not provide an update on the status of this state administered housing mission in the July 2020 update.) FEMA officials also reported that FEMA has finalized National Collection Analysis Priorities (NCAP) to guide disaster assessment efforts across all FEMA Regions by establishing focus areas for continuous Improvement activities. The priorities are to be regularly reviewed by all Associate Administrators, directing continuous improvement analysts at Headquarters and in the Regions to examine select issues at all disaster operations and report findings on a quarterly basis. FEMA is then to brief senior leadership quarterly (which officials said happened in December 2019 and March 2020). Officials also said they provided a 2019 summary of findings highlighting the most common findings across disasters for senior leader consideration. FEMA did not specify whether any of these efforts resulted in updates to policy, procedures, or training specific to wildfire disasters. Note: in its management letter response to the report, FEMA reported plans for the development of a project to analyze and improve capabilities and identify areas of innovation in response to a wildfire disaster. Neither of its two updates to date (4/2020 and 7/2020) have referenced this project. To respond to this recommendation, DHS will need to demonstrate that it has completed a broad-based review of management controls--policies, procedures, and training--and taken action to ensure than any changes necessary to ensure the applicability of those controls to response and recovery for large-scale and severe wildfires.