Office of Emergency Operations (2020 Presidential transition)

Book 3 - Organization Overview
Entire 2020 DOE Transition book As of October 2020

Currently, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) bears principal responsibility for executing the Emergency Operations (NA-40) mission for itself and for the Department of Energy as a whole. The framework for discharging this responsibility comprises traditional emergency management functions within a framework that also incorporates Continuity of Operations/ Continuity of Government (COOP/COG) functions and operations. The emergency management functions include those that allow the Department and NNSA to prevent, prepare for, respond to, recover from, and mitigate the impacts of threats to life, property, and the environment, regardless of the cause. This is known as an all-hazards approach to address the concerns of a whole of community, both of which are considered fundamental in contemporary emergency management organizations. The COOP/COG perspective provides the framework for assessing, distributing, and sustaining organizational resilience that ensures uninterrupted performance and delivery of the Department’s Essential Functions under any circumstance.

Mission Statement

The Office of Emergency Operations NA-40 will administer and direct the implementation and integration of emergency management programs across the Department.

Budget

Fiscal Year	Budget
FY 2019 enacted	$35,574,000
FY 2020 enacted	$35,545,000
FY 2021 requested	$36,000,000

Human Resources

FY 2020 authorized full-time equivalents (FTEs): 50

History

The Department of Energy has had an office dedicated to emergency management since 1987 Although the office has been reorganized in a number of different Departmental elements since then, the fundamental missions and functions have remained unchanged—a comprehensive, consistent approach to planning, preparing, and responding to any emergency involving or affecting the Department or requiring assistance to other Federal, state, or local agencies. The Office of Emergency Operations became an NNSA program element with the establishment of the Administration via the NNSA Establishment Act in 2000 . Effective emergency management requires seamless integration of a broad range of disparate professions and organizations to ensure effective and efficient preparation for and response to any large or catastrophic emergency. NA-40, the Office of Emergency Operations, is now guided by DOE Order 151.1D, Comprehensive Emergency Management System, approved in August 2016; and a significant number of additional orders and requirements, both external and internal to the Department, to provide the Department of Energy, including NNSA, policy for the development, management, and administration of DOE’s Comprehensive Emergency Management System.

Functions

Pursuant to the recent realignment of the Office of Emergency Operations approved on December 3, 2019, the structure and function are as follows:

NA-41 Office of Policy

Develop, coordinate, issue, and administer all DOE and NNSA emergency management policy, technical guidance, and support.

NA-42 Office of Emergency Management Programs

Implement, manage, and coordinate readiness assurance, training, and exercise programs to ensure the Department is prepared to respond and recover from all-hazards emergencies.

NA-43 Office of Continuity Programs

Execute DOE and NNSA Continuity of Operations, Continuity of Government, and Enduring Constitutional Government programs to advance the National Continuity Policy.

NA-44 Office of the Consolidated Emergency Operations Center (CEOC)

Provide 24/7/365 operations and communications support for the NNSA Emergency Management Enterprise and Senior Leadership.

Recent Organization Accomplishments

NA-40’s accomplishments are driven in large part by COVID-19. From the earliest recognition of the emergence and significance of the coronavirus, NA-40 has led the Department’s response. NA-40 was out ahead in preparing the Department for the COVID-19 threat. More specifically:

Six months prior to the World Health Organization’s (WHO’s) declaration of a global pandemic, NA-40 worked with the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to execute an interagency Crimson Contagion pandemic exercise. Engaging DOE’s three PMEF partners (NA-10, NA-80, and DOE-OE) and DOE-AU, this exercise ensured the Department’s readiness to accomplish its vital national security missions in the event of a global pandemic.
Early January, NA-40 briefed the DOE Biological Event Monitoring Team.
Mid-February, NA-40 activated the DOE UCS.
Mid-February, NA-40 briefed the DOE Threat Working Group.
Late February, NA-40 activated DOE’s Unified Coordination Group (UCG) to bring DOE PMEF/ MEF partners together to communicate, coordinate, and take immediate actions to prepare for the COVID-19 impacts. During the preparations for the meeting, NA-40 discovered the Department lacked a formal Pandemic Plan. Accordingly, NA-40 led the effort to recommend and assist DOE-AU in drafting the DOE Pandemic Plan and formally coordinate it throughout DOE/ NNSA to ensure Departmental awareness, buy- in, and Secretary’s approval.
During the February UCG meeting, NA-40 hosted HHS leadership to brief DOE/NNSA leadership on the Government’s plan to mitigate and respond to COVID-19. During that meeting, NA-40 unveiled the Senior Leadership Briefing (SLB), a product leveraged from the National Response Framework to provide daily situational awareness updates to DOE/NNSA leadership. This daily SLB provided the critical need for a Common Operating Picture across all headquarters elements, and is inclusive of labs, plants, and sites, their surrounding communities, and the interagency. Furthermore, during the mitigation and response phases of the crises, leadership trusted NA-40’s EO judgement to protect worker safety and health, while ensuring national security missions endured.

Transitioning from response to recovery, NA-40 established and led the NNSA Recovery Working Group to ensure activities across NNSA program, functional, and field offices were coordinated and aligned with the White House’s Guidelines for Reopening America. NA-40 engaged all NNSA elements in drafting NNSA’s Recovery Plan, coordinated the plan throughout NNSA to ensure awareness and buy in and achieved NA-1’s approval. Additionally, as there was no national standard for measuring a department’s progress through the phases outlined in the national criteria, NA-40 worked closely with DOE’s COVID-19 Response Lead and led the Team to develop methods to mine data and conduct the analysis for the Reopening Reporting Criteria “Stoplight Chart” for the Department. Throughout this crisis, the Stoplight Chart provided a standard methodology for DOE/NNSA leadership to measure where the Department is relative to the national criteria for reopening and significantly improved leadership decision-making for the safe return of our vital workforce.

In parallel with providing the leadership and crisis management expertise for DOE/NNSA, NA-40 worked closely with the National Security Council to develop/write and evolve the current PPD-40 COOP/COG/ECG concept of operations into the new Federal Mission Resilience Strategy of Assess, Distribute, and Sustain.

NA-40 has recently initiated its required biennial Business Process Analysis—an integral underpinning of any organization’s COOP/COG responsibilities—and is contributing to the administration’s ongoing efforts to update the Presidential Policy Directive (PPD-40) responsible for government-wide COOP/COG efforts, to be known as FMRS, the Federal Mission Resilience Strategy. NA-40 has also initiated a robust, ongoing Continuous Improvement Program to capture lessons learned and areas for improvement in the COVID-19 response, the longest sustained emergency operation in the organization’s history.

Throughout the maximal telework environment necessitated by coronavirus, NA-40 continues to meet its steady state mission, to include several additional reporting requirements resulting from COVID-19 and has undertaken an invigorated effort to ensure the morale and welfare of its workforce is maintained. This includes increased communication between leadership and the workforce and the effective use of technology to ensure tasks are assigned, tracked, and completed in a decentralized environment

Leadership Challenges

Based upon pandemic response lessons learned to date, workforce analysis, and imminent risk of an extended National Emergency lasting 18 months or longer, an urgent need for increased NA-40 staffing has been identified. In order to implement comprehensive and consistent Emergency Operations in accordance with PPD-8, HSPD-5, and DOE O 150.1D, NA-40 requires increasing capacity and capability of the NA-40 federal workforce by authorizing hiring of the following new FTEs series: Program Management, Management Analysis, and Supervisory Plans & Operations.

When the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2000 created the NNSA, language within the Act necessitated the movement of Emergency Operations into NNSA because of its Counterterrorism and Incident Response responsibilities. The Act failed to address or reassign emergency operations responsibilities elsewhere within the Department, leaving the Office of Emergency Operations as the sole emergency operations entity. Over time this structure has created confusion regarding NA-40’s authority for the Emergency Management Enterprise at DOE and its labs, plants, and sites. Efforts to address the issue have recently been undertaken but as yet remain unresolved.

Critical Events and Action Items

The most critical actions undertaken by NA-40 during any transition are to ensure essential functions continue uninterrupted. This is accomplished by a well-trained workforce equipped with sufficient knowledge, skills, abilities, and resources to plan, prepare, and respond to a spectrum of all hazard's emergencies. NA-40 provides the critical coordination element in the planning actions and support for National Security Special Events (e.g., Inauguration) in close collaboration with Departmental and Interagency mission partners.