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Institute for Crisis, Disaster, and Risk Management Crisis and Emergency Management Newsletter Website |
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February
2006
Volume
10 - Number 1 |
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The Ready, Willing, and Able Bill By Lynn King On July 28, 2005, Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy, along with James Lee Witt, Former Director of The Federal Emergency Management Agency, introduced the Ready, Willing, And Able Act. The Bill was introduced as a result of a need ‘To promote the development of disaster plans to protect the maximum number of citizens; foster public trust, confidence, and cooperation; encourage greater public participation on homeland security by allowing the American people to have a direct and influential role in developing and modifying community disaster preparedness, response, and mitigation plans in collaboration with government officials, emergency managers, health authorities, and professional responders, and for other purposes.’ (Thomas) The Bill cited research that have shown a need to develop new disaster plans and adopt a new approach to emergency management in order to promote effective responses to terrorist attacks and other disaster situations. The current approach calls for participation and cooperation from the public while alienating citizens from participating in the development of the plans. Individuals have little to no input in the development of the plans because there was an assumption that the public is easily prone to ‘social chaos’ and would have a tendency to respond in panic during disasters. Findings also showed that, although the potential for panic still exist, it is rare. People tend to consistently demonstrate the opposite, by coming together and helping one another in various ways during disasters. Experts have found that effective communication and sharing of vital information (to include, how needed resources will be distributed) is important to decreasing the potential for panic and a ‘breakdown in social structure’. (Thomas) The success of the Federal Government’s role in public preparedness, according to the Bill, depends on whether or not there are community-based plans fostering trust, confidence and compliance to encourage citizen participation on homeland security. Unlike other plans, The Ready, Willing, and Able Act seeks to develop realistic emergency plans, with input from individuals. This will benefit everyone including “lawmakers, government officials, and professional responders…facilitating closer relations with leaders from different communities.” (Thomas) Mr. Witt stated “Any planning and any preparedness should always be done at the grassroots level in conjunction with the state…. so they know what their risks are and plan together to help minimize those risks”. (Kennedy, US Fed News) Under this Bill, the Secretary of Homeland Security and the Secretary of Health and Human Services will jointly establish a 21 member working group, consisting of Federal, State, county, local, and tribal Citizen Corps Council members, “to coordinate the efforts of the different government agencies in identifying, developing, and implementing strategies” allowing the American public to have more of a role in developing community-based realistic disaster preparedness, response, recovery, mitigation plans and build partnerships among various government officials as well as ‘community-based leaders, health authorities and professional responders’. (Thomas) The Bill was referred to the Subcommittee on Emergency Preparedness, Science and Technology on August 22, 2005. (Thomas) http://thomas.loc.gov http://patrickkennedy.house.gov https://cmailint.gwu.edu/frame.html-US Fed News |