IMPLEMENTATION
The NEP will be led and coordinated by FEMA which will be responsible forthe management, planning, reporting, and budgetary coordination of the Programthrough interaction with an interagency group composed of representativesof those agencies with programmatic interests in earthquake research andmitigation. FEMA will serve as a single point of contact within the federalgovernment for information related to earthquake research and mitigationand will help to plan and direct workshops and other outreach activitiesaimed at transferring research results to state and local governments andthe private sector . FEMA, together with the interagency group, will workwith agencies conducting earthquake research and mitigation to formulateresearch priorities and provide these priorities to federal agencies forprogram formulation and ensure that unnecessarily duplicative research doesnot take place.
Participation in the NEP will be open to all agencies with activities thatinclude earthquake research or loss mitigation. The NEP's membership willreflect the evolution of federal agencies' programmatic interests and capabilitiessince the formation of NEHRP in 1977. The scale of an agency's contributionto reducing the nation's earthquake losses may not be fully apparent untilafter a detailed budget and programmatic analysis has been undertaken.
Specific activities of the interagency group through FEMA will be to: - Advocate Program policies and practices;
- Coordinate interagency strategic planning;
- Recommend Program priorities that do not conflict with agency activitiesconducted in support of special or unique missions;
- Compile the member agencies' annual accounting for earthquake-relatedProgram funds;
- Encourage and offer guidance to non-federal organizations and consortiain efforts to reduce earthquake losses;
- Conduct periodic national forums and develop additional means to includethe views; interests, and priorities of non-federal communities in the Program;and
- Evaluate and report every two years upon Program performance and effectivenessto the President and the Congress.
The interagency group will be led by a full-time Program Director who willreport to an Associate Director of FEMA. Several co-located, full to part-timeassociated officers detailed from other agencies with major earthquake researchprograms may aid the Program Director.
The Subcommittee on Natural Disaster Reduction (SNDR) of the Committee onEnvironment and Natural Resources (CENR), a committee within the NationalScience and Technology Council, will review the NEP on an ongoing basis,and communicate findings to the National Science and Technology Council.
Federal funding for the NEP is presumed to include those funds currentlyexpended on earthquake issues by the NEHRP member agencies (United StatesGeological Survey [USGS], National Science Foundation [NSF], Federal EmergencyManagement Agency [FEMA], and National Institute of Standards and Technology[NIST]) as well as other Federal agencies involved in earthquake researchor loss mitigation technology development or implementation. Individualactivities such as workshops or publications will be paid for directly bythe sponsoring agencies. This report does not imply or intend redirectingbudgetary authority between agencies, or propose actions that would impactagency activities conducted in support of special or unique missions. Thenon-Federal implementation of earthquake loss mitigation practices is nota direct fiscal responsibility of the program. Most cost decisions mustbe made at the State or local levels of government or by the private sector.Mitigation implementation is a long term investment which occurs over timeperiods of tens of years and is applied on an incremental basis. Successof the NEP will depend in large part on stimulating the actions of thesegroups to mitigate earthquake hazards.