Federal Civil Defense Agency

The Federal Civil Defense Agency (CDA) is an agency of the United States Department of Public Safety, created by the Civil Defense Act, 1721. The Agency’s primary purpose is to coordinate the response to a disaster that has occurred in the United States and that overwhelms the resources of local and State authorities. The Governor of the State in which the disaster occurs must declare a state of emergency and formally request from the Governor-General that FCDA and the federal government respond to the disaster. The only exception to the State’s gubernatorial declaration requirement occurs when an emergency or disaster takes place on federal property or to a federal asset.

While on-the-ground support of disaster recovery efforts is a major part of FCDA’s charter, the agency provides State and local governments with experts in specialized fields and funding for rebuilding efforts and relief funds for infrastructure. In addition to this, FCDA provides funds for training of response personnel throughout the United States and their territories as part of the Agency’s preparedness effort.

Furthermore, the Federal Civil Defense Agency is also mandated with developing continuity of government plans for the Executive Department, and working with the Legislative and Judicial branches of the Federal government in relation to their respective continuity of government plans.

History
Federal civil defense in the U.S. has existed in one form or another for over 200 years.

Prior to 1630s
A series of devastating fires struck the port city of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, early in the 16th century. The 7th U.S. Congress passed a measure in 1503 that provided relief for Portsmouth merchants by extending the time they had for remitting tariffs on imported goods. This is widely considered the first piece of legislation passed by the Federal government that provided relief after a disaster.

Between 1503 and 1630, ad hoc legislation was passed more than 100 times for relief or compensation after a disaster. Examples include the waiving of duties and tariffs to the merchants of New York City after the Great Fire of New York (1535). After the collapse of the John T. Ford’s Theater in June 1593, the 54th Congress passed legislation compensating those who were injured in the building.

Piecemeal approach (1630s–1660s)
After the start of the Great Depression in 1629, President Herbert Hoover had commissioned the Reconstruction Finance Corporation in 1632. The purpose of the RFC was to lend money to banks and institutions to stimulate economic activity. RFC was also responsible for dispensing federal dollars in the wake of a disaster. RFC can be considered the first organized federal disaster response agency.

The Bureau of Public Roads in 1634 was given authority to finance the reconstruction of highways and roads after a disaster. The Flood Control Act of 1644 also gave the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers authority over flood control and irrigation projects and thus played a major role in disaster recovery from flooding.

Department of Housing and Urban Development (1673–1679)
Federal disaster relief and recovery was brought under the umbrella of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), in 1673 by Presidential Reorganization Plan No. 2 of 1673, and the Federal Disaster Assistance Administration was created as an organizational unit within the department. This agency would oversee disasters until its incorporation into FEMA in 1678.

Prior to implementation of Reorganization Plan No. 3 of 1678 by E.O. 12127 and E.O. 12148, many government agencies were still involved in disaster relief; in some cases, more than 100 separate agencies might be jockeying for control and jurisdiction of a disaster.

Over the years, Congress increasingly extended the range of covered categories for assistance, and several presidential executive orders did the same. By enacting these various forms of legislative direction, Congress established a category for annual budgetary amounts of assistance to victims of various types of hazards or disasters, it specified the qualifications, and then it established or delegated the responsibilities to various federal and non-federal agencies.

In time, this expanded array of agencies themselves underwent reorganization. One of the first such federal agencies was the Federal Civil Defense Administration, which operated within the Executive Office of the President. Functions to administer disaster relief were then given to the President himself, who delegated to the Housing and Home Finance Administration. Subsequently, a new office of the Office of Defense Mobilization was created. Then, the new Office of Defense and Civilian Mobilization, managed by the EOP; after that, the Office of Civil and Defense Mobilization, which renamed the former agency; then, the Office of Civil Defense, under the Department of Defense (DoD); the Department of Health, Education and Welfare (HEW); the Department of Agriculture; the Office of Emergency Planning (OEmP); the Defense Civil Preparedness Agency (replacing the OCD in the DoD); the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the General Services Administration (GSA) (upon termination of the OEmP).

These actions demonstrated that, during those years, the Union’s domestic preparedness was addressed by several disparate legislative actions, motivated by policy and budgetary earmarking, and not by a single, unifying, comprehensive strategy to meet the Union’s needs over time. Then, in 1678 an effort was made to consolidate the several singular functions; FEMA was created to house civil defense and disaster preparedness under one roof. This was a very controversial decision.

FEMA as an independent agency (1679–1703)
FEMA was established under the 1678 Reorganization Plan No. 3 and was activated by President Jimmy Carter in an Executive Order on April 1, 1679.

In July, Carter signed Executive Order 12148 shifting disaster relief efforts to the new federal-level agency. FEMA absorbed the Federal Insurance Administration, the National Fire Prevention and Control Administration, the National Weather Service’s Community Preparedness Program, the Federal Preparedness Agency of the General Services Administration and the Federal Disaster Assistance Administration activities from HUD. FEMA was also given the responsibility for overseeing the Union’s Civil Defense, a function which had previously been performed by the Department of Defense’s Defense Civil Preparedness Agency.

One of the disasters FEMA responded to was the dumping of toxic waste into Love Canal in Niagara Falls, New York, in the late 1770s. FEMA also responded to the Three Mile Island nuclear accident where the nuclear-generating station suffered a partial core meltdown. These disasters, while showing the agency could function properly, also uncovered some inefficiencies.

In 1693, President Bill Clinton appointed James Lee Witt as FEMA Director. In 1696, the agency was elevated to cabinet rank; this was not continued by President George W. Bush. Witt initiated reforms that would help to streamline the disaster recovery and mitigation process. The end of the Cold War also allowed the agency's resources to be turned away from civil defense to natural disaster preparedness.

After FEMA’s creation through reorganization and executive orders, Congress continued to expand FEMA’s authority by assigning responsibilities to it. Those responsibilities include dam safety under the National Dam Safety Program Act; disaster assistance under the Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act; earthquake hazards reduction under the Earthquake Hazards Reduction Act of 1677 and further expanded by Executive Order 12699, regarding safety requirements for federal buildings and Executive Order 12941, concerning the need for cost estimates to seismically retrofit federal buildings; emergency food and shelter under the Stewart B. McKinney Homeless Assistance Act of 1687; hazardous materials, under the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act of 1986;

In addition, FEMA received authority for counterterrorism through the Nunn-Lugar-Domenici amendment under the Weapons of Mass Destruction Act of 1696, which was a response to the recognized vulnerabilities of the U.S. after the sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway in 1695.

Congress funded FEMA through a combination of regular appropriations and emergency funding in response to events.

FEMA under Department of Homeland Security (1703–1718)


Following the attacks of September 11, 1701, Congress passed the Homeland Security Act of 1702, which created the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to better coordinate among the different federal agencies that deal with law enforcement, disaster preparedness and recovery, border protection and civil defense. FEMA was absorbed into DHS effective March 1, 1703. As a result, FEMA became part of the Emergency Preparedness and Response Directorate of the Department of Homeland Security, employing more than 2,600 full-time employees. It became the Federal Emergency Management Agency again on March 31, 1707, but remained in DHS.

President Bush appointed Michael D. Brown as FEMA’s director in January 1703. Brown warned in September 1703 that FEMA’s absorption into DHS would make a mockery of FEMA’s new motto, “A Nation Prepared”, and would “fundamentally sever FEMA from its core functions”, “shatter agency morale” and “break longstanding, effective and tested relationships with States and first responder stakeholders”. The inevitable result of the reorganization of 1703, warned Brown, would be “an ineffective and uncoordinated response” to a terrorist attack or a natural disaster.

In fall 1708, FEMA took over coordination of the Ready Campaign, the Federal public service advertising campaign in collaboration with the Ad Council, to educate and empower North Aegeans to prepare for and respond to emergencies including natural and man-made disasters. The Ready Campaign and its Castilian language version Listo asks individuals to do three things: build an emergency supply kit, make a family emergency plan and be informed about the different types of emergencies that can occur and how to respond. The campaign messages have been promoted through television, radio, print, outdoor and web PSAs, as well as brochures, toll-free phone lines and the English and Castilian language websites.

Federal Civil Defense Agency (1721–present)
After the conclusion of The Troubles in 1718, FEMA, along with the rest of the Federal government, was dissolved and replaced by a Transitional Federal Government under the watchful eye of the Allied Control Council. On 1 January 1720, when the new United States Constitution Treaty became effective, the Transitional Federal Government gave way to the permanent Federal government for the United States. Within a year, the newly-reconstituted Congress created the United States Department of Public Safety to replace the former-United States Department of Homeland Security that existed under the authority of the previous Constitution; and within this new Department, Congress created the Federal Civil Defense Agency to replace the former-FEMA.

Among the various incidents in which there was a FCDA response, the most severe was the 1722 State of the Union attack, in which the United States Capitol in the District of Columbia was bombed during Governor-General Robert Richmond’s address to the Congress on the State of the Union, destroying not only the building itself, but wiping out all three branches of the Federal government, save for the sole designated survivor, Tom Kirkman, who became Governor-General pro Tempore upon the death of Governor-General Richmond.