First, we do not agree that our discussion of enterprise architecture issues 

in the executive summary of our report is misleading.  The purpose of the 

executive summary is to bring together the various parts of our report to 

comprise an overall message.  We believe that completing an enterprise 

architecture is important to provide a framework for ensuring effective 

systems integration, functionality, and information sharing, unlike what 

was experienced during the 2004 hurricanes.   

Second, we appreciate the EP&R CIO's concern that our discussion of the 

status of enterprise architecture development is based on out of date 

information.  We based our statement that the electronic  as is  enterprise 

architecture was approximately 85 percent complete and that the  to be  

architecture development had not yet begun on discussions with the lead 

enterprise architecture official, held as recently as June 2005.  We 

acknowledge the range of ongoing activities to further progress in 

architecture development and have revised our report to reflect these 

efforts.  However, although the EP&R CIO cites such activities, the EP&R 

CIO does not provide an up to date, quantifiable indication of the current 

status of architecture development, as compared with the October 2005 

target completion date.  Based on the information provided to date, our 

recommendation remains to proceed with architecture development and 

make it available as a framework for guiding FEMA's IT management in 

line with the DHS architecture and ongoing initiatives. 

Third, we disagree with the EP&R CIO's comment that our report 

assumes that the incomplete enterprise architecture alone is the reason for 

IT systems not efficiently handling increased workloads.  The EP&R CIO 

has taken our reference to the enterprise architecture out of context and 

misconstrues the issue that we raise.  Rather, we conclude in the executive 

summary of our report that the incomplete enterprise architecture, in 

conjunction with unintegrated systems and ineffective information 

exchange, creates an ineffective processing environment.   

Fourth, we have revised our report to reflect the EP&R CIO's comments 

regarding recent progress in developing the  as is  and  to be  portions of 

FEMA's enterprise architecture.  We recognize that overall architecture 

development is an evolving process, but nonetheless encourage FEMA to 

complete the  to be  portion to serve as a roadmap for proposed IT 

initiatives. 

EP&R CIO Budget:  We agree with the EP&R CIO there is a potential to 

misconstrue our statement regarding the resources used to develop and operate 

Emergency Preparedness and Response Could Better Integrate Information Technology  

with Incident Response and Recovery 

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