Response and Recovery Performance Metrics:  We agree that EP&R systems 

are not entirely owned by the CIO's office and recognize that the program 

offices, which are the systems users, also need to help identify effective 

performance measures.  The EP&R CIO's comments affirm the need for 

improved ability to collect performance data from IT systems.  

Recommendation 1 of our report addresses the need for improved 

performance measurement. 

Departmentwide Initiatives:  The additional information that the EP&R CIO 

provided on FEMA's efforts to coordinate its IT activities with 

departmentwide initiatives affirms issues and recommendations we raise in 

our report.  Where appropriate, we have revised the report to reflect the 

ongoing coordination activities. 

IT Guidance and Training:  Again, the EP&R CIO's comments affirm and 

supplement the information we provided on IT guidance and training in our 

report.  Like the EP&R CIO, we expect that having regional IT staff report 

directly to his office will enhance efforts to define training requirements, 

integrate and improve training materials, and better communicate guidance 

and training availability. 

Database Integration:  The EP&R CIO commented that our discussion under 

the report heading  Databases Are Not Fully Integrated  should be omitted 

because it is not relevant to either database integration or mission application 

integration.  In response, we have revised the heading and clarified the 

subsequent discussion concerning the need to centralize NEMIS servers. 

Logistics Integration:  The EP&R CIO stated that our example regarding 

logistics coordination is partially incorrect in that not all of the tractor trailers 

came from the FEMA Logistics Centers.  Our report does not say that all of 

the trucks came from the FEMA logistics center.  Indeed, where the trucks 

came from is not germane to the issue that we raise.  Rather, we are concerned 

that, although FEMA is responsible for coordinating federal incident response, 

the arrival of all of the trucks at a single staging area was uncoordinated and 

personnel were not on hand to receive the supplies in a timely manner.   

NEMIS Access and Security:  We recognize that cyber security requirements 

limit the ability of state employees to access NEMIS from their desktops and 

have revised our report accordingly. 

System Capacity to Handle Increased Workload:  We disagree with the EP&R 

CIO's comments regarding the ability of FEMA's IT systems to handle 

Emergency Preparedness and Response Could Better Integrate Information Technology  

with Incident Response and Recovery 

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