Amy Sebring: Good morning/afternoon everyone.  Thank you for joining us today.  
On behalf of Avagene and myself, welcome to the EIIP Virtual Forum!  Our topic 
today is "The New FEMA: Implications for State and Local Emergency Managers."

Amy Sebring: Today's program is also co-hosted by the International Association 
of Emergency Managers (IAEM), and I will be turning to its President in just a 
moment to say a few words.

Amy Sebring: But first, Chip Hines, Program Manager for the Disaster Management 
eGov program, and with whom Avagene and I have been working for many years, has 
asked to say a few kind words about the EIIP. We have NOT put him up to it!  
Chip, if you please.

Chip Hines: Thanks Amy

Chip Hines: I'd just like to remind everyone that EIIP got its start in 
association with FEMA about 10 years ago.  I was lucky enough to be part of that 
effort, and it's one of the efforts that I will always be proud to have been a 
part of.  The service EIIP and EMFORUM provides to the community is invaluable, 
and simply isn't available elsewhere. ...

Chip Hines: EIIP's impact is large: many of you may not know that the 
transcripts generated in these sessions are downloaded by the thousands, and 
many people come back and browse through the archives.  My wish for the EIIP is 
continued growth and success.

Chip Hines: this is truly an investment in our country's preparedness, and like 
education, the long term effects raise the capabilities of the entire nation.  
Thanks to the EIIP and to FEMA for remaining engaged.

Amy Sebring: Thank you very much Chip.  It has been our privilege and pleasure 
to work with you.  Chip will be retiring in a couple of months, and although we 
will miss him, we wish him the very best.

Amy Sebring: Now, for the benefit of our first-timers, we will go over the order 
of business.  We will begin with a presentation and then we will proceed to your 
questions and comments.

Amy Sebring: We will provide further instructions just before we begin the Q&A 
section, but you may wish to jot down your questions or comments as we go along.

Amy Sebring: We will be using a few slides today.  If the following URL does not 
open a browser window with the program title slide loaded, you may need to 
disable a pop up blocker in your Internet Options.

Amy Sebring: http://www.emforum.org/vforum/FEMA/slide01.htm

Amy Sebring: We will pause after each URL to give you a moment to look over the 
slide content.  If you are on a slow connection it may not be quite long enough, 
but we will include the links to the slides in the transcript.

Amy Sebring: A formatted transcript of today's session will be available by 
later this afternoon -- just check back on our home page or the background page 
(refresh the page if needed).

Amy Sebring: Finally, please do not send private messages to our speaker or the 
moderator, as we will be busy with the presentation.  If you need assistance, 
you may send a private message to Avagene.

Amy Sebring: Now it is my pleasure to introduce today's special guest.  With 
more than 20 years experience in governmental and legislative affairs, public 
affairs, marketing, emergency services and emergency management, Marko Bourne 
was appointed Director of Policy and Program Analysis for the Federal Emergency 
Management Agency in October 2006.

Amy Sebring: Prior to an intervening period of service in the private sector 
with Earth Tech Inc./ Tyco International, Mr. Bourne served as Acting Director 
of the Department of Homeland Security's National Incident Management System 
Integration Center and Deputy Director of FEMA's Preparedness Division.

Amy Sebring: For further biographical details, you can click on Mr. Bourne's 
photo above.  Now I would like to introduce Michael D. Selves, CEM and current 
President of IAEM. Mike previously served as the Chair of IAEM's Government 
Affairs Committee.

Amy Sebring: Mike, a Kansas native, is also the Director of the Johnson County 
Department of Emergency Management & Homeland Security in Olathe, Kansas and is 
active in numerous professional organizations.

Amy Sebring: We are glad you could be with us today Mike, and I now turn the 
floor over to you.

Mike Selves: Hello, everyone, glad to see you all here this morning (yep still 
morning in Kansas).

Mike Selves: On October 4th of last year, the 2007 Homeland Security 
Appropriations Bill became law.  A major part of that bill was the Post-Katrina 
Emergency Management Reform Act. of 2006, a significant piece of legislation for 
emergency managers at all levels of government...

Mike Selves: The reform act was the result of a monumental advocacy effort on 
the part of IAEM, NEMA and other partner organizations...While the act did not 
reflect everything we wanted with respect to the strengthening of FEMA and the 
restoration of its authority and autonomy, it went a long way toward 
accomplishing that goal...

Mike Selves: Over the several months since the reforms were passed by Congress, 
we have watched as FEMA proceeded to "re-establish" itself within DHS.  While 
much remains to be done, both within FEMA and in concert with the Congress, the 
results have been encouraging...

Mike Selves: In light of our great interest in this effort, IAEM is particularly 
pleased to co-sponsor today's discussion and sincerely thank EIIP for the 
invitation.  One of the prime architects of the reorganization of FEMA, as 
directed by the reform act, is our speaker for this session, Marko Bourne, 
FEMA's Director of Policy and Program Analysis...

Mike Selves: And while Mr. Bourne will undoubtedly refer to the "new" FEMA, many 
of us believe that what he will be describing is the beginning of the 
restoration of a FEMA which we hoped was possible and knew was necessary to the 
protection of our communities and citizens...

Mike Selves: We're happy to have public officials such as Mr. Bourne guiding 
this restoration and welcome him to today's discussion.

Amy Sebring: Thanks Mike. We add our welcome and appreciation for your making 
time to be with us today Marko at this historic moment for FEMA. I now turn the 
floor over to you to begin today's program if you please.

Marko Bourne: Thanks Mike and Good afternoon.  First of all I would like to 
thank the EIIP for allowing me to be on-line to discuss the vision of new FEMA 
and the integration of preparedness into FEMA.  The EIIP has many partner 
institutions that I have been involved with for a long time and that I respect 
very much.  Again, thank you.

Marko Bourne: I realize that major changes in agencies that you partner with on 
a daily basis can cause uneasiness.  Rest assured that as we continued forward 
with the effort to integrate our new National Preparedness Directorate the needs 
of our stakeholders was at the forefront.

Marko Bourne: We determined everything from organizational structure to 
reporting chains with you in mind using a process where we looked at the 
functions and missions that serve you all before we addressed form and 
organization charts.

Marko Bourne: After this briefing, I hope you will be able to realize that the 
new FEMA is a FEMA full of potential and opportunities and it will be a more 
nimble agency than the FEMA of the past.  I hope it will allay any fears that 
preparedness will fall off of the radar screen in the event of a major disaster, 
simply because it won't.

Marko Bourne: Amy, Slide 2 please.

Amy Sebring: http://www.emforum.org/vforum/FEMA/slide02.htm

Marko Bourne: I am sure this isn't the first time you have heard "new FEMA".  
Well what is this new FEMA that we have been talking about for the past few 
months?  We want to make new FEMA the Nation's Preeminent Emergency Management 
and Preparedness Agency.

Marko Bourne: FEMA will be able to encompass the four priorities of the 
Department of Homeland Security prevent, protect, respond, and recover.  In 
order to do this we had to change our way of thinking and change some of our 
business practices since FEMA has not traditionally been in the protection and 
prevention business.

Marko Bourne: FEMA will be a more forward leaning organization than it has been 
in recent memory.  We will not wait until states are completely overwhelmed to 
step in with additional aid.  However, this should not be mistaken for replacing 
or preempting emergency management in the states, it just means that FEMA will 
be faster acting and more nimble partner to you all than it has been in the 
past.

Marko Bourne: We must also reach out to the law enforcement community in a new 
way.  Administrator Paulison will have a Law Enforcement Advisor that he will 
work with on a regular basis in order to foster a relationship that was lacking 
in the past.

Marko Bourne: It's not that FEMA had a bad relationship with the Law Enforcement 
community, it that we had no relationship with them.  That will change as we 
embrace them as part of the overall preparedness mission.

Marko Bourne: FEMA will incorporate best practices from the Preparedness 
directorate in our new structure, and make sure that the daily business of 
preparedness will continue even in the event of a disaster in another part of 
the country.  Preparedness is a steady-state function and it should be treated 
as such.

Marko Bourne: Another part of the new FEMA will be to strengthen our Regions.  
The FEMA regions are the state and local emergency managers' primary partners 
every day. The Regions will have more resources starting this year and with 
these new resources there will be new responsibilities.

Marko Bourne: These responsibilities include aspects of the National 
Preparedness Directorate that will lie in the Regional offices.  The Regions are 
developing Regional metrics that the Regional Administrators will be able to use 
as guidance for priorities and decision making.

Marko Bourne: They will not ignore the nuances that are specific to each Region 
but they will set a basis of standard operating procedures for the Regional 
Administrators to lead with.

Marko Bourne: With stronger Regions FEMA will be able to develop more robust 
partnerships with state and local governments, this is where you fit in.  This 
is also based on the grant programs within National Preparedness that interact 
with the state and local governments on an almost daily basis.

Marko Bourne: We will get back to the grant programs later, but we are looking 
forward to having more robust dialogue with states and locals.

Marko Bourne: We are looking at strong and well-established customer service 
models to provide guidance on how we deliver service of value to our 
stakeholders.  We want a one point of entry system for states to have questions 
answered by FEMA.

Marko Bourne: As an agency, FEMA wants to be easily accessible to our state and 
local partners and to be able to provide them with exemplary service.  
Specifically we will add Preparedness officers and Grants Management specialists 
to the regions to support your efforts in planning, training, exercises and in 
managing the grant dollars.

Marko Bourne: Doing all of these things and having a forward leaning posture 
will allow FEMA to earn the confidence of the public.  This confidence is 
valuable and FEMA needs to be able to gain trust and maintain trust by doing all 
of the things I mentioned before in the vision of new FEMA.

Marko Bourne: If we can strengthen our Regions, if we can build robust 
partnerships with state and local government, and if we can deliver service of 
value to the broad range of stakeholders, I am sure that FEMA will be able to 
earn the public confidence.

Marko Bourne: Amy, Slide 3 please.

Amy Sebring: http://www.emforum.org/vforum/FEMA/slide03.htm

Marko Bourne: This is the organizational chart of FEMA as a whole, and as you 
can see, there have been some changes and may be a few more tweaks in the coming 
weeks.  We have added an Office of Equal Rights, a Law Enforcement Advisor to 
the Administrator, a Logistics Management Directorate, a Grants Management 
Office to handle the financial side of the grants, and the National Preparedness 
Directorate to manage the programs.

Marko Bourne: This structure will allow for greater visibility into the grants 
process and allow us to maintain appropriate checks and balances in the process.  
For the first time in recent memory all of our Regions have sworn in 
Administrators; these people were chosen by the fact that they each have 25-30 
years of experience in the Emergency Management field.

Marko Bourne: In total our Regional Administrators have over 300 years of 
experience in the field.  Some of our division have been renamed and elevated to 
directorates; the Response Division became the Disaster Operations Directorate, 
...

Marko Bourne: the Recovery Division became the Disaster Assistance Directorate, 
and the Office of National Security Coordination became the National Continuity 
Programs.  The United States Fire Administration came back into FEMA and we 
couldn't be happier.

Marko Bourne: Amy, Slide 4 please.

Amy Sebring: http://www.emforum.org/vforum/FEMA/slide04.htm

Marko Bourne: The new National Preparedness Directorate has taken shape.  The 
Capabilities Division will be what used to be Preparedness Programs Division.  
This will be the programmatic side of the grants and they will focus on helping 
you all build capabilities with the grant dollars you receive.

Marko Bourne: The Community Preparedness Division encompasses Citizen Corp and 
all of the Citizen Corp programs and our planning relationship with voluntary 
agencies.  The Technological Hazards Division will be home to the Chemical 
Stockpile Emergency Preparedness Program and the Radiological Emergency 
Preparedness Program as well as some legacy FEMA CERCLA programs.

Marko Bourne: We'll come back to the National Integration Center in a minute.  
The Preparedness Doctrine, Planning and Analysis Office will be the center for 
Preparedness Doctrine and provide a level of oversight and ensure that all of 
the National Preparedness activities are moving toward the National Preparedness 
Goal, and really determine what preparedness means in FEMA as threats evolve.

Marko Bourne: Amy, Slide 5 please.

Amy Sebring: http://www.emforum.org/vforum/FEMA/slide05.htm

Marko Bourne: The National Integration Center will be the Division where all of 
the training and exercises are synchronized and will be the home of the National 
Response Plan and the National Incident Management System.  It will encompass 
all of the training entities you are used to interacting with like the Emergency 
Management Institute, the Center for Domestic Preparedness, and the Noble 
Training Center.

Marko Bourne: The Incident Management Systems Office is the renamed NIMS 
Integration Center; it will handle NRP, NIMS, credentialing, and creating 
national standards.

Marko Bourne: The National Exercise Division will be the coordinating both State 
and Local Exercises and the National and Regional Exercises.  The National 
Exercise Simulation Center has been authorized by Congress but not funded as 
yet.

Marko Bourne: We are undertaking an assessment of this function to determine if 
this effort needs to be a brick and mortar facility, or virtual that will allow 
the National Exercise Program to be involved in more state and local exercises 
than they are able to currently due to lack of resources.

Marko Bourne: The Training and Exercises Integration box will be a coordinating 
body to make sure that there isn't duplication in training courses, curriculum 
review, that the training and exercise needs of the stakeholders are addressed, 
and they will also coordinate with our outside training partners such as state 
training academies, the Homeland Security Consortium and other institutions of 
higher learning.

Marko Bourne: Bringing all of the FEMA legacy training in addition to the 
training previously provided by Preparedness, and the National Exercise Program 
under one umbrella will allow for a much more effective training and exercise 
process.

Marko Bourne: Amy, Slide 6 please.

Amy Sebring: http://www.emforum.org/vforum/FEMA/slide06.htm

Marko Bourne: There are many benefits to this realignment of FEMA and 
Preparedness.  First and foremost, it integrates the nation's operational 
architecture and its capabilities- based preparedness framework.  FEMA and the 
elements of Preparedness that came over already had very similar and 
complementary missions, now there will be a shared vision of an all-hazards 
preparedness, response and recovery.

Marko Bourne: Under this new national operating architecture we are putting in 
place from both the old FEMA and the elements of Preparedness, we will now have 
the opportunity to operationalize the work of preparedness now they we are 
together.

Marko Bourne: The effect of this will not be additive but exponential, this is a 
situation where one plus one will be greater than two, the sum is much greater 
than the parts.  If we do this right, and we are taking the time to make sure 
that happens, this will result in a level of cross-governmental operational 
readiness that is unprecedented.

Marko Bourne: We need our stakeholders to be part of this effort.  We will be 
reaching out to you to provide input into some of these programs and we want you 
to feel like you are part of the new FEMA team.

Marko Bourne: Thank you for your time and I am available to take any questions 
you may have. I will turn the session back over to our Moderator to start us 
off.

Amy Sebring: Thank you very much Marko.  Now, to proceed to your questions or 
comments. Our protocol for audience questions is to enter a question mark ? to 
indicate you wish to ask a question or make a comment...

Lloyd Colston: ?

Valerie Lucus: ?

Amy Sebring: then go ahead and compose your question or comment to have it 
ready, but do NOT hit your Enter key or click on the Send button until you are 
recognized by name.  Please WAIT your turn.  We will take questions in the order 
the question marks are sent to the screen.

Kennie Warren: ?

Amy Sebring: ONE QUESTION AT A TIME please and please keep your questions or 
comments reasonably concise.  If you have a follow up question or comment, 
please get back in the line with another question mark.

Amy Sebring: We are ready to begin now, but you can enter your question mark at 
anytime you are ready.

Amy Sebring: Lloyd when you are ready please.

Lloyd Colston: Good morning, Mr. Bourne.  How will the Regions be strengthened?  
Will there be new staff added to better serve the States and money added to the 
States so they can hire additional staff to better serve the local governments?  
Will there be increased funding to the local governments so they can do a BETTER 
job in all-hazards planning, preparedness, response, and recovery?

Kay Phillips: ?

William Cummingl: ?

John Rodgers: Expediting EMAC requests from the state, will FEMA streamline this 
process.

Marko Bourne: The regions will be getting additional staff this year, next 
fiscal year and the year after.  Our goal is to put over 100-200 additional 
positiong in the regions in the next 18 months

Marko Bourne: We are working with the Administration and Congress to look at the 
funding for EMPG and to make sure that it is at a level that can support your 
activities.  We understand the Congress is looking closely at increasing it as 
well.

Amy Sebring: Great.  Thanks.  Kennie is next please.

Lloyd Colston: ?

Kennie Warren: Is FEMA going to come up with new assessments or use the previous 
ones?

Amy Sebring: Kennie, do you mean the vulnerability assessments?

Kennie Warren: To name a few, we are looking at the reports and assessments such 
as NIMCAST

Marko Bourne: We are not looking at adding to your assessment burden but 
utilizing what has been done and trying to provide you new tools to review the 
gaps and what we can do to provide assistance.  We don't need to re-invent 
wheels here.

Amy Sebring: I missed Valerie.  Sorry.  Valerie now please.

Valerie Lucus: If FEMA hasn't been in the 'protection and prevention' business 
before, what would you call 'mitigation'? Where does mitigation fit into this? 
Or does it?

Rich Vandame: ?

Edwina Juillet: ?

Marko Bourne: Mitigation is of course a form of protection but has been almost 
exclusively natural hazard, we need to build upon that as we look at other 
hazards that are from a determined enemy and use our outstanding knowledge of 
natural and man-made mitigation to assist in that.

Amy Sebring: Kay is next please.

chas: Is DHS-FEMA going to establish a working group with the FCC regarding the 
develoment of a new Integrated EAS or National alerting system?  This is a 
question I have after reading the GAO March 2007 report.

Kay Phillips: Separating grants management fiscal side from programmatic side 
can be problematic when you have fiscal staff making decisions or 
interpretations that do not support the program's outcome.  How does the new 
FEMA address this disconnect?

Valerie Lucus: ?

Amy Sebring: (Chas please redo your question to have it ready when I call on you 
in just a moment)

Marko Bourne: They are actually seperate now.  It's the difference between the 
accounting function and the programs side that writes the guidance.  Think of 
the financial side as how the money is drawn down and by law they have to be 
seperate entities. What we want to do is make that process very open and visible 
to you as it has not been in the past.  That way there will be complete 
understanding of the grants process and how you can get technical assistance.

Amy Sebring: William next please.

William Cummingl: How will FEMA coordinate with DOJ and DOD in large scale 
events?

Kay Phillips: ?

Marko Bourne: We are working very closely with both to establish pre-scripted 
mission assignments and relationships through the NRP re-write effort.  We have 
liaisons both at their offices and they have liaisons at ours and our 
collaborative work continues every day.

Amy Sebring: Chas, NOW it is your turn.  Do you have your question re EAS ready 
again?

chas: Is DHS-FEMA going to establish a working group with the FCC regarding the 
development of a new integrated EAS or National Alerting System?  This is a 
question I have after reading the GAO March 2007 report.

Marko Bourne: We are developing a program called IPAWS that will look at all 
aspects of alert and warning.  This is being done under a presidential directive 
and will include EAS as well as other systems.  The FCC as well as NOAA and 
others have been working with our project team to develop the effort.  This will 
be a 3-5 year program so there is a lot of work for everyone.

Amy Sebring: Lloyd next please.

Lloyd Colston: Thank you for this encouraging news.  I think I noticed the lack 
of focus on Mitigation.  Was that meant to be?  With strengthening comes 
funding, right?  In other words, does the NEW FEMA have NEW money to run some 
important programs, ex. Hazard Mitigation Grant Program, Citizen Corp Councils, 
Community Emergency Response Teams, etc.?  I hate hammering the money question 
but we all need it.   :)  I am anticipating you saying yes to new money since it 
does not make sense to add staff to manage a program that's less than 100% 
funded.

chas: ?

Johnnie Smith: ?

Gautama Kusuma: ?

Marko Bourne: Mitigation has not been forgotten and is being strengthened as 
well.  We are linking up our Mitigation division with Bob Stephans 
Infrastructure protection group to get them collaborating.  As for funding of 
New FEMA the President has asked for an unprecedented 27% increase in FEMA 
funding for FY08.  That has never happened before and will provide the first 
step in a three year effort to build to the new FEMA we all are looking for.  
This 08 money is a down payment so to speak.

Amy Sebring: Rich next please.

Rich Vandame: In addition to SAVER and CEDAP, the Systems Support Division of 
Grants & Training was established as the standards coordinating entity for G&T.  
Do you have information on where they fit into the new organization?

Marko Bourne: They have been placed in the Capabilities Division of National 
Preparedness.  They will work standards issues with S&T as well as the consensus 
national standards organizations such as NFPA and others.

Amy Sebring: Edwina next please.

Edwina Juillet: within the New FEMA, "will there be an appointment of an 
individual* to oversee the planning, etc., of people with disabilities?" (*a 
qualified person from the disability community)

Mike Selves: ?

Marko Bourne: Yes.  we are in the process of interviewing applicants this month 
and hope to have a selection soon.  They will report to the Administrator and be 
part of our EEO office.  We are very encouraged by the quality of the 
applicants.

Amy Sebring: Valerie next please.

Valerie Lucus: Follow up:  So, mitigation by any other name (prevention) is 
still mitigation, right?  New Question: How will standards (i.e. NFPA 1600) fit 
into what you are creating here? Especially as they relate to the EMAP 
accreditation process?

John Boyle: ?

Marko Bourne: We look at NFPA 1600 as a very important part of the process and 
we want to support EMAP accreditation across the nation.  We have not been in a 
strong position in recent years to support it fully and we are working with NEMa 
and IAEM to strengthen that partnership

Amy Sebring: Marko, would your schedule permit staying online with us about 5 
minutes extra?  We have 7 more questions in line that we would like to get to.

Marko Bourne: yes

Amy Sebring: Thanks.  Great.  Kay next please.

Kay Phillips: We understand that the fiscal and programmatic elements are 
separate now; and that's the problem.  Fiscal staff are making programmatic 
determinations and even arguing with FEMA programmatic staff over management and 
administrative cost issues, for example.  And the result has been fiscal staff 
substituting their judgements even when the request by programmatic staff is 
legal and complies grants management standards.

Marko Bourne: The programmatic staff will work with stakeholders to determine 
what the grants can be used for.  The admin staff should be supporting the 
effort to assist in managing the money and making sure that the audit functions 
are carried out. It is important to remind you all that federal law and good 
accounting practices require this separation and checks and balances.  We 
understand the problems that have occurred in the past and the reason we are 
"bring the financial side into the light of day" is to address and resolve those 
issues.

Amy Sebring: Chas next please.

chas: (Follow up: EAS Working Group) How can we get input or added to this 
project?  Since the PPW group is no longer in place.

Roger Hovis: ?

Marko Bourne: The IPAWS project is being run by our National Continuity 
Directorate, formerly know as the Office of National Security.  I would 
encourage you to contact them on the plans for outreach and potential working 
groups.

Amy Sebring: Johnnie next please.

Johnnie Smith: What is the status of the Regional Advisory Councils?  Will their 
make-up be determined Regionally or mandated by Headquarters?

William Cummingl: ?

Marko Bourne: Regional Advisory Councils will likely be developed later this 
year.  We hope to announce the national council in the next few weeks.  Our goal 
with the regional councils is to allow for broad input and formation by our 
regional offices following some overall guidance from DC.  Our goal is to look 
at the regions as the key relationship builders with our state and local 
partners

Marko Bourne: .

Amy Sebring: (No more question marks please. We already have enough questions in 
the line)...

Amy Sebring: Gautama is next please.

Gautama Kusuma: Follow up to Valerie's Q: With varying risk assessments in 
local/state agencies (accordingly, to their own needs), how does FEMA respond to 
this in regards to the risk assessment standardization and or accreditation in 
distributing grants? Would FEMA move to that direction?

Marko Bourne: It is hard for me to give you an answer to that at this point.  
The entire Risk Assessment Process is being looked at across DHS and that effort 
over the next few months will potentially drive some of those decisions.  As we 
fully integrate the former G&T staff into FEMA we will have a better vision of 
the path ahead.

Amy Sebring: Mike Selves next please.

Mike Selves: Not a question, but to add to the discussion of money.  We are 
looking at adding about $100M to EMPG in the pending supplemental...if the 
Congress and White House ever get it passed.  Additionally, things look very 
promising for a major increase in EMPG in the 2008 appropriations bill, but 
we'll have to wait and see.  We'll need everyone's help as these bills progress.

Amy Sebring: Thanks Mike.  That is for sure.  Last question for today, John 
please.

Marko Bourne: We are watching to see what happens ourselves.

John Boyle: A December GAO report noted shortcomings related to communicating 
with and providing transportation to persons with disablilities and persons 
without vehicles during evacuation events. Will there be a program at the local 
level to address this?

Marko Bourne: Part of the planning responsibility at all levels of government is 
to plan for those that cannot easily provide for themselves in this matter.  We 
are working closely with many hurricane affected states to provide such planning 
guidance. we cannot however write the plan for you but we can assist in looking 
at creative ways to help you all address those problems.

Amy Sebring: That's all we have time for today. Sorry for those we did not get 
to.  I am sure we could have gone on for TWO hours! ...

Amy Sebring: Thank you very much Marko for an excellent job. We hope you enjoyed 
the experience today, and I think I can safely say that all our participants 
today wish you and FEMA only the best for the future.

Amy Sebring: Our thanks also to your staff, including Erin Gallagher, for 
assisting with today's session!  Please stand by a moment while we make a couple 
of quick announcements...

Amy Sebring: Again, the formatted transcript will be available later today.  If 
you are not on our mailing list and would like to get notices of future sessions 
and availability of transcripts, just go to our home page to Subscribe.

Tom Merkle: Thank you to Marko...extremely informative

Marko Bourne: Thanks Amy and thanks to you all for your patience with my typing 
skills

Amy Sebring: We are proud to announce a new Partner today, Business Executives 
for National Security (BENS), http://www.bens.org , POC: Kiersten Todt Coon, 
Vice President, Policy.

Amy Sebring: You may recall that Kiersten recently presented in the Virtual 
Forum on BENS activities at the national level.  We are delighted that they have 
become an official EIIP Partner. If your organization is interested in becoming 
an EIIP Partner, please go to our home page and click on "Partnership for You"

Rebecca Clark: Thank you!

Amy Sebring: Thanks to everyone for participating today.  We stand adjourned but 
before you go, please help me show our appreciation to Marko for a fine job.