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President Bush signed a directive Wednesday outlining a strategy for preparing the federal government to continue running during a national emergency such as a terrorist attack or a natural disaster.

In the order -- called National Security Presidential Directive 51 and Homeland Security Presidential Directive 20 -- Bush designated the assistant to the president for homeland security and counterterrorism as the national continuity coordinator. Frances Townsend currently holds that position. Bush also ordered the development of a national continuity plan within 90 days.

The order revokes the October 1998 Presidential Decision Directive 67 "Enduring Constitutional Government and Continuity of Government Operations," signed by President Clinton.

The new directive requires that continuity plans be incorporated into the daily operations of all federal agencies and emphasis be placed on geographic dispersion of agency leadership, staff and infrastructure to keep key government services operating during an emergency.

The heads of all agencies will have to appoint a senior-level official at the assistant secretary level to serve as their continuity coordinator.

Risk management principles should be applied in the planning, the directive states. Maintaining "national essential functions" should be the primary focus of government leaders during and directly following an emergency, it says. This includes: ensuring the continued functioning of a constitutional government with three separate branches; protecting against threats to the country; providing visible leadership; and providing critical government services that address the national health, safety and welfare needs of citizens.

Under the order, the director of the Office of Management and Budget is required to conduct an annual assessment of agency continuity funding requests and performance data to monitor progress in the implementation of the plan.

The director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy will have to define and issue minimum requirements for agency continuity communications and the Homeland Security Department will coordinate the implementation of continuity activities.

In conjunction with the attorney general and the Homeland Security secretary, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence will be required to produce a biennial assessment of the foreign and domestic threats to the country's continuity of government.

David Marin, staff director for Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., ranking member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said Davis thinks the directive is a wise move and could ensure compliance from agencies that have ignored the Federal Emergency Management Agency's efforts in the past.

Marin noted agencies should not have to start from scratch, as it has been nearly six years since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and more than four years since Davis started pressing agencies to take the issue seriously.

A year ago, Comptroller General David M. Walker told members of the House Government Reform Committee that few agencies had made the necessary preparations to continue critical operations during large-scale emergencies. Walker said the ability of agencies to do so would be enhanced with the widespread use of telework.

On Thursday, Davis and Reps. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., chairman of the oversight panel, Danny Davis, D-Ill., and Kenny Marchant, R-Texas, sent surveys to 25 agencies asking what they are doing to implement telework policies. They requested responses by May 25.

The survey seeks to determine how agencies define telework, how they determine who is eligible, and why and how they go about notifying employees they are eligible. The survey also seeks to identify roadblocks to using the alternate arrangement, including management resistance, and to determine what can be done to overcome these barriers.

"We're trying to see if there is something we can do to help," Davis said in a statement. "Between the environment, the traffic situation and the threat of terrorist attacks, we have a convergence of crises here that makes telework more important than ever."

COMMENTS

• Umm, excuse me for asking, but why hasn't this been done already? You'd think that contingency plans had already been developed for continuity of government operations during the Cold War, in which we faced a much greater threat (thousands of Soviet nukes) than we do now. Although terrorist attacks can be quite destructive, I doubt they can take out the whole U.S. government and economy. If we already have plans in place since the 1950's for dealing with attacks from the USSR, why not just dust them off and update them for use today? I'm sure they'll work just fine, at minimal cost, rather than reinventing the wheel, and starting from scratch. Concened Posted May 24, 2007 4:49 PM
• Did he provide a budget for this work? Shay Posted May 11, 2007 4:04 PM
• The President's mandate that geographic dispersion of agency personnel be made part of agencies' daily operations is imperative to assure continuity of operations in the event of a crisis: If government employees rarely or never work from alternative sites during stable times, they will not acquire the skills they need to keep the government running during unstable times. However, to enable government employees to get the practice with telework they need, the government must eliminate current tax barriers to this management strategy. As things stand now, states may punish nonresidents who telework for their in-state employers. New York, for example, taxes nonresident telecommuters, not only on the income they earn when they travel to their New York offices, but also on the income they earn when they work from home. Because a nonresident's home state may also tax the income he earns at home, he may be double taxed on that income. Thus, if a Connecticut resident works for the EPA in Manhattan and sometimes telecommutes, he may be taxed twice on the income he earns at home - once by Connecticut and again by New York. The threat of taxation by multiple states discourages workers from telecommuting. To enable more Americans - including federal workers - to telework, Senators Chris Dodd and Joseph Lieberman and Representative Christopher Shays have proposed The Telecommuter Tax Fairness Act. This legislation would remove the steep penalty for working remotely, prohibiting states like New York from taxing nonresidents on the income they earn when they work from home. If President Bush truly wants the government to rely on a dispersed workforce in the event of a catastrophe, he must see to it that The Telecommuter Tax Fairness Act becomes law. Nicole Belson Goluboff Posted May 11, 2007 10:33 AM