Section 1 Short title
This Act may be cited as the “Emergency Response Improvement Act”.
Emergency Response Improvement Act
A BILL
To improve emergency response activities in the United States, and for other purposes.
Sec. 2 State offices of emergency management
In general— To be eligible for assistance under the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 5121 et seq.) on or after October 1, 2014, the chief executive officer of a State shall be required to maintain a State Office of Emergency Management.
Duties— The State Office of Emergency Management referred to in subsection (a)—
shall coordinate the State response to an emergency; and
may request Federal assistance with respect to an emergency.
Sec. 3 Emergency response
Federal incident commander— If one or more Federal departments or agencies provides assistance to a State in response to an emergency, the President shall designate an individual from one such department or agency to serve as the Federal incident commander for that emergency.
Functions— As soon as practicable after designation under subsection (a), a Federal incident commander shall—
meet with representatives of Federal, State, and local entities involved in the response to the emergency; and
assist such representatives in—
creating a plan to respond to the emergency that specifies the responsibilities of each entity involved in the response;
designating an individual to lead the response; and
drafting and executing a memorandum of understanding with respect to the plan described in subparagraph (A) that describes the responsibilities of each entity involved in the response.
Failure To agree— In the absence of a memorandum of understanding described in subsection (b)(2)(C), the Federal incident commander shall report to the President or the President’s designee and recommend if, and to what extent, the relevant Federal departments or agencies should be involved in the response to the emergency.
Sec. 4 Effect
Nothing in this Act shall be construed to limit, expand, or change any authority granted to a Federal, State, or local entity to respond to an emergency under Federal, State, or local law.
Sec. 5 Definitions
In general— In this Act, the terms emergency, Indian tribal government, and State have the meanings given such terms in section 102 of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 5122).
Treatment of Indian tribal governments— For the purposes of this Act, any reference to “State” shall be treated as a reference also to “Indian tribal government”.