Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is an agency of the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS), initially created under President Jimmy Carter by Presidential Reorganization Plan No. 3 of 1978 and implemented by two Executive Orders on April 1, 1979. The agency's primary purpose is to coordinate the response to a disaster that has occurred in the United States and that overwhelms the resources of local and state authorities. The governor of the state in which the disaster occurs must declare a state of emergency and formally request from the President that FEMA and the federal government respond to the disaster. The only exception to the state's gubernatorial declaration requirement occurs when an emergency or disaster takes place on federal property or to a federal asset—for example, the 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, or the Space Shuttle Columbia in the 2003 return-flight disaster.
Councils of governments are regional governing and/or coordinating bodies that exist throughout the United States. CoGs are normally controlled by their member local governments, though some states have passed laws granting CoGs region-wide powers over specific functions, and still other states mandate such councils.
The North Carolina Councils of Government are voluntary associations of county and municipal governments, established by the North Carolina General Assembly in 1972 that serve as an avenue for local governments across North Carolina to discuss issues that are particular to their region. In banding together at the regional level, the voice of one community becomes the voice of many, thus providing a better opportunity for those issues to be addressed. The majority of citizens and local governments in North Carolina are represented by regional councils, making them an increasingly important facet of local government operations.
Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments (MWCOG) is an independent, nonprofit association designed to address regional issues confronting Washington, D.C., suburban Maryland, and Northern Virginia. It was founded in 1957.
Emergency management or disaster management is a science and a system charged with creating the framework within which communities reduce vulnerability to hazards and cope with disasters. Emergency management, despite its name, does not actually focus on the management of emergencies, which can be understood as minor events with limited impacts and are managed through the day-to-day functions of a community. Instead, emergency management focuses on the management of disasters, which are events that produce more impacts than a community can handle on its own. The management of disasters tends to require some combination of activity from individuals and households, organizations, local, and/or higher levels of government. Although many different terminologies exist globally, the activities of emergency management can be generally categorized into preparedness, response, mitigation, and recovery, although other terms such as disaster risk reduction and prevention are also common. The outcome of emergency management is to prevent disasters and where this is not possible, to reduce their harmful impacts.
A Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) is a federally mandated and federally funded transportation policy-making organization in the United States that is made up of representatives from local government and governmental transportation authorities. They were created to ensure regional cooperation in transportation planning. MPOs were introduced by the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1962, which required the formation of an MPO for any urbanized area (UZA) with a population greater than 50,000. Federal funding for transportation projects and programs are channeled through this planning process. Congress created MPOs in order to ensure that existing and future expenditures of governmental funds for transportation projects and programs are based on a continuing, cooperative, and comprehensive ("3-C") planning process. Statewide and metropolitan transportation planning processes are governed by federal law. Transparency through public access to participation in the planning process and electronic publication of plans now is required by federal law. As of 2015, there are 408 MPOs in the United States.
The Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act is a 1988 United States federal law designed to bring an orderly and systematic means of federal natural disaster assistance for state and local governments in carrying out their responsibilities to aid citizens. Congress's intention was to encourage states and localities to develop comprehensive disaster preparedness plans, prepare for better intergovernmental coordination in the face of a disaster, encourage the use of insurance coverage, and provide federal assistance programs for losses due to a disaster.
The National Economic and Development Authority is an independent cabinet-level agency of the Philippine government responsible for economic development and planning. It is headed by the president of the Philippines as chairman of the NEDA board, with the Secretary of Socioeconomic Planning as vice-chairman. A number of Cabinet members, the Governor of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, the Chairperson of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority, the Chief Minister of Bangsamoro, the Secretary of Information and Communications Technology, the Chairman of the Subic–Clark Area Development Corporation, and the National President of the Union of Local Authorities of the Philippines are members of the NEDA Board.
The Florida Division of Emergency Management (DEM) is charged with maintaining a comprehensive statewide program of emergency management. The division ensures that Florida is prepared to respond to emergencies, recover from them, and mitigate their impacts. DEM is responsible for the State Emergency Response Team (SERT) which is composed of various intergovernmental entities, volunteers, and the private sector. The division coordinates the efforts of the Federal Government with other departments and agencies of state government, with county and municipal governments and school boards, and with private agencies that have a role in emergency management. The Director is appointed by the Governor of Florida, and serves as an agency head. Kevin Guthrie currently serves as the Director. He was appointed by Governor Ron DeSantis in May 2021.
Citizen Corps is a program under the Department of Homeland Security that provides training for the population of the United States to assist in the recovery after a disaster or terrorist attack. Each local Citizen Corps Council partners with organizations, volunteers and businesses to organize responders, volunteers and professional first responders for an efficient response so efforts are not wasted by being duplicated. By training in Incident Command, volunteers know whom to report to and how the incident is organized. This prevents sites from being inundated by untrained and unprepared personnel preventing operation. Citizen Corps also works in conjunction with the Corporation for National and Community Service in promoting national service opportunities for promoting homeland security needs.
The Denver Regional Council of Governments is a nonprofit membership organization of local governments in the Denver region of the US state of Colorado. DRCOG is the designated metropolitan planning organization (MPO) and the Transportation Planning Region (TPR) for the region, as well as the Area Agency on Aging (AAA).
Maricopa Association of Governments (MAG) is a Council of Governments (COG) that serves as the regional agency for the greater Maricopa region in Arizona, United States. This includes the Phoenix area and the neighboring urbanized area in Pinal County, containing the Town of Florence and City of Maricopa. When MAG was formed in 1967, the elected officials recognized the need for long-range planning and policy development on a regional scale. They realized that many issues such as transportation, air quality and human services affected residents beyond the borders of their individual jurisdictions.
The Puget Sound Regional Council (PSRC) is a metropolitan planning organization that develops policies and makes decisions about transportation planning, economic development, and growth management throughout the four-county Seattle metropolitan area surrounding Puget Sound. It is a forum for cities, towns, counties, transit agencies, port districts, Native American tribes, and state agencies to address regional issues.
The Oklahoma Emergency Management Act of 2003 is an Oklahoma state law that replaced the Oklahoma Civil Defense and Emergency Resources Management Act of 1967 as the primary state law detailing emergency management in Oklahoma. The Emergency Management Act and the Catastrophic Health Emergency Powers Act together form the primary state laws regarding emergency and disastrous situations that may occur in the state.
The California Governor's Office of Emergency Services is a California cabinet-level office responsible for overseeing and coordinating emergency preparedness, response, recovery and homeland security activities within the state. The agency was created by AB 38 (2008), superseding both the Office of Emergency Services (OES) and Office of Homeland Security (OHS).
The District Department of Transportation is an agency of the government of the District of Columbia, in the United States, which manages and maintains publicly owned transportation infrastructure in the District of Columbia. DDOT is the lead agency with authority over the planning, design, construction, and maintenance of alleys, bridges, sidewalks, streets, street lights, and traffic signals in the District of Columbia.
The North Florida Broadband Authority, abbreviated NFBA, is a government entity established to deploy broadband Internet services in north Florida.
The secretary of public safety and homeland security is a Virginia government executive that serves as a member of the Virginia Governor's Cabinet.
Regional Development Commissions are regional governments in Minnesota made up of a board of local elected officials from counties, cities, schools boards, public interest groups and transit systems that provide cooperation and coordination on broad regional issues. The Regional Development Commissions, commonly abbreviated as RDC, were established by state law in 1969 to provide a variety of governmental assistance to local governments. They are a type of regional planning organization that have responsibility to provide technical assistance to a broad multi-county area of the state, and their functions are similar to the metropolitan planning organization in urbanized areas. As their intent was to support local governments, they frequently provide a coordinating role and generally do not exercise any type of binding authority over local matters.