GlossaryGuide

RECONSTITUTION PLAN

 

Reconstitution is restoring NOAA’s ability to carry out all aspects of normal operations, the restoration of the capabilities that existed prior to the emergency.  Reconstitution may not be an exact replacement of lost facilities, equipment, or restorations of processes.  The goal of reconstitution is to reestablish the capability in the most efficient manner.  This may mean a change in geographic location, business practice, or the type of technology used to meet the requirement.

The sequence of events resulting in COOP activation and its aftermath could cause changes in the development of a Reconstitution Plan.  The plan is situation dependent and will continue to be revised as more information is received by the NOAA Reconstitution Team over the course of the event.

NOAA emergency operations conducted at affected area COOP alternate sites should maintain effective communications and monitor information from public safety/emergency management authorities, and while lacking specific information on NOAA buildings, be generally aware through monitoring radio and television communications of the progress made in securing and restoring civil order within the impacted areas.

Implementation

Reconstitution will commence when the Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere, or Emergency Point of Contact acting on the Under Secretary’s behalf, determines that the emergency situation has ended and is unlikely to recur.  Once the appropriate NOAA representative has made this determination, the following actions will be implemented:

• Inform all NOAA personnel that the actual emergency, or the threat of an emergency, no longer exists, and instruct how to resume normal operations.
• Supervise either an orderly return to the normal operating facility or a move to another temporary facility or to a new permanent operating facility.

• Verify all systems, communications, and other required capabilities are available and operational and that the agency is fully capable of accomplishing all essential functions and operations at the new or restored facility.

• Notify Department of Commerce Emergency Operations Center upon continuity reconstitution and submit to DOC the Continuity Status Reporting Form for consolidation with other DOC bureaus and reporting at department level to Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Operations Center.

• Conduct an after-action review of the effectiveness of the continuity plans and procedures, identifying areas for improvement, documenting these in the agency’s corrective action program (CAP), and then developing a remedial action plan as soon as possible after the reconstitution.

• Identify which (if any) records were affected by the incident, and working with the NOAA Vital Records Officer to ensure an effective transition or recovery of vital records and databases and other records that had not been designated as vital records.

Responsibilities

Reconstitution will be managed by the Deputy Under Secretary for Operations in coordination with the Assistant Administrator for Program Planning and Integration and the Chief Financial Officer.  The following senior leadership will form the Reconstitution Team (RT):

• Reconstitution Manager (RM) – The Deputy Under Secretary for Operations will oversee all aspects of the reconstitution process;
• Deputy Reconstitution Managers (DRMs) – The Assistant Administrator for Program Planning and Integration and the Chief Financial Officer will coordinate reconstitution planning with corporate staff office directors as follows:
  • Director of the Workforce Management Office for personnel matters;
  • Chief Information Officer for IT infrastructure;
  • Director, Acquisitions and Grants Office for contracting matters; and
  • Chief Administrative Officer for facilities, logistics, safety and security matters.

Procedures

When the determination that the emergency has passed is made, the reconstitution team established by Assistant Administrator for Program Planning and Integration and the Chief Financial Officer will compile a listing of the capabilities existing in NOAA, and determine if the capability is operating at normal capacity or in a degraded capacity.  This listing of capabilities and their associated capacities will be compared with the capabilities and capacities present before the emergency.  Reconstitution priority will be in the following order:

• Primary Mission Essential Functions (PMEF)
• Mission Essential Functions (MEF)
• Government Functions (GF)

1. The capabilities considered shall be those described and used in the Strategy, Execution and Evaluation system.
2. A course of action will be identified to restore each degraded capability to the level that existed before the emergency.  Actions considered in this process include:

• • Relocation of the NOAA personnel and equipment needed to provide the capability to an undamaged location.
  • Replacing damaged buildings or equipment.
  • Use of contracted assets to restore the capability.
  • Repair or reconstruction of NOAA facilities and or assets damaged during the emergency to restore the capability.
  • Delivery of the same or enhanced capability through an alternate means.  Examples of items considered should include:  different observations used to collect comparable data, different dissemination techniques, different enforcement methods, etc.

The goal of the action is to restore the diminished capability to the levels available before the emergency in the most efficient manner.  Efficiency includes both time needed to restore the capability and the most cost effective manner.

1. When examining capabilities for restoration, there should also be a review to determine if the capability can be improved at the existing funding level.  This improvement may be accomplished by:

• Providing a faster service or an increased capability by reconstituting the capability with newer technologies,
• Taking advantage of an opportunity for partnership with another agency,
• Changing the way that a service is delivered.

The goal of this review is to ensure NOAA capabilities are efficient and effective users of scarce Federal resources.

Compliance with Federal Continuity Directive 1 (FCD-1)

The NOAA reconstitution plan will include requirements set out in FCD-1 and provide an executable plan to transition from emergency operations to normal operations once the threat or disruption has passed to include:

• • What capabilities will be restored?
  • The most effective way to restore them (including location, facilities required, number of employees, etc).  This may include decisions to contract for capabilities, use of grants, or change the way NOAA will provide the capability with government assets.
  • The priority and timeline for restoration.
  • How capabilities restored under emergency conditions will be transitioned to a normal operations mode.
  • How capabilities no longer required or no longer of sufficient priority to be funded will be eliminated.  This may include capabilities that were not impacted by the emergency.
  • Status reports to the Department of Commerce for reporting movement status to the Federal Emergency Management Agency Operations Center.
  • Conduct an after action review of the COOP operations and effectiveness of plans and procedures.   Any remedial actions identified in the after action review should be included in a remedial action plan, issued as soon as possible after the emergency has passed.

Emergency Relocation Group should ensure continuance of PMEF’s through both activity by mission essential personnel stationed at COOP alternate sites and through implementation of COOP devolution plans to reassign and empower NOAA personnel at other field locations to perform PMEF’s and, to the extent possible given immediate staffing and resources, assume normal operations.

Personnel Accountability:

It is of utmost importance to quickly account for the safety and security of NOAA’s employees and their families, as well as NOAA’s contractor employees.  To help facilitate this process, NOAA has established two methods for employees to report their whereabouts and safety, while gaining access to information regarding relief efforts.  Those methods are a toll-free number (1-888-NOAA-911 or 1-888-662-2911), and a website system accessed from the web, at http://www.homelandsecurity.noaa.gov, or from the NOAA home page (http://www.noaa.gov).

To ascertain a complete accounting of employees alive, injured, or dead, the following must be taken into consideration:

• Facilities in impacted area;
• Time of event (i.e., was it during normal commuting hours, lunch time, etc.);
• Name and contact information of supervisors; and
• Determine who was on leave or travel status.

Vital Records

Conduct an after-action review of the effectiveness of the continuity plans and procedures, identifying areas for improvement, documenting these in the agency’s corrective action program (CAP), and then developing a remedial action plan as soon as possible after the reconstitution.

Identify which (if any) records were affected by the incident, and working with the NOAA Vital Records Officer to ensure an effective transition or recovery of vital records and databases and other records that had not been designated as vital records.

Programmatic Reconstitution Plan:  (Plan for the Plan)

Initial plan should focus on reconstituting the two primary mission essential functions (PMEFs).  Subsequent plans would repeat this basic planning process for secondary functions.

Establish Programmatic Priorities Relative to PMEFs

Phase 1:  Associate capabilities with PMEFs

Identify programs that support each PMEF

List capabilities by program

Associate capabilities required to meet each PMEF

Phase 2: Triage capabilities given damage estimates

Map physical location of NOAA’s people and assets that provide each capability

Assess which capabilities have been impacted and need to be reconstituted

Phase 3:  Prioritize impacted capabilities on basis of PMEF urgency (allowable downtime and impact)

Specify Actions Required to Reconstitute Priority Capabilities

For each prioritized capability, specify near, mid, and long-term actions required to support mission essential functions:  people, facilities, infrastructure, finance, and communications.  Actions could extend beyond NOAA-specific efforts to include contributions from partners.

Actions and Timeline for Capability X

	Near-term actions	Mid-term actions	Long-term actions
Facilities
Personnel
Procurement
Finance
Communications

Identify common actions that would support reconstitution of multiple capabilities

 

After Action Report (AAR)

After the reconstruction phase is complete, NOAA HQ will return to normal operations. Once normal operations are underway, all line and staff offices are responsible for participating in a hotwash or after action session to review activities undertaken and compile information for After Action Reports (AARs).  All ERG members are expected to provide their insight, comments and critiques for their organization’s AAR. Information will be incorporated into a corrective action plans to address identified issues and recommendations for improvement.

The AAR will record and analyze the respective performance of the agency during all phases of the recently-concluded COOP event. Special focus should be placed on the following;

• Transition from normal operations to COOP operations via COGCON levels;
• Execution of PMEF/MEF responsibilities;
• Performance of communications equipment, plans and procedures;
• Knowledge, skills, ability of ERG staff;
• Plans and procedures for acquiring necessary resources;
• Alternate facilities’ ability to accommodate ERG staff and COOP operations
• Transition from COOP operations to normal operations via reconstitution process

(Note: The above list is not meant to be comprehensive. The list is meant to provide guidance and a starting point.)

Include recommended actions to remedy identified deficiencies in a Corrective Action Plan (CAP). Submit final AAR to the Department of Commerce (DOC), Office of Security (OSY) no later than one month after return to normal operations. DOC OSY will be responsible for compiling the Department AAR for submission to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

 

Glossary of Reconstitution Plan – Download [Optimized PDF]

Glossary of Reconstitution Plan – Download