The Office of Emergency Planning, Preparedness and Operations (OEPPO) provides emergency planning and operational support to the

United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they ...

. The Office was established by legislation in 2002, in the aftermath of the

September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commer ...

to ensure

continuity of government Continuity of government (COG) is the principle of establishing defined procedures that allow a government to continue its essential operations in case of a catastrophic event such as nuclear war. COG was developed by the British government befo ...

. The office is responsible for House mitigation and preparedness operations, crisis management and response, and resource services and recovery operations. The director of OEPPO is jointly appointed by the

Speaker Speaker may refer to: Society and politics * Speaker (politics), the presiding officer in a legislative assembly * Public speaker, one who gives a speech or lecture * A person producing speech: the producer of a given utterance, especially: ** I ...

and Minority Leader. The Speaker, in consultation with the minority leader, provides the policy direction and oversight of the office and may request a detail of personnel from any federal agency on a reimbursable basis. A director carries out the daily operations of the office under the supervision of the House of Representatives Continuity of Operations Board. Due to the sensitive nature of its mission, some of the agency's operational details are not publicly available. The Office has conducted training on the use of personal protective equipment and emergency evacuation procedures and developed training plans to the House Staff on evacuation procedures for employees and visitors with disabilities. Following a TOPOFF 3 exercise in 2005, its provisions for evacuating persons with disabilities were questioned during a Congressional hearing.

Budget

The Office's budget for salaries and expenses was $3,049,000 during

fiscal year A fiscal year (or financial year, or sometimes budget year) is used in government accounting, which varies between countries, and for budget purposes. It is also used for financial reporting by businesses and other organizations. Laws in many ...

2008.

Notes

References

Emergency Planning, Preparedness, and Operations Emergency management in the United States Disaster preparedness in the United States Continuity of government in the United States Government agencies established in 2002 2002 establishments in the United States {{US-Congress-stub