The body of work
52 essays, articles, papers, reports, and lectures, a decade-plus of thinking on preparedness, recovery, and resilience.
Act Now or Pay Later: The Looming Social Security Crisis and America's Debt Reckoning
Congress is playing a dangerous game of chicken with Social Security, and the clock is ticking. In less than a decade, the program's trust fund is set to reach insolvency, triggering automatic benefit cuts for millions of Americans by 2033…
Dennis Schrader, Power List Profile ↗
The Daily Record: A career profile of Schrader’s leadership across Maryland health and homeland security.
Analysis: Why Dennis Schrader Sailed Through His Senate Confirmation ↗
Maryland Matters: On his 45–2 confirmation as Maryland Secretary of Health.
Hogan again appoints Dennis Schrader as state health secretary ↗
The Baltimore Sun: Coverage of his appointment to lead the Maryland Department of Health.
Catastrophic Planning vs. Conventional Disaster Planning
Examines the decade-long debate over improving catastrophic planning across all levels of government. State and local jurisdictions must plan for higher-probability non-catastrophic incidents, while the federal government is seen as the resource of last resort for low-probability catastrophic events, making the case for pre-incident catastrophic planning so all parties can respond and recover quickly when a major incident occupies the national stage.
A Practical Approach to Achieving Resilience
Addresses the ongoing concern that the private sector neither understands nor accepts the concept of resilience, and asks whether it is a relevant strategy or simply the latest homeland-security fad. Argues that to be useful as a security outcome, resilience must become a defined, characterizable process.
Lightweight Networks: Enabling the Homeland Security Enterprise
Since 9/11, attempts to adapt Department of Defense systems approaches to build the national Homeland Security Enterprise have not produced a cost-effective domestic enterprise. Proposes "lightweight networks" as an enabling alternative for regional collaboration and capability-building.
National Preparedness Grants: Strategies for Investment Reductions
Security is generally viewed as a cost to be minimized, Americans want security but will pay only so much and resist intrusion on their freedoms. As the accelerated post-9/11 grant funding faces reductions, this article examines strategies for prioritizing national-preparedness investments.
Osama bin Laden - May 1, 2011
Late last night when I was writing this post, the news of Osama bin Laden came over the TV. I decided to wait until this morning to make this post. It is…
PPD-8:PKEMRA and 6 U.S. Code
Now that PPD-8 is established as Policy it is a good opportunity to go back and look at the law and what has been required for the past 5 years since…
PPD-8 and Post Katrina Act of 2006 (PKEMRA)
Now that the new Preparedness Policy Directive PPD-8 is in place, it would be useful to test what elements of the PPD-8 are codified in PKEMRA. The PPD…
FEMA Strategic Plan 2011-2014 and PPD-8
Last month I wrote about the compelling vision painted by FEMA's Administrator. I was wondering how the vision would be implemented to sustain this bold…
National Capital Region (NCR) Flashback - 2003
A flashback to a 2003 National Capital Region UASI event reaffirming the eight collaboration commitments the NCR jurisdictions first made in 2001.
Private Sector Leadership - Designing Security into the Built Environment
I met Barabara Nadel a well known Architect at the New Stock Exchange event sponsored by TISP and DRII on March 21st. Meeting her reinforced my believe;…
Applied Disaster Resilience: Private-Public Convergence
Last week was a whirlwind of activity from New York City to Washington, DC. The Infrastructure Security Partnership TISP , the Disaster Recovery Institute…
Craig Fugate Paints a Compelling Vision at HSDECA
This was a busy week. Let me start by referring you to my website to see the Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism MIPT 2010 Annual Report.…
Planning, Design and Construction Professionals Focus on Resilience
The key to long term Resilience is the linkage of the Public Safety and Design and Construction communities. I was delighted to attend an event this week…
National Security Professional Development - The Power of People
Post Katrina, Executive Order 13434, National Security Professional Development of May 17, 2007 envisioned a major national effort to build the human…
The Road Ahead for Resilience - Personal and Private Initiative
I attended The Infrastructure Security Partnership's TISP workshop last Friday at the Army-Navy Club in Washington, DC. It featured short briefings by…
Private Sector Language: Resilience & the Supply Chain Element
The strategy of relying on the private-sector resilience of critical-infrastructure owners/operators as a disaster-recovery approach is valid and useful, but raises a chicken-or-egg problem of resilience versus reliance. Suggests one path forward: the public sector should learn the language of the private sector and adapt it.
Putting the Horse before the Cart; Building on Private Sector Resilience
Last week, I started discussing the notion of practical approaches to building on private sector capabilities. An appropriate analogy for the culture…
Private Sector Language - Owner/Operators
There is a growing recognition that government needs the active involvement of private sector owner/operators to create a resilient national…
Convergence of Private Sector-Public Sector Preparedness
I must apologize for not posting for 4 months without checking in. I was distracted with a local community project that is now completed. I have continued…
Resilience: Developing Professionalism, Clarifying the Incentives
Following the February 2010 Quadrennial Homeland Security Review (QHSR) and the July 2010 DHS Bottom-Up Review (BUR), argues that improving the nation’s resilience capabilities depends on establishing stronger links between government public-safety agencies and the private-sector continuity and engineering communities.
Managing the White Space in Homeland Security and Incident Management
I decided to take a break for a few weeks to reflect on the breathtaking activities that have transpired over the past 4-6 weeks. I had been focused on…
Light Weight Sustainable Networks - Key to Regional Collaboration
As you may know, when I was the Maryland Homeland Security Director, I became convinced that the key to Regional collaboration was lightweight sustainable…
Leadership and Stewardship in Microeconomic Decision-Making
The homeland-security enterprise needs engineers who develop their careers to lead and take responsibility for resilience as a design parameter. Builds on the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) "Guiding Principles," which urge design professionals to exercise sound leadership, management, and stewardship in decision-making.
Maturing the Enterprise-|Acquisition Career Development
You may want to keep your eye out for the BUR. For those of you who are not Washington insiders, it is not associated with a saddle, but is the Bottoms Up…
Functional Exercises - Lower Cost Options
A recent Washington Post article on the National Exercise Program prompts a reflection on lower-cost functional exercises for executive decision-making.
Maturing the Homeland Security Enterprise-Federally Funded Research and Development Centers(FFRDC)
The QHSR lays out an ambitious agenda to mature and strengthen the homeland security enterprise. In order to accomplish this agenda, DHS will will need to…
Maturing the Homeland Security Enterprise through Regional Preparedness
The QHSR has identified Fostering Unity of Effort as one of the 4 strategic aims to mature the enterprise. The seven objectives to support this aim are…
TISP Sends Resilience Recommendation to White House
The Infrastructure Security Partnership TISP developed seven resilience recommendations for a white paper it submitted to the White House last month. TISP…
Federally Sponsored, Not-for-Profit Research and Development Centers: Evolving Regional Roles to Engineer State and Local Emergency Preparedness Capabilities
This paper examines the roles federally funded research and development centers (FFRDCs) and university affiliated research centers (UARCs) might play in delivering systems engineering and analytical capabilities to state and local jurisdictions to improve the nation’s preparedness and address enterprise challenges for responding to and recovering from all-hazards incidents and emergencies.
Systems Engineering and the Homeland Security Enterprise
The Quadrennial Homeland Security Review QHSR identified 4 strategic aims and 18 objectives that support the goal of Maturing and Strengthening The…
QHSR and the National Homeland Security Enterprise
Rich Cooper from Catalyst Partners wrote a very interesting post about the recent National Emergency Management Association NEMA mid year meeting that I…
New Homeland Security Strategic Framework - A Reason for Optimism
The February 2010 Quadrennial Homeland Security Review (QHSR) offers a real opportunity to move the national homeland-security enterprise to another level.
National Disaster Recovery Framework
The draft National Disaster Recovery Framework has been released for public comment last week. The three links below can take you to the FEMA…
The New Preparedness Challenge: Transitioning Resilience from Theory to Reality
The once-vague term "resilience" is becoming an increasingly important component of national homeland-security strategy, with the White House creating a high-level group to explore it. This article examines how resilience moves from theory into practice for the domestic-preparedness community.
Resilience, Protection, Mitigation, and Engineers
Last May, I gave a lecture at the Heritage Foundation about Unfinished Business at FEMA .…
Creating a Roadmap for ASCE National Infrastructure Guiding Principles
I wrote a few weeks ago about the recently developed National Infrastructure Guiding Principles by the American Society of Civil Engineers ASCE.…
National Preparedness System: PNSR studies pathway to the future
The Project on National Security Reform PNSR has published a new report that outlines the root cause problems with improving National Preparedness and…
Community of Professionals and the Long War
The recent failed bombing of Northwest Flight 253 highlights an emerging reality that was documented in the book by James Carafano and Paul Rosenweig ,…
Career Development and the Future of Homeland Security and Emergency Management
I recently wrote about the emerging Community of Professionals for Homeland Security and Emergency Management in Domestic Preparedness Journal. The…
Guiding Principles for the Nation's Infrastructure
The Infrastructure Security Partnership TISP is holding their Annual Infrastructure and Regional Resilience 2009 Conference on December 9th and 10 at the…
An Opportunity Beckons: Converging Disaster Recovery and Infrastructure Resilience
Recovery from a catastrophic disaster relies on three key factors: the restoration of housing, infrastructure resilience, and business continuity. Argues that 2010 offers an opportunity to ratify the convergence of disaster recovery and infrastructure resilience as the step needed to build an effective national disaster-recovery framework.
Disaster Recovery and National Resilience
This is the first posting for a weekly blog that discusses current issues that I am encountering in my work around the country. I plan to keep it short…
HLS & EM: Blueprinting the Future
The emerging homeland-security/emergency-management "community of professionals" requires career-path planning tools and a comprehensive online body of knowledge. Argues that, contrary to public perception since DHS was established in 2003, homeland security is not a stand-alone discipline but rests on numerous foundational fields.
National Recovery Doctrine: The Next Preparedness Frontier
Drawing on the May 2009 Heritage Foundation lecture "Unfinished Business at FEMA," makes the case that developing recovery doctrine should be a key FEMA priority. FEMA itself is not organized, resourced, or trained to lead recovery operations, leaving national recovery doctrine a major preparedness gap.
Providing Systems Engineering Support to State & Local Jurisdictions
Argues the federal government should provide direct systems-engineering and program-management assistance to state, local, and private-sector entities to help them build homeland-security capabilities, tapping two largely untapped resources: federally funded research and development centers (FFRDCs) and university affiliated research centers (UARCs).
NLE-09: A Major Test for the Obama Administration
The Obama Administration’s first National Level Exercise (NLE-09), in July 2009, culminated twenty months of effort to improve the National Exercise Program. Examines the transition from the former TOPOFF series and what this Tier I exercise tested across catastrophic incidents, natural and terrorist alike.
Unfinished Business at FEMA: A National Preparedness Perspective
Delivered at The Heritage Foundation on May 14, 2009, this lecture frames the post–Cold War debate over domestic national-security priorities, roles, responsibilities, and resources, accelerated by recent terrorist and natural catastrophic incidents. The basic question is simple to state and hard to answer: how does the nation collaborate and allocate resources to effectively prevent, protect against, respond to, and recover from catastrophic incidents?
Needed: More Effective Resources for Homeland Security
Argues that the foundations of homeland security and emergency management rest on state and local resources that the federal government uses for national-security purposes, in effect leasing public-safety and public-health infrastructure from state, local, and private interests. Reviews the mixed results of the expanded post-9/11 grant approach and the need for more effective resourcing.
Confirmation Hearing, Nomination to FEMA (S. Hrg. 110-274) ↗
U.S. Senate (HSGAC): Senate testimony on his nomination as FEMA Deputy Administrator. Primary record.
Senator Cardin Supports Marylander Dennis Schrader for a Top Position at FEMA ↗
Office of Sen. Ben Cardin: A bipartisan endorsement of his FEMA nomination.
President Bush Nominates Dennis R. Schrader (FEMA) ↗
The White House: The presidential nomination announcement. Primary record.
Dennis R. Schrader, Deputy Administrator, National Preparedness, FEMA ↗
Domestic Preparedness: A profile of his national-preparedness role at FEMA.
Maryland Governor’s Annual Report on Homeland Security, 2006
The Governor’s Annual Report on Homeland Security documents Maryland’s 2006 homeland-security accomplishments under Governor Robert L. Ehrlich, Jr. It was produced by the Governor’s Office of Homeland Security (GOHS), created in July 2003 and led by Director Dennis R. Schrader, working through a Senior Policy Group spanning state public-safety, health, environment, transportation, and military agencies.
Maryland Cyber Security White Paper: Defining the Role of State Government to Secure Maryland’s Cyber Infrastructure
Issued November 1, 2006 by the State of Maryland under Governor Robert L. Ehrlich, Jr., this white paper defines the role of state government in securing Maryland’s cyber infrastructure as a component of the state’s broader homeland-security strategy. It frames critical-infrastructure resilience around four objectives: prevention planning, impact-of-loss analysis, cycle time to recovery, and understanding interdependencies.
Maryland Governor’s Annual Report on Homeland Security, 2005
The Governor’s Annual Report on Homeland Security documents Maryland’s 2005 accomplishments under Governor Robert L. Ehrlich, Jr., produced by the Governor’s Office of Homeland Security (GOHS) under Director Dennis R. Schrader. As home to key federal installations, a major port, and critical highway and rail routes adjacent to the nation’s capital, Maryland built a comprehensive all-hazards homeland-security strategy.
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