Sec. 4. General authority
2,480 words·~11 min read·
/bill/116/s/4815/is/section-4A research copy — for the controlling text, always check the official state or federal source. Not legal advice.
Subject to subsection (b), the Board shall review and establish the facts, circumstances, and cause or probable cause of the loss of life, human injury, and economic injury due to a natural hazard or public health incident with 10 or more fatalities or that meets the requirements described in paragraph
(5)or
(6)of subsection
(b)that occurs after the date of enactment of this Act. For purposes of paragraph (1), the term due to a natural hazard or public health incident means a fatality that, if not for the natural hazard or public health incident, as the case may be, would not have occurred within the time frame of the incident, as defined by standards developed by the Board. In carrying out subsection (a), the Board— may begin the review of an incident, including by monitoring the natural hazard or public health incident and collecting facts, before the total number of fatalities is known if the Board determines that the natural hazard or public health incident has the potential to cause 10 or more fatalities at its onset, in accordance with the policies and procedures established by the Board; may, by a two-thirds vote, decide that an incident that caused 10 or more fatalities does not require a review and shall issue a public statement explaining the determination; may, by a majority vote, decide to review any natural hazard or public health incident that occurs after the date of enactment of this Act upon request from a representative of an affected State, Tribal government, or unit of local government, regardless of the number of fatalities; may, by a majority vote, decide to review any natural hazard or public health incident that occurs after the date of enactment of this Act upon recommendation by the Office for the Protection of Disproportionately Impacted Communities of the Board, which the Office may make because of the incident’s impacts on populations that are socially, medically, or economically vulnerable, as decided by the Office; and may, by a majority vote, decide to review a natural hazard or public health incident that occurs after the date of enactment of this Act if— the Board determines that information may be gained by the review that will be useful in reducing systemic causes behind the loss of life and human or economic injury; and the incident— did not result in 10 or more fatalities; and could have resulted in a large number of fatalities if not for swift intervention or a shift in the course of events; or resulted in, as determined by the Board— a significant amount of economic or infrastructure damage; significant human displacement; or a significant number of severe non-fatal injuries or cases of severe illness; and shall, by majority vote, determine whether each incident for which the President issues a major disaster declaration under section 401 of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act ( 42 U.S.C. 5170 ) meets the criteria for review under paragraph (5). In carrying out a review under this Act, the Board shall— conduct the review to determine the facts, conditions, and circumstances relating to the loss of life, human injury, and economic injury due to an incident; following an initial assessment of an incident by the Board, notify any individual or organization that the Board anticipates will be affected by the review as to the extent of the expected review response of the Board; use the results of the review under subparagraph
(A)to— determine how and why people die and are injured during an incident; and issue recommendations to prevent or mitigate the loss of life, human injury, or economic injury due to similar incidents; and report on the facts and circumstances of the incident review, including the pre-incident resilience or vulnerabilities of the incident area or population. A review of loss of life and injury conducted by the Board shall— be generalized; focus on trends across an incident; and not aim to determine the exact individual cause of death or injury of any affected people. Any review of an incident by the Board under this Act shall be a fact-finding proceeding with no adverse parties. Any review proceedings of the Board under this Act shall not be— subject to the Administrative Procedure Act ( 5 U.S.C. 551 et seq.); or conducted for the purpose of determining the rights, liabilities, or blame of any person, as the review is not an adjudicatory proceeding. Chapter 35 of title 44, United States Code (commonly known as the Paperwork Reduction Act ), shall not apply to the review proceedings of the Board under this Act. The Federal Advisory Committee Act (5 U.S.C. App.) shall not apply to the Board. The Board shall initiate a review of an incident by monitoring the situation and assessing available facts to determine the appropriate review response, without interfering in any ongoing lifesaving and life sustaining efforts underway by other entities. In carrying out this Act, the Board shall coordinate with Federal, State, local, and Tribal entities to— establish or adopt standard methods of measuring the impacts of natural hazards and accessing response capacity and capabilities to maintain consistency and allow for the analysis of trends over time; ensure that the standard data sets and formats necessary for reviews developed under subparagraph
(A)are propagated among Federal, State, local, and tribal entities that may be involved in response operations; leverage, to the extent practicable, data collected using standard data sets and formats established under subparagraph
(B)by Federal entities involved in response operations to avoid any duplication of data collection; and during incident response operations, coordinate with partners active in the operation to collect data remotely or take other actions that the Board finds necessary to align and coordinate the requirements of the review with ongoing operations, including through the requirements of paragraph (7). The Board shall— recognize the role of incident command systems to address incidents; participate in the incident command system to identify and coordinate review needs related to the preservation and collection of information and evidence; and shall collect information and evidence from the incident command in a timely and reasonable manner so as not to interfere with the operations of the incident command. Subject to subparagraph (B), the Board may invite 1 or more entities to serve as a party in a review on a voluntary basis, and any party participant shall be required to follow all directions and instructions from the Board. In designating an entity to serve as a party under subparagraph (A), the Board may designate only a Federal, State, or local government agency or private organization whose employees, functions, activities, or products were involved in the incident, including responsible parties, and that can provide suitable qualified technical personnel to actively assist in the review. To the extent practicable, a representative proposed by an entity designated as a party under subparagraph
(A)to participate in the review may not be an individual who had direct involvement in the incident under review. A designation as a party under subparagraph
(A)may be revoked or suspended by the Board if the party fails to comply with assigned duties and instructions, withholds information, or otherwise acts in a manner prejudicial or disruptive to a review. Nothing in this paragraph shall be construed to establish a right for any entity to participate in a Board review as a party. To assure coordination of concurrent efforts, a party to a review that conducts or authorizes an internal review of the processes and procedures of the party as a result of an incident that the Board is reviewing shall— inform the Board of the nature of the review; and provide to the Board findings from the review. In addition to any procedures required under this Act, the Board shall determine and publish detailed review procedures as the Board determines necessary. The Board may use any medium that will effectively convey the findings and recommendations of the Board to the targeted audience of such findings or recommendations. When the Board has completed the findings and recommendations or other products as a result of a review under this Act, the Board shall provide all affected States, Tribal Governments, and units of local government, or their designees, an opportunity to review and comment not later than 30 days before the publication of the findings or recommendations. The Board shall make every reasonable effort, within its discretion, to respond to requests for additional information and context that an affected jurisdiction may make and to edit their findings and recommendations with any useful additional information or context provided by any affected jurisdiction in its comments without affecting the integrity or independence of the review and its findings and recommendations, as the Board shall determine. In carrying out a review of an incident under this section, including in determining whether to launch a review, the Board shall ensure the potential development of findings that would benefit the prevention of loss of life and human or economic injury to populations that are socially, medically, or economically vulnerable, as decided by the Board. To forward the analysis and identification of trends of fatalities and injuries as a result of incidents, the Board shall publish information regarding the number of fatalities and injuries, and the facts and circumstances surrounding them, disaggregated by race, color or ethnicity, religion, nationality, sex, age, disability, English proficiency, occupation, or economic status, and other demographic characteristics that the Board may determine appropriate. Subject to the requirements of this section, a review of a natural hazard incident by the Board under subsection (a)(1) shall have priority over any investigation by another department, agency, or instrumentality of the Federal Government or a State, Tribal, or local government. The Board shall provide for appropriate participation by other departments, agencies, or instrumentalities in a review conducted by the Board, except that another department, agency, or instrumentality may not influence the final findings of the Board. The Board shall coordinate with all other Federal, State, Tribal, or local legally mandated investigations or reviews and may share information with those entities, according to policies and procedures that the Board will provide, to ensure that appropriate findings and recommendations to reduce loss of life, injury, and economic injury caused by future incidents are produced as efficiently as possible. Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of this Act, and biennially thereafter, the Chairman of the Board shall enter into memoranda of understanding with the Director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the Administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Chairman of the Chemical Safety Board, and the Chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, respectively, and may enter into additional memoranda of understanding with any other Federal entity that requests such due to the relationship that the requirements of the Federal entity may have with the requirements with the Board, in order to— determine the appropriate roles and responsibilities of the Board with respect to the other agency or board; avoid any duplication of effort; and ensure that appropriate findings and recommendations to reduce loss of life, injury, and economic injury caused by future incidents are provided. The Board may participate in an investigation of an act of violence in support of another Federal department or agency, or other Federal investigative body with statutory authority to lead such an investigation, if the head of the lead investigative agency determines that the participation of the Board would be beneficial to reduce the likelihood of the loss of life and human or economic injury, for future similar incidents. The Board may participate in an investigation of a technological incident— in support of another Federal department or agency, or other Federal investigative body with statutory authority to lead such an investigation, if the head of the lead investigative agency determines that the participation of the Board would be beneficial to reduce the likelihood of the loss of life and human or economic injury, for future similar incidents; or in the case of no statutory authority for another Federal department or agency, or other Federal investigative body, to lead such an investigation, as the lead investigative entity. Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of this Act, and biennially thereafter, the Chairman of the Board shall enter into memoranda of understanding with the heads of appropriate Federal agencies in order to— determine the appropriate roles and responsibilities of the Board in investigating technological incidents with respect to the other agency; avoid any duplication of effort; and ensure that appropriate findings and recommendations to reduce loss of life, injury, and economic injury caused by future incidents are provided. If the Board participates in an act of violence or technological incident investigation under subparagraph (A), the Board may issue independent findings and recommendations notwithstanding the outcome of any investigation conducted by another Federal agency or other Federal investigative body. If the Attorney General, in consultation with the Chairperson, determines and notifies the Board that circumstances reasonably indicate that the act of violence or technological incident described in subparagraph
(A)may have been caused by an intentional criminal act, the Board shall relinquish investigative priority to the responsible Federal law enforcement entity. This section shall not be construed to affect the authority of another department, agency, or instrumentality of the Federal Government to investigate an incident under applicable law or to obtain information directly from the parties involved in, and witnesses to, the incident. The Board and other departments, agencies, and instrumentalities shall ensure that appropriate information developed about the incident is exchanged in a timely manner. The Board may make the following types of technical assistance available to Federal, State, Tribal, and local government agencies and to private entities as designated by a Federal, State, Tribal, or local government agency: The Board shall disseminate best practices for the development of internal review organizations within State, Tribal, and local governments. The Board— may provide technical assistance to any entity identified as responsible for implementing a recommendation under section 5(a)(1) to assist the entity in implementing the recommendation; and to the extent possible, shall provide the technical assistance described in subparagraph
(A)in coordination with technical assistance offered by another Federal department or agency. In offering technical assistance under this subsection, the Board shall use a risk-based method of prioritization, as the Board determines appropriate. Except as provided in paragraph (2), not later than 1 year after the date on which the Board initiates a review conducted under this section, the Board shall make the findings and relevant underlying data of the review available to the public. The Chairperson of the Board may extend the 1-year period described in paragraph
(1)if the Chairperson, before the end of such 1-year period— provides an explanation for the extension; and make available to the public all available interim findings and underlying data.
Connectionstraces to 2
Traces to 2 documents
Citation graph
cites case law
Cites 2Cited by 0 across 0 sources