Each year, the directors of federal agencies testify before Congress to convince lawmakers that their agency truly needs funds being requested for the following year’s budget. However, Congress wants to know how that money is being spent. Typically, agency directors testify before Congress regarding the nature of the budget request and answer questions from lawmakers. Agencies also provide a large report called a Budget Justification. Finally, lawmakers often have “Questions for the Record,” which require agencies to conduct additional research and provide follow-up written reports that address Congress’ questions.
Prior to beginning work on this assignment, please
- Review
- Who Gets What and Why: An Analysis of State Level Funding in the Department of Homeland SecurityLinks to an external site.
- Healthy, Resilient, and Sustainable Communities After Disasters: Strategies, Opportunities, and Planning for RecoveryLinks to an external site..
- Introduction through Timing of Assistance
- Recommendations
- Appendix B
- Strengthen Preparedness and ResilienceLinks to an external site.
- DHS Announces Funding Opportunity for Fiscal Year 2019 Preparedness GrantsLinks to an external site.
- National Preparedness: FEMA Has Taken Steps to Strengthen Grant Management, but Challenges Remain in Assessing CapabilitiesLinks to an external site.
- Department of Homeland Security Fiscal Year 2023 Budget Request for Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security AgencyLinks to an external site.
For the purposes of this assignment, you will assume the role of a FEMA employee who is assisting with the budget request process. You will be conducting the follow-up on a request from Congress related to a couple of FEMA resilience programs. Review the materials above and conduct your own research to provide an overview of each program to Congress. In actuality, this overview would be conducted through four layers of management, your agency’s legal counsel, and multiple levels of review before being submitted to Congress. Your supervisor is asking you to write a report that summarizes two FEMA programs listed in the FEMA FY 2023 Budget Request. Your assignment is to write a report that summarizes the FEMA Disaster Relief Fund and the FEMA National Flood Insurance Program and analyzes available evidence of the effectiveness of the two programs. This is not a budget assignment; focus on the programs, not the budget piece.
Your DHS Congressional Inquiry-Role play paper, you should
- Describe the role each program has in achieving the goals and missions of DHS.,
- Identify examples of each program’s effectiveness.
- For example, is the program used in the prevention, response, or mitigation of a major incident/event?
- Examine whether there is any evidence of fraud waste or abuse in relation to the programs.,
- Analyze the effectiveness of each program.,
- Use evidence to defend your conclusion about whether each program is effective.,
The DHS Congressional Inquiry Role-Play assignment
- must be four to five double-spaced pages in length (not including title and references pages) and formatted according to APA Style as outlined in the