(U//FOUO) Federal and Local Emergency Response Officials (F/EROs) Electronic Credentialing & Validation Interoperability Report

Office of National Capital Region Coordination (NCRC)

18 pages
For Official Use Only
May 19, 2009

Executive Summary

In accordance with Title IV of Public Law (PL) 110-53, “Implementing Recommendations of the 9/11 Commission Act of 2007,” the Administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) defined Federal and Mutual Aid Emergency Response Officials (F/EROs) as personnel with responsibilities under the National Response Framework (NRF), National Infrastructure Protection Plan (NIPP), the National Continuity Policy Implementation Plan (NCPIP), and / or the National Incident Management System (NIMS). Additionally, Title IV requires the establishment of an inventory or database system of F/EROs. FEMA established a F/ERO database system (F/ERO Repository) pilot within the National Capital Region (NCR) to account for all sponsored and registered F/EROs to support our preparedness mission. The Office of National Capital Region Coordination (NCRC) is the Execution Agent of the F/ERO Repository pilot in the NCR. The F/ERO Repository provides the capability to electronically validate F/ERO identities and attributes (qualifications, authorizations, certifications, and/or privileges) when deployed to expedite transiting to / from the scene, strengthen the decision process for entry into the incident scene, and provide secure electronic manifests of those who respond.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) FEMA NCRC joined public and private sector NRF, NIPP, and NCPIP stakeholders on May 19 – 21, 2009 to host Spring Ahead, a Federal and Mutual Aid multi-jurisdictional electronic validation demonstration leveraging Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) 201-compliant and FIPS 201-interoperable credentials. FIPS 201-compliant credentials are those credentials issued in accordance with Homeland Security Presidential Directive (HSPD)-12 (Federal Bridge Certificate Authority (FBCA) assurance level 4). FIPS 201-interoperable credentials are credentials that have adhered to FIPS 201 processes (FBCA assurance level 3 or higher) and technology requirements. The First Responder Authentication Credential (FRAC) is an example of a FIPS 201-interoperable credential.

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