Announcement of the Establishment of the Emergency Mobilization Preparedness Board

The President today announced the formation of an Emergency Mobilization Preparedness Board to improve mobilization capabilities and interagency cooperation within the Federal Government to respond to major peacetime or war-related emergencies. The Board will develop and recommend national preparedness policies.

The Board consists of the representatives of 22 key Federal agencies at the Deputy Secretary or Under Secretary level and is chaired by the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs. A full-time Secretariat has been established to support the Board and monitor the implementation of the Board's recommendations by Federal agencies. The Secretariat is chaired by a senior official of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Eleven working groups, each organized to address a functional area of mobilization planning, are included in the Board structure. Each working group, with the chairing agency shown in parenthesis, is as follows:

—Industrial Mobilization (Department of Commerce)

—Military Mobilization (Department of Defense)

—Food and Agriculture (Department of Agriculture)

—Government Operations (Federal Emergency Management Agency)

—Emergency Communications (Departments of Defense and Commerce)

—Economic Stabilization and Public Finance (Department of the Treasury)

—Law Enforcement and Public Safety (Department of Justice)

—Civil Defense (Federal Emergency Management Agency)

—Social Services (Department of Health and Human Services)

—Human Resources (Department of Labor)

—Health (Department of Health and Human Services)

With the establishment of the Emergency Mobilization Preparedness Board, the President formalized his commitment to achieve a credible and effective capability to harness the mobilization potential of America. This potential will support the Armed Forces, while meeting the needs of the national economy and the preparedness requirements for domestic emergencies.