About the Office of National Security (ONS)

The EPA’s Office of National Security coordinates and manages the agency’s national and homeland security objectives and requirements pursuant to federal law, executive orders, presidential policy directives and memoranda and other White House strategies. ONS informs White House-level national security decisions and policymaking efforts. As the agency’s Federal Intelligence Coordinating Office, ONS serves as the primary liaison with the intelligence community representing agency equities, sharing intelligence products, and coordinating with EPA subject matter experts to inform products developed by the IC. Through information and intelligence sharing, ONS provides agencywide leadership, support, and coordination for national and homeland security programs including the EPA’s planning, prevention, preparedness, response, and recovery for national security-related incidents.

The EPA has the responsibility to prevent, limit, mitigate, or contain chemical, oil, radiological, biological and/or human-made disasters across the U.S. and to provide environmental monitoring, assessment, and reporting in support of domestic incident management. The EPA is a federally mandated Sector Risk Management Agency for the water and wastewater sector and provides expertise, intelligence, and information to support this critical infrastructure.