EPA's National Security Roles and Responsibilities

EPA’s national security mission focuses around EPA’s primary mission-essential functions and responsibilities related to emergency response and water security. EPA’s primary mission-essential functions and responsibilities include preventing, limiting, mitigating or containing chemical, oil, radiological, biological, and/or hazardous materials/agents during and in the aftermath of an accident and/or natural or man-made disaster in designated zones of the United States, while providing environmental monitoring, assessment, and reporting in support of overall domestic incident management. EPA’s national essential functions include providing rapid and effective responses to and recovery from the domestic consequences of an attack or other incident and providing critical federal government services that address the national health, safety and welfare needs of the United States

EPA’s Office of National Security (ONS) coordinates EPA actions related to the national security mission of preparedness for both natural disasters and man-made events and provides leadership on engagement with EPA program offices and regions with national security and national security responsibilities related to this preparedness mission.  Additionally, ONS coordinates the EPA’s approach to ensure the appropriate integration of climate security considerations into EPA’s various National Programs, mission readiness, and operational planning.  ONS’s primary roles and responsibilities in support of EPA’s National Security program include:

• Serving as the primary liaison with senior officials in the White House National Security Council Staff, the Department of National Security, other federal agencies, and non-governmental partners involved in national security;
• Leading the development of an Agency strategic approach to national security, aligning priorities with Programs and Regions, and leveraging resources so interdependencies work in a seamless and integrated manner, which will improve efficiencies of our national security resources;
• Identifying needs and direction to support the national security mission by employing a data-driven decision-making approach with standardized measures;
• Evaluating the Agency’s progress in meeting national security goals and prioritizing funding using an Agency-wide perspective;
• Informing decisions and resource prioritization based on the combination of OHS’s program evaluation data and intelligence on emerging national security threats;
• Assessing, anticipating, and warning of potential security threats to the Agency and our national security;
• Providing policy guidance on and managing the implementation of the Agency’s national security, intelligence, and counterintelligence programs; and
• Managing national security adjudication, classified national security information management, secure compartmented information facilities management, communications security, safeguarding and sharing of classified information, cyber threat intelligence, and counterintelligence.