National Response Plan

The National Response Plan (NRP) was a United States national plan to respond to emergencies such as natural disasters or terrorist attacks. It came into effect in December 2004, and was superseded by the National Response Framework on March 22, 2008.

The federal government first actively engaged in emergency management by passing the Congressional Relief Act of 1803, which provided relief after a devastating fire in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. For the about the next 150 years, the federal government took a reactive role in emergency response until passing the Federal Civil Defense Act of 1950.

No comprehensive plan for federal emergency response existed until 1979, when President Jimmy Carter signed an executive order creating the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). FEMA was first charged to absorb emergency response duties from multiple agencies with disjointed plans. In 1988 the Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act became law. The Stafford Act established a system of federal assistance to state and local governments and required all states to prepare individual Emergency Operations Plans. Also, the Stafford Act authorized the Director of FEMA to prepare a Federal Response Plan (FRP). The FRP brought together multiple organizations to assist states with disaster preparedness and response and was augmented by the National Contingency Plan (NCP) through the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The NCP, in existence since 1968, was initially a blueprint for responding to oil spills, but was expanded to include hazardous materials in 1972 with the passing of the Clean Water Act. In 1980, the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act, more commonly known as "Superfund," further expanded the scope of the NCP to include emergency removal actions at hazardous waste sites and required regulated facilities to submit contingency plans. The federal government helped state and local officials protect public health and the environment in the event of a hazardous material release or emergency through the NCP.

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