                                 CODE OF VIRGINIA

SECRETARY TO OVERSEE AND MONITOR THE DEVELOPMENT, MAINTENANCE, AND
IMPLEMENTATION OF A COMPREHENSIVE AND MEASURABLE HOMELAND SECURITY STRATEGY FOR
THE COMMONWEALTH (§ 2.2-222.1)

A. The Secretary shall ensure that, consistent with the National Incident
Management System (NIMS), the Commonwealth implements a continuous cycle of
planning, organizing, training, equipping, exercising, evaluating, and taking
corrective action pursuant to securing the Commonwealth at both the state and
local level against man-made and natural disasters. To that end, the Secretary
shall take action to assign responsibility among agencies, jurisdictions, and
subdivisions of the Commonwealth to affect the highest state of readiness posed
by both man-made and natural disasters. In doing so, the Secretary shall ensure
that preparedness initiatives will be effectively and efficiently coordinated,
implemented, and monitored.

B. The Secretary shall also oversee and monitor the development, maintenance,
and implementation of a comprehensive and measurable homeland security strategy
for the Commonwealth. To ensure a comprehensive strategy, the Secretary shall
coordinate the homeland security strategy with the Secure and Resilient
Commonwealth Panel, as established in &#xA7; 2.2-222.3, and all state and local,
public and private, councils that have a homeland security focus within the
Commonwealth. The strategy shall ensure that the Commonwealth&#8217;s homeland
security programs are resourced, executed, and assessed according to
well-defined and relevant Commonwealth homeland security requirements. In
support of the strategy, the Secretary shall provide oversight of the designated
State Administrative Agency (SAA) for homeland security to ensure that
applications for grant funds by state agencies or local governments describe
well-defined requirements for planning, organizing, training, equipping,
exercising, evaluating, and taking corrective action measures essential to
Commonwealth security.

C. The homeland security strategy shall (i) designate a state proponent for each
goal identified in the strategy; (ii) identify which state agencies shall have
responsibility for prevention, protection, mitigation, response, and recovery
requirements associated with each goal; (iii) prescribe metrics to those state
agencies to quantify readiness for man-made and natural disasters; (iv) ensure
that state agencies follow rigorous planning practices; and (v) conduct annual
reviews and updates to ensure planning, organizing, training, equipping,
exercising, evaluating, and taking corrective action is fully implemented at
state and local levels of government.

D. The Secretary shall ensure that state agencies develop and maintain
rigorously developed response plans in support of the Commonwealth of Virginia
Emergency Operations Plan (COVEOP). The Secretary shall designate the Virginia
Department of Emergency Management (VDEM) as the primary agent to ensure that
state agencies are compliant with the COVEOP. The Secretary shall further
require that VDEM ensure the development of state agency and local disaster
response plans and procedures, and monitor the status and quality of those plans
on a cyclical basis to establish that they are feasible and suitable and can be
implemented with available resources.

E. The Secretary shall be responsible for the coordination and development of
state and local shelter, evacuation, traffic, and refuge of last resort
planning. The Secretary shall ensure that jurisdictions and subdivisions of the
Commonwealth have adequate shelter, evacuation, traffic, and refuge of last
resort plans to support emergency evacuation in the event of a man-made or
natural disaster. To that end, the Secretary shall direct VDEM to monitor,
review, and evaluate on a cyclical basis all shelter, evacuation, traffic, and
refuge of last resort plans to ensure they are feasible and suitable and can be
implemented with available resources.

F. The Secretary shall also ensure that plans for protecting public critical
infrastructure are both developed and fully implemented by those state agencies,
jurisdictions, and subdivisions of the Commonwealth with responsibility for
critical infrastructure protection.

G. The Secretary is authorized, consistent with federal and state law and
procurement regulations thereof, to contract for private and public sector
services in homeland security and emergency management to enable, enhance,
augment, or supplement state and local planning, organizing, training,
equipping, exercising, evaluating, and corrective action capability as he deems
necessary to meet Commonwealth security goals with such funds as may be made
available to the Secretary or the Department of Emergency Management annually
for such services.

HISTORY: 2014, cc. 115, 490; 2019, c. 615.