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Mitigation Framework Leadership Group

Importance of Mitigation

Priorities

Recent History and Key Milestones

Membership

Task Forces

Contact Us

The Mitigation Framework Leadership Group (MitFLG) is a group of federal agencies that coordinate mitigation efforts across the federal government. The MitFLG was authorized by the Post-Katrina Emergency Management Reform Act of 2006 and organizes federal efforts to deliver the mitigation core capabilities in the National Mitigation Framework.

Members include senior-level representatives from departments and agencies across the federal government (also referred to as the interagency) and state, local, tribal, territorial, nonprofit, academic, and private partners. The MitFLG uses task forces to carry out actions related to specific mitigation focus areas and priorities.

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Mission and Purpose

The MitFLG’s mission is to strengthen the nation’s disaster resilience by expanding mitigation awareness, coordination, and action.

By actively engaging interagency leadership, the MitFLG:

  • Builds a shared understanding of mitigation strategies, priorities, and opportunities to collaborate across federal agencies.
  • Develops resources that help the interagency and partners better meet mitigation goals and serve communities.
  • Fosters a culture shift that encourages federal agencies to embed risk management and hazard mitigation planning, decision-making, and development in their work, to the extent possible.
  • Coordinates policy implementation recommendations on national-level issues.
  • Promotes partnerships between government and private sector or nongovernmental organizations to develop novel approaches to achieve mitigation core capabilities.
  • Provides a collaborative structure for partners to align agency initiatives towards a common, whole-of-government approach to mitigation and resilience.

Importance of Mitigation

The MitFLG focuses on integrating federal efforts – working together - to deliver the seven mitigation core capabilities identified in the National Mitigation Framework (NMF), one of the five frameworks established under the National Preparedness Goal (NPG) as identified in Presidential Policy Directive / PPD-8: National Preparedness. The NMF addresses how the nation will develop, deploy, and coordinate mitigation core capabilities to reduce loss of life and property by lessening the impact of disasters.

The NMF describes mitigation as a “risk management action taken to avoid, reduce, or transfer risk. By reducing the impact of disasters, mitigation helps prevent the loss of lives and property, helps protect communities from damage and destruction, streamlines disaster response operations after an incident happens, helps communities more quickly recover, and creates better prepared and more resilient communities.” Mitigation is the cornerstone of a culture of preparedness against disasters, with the ultimate goal of creating sustainable and resilient communities across the country.

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Mitigation includes “the capabilities necessary to reduce loss of life and property by lessening the impact of disasters.”

MitFLG Priorities

The MitFLG membership works together to identify critical areas and challenges to focus on each year. The MitFLG seeks member input before advancing a priority and requires consensus across member agencies. This creates shared understanding of proposed priorities, commitment and buy-in to achieving them, and alignment across the interagency. The mitigation core capabilities and the National Mitigation Investment Strategy provide strategic guidance for this prioritization process.

Mitigation Core Capabilities

Core capabilities are the distinct elements needed to achieve the National Preparedness Goal. The MitFLG identifies tasks, or actions, that members can take to advance the seven mitigation core capabilities.   

The mitigation capabilities are listed below:

  • Threats and Hazard Identification. Build cooperation between private and public sectors by protecting internal interests but sharing threats and hazard identification resources and benefits.
  • Risk and Disaster Resilience Assessment. Perform credible risk assessments using scientifically valid and widely used risk assessment techniques.
  • Planning. Incorporate the findings from assessments of risk and disaster resilience into the planning process.
  • Community Resilience. Recognize the interdependent nature of the economy, health and social services, housing infrastructure, and natural and cultural resources within a community.
  • Public Information and Warning. Target messages to reach organizations representing children, individuals with disabilities or access and functional needs, diverse communities, and people with limited English proficiency.
  • Long-Term Vulnerability Reduction. Adopt and enforce suitable building codes to ensure resilient construction.
  • Operational Coordination. Capitalize on opportunities for mitigation actions following disasters and incidents.

National Mitigation Investment Strategy

The MitGLG led efforts to develop the National Mitigation Investment Strategy (Investment Strategy), which was released in August 2019 and serves as the single national strategy for advancing mitigation investment to reduce risks posed by natural hazards and increase the nation’s resilience to natural hazards. The MitFLG is responsible for guiding implementation of this strategy through whole-of-community collaboration and coordination.

Examples of how the MitFLG and its task forces have supported the Investment Strategy’s goals and recommendations include:

  • Building to disaster-resistant codes or standards (e.g., infrastructure that can withstand severe storms).
  • Collecting and sharing data that identifies disaster risk (e.g., flood maps).
  • Aligning funding requirements and incentives to make mitigation doable (e.g., mitigation grants and loans can be combined to fund projects; and hazard insurance, such as earthquake and flood, rewards policy holders for reducing their risk).
  • Identifying weaknesses that increase disaster risk (e.g., vulnerability and capability assessments).
  • Sharing expertise and advice on how to mitigate (e.g., personnel, planning knowledge, and leading practices).

Recent History and Key Milestones

Each year, the MitFLG works to achieve approved priorities. As appropriate, the MitFLG expands to include new partners and increase the MitFLG’s visibility across the interagency. This year, the MitFLG is focusing on:

  • Providing support and strategic direction for task force activities.
  • Coordinating activities to continue to advance Executive Orders and memorandums.
  • Strengthening coordinating and collaboration with new and existing partners.

Explore the Years in Review

MitFLG Membership

The MitFLG includes representatives from federal government agencies and state, local, tribal, and territorial (SLTT) governments. It is chaired by FEMA, in partnership with a co-chair from another federal agency.

Federal Membership

MitFLG membership consists of federal department and agency senior officials who can speak authoritatively on behalf of their respective government organizations. Current federal membership includes:

  • Department of Agriculture
  • Department of Commerce
  • Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
  • Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency
  • Department of Defense
  • Department of Energy
  • Environmental Protection Agency
  • Federal Housing Finance Agency
  • General Services Administration
  • Department of Health and Human Services
  • Department of Homeland Security
  • Department of Housing and Urban Development
  • Department of the Interior
  • Department of Justice
  • Department of Labor
  • National Parks Service
  • Small Business Administration
  • Department of Transportation
  • Department of the Treasury
  • U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
  • Department of Veterans Affairs

Non-Federal Partners

The MitFLG includes representatives from outside the interagency as well. SLTT partners can be nominated by federal membership on staggered two-year terms. Their participation helps ensure that the MitFLG is informed of SLTT issues that affect the nation as a whole. Private industry coordination with the MitFLG occurs through coordinating structures, such as Government Coordinating Councils (GCCs) and Sector Coordinating Councils (SCCs) with mitigation-focused missions. Current non-federal membership includes:

  • American Samoa Office of Disaster Assistance and Petroleum Management
  • Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe
  • New York State Department of State
  • Santa Clara Pueblo Tribe
  • Tennessee Department of Environment & Conservation
  • U.S. Virgin Islands Territorial Emergency Management Agency
  • Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority

MitFLG Task Forces

In addition to the overarching MitFLG, the MitFLG uses task forces to advance specific initiatives. MitFLG Task Forces require a clear purpose, intended outcome, anticipated timeline and roadmap, and the necessary structure to facilitate success; they may be stood down when outcomes are achieved. Efforts focus on achieving the three Investment Strategy goals and their supporting recommendations.

Contact Us

Aly Briscoe, Interagency Partnerships Project Manager and MitFLG Secretariat
FEMA-MitFLG@fema.dhs.gov