42 U.S.C. § 5144: Emergency support and response teams

The President shall form emergency support teams of Federal personnel to be deployed in an area affected by a major disaster or emergency. Such emergency support teams shall assist the Federal coordinating officer in carrying out his responsibilities pursuant to this chapter. Upon request of the President, the head of any Federal agency is directed to detail to temporary duty with the emergency support teams on either a reimbursable or nonreimbursable basis, as is determined necessary by the President, such personnel within the administrative jurisdiction of the head of the Federal agency as the President may need or believe to be useful for carrying out the functions of the emergency support teams, each such detail to be without loss of seniority, pay, or other employee status. at a minimum 3 national response teams; and sufficient regional response teams, including Regional Office strike teams under section 317 of title 6 ; and other response teams as may be necessary to meet the incident management responsibilities of the Federal Government. The Administrator shall ensure that specific target capability levels, as defined pursuant to the guidelines established under section 746(a) of title 6 , are established for Federal emergency response teams. The President, acting through the Administrator, shall ensure that the Federal emergency response teams consist of adequate numbers of properly planned, organized, equipped, trained, and exercised personnel to achieve the established target capability levels. Each emergency response team shall work in coordination with State and local officials and onsite personnel associated with a particular incident. The Administrator shall evaluate team readiness on a regular basis and report team readiness levels in the report required under section 752(a) of title 6 .