“The Post-Katrina Emergency Management Reform Act (PKEMRA) of 2006 required FEMA to “establish 3 or more national emergency response teams, sufficient regional response teams and any other response teams…and ensure that target capability levels are established for Federal emergency response teams”. (1) FEMA is establishing 3 National Incident Management Assistance Teams (IMAT) with 26 fulltime staff, and 10 Regional IMATs that will be staffed with 15 fulltime personnel. (2) The IMATs will subsume the existing FIRST and ERT missions and capabilities and will represent the highest level of Incident Command System (ICS) expertise in FEMA. (3) The primary missions of the IMAT are to rapidly deploy to an incident or incident-threatened venue (within 12 hours), provide leadership in the identification and provision of Federal assistance, improve situational awareness, and coordinate the integrated inter-jurisdictional response in support of the affected State(s) or territories. IMATs will be designed to: (3.a) Establish command, control, communications and coordination (C4) with a State. (3.b) Support local governments in all-hazard planning and command and control. (3.c) Task other federal agencies through unity of effort in emergency response activities. (3.d) Provide broad-based expertise in all emergency management functional areas of the National Response Framework (NRF). (3.e) Execute Stafford Act authorities and FEMA missions to direct the support, integration and coordination of federal resources. (3.f) Be self-sufficient for a minimum of 48 hours so as not to drain local resources”. (FEMA, NEMA Initiatives and Issues From the Disaster Operations Directorate, August, 20, 2007, p. 8)