General Topic EMAC Frequently Asked Questions

SREMAC is an acronym for the Southern Regional Emergency Management Assistance Compact, which was the precursor state-to-state mutual aid agreement to EMAC. SREMAC was created by the Southern Governors’ Association and adopted in 1993 by seventeen southern states after the poor response after Hurricane Andrew. Eventually, all states were invited to join the Compact, and it was renamed EMAC.

EMAC is not an organization but, rather, an agreement between states.

The Compact is administered by the National Emergency Management Association (NEMA), a professional nonprofit association of, and for, state emergency management directors—but EMAC is not in itself an organization.

Who can deploy on an EMAC mission? 

For tort liability and immunity purposes, are all personnel deployed from a given Assisting State automatically considered “agents of the state”?

Only deployed officers and state employees of an Assisting State are automatically considered, under EMAC’s Articles of Agreement, to be “agents of the requesting state” for tort liability and immunity purposes.

If a Member State plans for other personnel, such as local political jurisdictional personnel, to be deployed, it must have legislation (often refered to as intrastate mutual aid) that cloaks such personnel as temporary legal agents of their home state before these personnel may provide assistance through EMAC.

How many states have become members of EMAC?

To date, all fifty states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands are EMAC members.

What are some examples of “minimally acceptable” credentials for deployed personnel under EMAC?

“Minimally acceptable” credentials for EMAC-deployed personnel include such items as a U.S. passport, agency-issued identification card or badge, and state-issued identification (such as a driver’s license), and the EMAC Mission Order Authorization Form or copy of duly executed REQ-A. 

You may be asked to bring a copy of your license or certification by the Requesting State. 

Must a catastrophic disaster occur before EMAC may be activated, or may an emergency such as a snowstorm, or even extraordinary event not weather related, allow for EMAC activation?

EMAC may be activated for an emergency that has been duly declared by the governor of a state, not only for such catastrophes as hurricanes and earthquakes. As an example, Kentucky's 2009 icestorm prompted EMAC activation and the deployment of more than 700 personnel to assist.

EMAC resources may include any capabilities—no matter how large or small, how typical or specialized—that one member state possesses that can be shared with another member state. With such resources as emergency operations center support, disaster recovery, security, fire fighting, law enforcement, medical personnel and resources, public utilities management, and community outreach, the capabilities that states can share with one another are nearly limitless.

When a state adopts the EMAC Articles of Agreement, the state must adopt them in their entirety and without modification to be considered a Member State and to use the Compact legally.

Workers compensation is an Assisting State’s responsibility.

Under EMAC law, worker's compensation is not an eligible reimbursement expense.

Tort liability and immunity protection is provided by the Requesting State under EMAC law.

When referring to “states” in terms of EMAC, what does “state” mean? Only the fifty states of the nation?

According to EMAC’s Article of Agreement I, “states” in reference to EMAC is defined as the fifty states, Puerto Rico, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. territories.

May a Requesting State and Assisting State make a verbal agreement through EMAC, or must the agreement be made in writing?

Article III - Party State Responsibilities allows for verbal agreements for the request, offer, and acceptance of EMAC resources if the verbal request is followed up within thirty days of that verbal agreement in writing.

Many states prefer to complete the paperwork prior to deployment. 

EMAC’s distinctive character among mutual aid agreements lies in its governance structure; its relationship with states, regions, territories, national membership, and federal organizations; and its ability to move almost any type of needed resource from one state to another.

The National Emergency Management Association (NEMA) has administered EMAC since 1995. NEMA is the professional association of and for emergency management directors from all fifty states, eight territories, and the District of Columbia.

Can a state “donate” resources or services to another state?

States may certainly provide resources or services to emergency-impacted states at no charge. To show that this “donation” is being made, the Request for Assistance, or REQ-A, between the two states must show “zero” as the cost estimate for that resource or service.

Congress ratified EMAC as Public Law 104-321, but EMAC is an interstate mutual aid compact and, as such, the sharing of resources is only between the member states. During a large-scale event, EMAC teams might be deployed to the FEMA National Response Coordination Center and possibly the Regional Response Coordination Centers to coordinate the state response under EMAC with the federal response.