The Office of Homeland Security Situational Awareness (OSA) provides information daily to the Secretary of Homeland Security, senior leaders, and the homeland security enterprise to enable decision-making; oversees the National Operations Center; and leads the Department’s Continuity of Operations and Government Programs to enable continuation of primary mission essential functions in the event of a degraded or crisis operating environment.
The Office of Homeland Security Situational Awareness is led by Director Christopher Tomney, Deputy Director Frank DiFalco, and Chief of Staff Todd Heinz.
The mission of the Office of Homeland Security Situational Awareness is to provide situational awareness, a common operating picture, and decision support for the Homeland Security Enterprise on threats, hazards, and events impacting the homeland.
The Office of Homeland Security Situational Awareness:
- Provides timely, accurate, and coordinated reporting on significant and upcoming DHS operations, operational responses, policy initiatives, and outreach on emerging threats and intelligence assessments.
- Ensures federal resources are coordinated in support of special events throughout the United States, as appropriate.
- Prepares the DHS Crisis Action Team to augment the National Operation Center during significant events.
- Leads the Department's internal Continuity of Operations and Government Programs and critical infrastructure efforts to enable continuation of primary mission essential functions in the event of a degraded and/or crisis operating environment.
The National Operations Center, which operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year, and serves as the primary, national-level hub for situational awareness, a common operating picture, information fusion, information sharing, and executive communications:
- Provides timely reporting and products derived from traditional and social media monitoring; DHS Component reporting; federal, state, local, tribal, territorial governments, and sector reports to support senior-leader decision making
- Provides and maintain information dissemination tools such as a common operating picture and the Homeland Security Information Network (HSIN) to facilitate information sharing with the federal, state, local, tribal, territorial governments, and private sector professionals
- Provides executive-level communications capabilities to link senior leaders to facilitate unity of effort and incident management efforts