6 U.S.C. § 1183 — Over-the-road bus exercises

(a) In general. The Secretary must establish a program of security exercises for over-the-road bus transportation. The purpose is to assess and improve the abilities of the entities described in subsection (b) to prevent, prepare for, reduce the effects of, respond to, and recover from acts of terrorism. (b) Covered entities. The program must assess— (1) Federal, State, and local agencies and tribal governments; (2) over-the-road bus operators and owners and operators of over-the-road bus terminals; (3) government and nongovernment emergency-response providers and law-enforcement agencies; and (4) any other organization or entity the Secretary considers appropriate. (c) Requirements. The Secretary must make sure that the program— (1) combines existing security exercises for over-the-road bus operators and terminals that are administered by the Department and the Department of Transportation, as the Secretary and the Secretary of Transportation jointly determine, unless the Secretary appropriately waives this requirement; (2) consists of exercises that are— (A) scaled and tailored to the needs of over-the-road bus operators and terminals, including the needs of elderly people and people with disabilities; (B) live exercises for facilities most at risk of a terrorist attack; (C) coordinated with the appropriate officials; (D) as realistic as practical and based on current risk assessments, including credible threats, vulnerabilities, and consequences; (E) appropriately inclusive of frontline over-the-road bus employees; and (F) consistent with the National Incident Management System, the National Response Plan, the National Infrastructure Protection Plan, the National Preparedness Guidance, the National Preparedness Goal, and other similar national initiatives; (3) provides that the exercises in paragraph (2) will be— (A) evaluated by the Secretary using clear and consistent performance measures; (B) assessed by the Secretary to identify best practices. The Secretary must share those practices as appropriate with operators providing over-the-road bus transportation; nonprofit employee organizations representing over-the-road bus employees; Federal, State, local, and tribal officials; government and nongovernment emergency-response providers; and law-enforcement personnel; and (C) used to develop recommendations, as appropriate, for over-the-road bus operators and terminal owners and operators about remedial action to take in response to lessons learned; (4) allows appropriate advance notice to the communities and local governments where exercises will be held; and (5) helps State, local, and tribal governments and over-the-road bus operators and terminal owners and operators design, carry out, and evaluate additional exercises that meet paragraph (2)’s requirements. (d) National Exercise Program. The Secretary must make sure that the exercise program developed under subsection (c) is consistent with the National Exercise Program established under 6 U.S.C. § 748. This section uses the terms “Secretary,” “over-the-road bus transportation,” “terrorism,” “covered entities,” “live,” “credible threats,” “vulnerabilities,” “consequences,” “best practices,” and “remedial action.” This section does not define those terms.