6 U.S.C. § 321d — National Operations Center

(a) Definition. In this section, "situational awareness" means information gathered from many sources that, once shared with emergency^* managers, decision-makers, and other officials, helps them make decisions about handling an incident or during normal operations.

(b) Establishment. The National Operations Center is the Department's main operations center. It must: give situational awareness and a shared operating picture to the whole federal government, and to state^*, local, tribal, and territorial governments, the private sector, and international partners as needed, covering events, threats, and incidents from natural disasters, terrorist acts, or other man-made disasters; make sure critical terrorism- and disaster-related information reaches government decision-makers; and make agreements with other federal operations centers and homeland^* security partners, as appropriate, to share information.

(c) State and local emergency responder representation. (1) Establishment of positions. The Secretary^* must create a rotating position at the National Operations Center for a representative of state and local emergency responders, to make sure information flows effectively between the federal government and state and local emergency responders. (2) Management. The Secretary must manage this position following the same rules and practices used for other similar rotating positions at the Center.