# National Essential Functions **National Essential Functions (NEFs)** are the eight functions the federal government must be able to perform without interruption through any emergency, established by **PPD-40, the National Continuity Policy** (July 15, 2016). Every federal continuity plan maps back to them. Below the NEFs sit two further layers: **Primary Mission Essential Functions (PMEFs)**, an individual agency's functions that directly support a NEF, and **Mission Essential Functions (MEFs)**, the remaining functions an agency must continue. The stack is what determines which staff are relocated, which systems are replicated at alternate sites, and which functions are dropped first. See [[Continuity of Government Structure]]. ## See also - [[Continuity of Government]] - [[Continuity of Government Structure]] - [[Devolution of Operations]] - [[Office of National Continuity Programs]]