Critical Releases in Homeland Security: September 19, 2007

"In December 2004, Congress passed and the President signed the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 (IRTPA). Section 1016 of IRTPA called for creation of the Information Sharing Environment (ISE); Section 1016 also established the Program Manager for the Information Sharing Environment (PM-ISE) with government-wide authority to plan, oversee, and manage the ISE. The Program Manager assists the President and government agencies in the development and operation of the ISE, and monitors and assesses its progress. The law also established an Information Sharing Council (ISC) to advise the President and the PM-ISE on the development of ISE policies, procedures, guidelines, and standards, and to ensure proper coordination among Federal departments and agencies (Agencies) participating in the ISE. To guide efforts to establish the ISE and implement the requirements of IRTPA, on December 16, 2005, President Bush issued a Memorandum to the Heads of Executive Departments and Agencies on the Guidelines and Requirements in Support of the Information Sharing Environment. This Memorandum delineated two requirements and five guidelines which prioritize efforts that the President believes are most critical to the development of the ISE and assigned responsibility to relevant Cabinet officials for resolving some of the more complicated issues associated with information sharing."

"The National Incident Management System provides a systematic, proactive approach guiding departments and agencies at all levels of government, the private sector, and nongovernmental organizations to work seamlessly to prepare for, prevent, respond to, recover from, and mitigate the effects of incidents, regardless of cause, size, location, or complexity, in order to reduce the loss of life, property, and harm to the environment. […] NIMS is not an operational incident management or resource allocation plan. NIMS represents a core set of doctrine, concepts, principles, terminology, and organizational processes that enables effective, efficient, and collaborative incident management. HSPD-5 also required the Secretary of Homeland Security to develop the National Response Plan (NRP, which has been superseded by the National Response Framework (NRF)). The NRF is a guide to how the nation conducts all�'hazards incident management. HSPD-5 requires all Federal departments and agencies to adopt NIMS and to use it in their individual incident management programs and activities, as well as in support of all actions taken to assist State, tribal, and local governments. The directive requires Federal departments and agencies to make adoption of NIMS by State, tribal, and local organizations a condition for Federal preparedness assistance (through grants, contracts, and other activities). NIMS also recognizes the role that the private sector and nongovernmental organizations have in preparing for, preventing, responding to, recovering from, and mitigating the effects of incidents."

"President Bush has led a committed effort to strengthen the Nation's preparedness capabilities. The national preparedness architecture encompasses the full spectrum of prevention, protection, response, and recovery efforts to prepare the Nation for all hazards -- whether terrorist attack or natural disaster. Homeland Security Presidential Directive-8 (HSPD-8) of December 17, 2003 ('National Preparedness') directed the Secretary of Homeland Security to develop a national domestic all-hazards preparedness goal. As part of that effort, in March 2005 the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released the Interim National Preparedness Goal. Publication of the National Preparedness Guidelines (Guidelines) finalizes development of the national goal and its related preparedness tools. The Guidelines, including the supporting Target Capabilities List, simultaneously published online, supersedes the Interim National Preparedness Goal and defines what it means for the Nation to be prepared for all hazards."

"This National Response Framework is a guide to how the nation conducts all-hazards incident response. It is built upon flexible, scalable and adaptable coordinating structures to align key roles and responsibilities across the nation, linking all levels of government and private sector businesses and nongovernmental organizations. It is intended to capture specific authorities and best practices for managing incidents that range from the serious but purely local, to large-scale terrorist attacks or catastrophic natural disasters. Based upon extensive outreach within the public and private sectors, this document supersedes the National Response Plan (2004, with 2006 revisions). [This National Response Framework has been approved by the President.]"