TO:	All State Administrative Agency Heads All State Administrative Agency Points of Contact All State Homeland Security Directors All Urban Area Core City/Core County Points of Contact
FROM:	Matt Mayer, Acting Executive Director
SUBJECT:	Updated Submission Deadlines for Tactical Interoperable Communications Plans

On April 1, 2005, the Department of Homeland Security, Office of State and Local Government Coordination and Preparedness, Office for Domestic Preparedness (ODP) disseminated the Tactical Interoperable Communications Planning Guidance and Template, developed in coordination with the SAFECOM program. The FY2005 Homeland Security Grant Program (HSGP) guidance requires grantees to develop and test a plan to achieve tactical interoperable communications.

The deadline for submitting these plans has been extended to May 1, 2006, based on feedback from state and local stakeholders. Grantees have one year from that date (i.e., until May 1, 2007) in which to validate the plan through an operations-based exercise.

ODP will still host two additional one-day, regional training workshops on the Tactical Interoperable Communications Planning Guidance and Template in conjunction with the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) Interoperable Communications Technology Program Workshop Series. The remaining workshops are currently scheduled as follows:

Central Region: June 3 in Columbus, Ohio
Eastern Region: July 14 in Charlotte, North Carolina

Invitations for the Central and Eastern Region conferences are forthcoming. ODP will continue to make technical assistance available through the Interoperable Communications Technical Assistance Program. Additional questions on this effort should be directed to:

• ODP's Technical Assistance staff at TArequest@dhs.gov;
• The ODP Preparedness Officer assigned to your state; or
• The ODP Help Line at (800) 368-6498 or askcsid@dhs.gov.