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Testimony: 

Before the Subcommittee on Oversight of Government Management, the 
Federal Workforce, and the District of Columbia of the Committee on 
Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, U.S. Senate: 

United States Government Accountability Office: 

GAO: 

For Release on Delivery Expected at 9:30 a.m. EDT: 

Thursday, July 14, 2005: 

Homeland Security: 

Managing First Responder Grants to Enhance Emergency Preparedness in 
the National Capital Region: 

Statement of William O. Jenkins, Jr., Director, Homeland Security and 
Justice Issues: 

GAO-05-889T: 

GAO Highlights: 

Highlights of GAO-05-889T, a testimony before the Subcommittee on 
Oversight of Government Management, the Federal Workforce, and the 
District of Columbia of the Committee on Homeland Security and 
Governmental Affairs; U.S. Senate: 

Why GAO Did This Study: 

After the tragic events of September 11, 2001, the National Capital 
Region (NCR)—the District of Columbia and nearby jurisdictions in 
Maryland and Virginia—was recognized as a significant potential target 
for terrorism. In fiscal years 2002 and 2003, about $340 million in 
emergency preparedness funds were allocated to NCR jurisdictions. In 
May 2004, GAO issued a report (GAO-04-433) that examined (1) the use of 
federal funds emergency preparedness funds allocated to NCR 
jurisdictions, (2) the challenges within the NCR to organizing and 
implementing efficient and effective preparedness programs, (3) any 
emergency preparedness gaps that remain in the NCR, and (4) the 
Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) role in the NCR. The report 
made recommendations to the Secretary of DHS to enhance the management 
of first responder grants in the NCR. We also reported in September 
2004 (GAO-04-1009) that the NCR’s Governance Structure for the Urban 
Area Security Initiative could facilitate collaborative, coordinated, 
and planned management and use of federal funds for enhancing emergency 
preparedness, if implemented as planned DHS agreed to implement these 
recommendations. 

What GAO Found: 

A coordinated, targeted, and complementary use of federal homeland 
security grants is important in the NCR and elsewhere. These grants are 
one means of achieving an important goal: enhancing the ability of 
first responders to prevent, prepare for, respond to, and recover from 
terrorist and other incidents with well-planned, well-coordinated, and 
effective efforts that involve a variety of first responders from 
multiple jurisdictions. To oversee and coordinate federal emergency 
preparedness programs among federal, state, local, and regional 
authorities in the NCR, the Homeland Security Act established the 
Office for National Capital Region Coordination (ONCRC) within DHS. The 
ongoing security risk requires a comprehensive, coordinated, and 
carefully planned approach to the expenditure of federal first 
responder grants. This requires a NCR-wide strategic plan, performance 
goals, an assessment of preparedness gaps to guide priority setting, 
and continuing assessments of the progress made in closing identified 
gaps. 

This testimony summarizes our prior work and provides information on 
the implementation of the three recommendations in our May 2004 report. 
First, we recommended that DHS work with the NCR jurisdictions to 
develop a coordinated strategic plan. DHS and NCR jurisdictions have 
completed a final draft for review that has been circulated to key 
stakeholders. Second, we recommended that DHS monitor’s the plans 
implementation, which must await a final plan. To implement and monitor 
the future plan, data will be needed regarding the funding available 
and used for implementing the plan and enhancing first responder 
capabilities in the NCR—data that is not currently routinely available. 
The NCR, through the District of Columbia’s Office of Homeland 
Security, has a system for tracking the use of Urban Area Security 
Initiative funds in the NCR as well as other homeland security grant 
funds available to Washington, D.C. However, the NCR does not currently 
track non-Urban Area Security Initiative funds available to and used by 
other NCR jurisdictions in an automated, uniform way. Rather, it 
obtains information about those funds through a variety of means, 
including teleconferences involving senior emergency preparedness 
officials. Third, we recommended that DHS identify and address 
preparedness gaps and evaluate the effectiveness of expenditures by 
conducting assessments based on established guidelines and standards. 
No systematic gap analysis has been completed for the region; however, 
by March 2006, the NCR plans to complete an effort to use the Emergency 
Management Accreditation Program (EMAP) as a means of conducting a gap 
analysis and assess NCR jurisdictions against EMAP’s national 
preparedness standards. The result would be a report on the NCR’s 
compliance with EMAP standards for emergency preparedness and an 
analysis of areas needing improvement to address in the short- and long-
term. The ONCRC has not determined how this effort would be integrated 
with DHS’ capabilities-based planning and assessments for first 
responders, pending the issuance of DHS‘ final version of the National 
Preparedness Goal in October 2005.	

www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-05-889T. 

To view the full product, including the scope and methodology, click on 
the link above. For more information, contact William O. Jenkins, Jr., 
202-512-8757 or jenkinswo@gao.gov. 

[End of section] 

Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee: 

I appreciate the opportunity to participate in today's hearing on 
efforts to use federal first responder grants to effectively enhance 
emergency preparedness in the National Capital Region (NCR). We 
reported on this issue twice in 2004 and testified before the House 
Committee on Government Reform on this topic in June 2004.[Footnote 1] 
My statement today highlights the major findings and recommendations of 
our prior work and provides some updated information on the status of 
efforts by NCR jurisdictions and the Department of Homeland Security's 
Office for National Capital Region Coordination (ONCRC) to implement 
our recommendations. 

Summary: 

A coordinated, targeted, and complementary use of federal homeland 
security grants is important in the NCR. These grants are one means of 
achieving an important goal: enhancing the ability of first responders 
to prevent where possible, prepare for, respond to, and recover from 
terrorist and other incidents with well-planned, well-coordinated, and 
effective efforts that involve a variety of first responders from 
multiple jurisdictions. 

The Office of National Capital Region Coordinator (ONCRC) was created 
by the Homeland Security Act. [Footnote 2] It is responsible for 
coordinating federal, state, and local efforts to secure the homeland 
in the NCR and for assessing and advocating for the state, local, and 
regional resources in the NCR needed to implement efforts to secure the 
homeland. 

In May 2004, we reported that ONCRC and the NCR faced three 
interrelated challenges in managing federal funds in a way that 
maximizes the increase in first responder capacities and preparedness 
while minimizing inefficiency and unnecessary duplication of 
expenditures. These challenges included the lack of (1) preparedness 
standards; (2) a coordinated regionwide plan for establishing first 
responder performance goals, needs, and priorities, and assessing the 
benefits of expenditures in enhancing first responder capabilities; and 
(3) a readily available, reliable source of data on the funds available 
to first responders in the NCR and their use. Without the standards, a 
regionwide plan, and data on spending, it will be extremely difficult 
to determine whether NCR first responders have the ability to respond 
to threats and emergencies with well-planned, well-coordinated, and 
effective efforts that involve a variety of first responder disciplines 
from NCR jurisdictions. 

Our May 2004 report made three recommendations to the Secretary of the 
Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which the Department agreed to 
implement. Some progress has been made in implementing these 
recommendations, but none has yet been fully implemented: 

* Recommendation 1: Work with the NCR jurisdictions to develop a 
coordinated strategic plan to establish goals and priorities to enhance 
first responder capacities that can be used to guide the use of federal 
emergency preparedness funds. 

* Actions taken: According to a DHS ONCRC official, a final draft for 
review has been completed and circulated to key stakeholders. According 
to the Director, ONCRC, the plan will feature measurable goals, 
objectives, and performance measures. 

* Recommendation 2: Monitor the plan's implementation to ensure that 
funds are used in a way that promotes effective expenditures that are 
not unnecessarily duplicative. 

* Actions taken: This recommendation cannot be implemented until the 
final strategic plan is in place. Importantly, to establish regional 
priorities and track progress in implementing the plan, data will be 
needed regarding the funding for and use of all first-responder grants 
available to NCR jurisdictions. The NCR, through the District of 
Columbia's Office of Homeland Security, has a system for tracking the 
use of UASI funds for the NCR and other homeland security grant funds 
allocated to Washington, D.C., such as the State Homeland Security 
Grants. However, at this time, it does not have an automated, uniform 
system to track non-UASI grant funds available and used by other NCR 
jurisdictions. Instead, the Office obtains information through a 
variety of means, including teleconferences involving senior emergency 
preparedness officials. The ONCRC recognizes the need to develop a more 
systematic means of capturing all homeland security grant funds 
available to and used through the NCR and its member jurisdictions. 

* Recommendation 3: Identify and address gaps in emergency preparedness 
and evaluate the effectiveness of expenditures in meeting those needs 
by adapting standards and preparedness guidelines based on likely 
scenarios for the NCR and conducting assessments based on them. 

* Actions taken: No systematic gap analysis has been completed for the 
region as a whole. However, by March 2006, the NCR plans to complete an 
effort to use the Emergency Management Accreditation Program (EMAP) as 
a means of conducting a gap analysis and assessing NCR jurisdictions 
against EMAP's national preparedness standards. The result would be a 
report on the NCR's compliance with EMAP standards for emergency 
preparedness and an analysis of areas needing improvement that can be 
addressed in the short-and long-term. How this effort would be 
integrated with DHS' capabilities-based planning and assessments for 
first responders has not yet been determined, pending the issuance of 
DHS' final version of the National Preparedness Goal in October 2005. 

The NCR now has a UASI governance structure that could provide the 
regionwide coordination that is necessary for obtaining information and 
the consensus or acquiescence of many stakeholders for drafting, 
completing, and implementing a regional preparedness plan. We believe 
that completing the implementation of the recommendations in our May 
2004 report would be a major step toward developing the structure, 
processes, and data needed to assess current first responder skills and 
capabilities in the NCR and monitor the success of efforts to close 
identified gaps and achieve designated performance goals for the NCR. 

Background: 

Since the September 11, 2001, attacks, the federal government, state 
and local governments, and a range of independent research 
organizations have agreed on the need for a coordinated 
intergovernmental approach for allocating the nation's resources to 
address the threat of terrorism and improve our security. The National 
Strategy for Homeland Security, released in 2002 following the proposal 
for DHS, emphasized a shared national responsibility for security 
involving close cooperation among all levels of government and 
acknowledged the complexity of developing a coordinated approach within 
our federal system of government and among a broad range of 
organizations and institutions involved in homeland security. The 
national strategy highlighted the challenge of developing complementary 
systems that avoid unintended duplication and increase collaboration 
and coordination so that public and private resources are better 
aligned for homeland security. 

The national strategy established a framework for this approach by 
identifying critical mission areas with intergovernmental initiatives 
in each area. For example, the strategy identified such initiatives as 
modifying federal grant requirements and consolidating funding sources 
to state and local governments. The strategy further recognized the 
importance of assessing the capability of state and local governments, 
developing plans, and establishing standards and performance measures 
to achieve national preparedness goals. In addition, many aspects of 
DHS' success depend on its maintaining and enhancing working 
relationships within the intergovernmental system as it relies on state 
and local governments to accomplish its mission. In our view, 
intergovernmental and interjurisdictional coordination in managing 
federal first-responder grants is as important in the NCR as it is 
anywhere in the nation. 

The Role of DHS' Office of National Capital Region Coordination in 
Enhancing Regional Preparednedness: 

As noted in our May 2004 report and June 2004 testimony, the creation 
of DHS was an initial step toward reorganizing the federal government 
to respond to some of the intergovernmental challenges identified in 
the National Strategy for Homeland Security. ONCRC was created by the 
Homeland Security Act. According to NCR emergency management officials 
we contacted during the time of our previous reviews, ONCRC could play 
a potentially important role in assisting them to implement a 
coordinated, well planned effort in using federal resources to improve 
the region's preparedness. As we stated in the past, meeting the 
office's statutory mandate would fulfill those key responsibilities. 

The Homeland Security Act established ONCRC within DHS to oversee and 
coordinate federal programs for, and relationships with federal, state, 
local, and regional authorities in the NCR.[Footnote 3] The ONCRC's 
responsibilities are primarily ones of coordination, assessment, and 
advocacy. With regard to coordination, the ONCRC was mandated to: 

* coordinate the activities of DHS relating to the NCR, including 
cooperation with the DHS' Office for State and Local Government 
Coordination;

* coordinate with federal agencies in the NCR on terrorism preparedness 
to ensure adequate planning, information sharing, training, and 
execution of the federal role in domestic preparedness activities;

* coordinate with federal, state, local, and regional agencies and the 
private sector in NCR on terrorism preparedness to ensure adequate 
planning, information sharing, training, and execution of domestic 
preparedness activities among these agencies and entities;

* serve as a liaison between the federal government and state, local, 
and regional authorities, and private sector entities in the NCR to 
facilitate access to federal grants and other programs.[Footnote 4]

ONCRC also has responsibilities related to resource and needs 
assessments and advocating for needed resources in the NCR, including: 

* assessing and advocating for resources needed by state, local, and 
regional authorities in the NCR to implement efforts to secure the 
homeland; and: 

* submitting an annual report to Congress that (1) identifies resources 
required to fully implement homeland security efforts in the NCR, (2) 
assesses progress in implementing homeland security efforts in the NCR, 
and (3) includes recommendations to Congress regarding additional 
resources needed to fully implement homeland security efforts in the 
NCR. (According to the ONCRC, the first annual report is now with the 
Office of Management and Budget for review). 

We recognize that ONCRC's missions and tasks are not easy. The overall 
job of promoting domestic preparedness in a large area with a huge 
federal presence is daunting. The NCR is a complex multijurisdictional 
area comprising the District of Columbia and surrounding county and 
city jurisdictions in Maryland and Virginia. Coordination within this 
region presents the challenge of working with numerous jurisdictions 
that vary in size, political organization, and experience in managing 
large emergencies. 

As we noted in our May 2004 report on the management of funds in the 
NCR, effectively managing first responder grant funds requires the 
ability to measure progress and provide accountability for the use of 
the funds. To do this, it is necessary to: 

1. Develop and implement strategies for the use of the funds that 
identify key goals and priorities;

2. Establish performance baselines;

3. Develop and implement performance goals and data quality standards;

4. Collect reliable data;

5. Analyze those data;

6. Assess the results of that analysis;

7. Take action based on those results; and: 

8. Monitor the effectiveness of actions taken to achieve the designated 
performance goals. 

This strategic approach to homeland security includes identifying 
threats and managing risks, aligning resources to address them, and 
assessing progress in preparing for those threats and risks. 

At the same time, it is important to recognize that the equipment, 
skills, and training required to prepare for and respond to identified 
terrorist threats and risks may be applicable to non-terrorist risks as 
well. For example, the equipment, skills, and training required to 
respond effectively to a discharge of lethal chlorine gas from a rail 
car is much the same whether the cause of the discharge is an 
accidental derailment or a terrorist act. 

Our May 2004 Report Showed the Need to Improve Management of First- 
Responder Grants in the NCR: 

As we reported in May 2004, in fiscal years 2002 and 2003, the 
Departments of Homeland Security, Justice, and Health and Human 
Services awarded about $340 million through 16 first-responder grants 
to NCR jurisdictions to enhance regional emergency preparedness. Of 
these funds, $60.5 million were from the UASI grant, designated for 
regionwide needs. The remaining funds, about $279.5 million, were 
available to local jurisdictions for a wide variety of needs, such as 
equipment and training, and local jurisdictions determined how these 
funds were to be spent. Local jurisdictions used or planned to use 
money from those grants to buy equipment and to implement training and 
exercises for the area's first responders, as well as improve planning 
for responding to a terrorist event. We have not reviewed how funds 
were spent since the issuance of our May 2004 report; however, spending 
could not be based on a coordinated plan for enhancing regional first 
responder capacities and preparedness because such a plan does not yet 
exist, although one is being prepared. 

In May 2004, we reported that ONCRC and the NCR faced 3 interrelated 
challenges in managing federal funds in a way that maximizes the 
increase in first responder capacities and preparedness while 
minimizing inefficiency and unnecessary duplication of expenditures. 
These were the lack of (1) preparedness standards; (2) a coordinated 
regionwide plan for establishing first responder performance goals, 
needs, and priorities, and assessing the benefits of expenditures; and 
(3) readily available, reliable source of data on the federal grant 
funds available to first responders in the NCR and their use. Without 
the standards, a regionwide plan, and data on available funds and 
spending, it will be extremely difficult to determine whether NCR first 
responders have the ability to respond to threats and emergencies with 
well-planned, well-coordinated, and effective efforts that involve a 
variety of first responder disciplines from NCR jurisdictions. 
Moreover, without such data, it is not clear how the ONCRC can fulfill 
its statutory mandate to assess and advocate for resources needed by 
state, local, and regional authorities in the NCR to implement efforts 
to secure the homeland. 

During our review we could identify no reliable data on preparedness 
gaps in the NCR, which of those gaps were most important, and the 
status of efforts to close those gaps. The baseline data needed to 
assess those gaps had not been fully developed or made available on a 
NCR-wide basis. We also noted that at the time our May 2004 report was 
released, DHS and ONCRC appear to have had a limited role in assessing 
and analyzing first responder needs in NCR and developing a coordinated 
effort to address those needs through the use of federal grant funds. 
ONCRC has focused principally on developing a plan for using the UASI 
funds--funds that were intended principally for addressing region wide 
needs. In its comments on a draft of our May 2004 report, DHS said that 
a governance structure approved in February 2004 would accomplish 
essential regionwide coordination. We agree that this structure has the 
potential to accomplish essential regionwide coordination, but it is 
not clear how it can do so effectively without comprehensive data on 
funds available for enhancing first responder skills and capabilities 
in the NCR, their use, and their effect on meeting identified 
performance goals. 

Recommendations in Our May 2004 Report Not Yet Fully Implemented: 

To help ensure that emergency preparedness grants and associated funds 
are managed in a way that maximizes their effectiveness, our May 2004 
report included three recommendations to the Secretary of the 
Department of Homeland Security. As discussed in more detail below, 
some progress has been made in implementing these recommendations, but 
none has yet been fully implemented. 

* Recommendation 1: Work with the NCR jurisdictions to develop a 
coordinated strategic plan to establish goals and priorities for 
enhancing first responder capacities that can be used to guide the use 
of federal emergency preparedness funds. 

* Actions taken: According to an ONCRC official, a final draft for 
review has been circulated to key stakeholders. According to the 
Director, ONCRC, the plan will feature measurable goals, objectives, 
and performance measures. 

* Recommendation 2: Monitor the strategic plan's implementation to 
ensure that funds are used in a way that promotes effective 
expenditures that are not unnecessarily duplicative. 

* Actions taken: Monitoring implementation of the strategic plan cannot 
be accomplished absent a plan. Importantly, to monitor the plan's 
implementation, data will be needed on funds available and spending 
from all first responder grants available to jurisdictions in the NCR, 
such as the State Homeland Security Grant Program. The NCR, through the 
D.C. Office of Homeland Security, has a system for tracking the use of 
UASI funds in the NCR and other homeland security grant funds available 
to D.C., such as the State Homeland Security Grants. However, at this 
time, it does not have an automated, uniform, system to track non-UASI 
grant funds available and used by other NCR jurisdictions. Information 
on the projects funded in NCR jurisdictions by funds other than UASI is 
obtained through the monthly meetings and weekly conference calls of 
the Senior Policy Group and full-day quarterly meetings of 
jurisdictions in the Mid-Atlantic area, sponsored by the Office of 
Domestic Preparedness (ODP). These meetings provide contacts for 
obtaining information, as needed, on grant allocations and expenditures 
in jurisdictions both within and outside the NCR in the mid-Atlantic 
region. The ONCRC recognizes the need to develop a more systematic 
means of capturing all homeland security grant funds available and used 
through the NCR. 

* Recommendation 3: Identify and address gaps in emergency preparedness 
and evaluate the effectiveness of expenditures in meeting those needs 
by adopting standards and preparedness guidelines based on likely 
scenarios for NCR and conducting assessments based on them. 

* Actions taken: To date, no systematic gap analysis has been completed 
for the region as a whole. The NCR plans to use the Emergency 
Management Accreditation Program (EMAP) as a means of conducting a gap 
analysis and assessing NCR jurisdictions against EMAP's standards for 
emergency preparedness--an effort expected to be completed by March 
2006. How this effort would be integrated with DHS' capabilities-based 
planning and assessments for first responders has not yet been 
determined, pending the issuance of DHS' final version of the National 
Preparedness Goal in October 2005. At the national level, DHS' efforts 
to develop policies, guidance, and standards that can be used to assess 
and develop first responder skills and capabilities have included three 
policy initiatives: (1) a national response plan (what needs to be done 
to manage a major emergency event); (2) a command and management 
process--the National Incident Management System--to be used during any 
emergency event nation-wide (how to do what needs to be done); and (3) 
a national preparedness goal (how well it should be done). Since our 
May 2004 report, DHS, as part of developing the national preparedness 
goal, developed 15 scenarios (12 terrorist events, a flu pandemic, a 
hurricane, and an earthquake) of "national significance" that would 
require coordinated federal, state, and local response efforts; the 
critical tasks associated with these scenarios; and the capabilities-- 
in terms of planning, training, equipment, and exercises--that first 
responders would need to develop and maintain to effectively prepare 
for and respond to major emergency events. The 300 critical tasks and 
36 capabilities were intended as benchmarks first responders could use 
to assess their relative level of preparedness and capacity to prevent, 
mitigate, respond to, and recover from major emergency events, 
including terrorist attacks. Because no single jurisdiction or agency 
would be expected to perform every task, possession of a target 
capability could involve enhancing and maintaining local resources, 
ensuring access to regional and federal resources, or some combination 
of the two. The January 25, 2005 proposal for the EMAP assessment 
program does suggest one way in which the NCR may include the DHS 
scenarios, critical tasks, and capabilities in the EMAP assessment 
project. The proposal states: "Should the NCR or local jurisdictions 
within the region desire to conduct (a) hazard identification, risk 
assessment, and impact analysis activities, and/or (b) capabilities 
assessment against catastrophic scenarios using federally provided 
technical assistance during the period of this project, EMAP 
representatives will coordinate with local and regional personnel to 
ensure that assessment activities and products are complementary."

Concluding Comments: 

The need for comprehensive, coordinated emergency planning and 
preparedness is important in the National Capital Region. As we noted 
in the recent past, the ongoing security risk to the NCR requires a 
comprehensive, coordinated, and carefully planned approach to the 
expenditure of federal first responder grants. This requires a 
regionwide strategic plan, performance goals, an assessment of 
preparedness gaps to guide priority setting, and continuing assessments 
of the progress made in closing identified gaps. The NCR has completed 
a draft strategic plan and has established a process for assessing 
existing preparedness gaps. But it still needs to develop a means of 
routinely obtaining reliable data on all funds available for enhancing 
emergency preparedness in the NCR and their uses. It is important to 
know how all first responder funds are being spent in the NCR for 
setting priorities and assessing the results of funds spent. The NCR 
has selected the EMAP emergency preparedness standards as its 
performance standards for the region, but it will be necessary to 
integrate the EMAP standards with the set of 36 performance 
capabilities for first responders that DHS has developed as part of its 
National Performance Goal. 

The NCR, in common with jurisdictions across the nation, faces the 
challenge of implementing DHS requirements for its three key policy 
initiatives--the National Incident Management System, National Response 
Plan, and the National Preparedness Goal. Successfully accomplishing 
all of these things will require a sound strategic plan; effective 
coordination; perseverance; and reliable data on available funds, their 
use, and the results achieved. As we noted in our September 2004 
report, the NCR's UASI Governance Structure represents a positive step 
towards instituting a collaborative, multijurisdictional, regionwide, 
planning structure. Fully implementing the recommendations in our May 
2004 report would, in our view, be a major step toward developing the 
structure, processes, and data needed to assess current first responder 
skills and capabilities in the NCR and monitor the success of efforts 
to close identified gaps and achieve designated performance goals for 
the NCR. 

That concludes my statement, Mr. Chairman. I would be pleased to 
respond to any questions you or other members of the Committee may 
have. 

Contacts and Acknowledgments: 

For questions regarding this testimony please contact William O. 
Jenkins, Jr. on (202) 512-8777. Ernie Hazera also made key 
contributions to this testimony. 

FOOTNOTES

[1] Homeland Security: Management of First Responder Grants in the 
National Capital Region Reflects the Need for Coordinated Planning and 
Performance Goals, GAO-04-433, (Washington, D.C.: May 28, 2004); 
Homeland Security: Effective Regional Coordination Can Enhance 
Emergency Preparedness, GAO-04-1009 (Sept. 15, 2004); and Homeland 
Security: Coordinated Planning and Standards Needed to Better Manage 
First Responder Grants in the National Capital Region, GAO-04-904T, 
June 24, 2004). 

[2] P.L. 107-296 §882

[3] P.L. 107-296 §882

[4] The Office for National Capital Region Coordination was also 
mandated to provide state, local, and regional authorities in NCR with 
regular information, research, and technical support to assist the 
efforts of state, local, and regional authorities in NCR in securing 
the homeland; and develop a process for receiving meaningful input from 
state, local, and regional authorities and the private sector in NCR to 
assist in the development of the federal government's homeland security 
plans and activities.