Office of the Secretary 

Office of State and Local Government 

Coordination & Preparedness 

Washington, DC 20531 

ODP Information Bulletin 

No. 183 July 22, 2005 

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 A. Mayer 

Acting Executive Director 

SUBJECT: Updating State and Urban Area Homeland Security Strategies 

On March 31, 2005, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued the Interim National 

Preparedness Goal (the Goal) and accompanying National Preparedness Guidance. The Goal 

establishes a vision for a National Preparedness System, and the National Preparedness Guidance 

provides an introduction to several of the key building blocks for that system, including the National 

Planning Scenarios, Universal Task List, Target Capabilities List, and seven National Priorities. 

DHS, in coordination with the Department of Health and Human Services, is now providing followon guidance for use by States and Urban Areas to update their existing Homeland Security Strategies 

to ensure that they support the Goal and reflect the seven National Priorities. The intent of this 

update process is not to require an entirely new strategy, but rather to tailor and update, as 

appropriate, existing strategic goals and objectives to support the National Preparedness Goal, the 

seven National Priorities, local government concerns, and citizen preparedness efforts. 

At a minimum, States and Urban Areas must ensure that their updated strategies address the four 

homeland security mission areas (prevent, protect, respond, recover) and reflect the seven National 

Priorities. Strategies must also address citizen preparedness and local government concerns, and 

identify any additional target capabilities from the Target Capabilities List (TCL) that are a priority 

for them beyond the National Priorities. 

Updated strategies must be submitted to the Office for Domestic Preparedness (ODP) by September 

30, 2005 in accordance with the provisions contained in the attached guidance document. Alignment 

of objectives to the seven National Priorities will be completed in the ODP online Data Collection 

Tool (DCT) using a simple drop-down feature. The DCT will collect the minimum requirements 

and build off of the previous State and Urban Area strategy submissions. The DCT will be available 

in August for strategy update submissions. 
Although not required, States and Urban Areas may also choose to submit complete and updated 

strategies to ODP in PDF or Word document format. The intent of the two-part approach is to 

collect quantifiable data on strategic goals and objectives captured within the DCT and to afford 

States and Urban Areas flexibility in presenting a complete view of their homeland security efforts, 

if desired, through the submission of a complete strategy either in Word or PDF format. Additional 

guidance on the new functionality in the DCT and instructions for submission of strategy documents 

in PDF or Word document format will be forthcoming in August. 

The current State and Urban Area Homeland Security Strategies address 2004, 2005, and 2006, and 

are mostly terrorism focused. In updating their strategies this year, States and Urban Areas should 

begin the process of evolving their strategies to address not only terrorism, but a broad range of other 

threats and hazards, founded on a capabilities-based planning approach. In the future, States and 

Urban Areas will be asked to develop enterprise-wide homeland security strategies for 2007, 2008, 

and 2009 that reflect the necessary integration and collaboration across all mission areas and support 

the establishment of the National Preparedness System and realization of the Goal.