Strategic plans developed by regional organizations can be effective tools to focus resources and efforts to address problems. Effective plans often contain such features as goals and objectives that are measurable and quantifiable. These goals and objectives allow problems and planned steps to be defined specifically and progress to be measured. By specifying goals and objectives, plans can also give planners and decision makers a structure for allocating funding to those goals and objectives. A well- defined, comprehensive strategic plan for the NCR is essential for assuring that the region is prepared for the risks it faces. The Homeland Security Act established the Office of National Capital Region Coordination within the Department of Homeland Security. The ONCRC is responsible for overseeing and coordinating federal programs for and relationships with state, local, and regional authorities in the NCR and for assessing, and advocating for, the resources needed by state, local and regional authorities in the NCR to implement efforts to secure the homeland. One of the ONCRC mandates is to 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. In our earlier work, 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 a set of accepted benchmarks (best practices) and performance goals that could be used to identify desired goals and determine whether first responders have the ability to respond to threats and emergencies with well-planned, well-coordinated, and effective efforts that involve police, fire, emergency medical, public health, and other personnel from multiple jurisdictions; 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 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, we observed it would be extremely difficult to determine whether NCR first responders were prepared to effectively respond to threats and emergencies. Regional coordination means the use of governmental resources in a complementary way toward goals and objectives that are mutually agreed upon by various stakeholders in a region. Regional coordination can also help to overcome the fragmented nature of federal programs and grants available to state and local entities. Successful coordination occurs not only vertically among federal, state, and local governments, but also horizontally within regions. The effective alignment of resources for the security of communities could require planning across jurisdictional boundaries. Neighboring jurisdictions may be affected by an emergency situation in many ways, including major traffic or environmental disruptions, activation and implementation of mutual aid agreements, acceptance of evacuated residents, and treating casualties in local hospitals. Although work has continued on a NCR strategic plan for the past 2 years, a completed plan is not yet available to guide decision making such as assessment of NCR’s strategic priorities and funding needs and aid for NCR jurisdictions in ascertaining how the NCR strategic plan complements their individual or combined efforts. In May 2004, we recommended that the Secretary of DHS 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, and the department agreed to implement this recommendation. A related recommendation—that DHS monitor the plan’s implementation to ensure that funds are used in a way that promotes effective expenditures that are not unnecessarily duplicative—could not be implemented until the final strategic plan was in place. In July 2005, we testified that, according to a DHS ONCRC official, a final draft for review had been completed and circulated to key stakeholders. The plan was to feature measurable goals, objectives, and performance measures. ONCRC officials state that past references to a NCR strategic plan reflect availability of the core elements of the NCR strategic plan—the mission, vision, guiding principles, long-term goals, and objectives, but not a complete plan. They told us that these core elements, along with other information, will need to be compiled into a strategic planning document. ONCRC officials said that NCR leadership had elected to make the core elements available but to concentrate on preparing other planning and justification documents required for the fiscal year 2006 DHS grant process. NCR planning timelines indicate this decision was made in September 2005. Because a strategic plan was not available, ONCRC officials provided us with several documents, which they have said that taken as a whole, constitute the basic elements of NCR’s strategic plan. These documents include a November 18, 2005, NCR Plenary Session PowerPoint presentation containing information on NCR strategic goals, objectives, and initiatives; a February 1, 2006, National Capital Region Target Capabilities and NCR Projects Work Book; the March 2, 2006, District of Columbia and National Capital Region Fiscal Year 2006 Homeland Security Grant Application Program and Capability Enhancement Plan; the March 2, 2006, National Capital Region Initiatives; and the Fiscal Year 2006 NCR Homeland Security Grant Program Funding Request Investment Justification, submitted to DHS in March 2006. According to ONCRC officials, a complete strategic plan is awaiting integration of additional information that in some cases is not yet complete. These include an Emergency Management Accreditation Program (EMAP) assessment of all local jurisdictions in the NCR and regional-level activities, which, according to the ONCRC, is completed but will not be available until sometime in April; the peer review of the status of state and urban area emergency operations plans after Hurricane Katrina, whose completion is anticipated in April 2006; and the fiscal year 2006 homeland security program grant enhancement plan for funding, which was completed in early March 2006. ONCRC officials estimate that after April 2006, it will take approximately 90 more days to integrate these documents and the core framework of the strategic plan, plus approximately 60 days for final review and coordination by the NCR leadership. Thus, an initial strategic plan will not be available until at least September or October 2006. NCR strategic planning should reflect both national and regional priorities and needs. ONCRC officials have said that the November 18, 2005, NCR plenary session PowerPoint presentation represents the vision, mission, and core goals and objectives of the NCR’s strategic plan. If the NCR’s homeland security grant program funding documents prepared for DHS are used extensively in NCR strategic planning, a NCR strategic plan might primarily reflect DHS priorities and grant funding—national priorities— and not regionally developed strategic goals and priorities. NCR’s current goals and objectives are shown in table 1. The other four documents that ONCRC represents as constituting the NCR strategic plan were developed in response to federal requirements under the National Preparedness Goal and to support the NCR’s federal funding application. Required by Homeland Security Presidential Directive 8, the National Preparedness Goal is a national domestic all-hazards preparedness goal intended to establish measurable readiness priorities and targets. The fiscal year 2006 Homeland Security Grant Program (HSGP) integrates the State Homeland Security Program, the Urban Areas Security Initiative, the Law Enforcement Terrorism Prevention Program, the Metropolitan Medical Response System, and the Citizen Corps Program. For the first time, starting with the fiscal year 2006 HSGP, DHS is using the National Preparedness Goal to shape national priorities and focus expenditures for the HSGP. According to DHS, the combined fiscal year 2006 HSGP Program Guidance and Application Kit streamlines efforts for states and urban areas in obtaining resources that are critical to building and sustaining capabilities to achieve the National Preparedness Goal and implement state and urban area homeland security strategies. All states and urban areas were required to align existing preparedness strategies within the National Preparedness Goal’s eight national priorities. States and urban areas were required to assess their preparedness needs by reviewing their existing programs and capabilities and use those findings to develop a plan and formal investment justification outlining major statewide, substate, or interstate initiatives for which they will seek funding. According to DHS, these initiatives are to focus efforts on how to build and sustain programs and capabilities within and across state boundaries while aligning with the National Preparedness Goal and national priorities. It is, of course, important and necessary that the ONCRC, and other regional and local jurisdictions, incorporate the DHS’s National Preparedness Goal and related target capabilities into their strategic planning. The target capabilities are intended to serve as a benchmark against which states, regions, and localities can measure their own capabilities. However, these national requirements are but one part of developing regional preparedness, response, and recovery assessments and funding priorities specific to the NCR. The NCR’s strategic plan should provide the framework for guiding the integration of DHS requirements into the NCR’s overall efforts. While the NCR strategic plan is not complete, our preliminary review of the NCR initiatives developed to implement NCR’s strategic goals and objectives presented in ONCRC documents indicates they are not completely addressed in the DHS HSGP documents. Using the November 18, 2005, PowerPoint presentation as our primary framework, we identified whether the NCR’s 39 individual regional initiatives were specifically supported in whole or in part by programs or investments in the fiscal year 2006 HSGP documents (enhancement plan and investment justification) prepared for DHS. Our preliminary analysis indicates that regional initiatives defined under NCR strategic goals and objectives have some coverage—individual programs or projects—in the NCR documents prepared for DHS HSGP funding, but not complete coverage. We found that of the NCR’s 16 priority initiatives, 10 were partially addressed in the enhancement plan and 12 were partially addressed in the investment justification. Of the other 23 NCR initiatives, 8 were partially addressed in the enhancement plan and 12 were partially addressed in the investment justification.