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| (FDNY Firefighter on Ground Zero. Photo by Preston Keres, USN. Wikimedia Commons.) |
Peters
said, “The first step in evaluation is to identify the goals of the program,
but even this seemingly simple task may be
difficult, if not impossible.”
The
DHS has set of strategic goals that are defined by the words: Awareness,
Prevention, Protection, Response, Recovery, Service, and Organizational
Excellence. The goals are clearly stated publicly and the next step was laying
out performance measure to evaluate the goals. Federal agencies are mandated by
law under the Government Performance and Results Act of 1993 (GPRA) to set
goals, measure performance, and report their accomplishments.
On
a report to President Bush and the Congress, the Gilmore Commission said, “the
United States needs an improved homeland security strategy to strengthen
security communities facing the greatest risk, improve the use of intelligence,
increase the role of the state and local officials, and sharpen disaster
response capabilities.”
The
Clinton and Bush Administrations had enacted 87 percent of the recommendations
of the Gilmore Commission on security
related matters. The Gilmore Commission was headed by former Virginia Gov.
James S. Gilmore III.
The important recommendations of the
Commission are as follows, “Combine all departmental grant making programs into
a single entity in DHS; establish an interagency mechanism for homeland
security grants, revise the homeland advisory system to include a regional
alert system, training to emergency responders about preventive actions, and
specific guidance to potentially affected regions; establish sustained funding
to enhance EMS response capacity for acts of terrorism; and establish
comprehensive procedures for sharing information with relevant state and local
officials”
