Several national policy initiatives awaited by the fire service seemed to go into a deep freeze at the Department of Homeland Security last fall, perhaps falling down the priority list because of re-election uncertainty and second-term changes in the Bush administration.

As this report went to press, seven members of the White House cabinet had resigned, including DHS Secretary Tom Ridge, who said he would leave his job no later than Feb. 1. President George W. Bush has nominated former NYPD commissioner Bernard Kerik to the post.

By late November there was no news on the final version of the National Response Plan, implementation plans for the National Incident Management System or Homeland Security Presidential Directive 8, the national all-hazards preparedness goal, although work on these documents had long ago been submitted to Ridge. Chief John Buckman of German Township (Ind.) Volunteer Fire-Rescue is the International Association of Fire Chief's representative working with DHS on these initiatives.

The final NRP was scheduled for release last summer. “I don't know if it was put on hold,” said Buckman. “It just all went into that big hole. It was sent somewhere, and it never came back.”

Buckman participated in the Integrated Concept Teams that worked to develop a national all-hazards preparedness plan to meet HSPD 8 and developed a “universal task list” to meet 15 response scenarios and assessment tools and training strategies — also pending DHS action since September.

The IAFC was awaiting DHS decisions on several recommendations regarding implementation plans for the National Incident Management System. Chief P. Michael Freeman of the Los Angeles Fire Department, chairman of the IAFC Terrorism and Homeland Security Committee, testified before a House subcommittee at the end of September about several concerns, especially DHS plans to make NIMS compliance a condition for terrorism grant funding in FY 2006.

Although the IAFC supports NIMS and agrees a financial incentive isn't a bad idea, the NIMS document contains 518 specific requirements; accomplishing all of those requirements within the next year would be a “Herculean — and perhaps unreasonable — task,” Freeman said.

“What we want is a phased-in implementation program,” said Buckman. “As I talked to Congressional staffers, my comment to them was, ‘OK, what part of the NIMS do you want implemented? All 518 different requirements?’”

The IAFC terrorism committee is urging DHS to help fund the mutual aid agreements that NIMS requires and to provide more training in NIMS. In October, the U.S. Fire Administration began distributing a new edition of its self-study course with updated information on NIMS-compliant ICS.

More training support for NIMS is needed, however, and it needs to go beyond both the classroom setting and the fire service. Freeman suggested community-wide exercises, perhaps modeled after the highly successful TOPOFF exercises held by DHS, so that emergency responders have an opportunity to practice the system under realistic conditions.

The IAFC's final concern was the NIMS requirement for interoperable communications. “It is the lynchpin of command and control,” as Freeman said in his testimony. The IAFC supports the SAFECOM initiative as a “practioner-driven” federal initiative to provide interoperable communications on a national basis.

Freeman said many local communities were working on interim solutions to the interoperability problem, but a national solution will have a larger price tag. “The IAFC urges DHS to offer some monetary relief to state and local entities for whom upgrading communications equipment may be a hardship,” he said.

In August, Ridge appointed Gilbert Jamieson as acting director of the NIMS Integration Center, which is tasked with NIMS implementation and maintenance across all response organizations.

IAFC Government Relations Director Alan Caldwell said Jamieson had met with members of the IAFC Terrorism and Homeland Security Committee in the fall and they were very encouraged. “We're very hopeful that things are going to start to happen soon,” Caldwell said.