FEATURE ARTICLE

June 2005

New Plans to Protect Seas Headed to White House

By Joe Pappalardo

Recommendations on maritime security policy are slated to reach the desk of President Bush this month. This could lead to the development of a blueprint for securing shores and waterways worldwide.

In late December, Bush signed a Homeland Security Presidential Directive that ordered steering groups to create a national plan to increase maritime domain awareness. Those recommendations are due to arrive at the White House in late June—180 days after the directive was signed.

Topics for review include intelligence integration, domestic outreach to state and local stakeholders, international cooperation, threat response, infrastructure recovery and improvements to the global supply chain.

The groups must identify short- and long-term objectives, resource implications, suggestions on technology upgrades and recommendations on any needed organizational changes, according to the directive, HSPD-13. White House officials could not say if each group would turn in their plans by the deadline.

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