The Department of Homeland Security has opened up phase two of its Quadrennial Homeland Security Review.
DHS yesterday launched the web component of the review's second phase. And the agency is asking the blogosphere to spread the word about the process.
Alan Cohen, the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy and Strategic Plans at DHS says that in phase one a task force of DHS staffers used the website to solicit suggestions on topics for discussion as part of the first annual Review.
"For the second national dialogue," he told a reporter teleconference on Monday, "we're focusing here on the groups taking their goals, breaking their goals into strategic objectives, and we've distilled those objectives down to a short and pithy description that you'll see on the site. We're asking folks to assign a priority level to the objective: do you think that these priorities should be higher than others?"
Thus far, Cohen says, DHS has gathered more than 20,000 comments, suggestions and ratings from people who participated in part one of the review process. And they've even been able to revise and adjust the format of the review, from a radio button-style click-through questionnaire form to more of a dialogue box comment format, based on feedback from all those people who have participated in the review process so far.
Officials say they are reaching out to the blogosphere to more efficiently spread the word that they are seeking more feedback in phase two of the quadrennial review.
The current national dialogue on phase two of the Quadrennial Review runs between now and September 6, with a final phase scheduled for Sept. 28-Oct. 4. Homeland Secretary Janet Napolitano is expected to receive a final copy of the quadrennial review report for release to Congress by December 31.
Link to the Q.R. website
http://www.homelandsecuritydialogue.org/dialogue2/
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