Homeland Security Awards $7.4 Million to CNA to Develop U.S. Preparedness Measures

ALEXANDRIA, VA — The Department of Homeland Security's Office of Domestic Preparedness has awarded CNA (CNA) a contract of up to $7.4 million over three years to develop performance metrics — and to assess levels of preparedness in the United States.

CNA will support the Department of Homeland Security's Office of Domestic Preparedness in their efforts to establish readiness measures for the nation.

"We bring to this task over 60 years of experience developing preparedness assessment systems for the U.S. military; and more recently, we have applied our skills to similar problems in the domestic security arena," said CNA President Robert J. Murray.

"This particular project is an extension of some of our work in the homeland security arena, including our evaluation of TOPOFF-2, the nation's largest and most important terrorism exercise to date," added Murray.

The project will establish a baseline for emergency preparedness metrics and goals. The result will be a set of measures based on readiness standards that allow the U.S. to assess any jurisdiction's preparedness and to provide continual guidance on process improvement.

Stephen Rickman, former Director of Readiness in the White House Office of Homeland Security will direct the project for CNA. "This project will ensure that the nation is investing in the right areas and that we are able to effectively measure the impact of those investments. This information is essential to Congress, other elected officials and to our first responders," said Rickman.