Policy briefs

Miller joins homeland transition

Ronald Miller, the Federal Emergency Management Agency's chief information officer, last week began work as a member of the Bush administration's Transition Planning Office.

Miller has been working for months with a team of federal information technology officials under the Office of Management and Budget and the Office of Homeland Security to develop the IT architecture for the proposed Homeland Security Department. Rose Parks, FEMA's deputy CIO, will serve as acting CIO while Miller is on detail to the transition office, Miller said.

President Bush created the office by executive order June 20 to lead the administration's efforts in laying the foundation for the more than 22 federal organizations that will move to the proposed department. Tom Ridge, the president's homeland security adviser, serves as director of the office within the Office of Management and Budget.

Military maps out homeland help

The four main military branches are working on a memorandum of agreement to identify the technologies and services they use and how they will work together to support first responders and the proposed Homeland Security Department.

Michael Albarelli, director of homeland security at the Army Communications-Electronics Command, said a working group, which includes members from the Army, the Air Force, the Navy and the Marine Corps, met last week at Hanscom Air Force Base in Lexington, Mass., to iron out the details of the memorandum.

Once the working group completes a final copy of the memorandum, the group plans to submit it to the Office of the Secretary of Defense, where officials will review it before submitting it to the proposed Homeland Security Department. "It should be signed in about a month," Albarelli said.