Comment Period Open for FY 08 NIMS State/Local Compliance Requirements

August 10, 2007 -- According to a letter addressed to "NIMS Stakeholder" from the FEMA National Integration Center (NIC), the Incident Management Systems Division (IMSD, formerly the NIMS Integration Center) will release the Fiscal Year 2008 NIMS Implementation Activities and Compliance Metrics during October 2007. In developing the FY 2008 NIMS Implementation Activities for States, Territories and local jurisdictions, IMSD incorporated required actions from FYs 2005-2007 as well as new activities for FY 2008.

Prior to finalizing these draft activities, IMSD is seeking input from NIMS stakeholders nationwide in a formal comment period from August 10-24, 2007. Once stakeholder comments are incorporated and the activities are finalized, the associated metrics will be derived. A comment form may be used as the preferred methods for submitting comments and may be emailed to NIMScomments@hsi.dhs.gov.

In previous years, one activity often contained several requirements. In an effort to clarify and streamline each activity and avoid confusion regarding multiple activities being combined together, in FY 2008, each FY 2007 was separated into its distinct pieces to aid jurisdictions in their compliance efforts. While this resulted in what seems like an increase in the total number of activities, there are not a significant number of new requirements.