“The National Homeland Security Consortium has outlined a vision for how the nation should address homeland security in the modern era in a new white paper, Protecting Americans in the 21st Century: Imperatives for the Homeland. In particular, the paper urges an equal partnership among local, state, and federal government as well as private entities in setting national homeland security goals, policies, and procedures. The paper also recommends improvements in the areas of Communication and Collaboration; Intelligence and Information Sharing; Use of the Military; Health and Medical; Interoperability; Critical Infrastructure; Surge Capacity and a Unified National Capabilities Approach; Sustained Resources and Capabilities; and Immigration and Border Security. The National Homeland Security Consortium is a unique, one-of-a-kind group of key state and local organizations, elected officials, the private sector, and others with roles and responsibilities for homeland security prevention, preparedness, response and recovery activities.”