NJ to Serve as Pilot Program
for National Security
Businesses to work with State on anti-terrorism measures

(TRENTON) – New Jersey will serve as a pilot program in which government and business work in partnership to plan and prepare public/private responses to terrorist attacks, Governor James E. McGreevey announced today.

“The program will provide New Jersey with a powerful and efficient resource to ensure the safety and security of our citizens,” McGreevey said following a meeting with General Charles Boyd (USAF, Ret), President of Business Executives for National Security (BENS).

BENS, a national, non-partisan organization of senior business leaders applying their expertise and leadership to national security, has established a New Jersey Business Force to develop and implement the pilot program.

McGreevey said the New Jersey Business Force has begun its work by identifying three areas which can be best handled through partnerships between the public and private sectors:

• Business Response Network. The Office of Emergency Management and New Jersey businesses will create a web-based information system that connects emergency management personnel to needed resources (goods, equipment, volunteers, facilities etc.) quickly and effectively during a catastrophic event.
• Business Volunteer Training. The Department of Health and Senior Services and the Office of Emergency Management will provide training for business volunteers in such critical areas as collecting health care data and performing damage assessment.
• End-Use Distribution of the National Pharmaceutical Stockpile push packs. An effective distribution plan requires coordination between the National Guard, state agencies and private sector companies. Each will play a role in transporting and repackaging the bulk supplies for quick distribution to health care sites.

“The New Jersey Business Force will implement three new programs each year,” McGreevey said. “It will also manage all programs it has implemented in prior years.”

The Governor said the New Jersey Business Force will work closely with government and business leaders to select programs that are both of high priority and feasible to implement.

The Business Force will continuously stay abreast of existing government homeland security efforts in order to create programs that will complement them.

Business Force staff will maintain an on-going dialogue with the Department of Law and Public Safety (including the Office of Counterterrorism, the Domestic Security Preparedness Task Force and the Office of Emergency Management), the Department of Health and Senior Services and other relevant state agencies.  They will also seek input from FEMA, Red Cross and other federal agencies and first responder organizations.

“America needs effective public/private partnerships to develop a proactive counter-terrorism plan designed to prevent, prepare for, respond to and recover from potential terrorist activities,” McGreevey said.