About Us

COG is the one place in metropolitan Washington that regularly brings leaders together to develop solutions to the region's major challenges. COG prepares plans enabling the region to receive federal funding, provides members with research and data to inform decision-making, and offers a wide range of programs, including commuter services, cooperative purchasing, technical assistance and grants, and public outreach campaigns.

Transportation

Through the National Capital Region Transportation Planning Board (TPB), area officials, planners, and engineers ensure a well-managed and maintained transportation system. The TPB, which is staffed by COG, conducts the federally mandated transportation planning process for the region and ensures the uninterrupted flow of federal transportation funds that area jurisdictions receive.

Environment

COG's work engages leaders in various environmental fields from water quality experts to climate scientists. Together, they are advancing regional efforts to restore local waterways, improve air quality, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and address climate change, promote recycling, and enhance and preserve green space and agriculture.

Community

Area officials and experts, including planning and housing directors and child welfare and health officials, work together with their counterparts at COG to help shape stronger communities throughout the region.

Homeland Security & Public Safety

COG brings police chiefs, fire chiefs, emergency managers, and other leaders together as part of its work to strengthen regional public safety coordination, homeland security planning, and emergency communication.

Critical Infrastructure Protection Regional Programmatic Working Group

Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP) is a high priority in the NCR. Specific industries, assets and systems are designated “critical infrastructures” because their functioning is essential to the lives, health, economic well-being, national security and morale of American citizens. Multiple national directives highlight CIP and call for public/private collaboration and a risk management approach in addressing CIP issues. The NCR has included CIP as a key objective in its Urban Area Homeland Security Strategy. The NCR’s Eight Commitments to Action identified CIP as a key issue area and the NCR Urban Area Homeland Security Strategy set as strategic objectives to “reduce the NCR’s vulnerability to terrorism” and “minimize the damage and recover from attacks that do occur” – both objectives of CIP.

The CIP mission for the NCR is complex. Activities and programs to address CIP must cross jurisdictional boundaries in order to adequately address both independent issues as well as interdependencies among sectors, and must engage public, private, and non-profit stakeholders. There are many national initiatives and policy directives that need to be addressed and incorporated as well as state and local priorities that must be integrated. The NCR CIP working group has been developed to coordinate CIP across the region. This working group is necessary to provide a resource for the region with regard to CIP issues as well as to provide direction for the NCR.

The NCR CIP working group is organized with equal representation from Maryland, Virginia, District of Columbia, and the ONCRC The Committee has taken responsibility for coordinating the development and execution of the regional CIP strategy that builds on the utilization of non-UASI funding awarded prior to the development of the current UASI program.

Critical Infrastructure Protection Regional Programmatic Working Group

Committee Members

Staff