Improving information sharing constitutes a cornerstone of our national strategy to protect the American people and our institutions and to defeat terrorists and their support networks at home and abroad. The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (the 9/11 Commission) identified a breakdown in information sharing as a key factor contributing to the failure to prevent the September 11, 2001 attacks.

In response to the 9/11 Commission's Recommendations, the Congress passed and the President signed the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 (See Background and Authorities for More Information). Section 1016 of the law called for the creation of an Information Sharing Environment and defined it as "an approach that facilitates the sharing of terrorism information." The law required the President to designate a Program Manager for the ISE and establish an Information Sharing Council to advise the President and the Program Manager.

The Implementation Plan for the Information Sharing Environment sets forth the following vision:

A trusted partnership among all levels of government in the United States, the private sector, and our foreign partners, in order to detect, prevent, disrupt, preempt, and mitigate the effects of terrorism against the territory, people, and interests of the United States by the effective and efficient sharing of terrorism and homeland security information.

Creating the ISE is not about building a massive new information system. The ISE aligns and leverages existing information sharing policies, business processes, technologies, systems, and promotes a culture of information sharing through increased collaboration.