Coastal America's policy and program direction is formulated at the national level by three distinct organizational elements, the Principals Group, the Coastal America Office, and the National Implementation Team (NIT). The Principals Group is composed of a subcabinet-level committee of Assistant Secretaries from each of the federal signatory agencies and meets about twice a year. Their responsibilities include establishing overall program direction; addressing broad, multiagency policy issues as they relate to the collaborative implementation of the signatory agencies' coastal programs; reviewing and approving the budget of the Coastal America Office; and establishing program direction for the NIT.
The NIT is composed of senior management representatives from each of the partnership agencies and meets monthly. Each representative has been designated by their Assistant Secretary and represents their agency at national meetings; provides advice and direction to the Coastal America Office; represents Coastal America in various forums; participates on special work groups as necessary; facilitates the coordination of national, inter-regional and other large projects; and provides assistance to regional public education and outreach efforts to facilitate public awareness, support and involvement.
The Coastal America Office provides continuity to the overall program. It does this by conducting numerous administrative activities, including: maintaining day-to-day contact with the RITs; providing administrative support to the NIT; organizing annual retreats for the RITs and NIT representatives to discuss and resolve policy and implementation issues; producing an annual report in cooperation with the RITs and NIT; overseeing and managing the activities of four standing workgroups, i.e., Policy, Education and Outreach, Technology Transfer, and Regional Planning and four ad hoc groups of the NIT, i.e., Base Closure, Habitat, Nonpoint Source Pollution, and Contaminated Sediments; organizing, conducting and providing minutes of the NIT meetings; and soliciting information and generating articles and making presentations at conferences, symposia, and other similar events regarding the activities and promotion of the Coastal America Partnership.
Originally, there were seven Coastal America regions - Northeast, Southeast, Gulf of Mexico, Southwest, Northwest, Alaska and the Great Lakes. At the direction of the Principals however, two additional regions, the Mid-Atlantic and Pacific Islands, were formed in 1994. These new regions cover a geographic area that more closely parallels the areas of responsibilities of the partnership agencies, and encourages a stronger geographic focus; however, to date, neither region has finalized its strategy.
As mentioned above, RITs are composed of individuals selected by the partnership agencies to represent them and to collaboratively develop local, watershed-focused proposals which could be enhanced through the Coastal America partnership. The RIT members examine their own agencies' programs and authorities looking for areas of overlap with those of the other partnership agencies and determine the potential for implementing joint projects to address coastal problems in a more effective manner. The RITs develop regional action strategies designed to define major issues, special focus areas, goals, and objectives within each region and specify the processes whereby joint projects are identified and implemented. Within the framework of each regional strategy, site-specific coastal projects addressing habitat loss, nonpoint source pollution, and contaminated sediment management are identified and planned. Finally, each RIT establishes priorities for project implementation from the suite of proposed collaborative projects.
The Principals have recently challenged the RITs to incorporate the principles of sustainable development and ecosystem management into their regional strategies. The RITs are also expected to develop a structured mechanism for sharing information on agency programs and priorities among the rest of the partners, and to encourage public, state, and nongovernmental organization involvement in Coastal America projects such that these projects harmonize with state and local objectives. Within the project prioritization process, each RIT gives priority to projects that, (1) are action oriented, with a focus upon the three basic national coastal issues, (2) are multiagency, including at least three federal partners and one non-federal participant, and (3) include an education/outreach and monitoring component. In addition, matching funding of 25 percent of project costs by the non-federal participants is strongly encouraged.