Drought is a normal part of climate for virtually all parts of the United States. To better address the risks associated with this hazard and society's vulnerability to it, there must be a dramatic paradigm shift in our approach to drought management in the coming decades. The typical approach has been to follow the hydro-illogical cycle and react to drought in the post-drought period-an approach that has proven to be ineffective, untimely, and poorly coordinated within and between levels of government. This approach not only provides a disincentive to improved resource management practices but also has been shown to actually decrease self-reliance in many cases, increasing vulnerability to future drought episodes. The trend is clearly away from no planning or response planning to risk-based drought mitigation planning, but progress has been slow because of the unique characteristics of drought when compared to other natural hazards, institutional inertia, and the lack of political will. Drought mitigation planning, associated with a risk assessment process, seeks to examine the principal impacts of drought and identify the causes for these impacts and potential mitigation actions that will lessen risk for future events. Improved early warning through a comprehensive, integrated approach to drought monitoring is a key component of drought mitigation plans because these plans require decision makers at all levels to employ timely and reliable information in the decision-making process. The U.S. Drought Monitor, a weekly web-based product, relies on multiple indicators and climate indices and has greatly increased public awareness of drought as a policy issue in the United States. This product is a critical component of the National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS) currently being implemented by NOAA. Improving our resilience to drought events must be a high priority given current development pressures on water resources in the U.S. and elsewhere and the potential impacts of climate change on both water supply and demand.