Water availability is emerging as a critical concern for the 21st Century. The NIDIS Act of 2006 calls for an interagency approach to improve drought monitoring, forecasting and early warning. NIDIS ties operational monitoring, impacts, forecasting, education, research, and planning facets of the drought issue into an interactive delivery system for drought information and provides a framework for interacting with and educating those affected by drought. Led by NOAA, NIDIS is accomplishing this by focusing on the consolidation of physical, hydrological and socio-economic impacts data; integrated observing networks; development of a suite of drought decision support and simulation tools; and interactive delivery of standardized products through an internet portal using a web portal environment. In support of this vision, the U.S. Drought Portal (USDP, http://www.drought.gov) has been developed as a national resource for data, models, risk information and impacts of drought, with responsibility for integrating, archiving, and disseminating data via the internet. The first release of the portal has proven especially helpful in assimilating drought-related information from multiple federal, state, and other agencies in support of monitoring, forecasting, and impacts assessment endeavors. The current status of the USDP and plans for the future will be discussed.