President Obama signs Executive Order for martial law capability
‘National Defense Resources Preparedness’
by LibbyMT.com
March 19, 2012
On Friday, March 16, President Obama signed an Executive Order for "National Defense Resources Preparedness."
Under this Executive Order, in the name of national defense, he delegates extraordinary authority to the major government departments to seize control of resources and services to support programs deemed necessary for emergencies essential for military, and for civilian demand. This includes all forms of energy (including pipelines), all food resources (irrespective of other uses to which such commodities or products may be put), livestock resources, health resources (including drugs, facilities, supplies, equipment…) civil transportation (regardless of ownership), all usable water resources and sources, the domestic industrial and technological base, farm machinery, fertilizer, construction materials and facilities, and more.
The Executive Order establishes in the executive branch a "National Defense Executive Reserve" (NDER) composed of persons from various segments of the private sector and from the Government for training for employment in executive positions in the Federal Government in the event of a national defense emergency. It also grants authority to the Secretary of Homeland Security to determine periods of national defense emergencies.
The Secretary of each Federal agency (Agriculture, Energy, Health and Human Services, Transportation, Defense, and Commerce) are delegated authority to "plan for and issue regulations to prioritize and allocate resources and establish standards and procedures by which the authority shall be used to promote the national defense, under both emergency and non-emergency conditions."
The Secretary of the resource department may use authority "to control the general distribution of any material (including applicable services) in the civilian market."
The Secretary of Energy is given the authority to make findings that materials (including equipment), services, and facilities are "critical and essential" to promote the national defense.
Materials that exceed the needs of the programs under the Act "may be transferred to the National Defense Stockpile, if, in the judgment of the Secretary of Defense as the National Defense Stockpile Manager, such transfers are in the public interest."
The Government may engage in the procurement for the national defense to "procure and install additional equipment, facilities, processes, or improvements to plants, factories, and other industrial facilities owned by the Federal Government and to procure and install Government owned equipment in plants, factories, or other industrial facilities owned by private persons."
The Government can "provide for the modification or expansion of privately-owned facilities, including the modification or improvement of production processes…"
Each department head is authorized to "take appropriate action to ensure that critical components, critical technology items, essential materials, and industrial resources are available from reliable sources when needed to meet defense requirements during peacetime, graduated mobilization, and national emergency."
The Department of Labor is directed to collect and maintain data necessary to make a continuing appraisal of the Nation’s workforce needs for purposes of national defense.
The Director of Selective Service may develop policies regulating the induction and deferment of persons for duty in the armed services. Under the Executive Order, all agencies are instructed to asses on an ongoing basis the domestic base to supply in peacetime and national emergency "critical resource and production sources" including subcontractors and suppliers, materials, skilled labor, and professional and technical personnel.
The Executive Order states that "National Defense" includes military or "critical infrastructure assistance" to any foreign nation, homeland security, stockpiling, space, and any directly related activity for programs for military and energy production or construction.
"Strategic and critical materials" means materials (including energy) that (1) would be needed to supply the military, industrial, and essential civilian needs in the United States during a national emergency, and (2) are not found or produced in the United States in sufficient quantities to meet such need and are vulnerable to the termination or reduction of the availability of the material.
"Water resources" means all usable water, from all sources, within the jurisdiction of the United States, that can be managed, controlled, and allocated to meet emergency requirements, except food resources water.
The order gives Federal agencies, officers and employees of the Government the power to regulate authorities, including the power of subpoena. It gives authority to agency heads "to require acceptance and priority performance of contracts or orders (other than contracts of employment) to promote the national defense over performance of any other contracts or orders, and to allocate materials, services, and facilities as deemed necessary or appropriate to promote the national defense…" Each resource agency is instructed to make priority ratings on contracts and orders for materials, services, and facilities needed in support of programs for national defense, and to plan for and issue regulations to prioritize and allocate resources to promote national defense under both emergency and non-emergency conditions.
Click on this link to read the Executive Order in its entirety: National Defense Resources Preparedness March 16, 2012 | PDF (322K)
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