Why Did DoD Just Defund The Congressional EMP Commission?

originally posted by: Phage

originally posted by: nwtrucker

originally posted by: Phage
a reply to: nwtrucker

Commission, not committee.
It was funded by Congress. Not no more, NDAA 2018.

Ah, I see. So I can assume, that if this 'defunding' P.O.'d the right people in Congress they 'could' address this on their own?

Not this year. The NDAA is a done deal for this fiscal year.

OK. Could be that this is no more than cutting expenses by the DoD.

a reply to: Black_Fox

Just off the top of my head I would say the DOD defunded the commission because no one in their right mind wants Congress involved in this. Assuming we have abilities to harden our important infrastructure ( and I do assume that) no one wants to willingly HAVE to inform Congress of what our capabilities are.

Can't say I blame the DOD if this is the reason.

Of course I could be mistaken.

a reply to: Caver78

The DoD did not defund the commission. The law which governed the commission was repealed. By Congress.

a reply to: Phage

Not to be a butt-head, but charging in anyways.

the House Armed Services Committee and Department of Defense have, as of 31 July 2017, dismantled the only honest arbiter working to get the dysfunctional federal government to address these growing threats – The EMP Commission.

And what other connections do the members of The House Armed Services Committee have?
Really this will involve some digging.

As of 31 July 2017, this Commission, and these experts, are no longer employed in the vital work necessary to address threats to the U.S. Electric Grid. Moreover the House Armed Services Committee’s proposed 2018 NDAA disestablishes the Commission before it can review the final draft of its final report, and reestablishes another— a recipe for disruption and further delay while new commissioners are appointed. At the same time the Department of Defense is withholding from public distribution (and has even overly classified) important data and technology that underlies protection against EMP, including the U.S. version of key test results provided in the 1990s by Russian scientists to U.S. scientists and engineers.

securethegrid.com...

Now my source "may" be crap, but again, onwards...

The U.S. House Committee on Armed Services, commonly known as the House Armed Services Committee, is a standing committee of the United States House of Representatives. It is responsible for funding and oversight of the Department of Defense (DOD) and the United States armed forces, as well as substantial portions of the Department of Energy.

en.wikipedia.org...

Why would an civilian oversight committee relinquish access to information regarding any aspect of the DOD, an organization it's function is to oversee?
Surely you can see the incongruity of this?

I'm probably going about this basswards, but this is pretty suspicious.

It seems to me that the Department of Fatherland Security, I mean Homeland Security, would be the government agency taking the lead in EMP hardening of the domestic infrastructure. While military action is the most likely source of an EMP attack, there are other threat actors, like terrorists, that may be able to effect some limited EMP attacks.

The probability of an EMP attack is far less than the probability of a CME impact from the Sun. With similar consequences for the electric power grid as the E3 phase of an EMP. However, Congress has mostly ignored this threat as well. Why should we expect them to take any action on the unlikely EMP attack, when they don't even want to address the likely CME impact?

I also think the 90% casualty estimate is a bit too high, probably intentionally so to get some coverage of the issue.
However, if the casualty level is only 30%, that still represents the loss of 100 Million people! Even a loss at that level would alter civilization as we know it.

The Futurescience EMP Site has been linked a number of times in these EMP threads. I highly recommend that anyone with an interest in the details of the EMP threat take a look at it. It's well referenced. And some of the supporting material linked there is quite informative.

One report that I found most interesting was Electromagnetic Pulse Threats in 2010 written by a USAF Major for the Air War College. It provides a lot more details about the different phases of an EMP attack. And it provides some interesting scenarios involving EMP attacks on CONUS, as well as a NK attack within the Korean Peninsula.

-dex