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Executive Order
This document provides guidelines to assist federal, state, and local officials and critical infrastructure owners and operators to protect mission essential equipment against electromagnetic pulse (EMP) threats. It was created to help fulfill the Secretary of Homeland Security’s responsibilities to:

• “… provide strategic guidance, promote a national unity of effort, and coordinate the overall Federal effort to promote the security and resilience of the Nation’s critical infrastructure.” [Presidential Policy Directive 21 – Critical Infrastructure Security and Resilience]

• “… ensure … the necessary combination of hardness, redundancy, … to obtain, to the maximum extent practicable, the survivability of NS/EP {national security/emergency preparedness} communications …” [Executive Order 13618, Assignment of National Security and Emergency Preparedness Communications Functions]

• “… be the focal point within the Federal Government for all EMP technical data and studies concerning telecommunications.” [Title 47 Part 215 of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR)]

These guidelines also respond to the U.S. Congressional EMP Commission’s recommendation that the “Department of Homeland Security should play a leading role in spreading knowledge of the nature of prudent mitigation preparations for EMP attack to mitigate its consequences.” [Report of the Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Attack, Critical National Infrastructures, page 181, 2008]. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) takes seriously the findings of this Commission, such as: