Michael Mabee

Author of The Civil Defense Book

Menu
  • Home
  • Library
    • Grid Security Library
      • Government Documents on Grid Security
      • State Level Grid Security Efforts
      • Grid Protection Posts
      • Video (EMP and Grid Security)
      • What is the Electric Grid and How is it Regulated?
    • Civil Defense Library
      • Civil Defense Posts
      • Video (Preparedness)
      • Civil Defense Checklists
    • CIP Violation Database
  • Fund The Fight!
  • Take Action!
  • About Me
    • About Michael
    • My Book
    • Michael in the Press
    • Subscribe to Mike’s Blog
    • Interviews
    • My Friends
    • Contact Me
Menu
FEMA's Response

FEMA’s Response To My Letter: A Blow Off

Posted on June 9, 2019June 11, 2019 by Michael Mabee
Share the knowledge...Tweet about this on Twitter
Twitter
Share on Facebook
Facebook
Share on LinkedIn
Linkedin
Pin on Pinterest
Pinterest
Share on Reddit
Reddit
Email this to someone
email
Print this page
Print


FEMA’s response seems to be a low-level bureaucratic “ignore”

FEMA's ResponseI’m disappointed by FEMA’s response to my March 28, 2019 letter which I posted here. As you may recall, I wrote to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) after not hearing from them on a letter I had sent them on March 7, 2018 – a year previous. When you write to the federal government, disappointment often goes with the territory.

First, let me say that I am a fan of FEMA. I love the agency. Every presentation I do I am pushing FEMA’s strategic plan. (And every presentation I do, I get asked to do more presentations in the communities of people in the audience.)

Well, I received an email from FEMA on May 29, 2019. Part of my disappointment is that FEMA claims to have responded to my March 7, 2018 letter on December 26, 2017. The math simply does not work here. (Actually, their December 26, 2017 letter was in response to another letter I wrote them on December 6, 2017 – see below for links to all of the letters.)

In the first paragraph, FEMA distances themselves from the March 1, 2019 Emergency Management Magazine article and the January 2019 report. However, it actually doesn’t appear that the person who responded (the “Resilience Action Office”) even bothered to read my letter. They certainly didn’t respond to much that I wrote.

A Bad Cut-And-Paste Job:

Notwithstanding the initial date error in FEMA’s response, I was confused that FEMA would claim that they were the lead in protecting the critical infrastructure from EMP and GMD threats. FEMA wrote:

Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) serves as the Nation’s risk advisors for critical infrastructure owners and operators. We lead the national effort to secure and protect critical infrastructure from all threats and hazards, to include EMP and GMD. CISA’s primary role in managing EMP and GMD risks is through cross-sector coordination and information sharing, to ensure stakeholders have access to current information on risks and any resources to assist with mitigation efforts. [Emphasis added.]

That is, until I realized that this was a cut-and-paste from the testimony of Brian Harrell, the head of CISA from a February 27, 2019 Senate hearing. In FEMA’s response email, FEMA forgot to change the “we” to “they” when they pasted it in. Here is what Brian Harrell said for comparison:

CISA serves as the Nation’s risk advisors for critical infrastructure owners and operators. We lead the national effort to secure and protect critical infrastructure from all threats and hazards, to include EMP and GMD. CISA’s primary role in managing EMP and GMD risks is through cross-sector coordination and information sharing, to ensure stakeholders have access to current information on risks and any resources to assist with mitigation efforts.

But that is not all that FEMA cut-and-pasted from Brian Harrell’s testimony in their email response to my letter. The next paragraph in FEMA’s response email is:

All critical infrastructure sectors are, to some degree, at risk from EMP and GMD events due to the potential loss of critical functions. However, the precise extent of critical infrastructure vulnerabilities to such events remain uncertain. CISA acknowledge that sectors like energy and communications are of greatest concern due to their vulnerabilities to EMP, however, other sectors are also at risk due to their dependencies on these two sectors. For those reasons, relative to other sectors, there have been a lot of energy and communications sector activities to mitigate EMP and GMD threats.

Coincidentally, Brian Harrell in his testimony says:

All critical infrastructure sectors are, to some degree, at risk from EMP and GMD events due to the potential loss of critical functions. However the precise extent of critical infrastructure vulnerabilities to such events remain uncertain. We acknowledge that sectors like energy and communications are of greatest concern due to their vulnerabilities to EMP, however, other sectors are also at risk due to their dependencies on these two sectors. For those reasons, relative to other sectors, there have been a lot of energy and communications sector activities to mitigate EMP and GMD threats.

No need to belabor the point here, but the next paragraph is also a wholesale cut-and-paste. Three paragraphs of FEMA’s response email were cut and pasted from Brian Harrell’s testimony.

Essentially, FEMA’s email is a perfunctory non-response. It is disappointing because I took a great deal of time and effort to write to these letters, and FEMA’s blow-off of my letters could have at least been written by somebody who read them.

I guess FEMA isn’t interested in what I have to say.

###


Here are all my letters to FEMA and their two responses:

  • December 6, 2017 Letter to FEMA
  • December 26, 2017 FEMA Response Letter
  • March 7, 2018 Letter to FEMA
  • March 28, 2019 Letter to FEMA
  • May 29, 2019 FEMA Response Email

Share the knowledge...Tweet about this on Twitter
Twitter
Share on Facebook
Facebook
Share on LinkedIn
Linkedin
Pin on Pinterest
Pinterest
Share on Reddit
Reddit
Email this to someone
email
Print this page
Print

News

  • COVERUP UPDATE: CIP Violation Database and FOIAs
  • Multiple States to FERC: “The public has a right to know”
  • Lawsuit filed to end electric grid coverup
  • Frank Gaffney interviews Michael Mabee on the electric grid
  • Money Talks, Grid Security Walks
  • The cavalry is not coming
  • The Role of Transparency in Preventing Regulatory Failures
  • FERC White Paper: We Need YOU In This Fight!
  • Kat McGhee: New Hampshire Rep. Steps Up On Grid Security
  • Tommy Waller Breaks Down Grid Security – And What You Can Do!
  • Duke Redux – A Repeat Cybersecurity Violator Exposed!
  • Duke Energy Notice of Penalty Docket Shut Down!
  • EDTF Discredits False EPRI EMP Report
  • CIP Coverup: The Proverbial Cat is Out of the Bag
  • Prepper Chicks After Dark – Annie and Mike on the electric grid!
  • Electric Disturbance Events: What is the public allowed to know?
  • Jonathan Hollerman – EMP Attack Against Venezuela’s Grid?
  • Cybersecurity Hearing: The Grid is a Primary Target
  • FOIA with DHS Reveals Congressional Frustration on EMP / GMD
  • Free Aquaponics Book
  • State-Sponsored Cyber War: What You Need to Know
  • Electric Grid Cybersecurity: A Victory for the Secure the Grid Coalition
  • Pinehurst Texas: What Resilience Looks Like
  • Civil Defense Radio: Mike and Preston on EEI and China
  • FEMA’s Response To My Letter: A Blow Off
  • Is Edison Electric Institute Helping China Lobby For Less Grid Security?
  • Civil Defense Radio: Mike and Preston on Building a Culture of Preparedness
  • Annie Berdel and Michael Mabee Discuss the Grid
  • Regulatory Mutiny: The Grid Just Threatened FERC
  • EPRI EMP Study: Frank Gaffney and Michael Mabee Break It Down

Fund The Fight!


Subjects

Search Website

Subscribe for Updates!

Follow me on Twitter

Tweets by CivilDefenseBK

Click To Get Prepared!

The Civil Defense Book: Emergency Preparedness for a Rural or Suburban Community
The Civil Defense Book Get it now!

Subscribe for updates

Follow Me On Facebook

The Civil Defense Book

12 hours ago

The Civil Defense Book

U.S. grounds Saudi pilots, halts military training after base shooting

apple.news/ABfr4XHYwScyzEtpoBUyIjw
...

Over 300 Saudi military aviation students grounded in U.S. after base shooting — Reuters

apple.news

The Pentagon announced on Tuesday it was halting operational training of all Saudi Arabian military personnel in the United States until further notice after a Saudi Air Force lieutenant shot and killed three people last week at a base in Florida.
View on Facebook
·Share

Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on Linked InShare by Email

The Civil Defense Book

23 hours ago

The Civil Defense Book

Afghanistan war metrics were manipulated to highlight battlefield success, according to bombshell WaPo report

www.militarytimes.com/flashpoints/2019/12/09/afghanistan-war-metrics-were-manipulated-to-highligh...
...

Afghanistan war metrics were manipulated to highlight battlefield success, according to bombshell WaPo report

www.militarytimes.com

Sopko told the Washington Post that the documents it obtained showed “the American people have constantly been lied to” about the state and progress of the conflict.
View on Facebook
·Share

Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on Linked InShare by Email

Fund The fight!


©2019 Michael Mabee | Theme by SuperbThemes