47 CFR § 201.3 - Policy.
(a) The Federal Government is responsible for resources mobilization, including determination of the need for and the extent of mobilization necessary in all crises and emergencies, wartime and non-wartime.
(b) The President has limited non-wartime NS/EP telecommunications functions, and wartime NS/EP functions under the Communications Act of 1934 (as amended), which have been delegated to Federal agencies under Executive Order 12472. Federal, State, and local governments share the responsibility for conservation of the Nation's telecommunications resources.
(1) The achievement of survival and recovery during a crisis or emergency would establish an unavoidable interdependence between and among Federal, State, and local authorities; therefore, there should be no barriers between Federal and State levels of authorities and between State and local levels of authorities which would impede, obstruct, or otherwise hinder effective conservation and equitable allocation of telecommunications resources and services to the needs of the Nation.
(2) The Federal Government will rely upon State governments and their telecommunications management organizations for management or control of intrastate carrier services and continuity of interconnectivity with interstate carriers to assure that national objectives and priorities are properly served. Applicable regulations of the Federal Communications Commission govern the extent of the allocation of responsibility between Federal and State authorities for the management of NS/EP intrastate carrier services and the interconnectivity of intrastate services for NS/EP telecommunications functions.
(c) A system of telecommunications service priorities will be established which facilitates the provisioning and early restoration of services considered vital to national interests during those events or crises which warrant NS/EP treatment.
(d) The President is authorized during, or in anticipation of, an emergency or major disaster (as defined in the Disaster Relief Act of 19/4) to establish temporary telecommunications systems and to make such telecommunications available to State and local government officials and such other persons as deemed appropriate (42 U.S.C. 5185).
(e) The President also is authorized, during war, when necessary in the interest of national defense and security, to direct or establish priorities for essential communications with any commercial or governmental carrier and to prevent obstruction of telecommunications. The President may also suspend or amend rules and regulations, close stations and facilities, and authorize U.S. government use and control of telecommunications resources with regard to:
(1) Radio communications (during war, or Presidentially declared threat of war, public peril, disaster or national emergency or a need to preserve the neutrality of the U.S.) and
(2) Wire communications (during war or threat of war).
(f) During an attack on the United States by an aggressor nation, and in an immediate postattack period, all decisions regarding the use of telecommunications resources will be directed to the objective of national survival and recovery. In order to achieve this objective, postattack resources will be assigned to activities concerned with the maintenance and saving of lives, immediate military defense and response, and economic activities essential to continued economic survival and recovery.
(g) The Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy will serve as the central authority to control, coordinate, and direct the activities of the Nation's telecommunications facilities, systems, and services during periods of wartime emergency as determined under section 706 of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 606), as amended.
(h) Telecommunications resources of the Federal Government will be employed, as required, to best serve the continuity of government and national interests.
(i) Federal agencies will, in the development of emergency operational plans, minimize, to the extent feasible, dependence upon telecommunications services for continuity of essential operations.