As far as I can tell, it sets up a National Security and Emergency Preparedness (NS/EP) Communications Executive Committee. Section 3 gives you the most importa

As far as I can tell, it sets up a National Security and Emergency Preparedness (NS/EP) Communications Executive Committee. Section 3 gives you the most important information. Section 3.2 tells you who forms part of the committee, and 3.3 tells you the responsibilities of the committee. In short, its responsibilities are to ensure that communications are available within the government through all emergencies (I would guess they want to protect against an EMP attack, since such an attack would disable major communications systems), and the committee will work with industry (I would guess wireless carriers, ISPs, and other communications companies) to protect communications systems. I can see why the submitter would think its an ominous event. The submitter could be wary of anything justified in the name of national security. The submitter can also interpret this as a response to Russian nuclear-capable bombers intercepted off the west coast twice in the past couple of weeks, which is reportedly a Russian response to US missile defense shields in Europe. Some speculate that this is Putin testing Obama on national security, and the submitter could speculate that this order would be a response to Putin, which is indicative of cooling relations between Russia and the US. Of course, nuclear bombers don't need to drop a bomb on a city to cause widespread destruction. Detonation high in the atmosphere would wreak havoc on all communications through the resulting EMP. It could be as damian2000 suggests, the government's response to the threat of cyber-warfare, but the presence of language such as "Continuity of Government" in the order suggests they are planning for much larger emergencies.