But legal restrictions on the activities of U.S. armed forces are slowing crucial collaboration, insiders complain. Federal laws dating back to the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 limit the use of U.S. armed forces in domestic law enforcement and training -- impediments some members of Congress want to change.

The Pentagon's specialized $1.9 billion-a-year IED organization has "saved many servicemen's lives by teaching lessons learned in blood on the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan," observe Republican Congressmen Peter King of New York, Daniel Lungren of California, and Michael McCaul of Texas, leaders of the House Committee on Homeland Security. "Their hard-won knowledge should now be shared with American lawmen facing these same deadly threats at home."