This is phase one of keeping a campaign promise where he said,
"We’ve got to have a civilian national security force that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded (as the US military)."
This must be the new jobs program.
“We cannot continue to rely on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives that we’ve set. We’ve got to have a civilian national security force that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded.” Barack Hussein Obama, 7/2/2008
They don’t call it a Civil Defense force, that would imply we need (or perhaps deserve) defense.
The official name is National Civilian Community Corps.
I think of it as the NATCCC, or simply the NATCs...