Steve and Hugh,
After watching the USG operate in post-conflict situations, I offer that civilian federal government agencies will never be useful sources of the SMEs required to carry out the programs that PRTs or other Feds can fund. Federal agencies are intensely domestic in focus and don't usually award merit to overseas duty, especially in a war zone. In the domestic circumstance, Feds throw money at problems and hope for the best. Same overseas.

In the 2007 Iraq surge, I recruited large numbers of city managers, trash engineers, electrical technicians, etc. These are the most valuable employees a city has, and at best we could borrow an SME for up to 12 months. When the guy returned to his city or county post, he had to eject his deputy who had been filling the job "temporarily" or go into the job market himself. We got good people, but they were treated worse than returning military reservists after their mobilization was done.

It's unreasonable to expect the Feds for the come up with SMEs on short notice -- the needed specialists do things that the civilian Government doesn't have a clue how to do. The ideal would be to mobilize Dade or Dallas county into service as a unit. Could the Govt afford such a thing?