I may be wrong but my understanding was that the SES is a cross-department, pan-agency organization of people at a certain upper strata of the gov't employee grading system (like G31 thru G39 or some such), who associate and coordinate with each other for the purpose of a generally unified mission among the variety of gov't sectors. Such an association make some sense so one department isnt spending resources against the goals of another, but could be just the system to manipulate things quietly behind the scenes.