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Pentagon is without a chief as US faces many global threats

Pentagon is without a chief as US faces many global threats
Pentagon is without a chief as US faces many global threats

2019-06-21 00:00:00 - Source: Baghdad Post

It’s a difficult time for the Pentagon to be without a

permanent US defense secretary.

The Trump administration is grappling with an escalating

crisis with Iran, an unusual and controversial deployment of troops to the US-Mexico

border, the nearly two-decade-old war in Afghanistan and stalled talks with

North Korea over its nuclear weapons program.

Amid all that, and more, acting Defense Secretary Patrick

Shanahan stepped down this week and the man tapped to replace him on an interim

basis appears to face legal hurdles that could initially prevent him from

serving more than about six more weeks. It’s an unusual level of uncertainty

for one of the most important jobs in the administration.

“This is a very difficult time. With everything going on in

Iran and all the provocations and counteractions, and to have no Secretary of

Defense at this time is appalling,” said Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer of New

York. “It shows the chaos in this administration. They have so many empty

positions, revolving doors, in the most sensitive of security positions.”

Shanahan and his planned replacement, Army Secretary Mark

Esper, have been attending White House and other meetings, including sessions

to debate how the military should respond to Iran’s shoot-down of an American

drone.

Esper is slated to take over as acting defense secretary at

midnight on Sunday, and then head out Tuesday to a meeting of NATO defense

ministers. There it will be critical for Esper to convince allies that he is

now in charge, and that the US national security leadership is stable and able

to make decisions when faced with escalating threats from Iran, amid questions

from a wary Congress.

Meanwhile, inside the Pentagon, lawyers are debating how to

get Esper through what will be a difficult legal and Congressional confirmation

process. Defense officials said Thursday that so far they don’t yet have a

clear way forward.

The key problem is that Trump never formally nominated

Shanahan for the defense job. He announced his intention to do so, but as the

months went on it never happened, and officials repeatedly said the vetting was

dragging on. On Monday, Shanahan stepped down saying he wanted to spare his

family as details of domestic problems linked to his messy divorce nearly a

decade ago became public.

Trump immediately named Esper as the new acting secretary,

but because of limitations laid out in court decisions and legislation

governing how top level vacancies are filled, he will only be allowed to serve

for about six weeks in that temporary capacity.

Law prohibits Esper from being nominated for the job while

also serving as the acting secretary. If he is nominated, he’ll have to step

down and move to another job until the Senate votes on his confirmation. And

anyone chosen to fill in temporarily -- even for a short time while the confirmation

process goes on — will have limited authorities and won’t have all of the

decision-making power that a defense secretary needs when his nation is at war

in several countries and conducting major military operations in dozens of

others.

Normally, senior leaders can be “acting” for 210 days, but

because Shanahan was never nominated the clock on Esper started ticking on

January 1, when previous Defense Secretary Jim Mattis resigned. That would

force Esper out of the acting role by July 30.

Adding to the problem, is that even if Trump wants to

nominate Esper, he’ll have to come up with someone to fill the job, also in an

acting capacity, for an undetermined amount of time. Because Trump never

nominated anyone to replace Shanahan as deputy defense secretary, which was his

previous job, there is no one to easily step up and fill in as acting secretary

during that confirmation process.

While lawmakers have expressed initial support for Esper,

who is well known on the Hill and previously served on committees as

legislative staff, there is no guarantee he’ll get a quick approval.

As a former executive at defense contractor Raytheon, Esper

may have to excuse himself from decisions involving the company. And that could

include sensitive, top level negotiations with Turkey over its decision to buy

a Russian missile defense system, and America’s counter offer of the

Raytheon-made Patriot surface-to-air weapon.

Lawmakers have also expressed impatience with the large

number of acting executives in the Trump administration.

Under Trump at least 22 of the 42 people in top Cabinet jobs

have been acting, or just over half.

In contrast, data compiled by incoming Yale political

science professor Christina Kinane, suggests that from 1977 through mid-April

of this year — the administrations of President Jimmy Carter through the first

half of Trump’s — 266 individuals held Cabinet posts. Seventy-nine of them held

their jobs on an acting basis, or 3 in 10.

Trump has said he likes naming acting officials, telling

reporters in January, “It gives me more flexibility.”

The practice lets Trump quickly, if temporarily, install

allies in important positions while circumventing the Senate confirmation

process, which can be risky with Republicans running the chamber by a slim 53-47

margin.

But another explanation is that under Trump, the process of

filling jobs has been slow and riddled with missteps.

Trump has withdrawn 63 nominees so far, doubling the 31

Obama retracted at this point in his first term, according to the nonpartisan

Partnership for Public Service, which studies ways to improve government

effectiveness. He’s also decided against nominating some candidates after

realizing the GOP-led Senate would reject them, including two would-be picks

for the Federal Reserve: businessman Herman Cain and conservative commentator

Stephen Moore.

In addition, Trump’s 568 nominations during his first year in

office were more than 100 fewer than Obama submitted during that period,

partnership figures show.





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