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