DHS Looks Ahead To Transition With New Administration
Feb 21, 2008 5:00 PM
The handoff to the next presidential administration is a year off, but Paul Schneider, the acting deputy secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, is making plans and keeping track of key lieutenants with a color-coded chart.
The chart shows critical jobs at 25 agencies and offices in the department. Schneider's goal is to make sure that either the No. 1 or No. 2 in each post is a career civil service employee. The Washington Post reports that when Bush administration political appointees go out the door next January, the career employees will provide for continuity of operations on the borders, at airports and in the headquarters.
It will be the first transition for Homeland Security, created after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
And it needs to go smoothly, because the weeks before and after Jan. 20, 2009, may be a period of heightened vulnerability for the country.
Pakistan, Britain and Spain were hit by bombings during national elections. The 1993 World Trade Center bombing came shortly after the start of the Clinton administration.
"It is in the transition period, when people are doing the handoff, that there is a natural degree of confusion, which creates an invitation to people to carry out terrorist attacks or other damaging enterprises," Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff told the department's advisory council.
At the department's request, the council, which includes local and state officials, nonprofit and corporate executives and academics, prepared recommendations for the transition.
The department also has sought transition advice from the nonprofit Council for Excellence in Government and the National Academy of Public Administration.
"We are in excellent condition," Schneider told the Post.
He pointed to career executives such as Jayson Ahern at Customs and Border Protection as the reason for his optimism that the transition will go smoothly.
Creating an effective transition team is one of the Homeland Security Advisory Council's recommendations. It also may be one of the department's biggest challenges, said Donald Kettl, a University of Pennsylvania professor who studied the department's sluggish response to Hurricane Katrina.
"Fast-moving problems require complex and interpersonal relationships that just don't grow up overnight," Kettl says. "Filling the chairs doesn't ensure that the problems get solved."
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