By Emelie Rutherford
President Obama announced yesterday a White House reorganization that combines homeland-security and national-security staff yet rejects calls to completely merge the Homeland Security Council (HSC) and National Security Council (NSC).
Obama unveiled what he dubbed the White House’s “new approach” to counterterrorism and homeland security after he reviewed recommendations from a study he directed in February that evaluated the organization left for him by President Bush.
“These decisions reflect the fundamental truth that the challenges of the 21st Century are increasingly unconventional and transnational, and therefore demand a response that effectively integrates all aspects of American power,” Obama said in a statement announcing the new “White House Organization for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism.”
The president is creating a “National Security Staff,” which will fully integrate White House staff supporting national security and homeland security and fall under the direction of National Security Adviser Jim Jones.
The staff “will support all White House policymaking activities related to international, transnational, and homeland security matters,” Obama said. Melding the two groups, he said, will “end the artificial divide” between them.
Obama, though, stopped short of fully merging the HSC and NSC.
He said he will be “maintaining the Homeland Security Council as the principle venue for interagency deliberations on issues that affect the security of the homeland such as terrorism, weapons of mass destruction, natural disasters, and pandemic influenza.”
The National Security Staff will support the HSC and NSC, he said.
Obama said he plans to retain the position of assistant to the president for homeland security and counterterrorism as his principal White House adviser on such issues, “with direct and immediate access” to the president.
Former Bush administration Department of Homeland Security director Tom Ridge testified against merging HSC and NSC to the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.
“The Department of Homeland Security is still a young, maturing cabinet agency, established just six years ago,” Ridge said in written testimony for a Feb. 12 hearing. “It needs an independent ally and advocate in the White House–a good working relationship with the National Security Adviser, yes–but its own voice, and a voice that will be heard by its chief report, the president.”
Cybersecurity, an area receiving increasing attention in Washington, also is addressed in Obama’s reorganization plan. New directorates and positions will be created within the National Security Staff to handle “new and emerging 21st Century challenges associated with cybersecurity, (weapons of mass destruction) WMD terrorism, transborder security, information sharing, and resilience policy, including preparedness and response,” he said.
Obama also is creating a new Global Engagement Directorate intended to, he said, “drive comprehensive engagement policies that leverage diplomacy, communications, international development and assistance, and domestic engagement and outreach in pursuit of a host of national security objectives.”