Lawmaker to DHS: Don’t give appointees career status

Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., has asked Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff to issue a directive banning the conversion of the department's political jobs into career positions.

"I am sure that you would agree that it would be inappropriate to fill career nonpolitical executive level positions with political appointees absent an open and fully competitive process," wrote Thompson, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, in a letter to Chertoff.

Chertoff told the Wall Street Journal in mid-January that the department would be doing "something unusual from a historical standpoint" by ensuring that there would be no gaps in operational continuity. At that time, the Homeland Security Advisory Council urged DHS to move career employees into senior positions currently held by political appointees. The Journal reported that such moves were part of Chertoff's strategy. One high-profile example was the appointment of Gale Rossides as deputy administrator of the Transportation Security Administration, a position previously held by political appointees.

But Thompson said he'd read media reports suggesting that the department was simply converting the status of political appointees to that of career civil servants, rather than promoting current career employees to senior positions.

"While I understand that some could argue that these individuals may be well-qualified and can provide continuity during a transition period, others could well argue that to permit political appointees to occupy nonpolitical positions could be viewed by some as an attempt to insulate political appointees from the vagaries of the political appointment system and provide an internal obstruction to the policies of a new administration," Thompson wrote. "Clearly, the latter interpretation is deeply troubling."

Thompson has long expressed concerns about Homeland Security's ability to weather administration changes, given the department's large number of political appointees and vacancies.

He reiterated those concerns in the letter to Chertoff, as well as a request for a transition planning to-do list. "This exodus is likely to have a major impact on the day-to-day operations of the department due to the department's disproportionately large number of political appointees," Thompson wrote.