Senators seek to eliminate 23 senior Pentagon positions
Lawmakers decry 'proliferation' of deputy undersecretaries, say positions should be redesignated with other titles.
Members of the Senate Armed Services Committee want to streamline the Pentagon's organization chart by eliminating all but five of 28 deputy undersecretary of Defense positions there. Six new assistant secretary positions would be created to fill jobs now held by deputy undersecretaries.
The new management structure is spelled out in the Senate's version of the 2010 Defense authorization bill (S. 1390). All five undersecretaries and six assistant secretaries authorized by the law would require Senate confirmation.
Among the deputy undersecretary positions that would be eliminated are those for civilian personnel policy; equal opportunity; military community and family policy; military personnel policy; program integration; and science and technology. Those are among the "major elements" of the Office of the Secretary of Defense noted on the department's Web site.
"We expect the positions to be redesignated, not eliminated," said a committee staffer. "The jobs are perfectly appropriate; it is only the titles that are inappropriate."
It's not clear from organizational information provided on the Web site and in Defense reference materials what the other deputy undersecretary positions are, or whether political appointees occupy all of the positions to be eliminated or if some are held by career civil servants.
Cmdr. Darryn James, a Pentagon spokesman, said Defense officials were reviewing the legislation but were unable to comment on its implications for the department or the individuals whose jobs would be affected.
In a report accompanying the bill, the committee noted that only four of the current deputy undersecretary positions now require Senate confirmation, and only two serve as first assistants to their respective undersecretaries. The remaining deputy undersecretaries serve in Tier 2 or Tier 3 of the Senior Executive Service.
"The [Defense] Department's organizational charts even show multiple layers of [deputy undersecretaries] reporting to each other," the committee report said.
"The committee does not believe that the department is well served by the proliferation of the [deputy undersecretary] positions or by inconsistency in the reporting relationships, pay, precedence and succession among personnel occupying such positions," the report said.
The five deputy undersecretary jobs authorized in the bill all would be principal positions, meaning they are to be the first assistant to their respective undersecretaries. The positions are:
- Principal Deputy Under Secretary for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics
- Principal Deputy Under Secretary for Policy
- Principal Deputy Under Secretary for Personnel and Readiness
- Principal Deputy Under Secretary (Comptroller)
- Principal Deputy Under Secretary for Intelligence
- Assistant Secretary for Acquisition
- Assistant Secretary for Logistics and Materiel Readiness
- Assistant Secretary for Installations and Environment
- Assistant Secretary for Manufacturing and Industrial Base
- Assistant Secretary for Readiness
- Assistant Secretary for Strategy, Plans and Forces
The White House on Monday is expected to issue statement of its position on the bill.