White House opposes Senate plan to eliminate senior Pentagon positions

The Obama administration opposes a provision in the Senate Armed Services Committee's version of the fiscal 2010 Defense authorization bill that would redesignate 23 deputy undersecretaries to lower-ranking positions. Six of the deputy undersecretaries would be retitled as assistant secretaries.

The bill (S. 1390) authorizes a total of five deputy undersecretary and 16 assistant secretary positions, all of which would require Senate confirmation. There are currently 28 deputy undersecretaries of Defense, according to Senate staff. Of those, only four require Senate confirmation.

In a policy statement issued Wednesday by the Office of Management and Budget, White House officials said, "The elimination of nonstatutory deputy undersecretary of Defense positions… would be detrimental to the continuity and operation of the department and severely hamper the secretary of Defense's ability to effectively organize, structure and manage the department."

Defense Department spokesman Navy Cmdr. Darryn James said Pentagon officials were still reviewing the legislation and could not comment.

In its report accompanying the bill, the committee said Defense is poorly served by the "proliferation" of deputy undersecretaries. "The department's organizational charts even show multiple layers of [deputy undersecretaries] reporting to each other," the report said.

The provision was not in the House-passed version of the authorization bill.