WASHINGTON -- Of the 75 senior positions at the Department of Homeland Security, 20 are either vacant or filled by acting officials, including Chad Wolf, the acting secretary who recently was unable to tell a Senate committee how many respirators and protective face masks were available in the United States.
The National Park Service, which like many federal agencies is full of vacancies in key posts, tried this week to fill the job of a director for the national capital region after hordes of visitors flocked to see the cherry blossoms near the National Mall, creating a potential public health hazard as the coronavirus continues to spread.
At the Department of Veterans Affairs, workers are trying to order medical supplies on Amazon.
Some 80% of the senior positions in the White House below the Cabinet level have turned over during President Donald Trump's administration, with about 500 people having departed since the inauguration. Trump is on his fourth chief of staff, his fourth national security adviser and his fifth secretary of the Department of Homeland Security.
[CORONAVIRUS: Click here for our complete coverage » arkansasonline.com/coronavirus]
Between Trump's history of firing people and the choice by many career officials and political appointees to leave, he now finds himself with a government riddled with vacancies, acting department chiefs and, in some cases, leaders whose professional backgrounds do not easily match up to the task of managing a pandemic.
"Right now for the life of me, I don't know who speaks for DHS," said Janet Napolitano, a secretary of Homeland Security under former President Barack Obama. "Having nonacting leadership, and I think having consistency in your leadership team and the accumulation of experience, really matters. And I think it would be fair to say the current administration hasn't sustained that."
One example is the Department of Veterans Affairs, which is legally meant to back up the nation's health care system in an emergency. On Thursday, the Office of Inspector General at the department released a report detailing red flags in its preparedness for the crisis.
The secretary, Robert Wilkie, has no experience in emergency management, and he has been largely absent from pandemic public briefings with senior officials. "Secretary Wilkie has attended 20 coronavirus task force meetings since he joined the task force on March 3," said Christina Mandreucci, a spokeswoman for the department. Wilkie recently fired his second in command, who had worked in past disasters, and his head of emergency preparedness retired.
One case came with eliminating a directorate at the White House's National Security Council that was responsible for pandemic preparations. In 2018, John Bolton, then Trump's national security adviser, ousted Thomas Bossert, Trump's homeland security adviser and longtime disaster expert. The directorate was folded into an office dedicated to weapons of mass destruction.
Equally notable may have been the resignation last year of Scott Gottlieb, commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, who was an early advocate for broad coronavirus testing and stronger mitigation policies. He was succeeded by Dr. Stephen Hahn, a noted oncologist. Many members of Gottlieb's team departed with him.
The Department of Homeland Security, the agency tasked with screening at airports and carrying out the travel restrictions that were Trump's first major action to combat the coronavirus, is full of vacancies.
Wolf is the acting Homeland Security secretary, and Kenneth Cuccinelli, a representative on the coronavirus task force, is the department's acting deputy secretary. The deputy administrators of the Transportation Security Administration and Federal Emergency Management Agency also serve in acting capacities.
Wolf is familiar with airport security operations. He was part of the team that established the Transportation Security Administration and later served as the agency's chief of staff. But the introduction of Trump's travel restrictions this month against European countries struggling with the pandemic exemplified the erratic structure at the top of the department and the agencies it oversees, said Gil Kerlikowske, a former commissioner of Customs and Border Protection.
Kerlikowske said relationships with executives at airlines and at the airports were imperative.
"The lack of experience and knowledge is kind of telling," he said.
A spokeswoman for Homeland Security, Sofia Boza-Holman, said such criticism of the department was unwarranted. "That's absolutely absurd," she said. "DHS' leaders have been at the forefront in helping contain the covid-19 crisis. Thanks to President Trump's leadership, DHS has been able to respond wherever and whenever needed."
A Section on 03/28/2020