bobdina
08-14-2009, 01:26 PM
Seven months into the Obama administration, key senior U.S. Defense Department jobs remain vacant even as the Pentagon reshapes its strategic focus and molds the 2011 spending plan.
Nineteen top positions at the Pentagon are vacant, leading to some criticism of the Obama administration for the slow pace of filling those jobs. (AFP)
Of 47 Pentagon posts that require Senate confirmation, eight are filled by holdovers appointed by former President George W. Bush. The Obama administration has filled an additional 20. That leaves 19 vacant positions scattered across the Office of the Secretary of Defense and the three military departments.
After winning the election, Obama transition officials talked of quickly populating Pentagon and service jobs. Defense experts say the administration is behind schedule, thanks to vetting miscues, an unplanned appointment and stringent new ethics rules.
"This is only the beginning of the budget process," said Dov Zakheim, Pentagon comptroller under Bush and now an executive at Booz Allen Hamilton. "But the kinds of people in OSD's personnel and readiness and acquisition shops, as well as some important roles within the services, are not going to be involved. So the people you would expect to make the most forceful cases [about budget decisions] simply won't be around."
"This is very worrisome," said Zakheim, also a Defense Business Board member. "The secretary [Robert Gates] has a problem."
Jacques Gansler, a former Defense Department acquisition chief, said filling the jobs "certainly has gone slower than I expected, especially considering the acquisition and service vacancies at a time when the country is fighting two wars and with the budget issues the Pentagon is facing."
Empty Seats in Readiness Office
Defense experts said the most eyebrow-raising openings were the lack of service acquisition chiefs and comptrollers and various slots in the OSD personnel and readiness shop.
They include the undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness, the principal deputy in that office, and the assistant secretary for health affairs. Several former defense officials who worked under Republican and Democratic administrations said those posts should have been filled months ago. Military health care costs are growing, they said, and the Pentagon is beginning to address the costs of adding nearly 115,000 troops since 2007.
Meanwhile, the Air Force is without a confirmed undersecretary or an acquisition executive. But the air service is still better off than the Army and Navy, which also lack a Senate-approved comptroller.
The Army's upper echelon is particularly empty, with no undersecretary or acquisition executive or assistant secretaries for civil works, installations and environment. The Navy lacks a comptroller and an assistant secretary for manpower and reserve affairs.
In the meantime, many of the jobs are being performed by acting secretaries, many of whom are career civil servants, who will return to their former roles when the White House's picks are confirmed.
The administration spent several months finding a Pentagon acquisition chief. After Ashton Carter was tapped, several months passed before Frank Kendall was tapped to be Carter's top deputy. The nomination was made on the eve of Congress' August recess.
OSD's acquisition shop is without a deputy undersecretary for logistics and materiel readiness, and a director for defense research and engineering.
"Acquisition leaders, particularly the services acquisition executives, are not making strategic decisions," so their impact has likely not hindered 2010 QDR work, Gansler said.
"But those are the people who do things like write acquisition strategies and handle contracts," he said. "I'm a little worried that we're almost a year into this administration and these kinds of jobs are not filled."
Those on the Cusp
Seven of the vacant posts have nominees waiting for approval, such as Michael Gilmore for the director of operational test and evaluation.
The post of Army secretary is currently filled by Bush appointee Pete Geren, who is sticking around until Obama's pick, former Rep. John McHugh, R-N.Y., is confirmed.
Like McHugh, some of these picks have even appeared before the Senate Armed Services Committee for confirmation hearings. But with Congress on its annual August recess, not one will report for work until at least mid-September, defense observers say. For most of those eight, the administration will be lucky to get them through the Senate process by year's end, these observers predict.
Zakheim called the situation "a commentary on a confirmation system that has gotten totally out of control."
Steve Grundman, a former Pentagon industrial affairs chief and currently an aerospace and defense consultant at Charles River Associates in Boston, said the 19 remaining vacancies in mid-August would concern him if the Pentagon was about to drastically reshape its plans. "But I don't think we're at that kind of major inflection point," he said.
Yet Grundman said not having officials at the levels of undersecretary, deputy undersecretary and below could hinder the implementation of decisions and policies. "For any administration, the transmission belt usually slips in the implementation phase."
Others criticized the administration.
"The hidden message in the Pentagon personnel data is that this White House really doesn't care much about defense," said Loren Thompson of the Lexington Institute. "The picture I get from all this is that President Obama's main security goal is just to keep defense off the front page. As long as the Pentagon doesn't present him with any political problems, he's content to focus on his domestic agenda and let military matters drift."
Mackenzie Eaglen of the Heritage Foundation said, "the number of vacancies is surprising … especially when you consider that the Pentagon started vetting candidates with both [presidential] campaigns last year."
Citing "this White House's lack of experience running large organizations," she gave the administration a D grade. Eaglen added, "And that equates to a failing grade when the subject is national security."
http://www.defensenews.com/story.php?i=4235795&c=AME&s=TOP
Nineteen top positions at the Pentagon are vacant, leading to some criticism of the Obama administration for the slow pace of filling those jobs. (AFP)
Of 47 Pentagon posts that require Senate confirmation, eight are filled by holdovers appointed by former President George W. Bush. The Obama administration has filled an additional 20. That leaves 19 vacant positions scattered across the Office of the Secretary of Defense and the three military departments.
After winning the election, Obama transition officials talked of quickly populating Pentagon and service jobs. Defense experts say the administration is behind schedule, thanks to vetting miscues, an unplanned appointment and stringent new ethics rules.
"This is only the beginning of the budget process," said Dov Zakheim, Pentagon comptroller under Bush and now an executive at Booz Allen Hamilton. "But the kinds of people in OSD's personnel and readiness and acquisition shops, as well as some important roles within the services, are not going to be involved. So the people you would expect to make the most forceful cases [about budget decisions] simply won't be around."
"This is very worrisome," said Zakheim, also a Defense Business Board member. "The secretary [Robert Gates] has a problem."
Jacques Gansler, a former Defense Department acquisition chief, said filling the jobs "certainly has gone slower than I expected, especially considering the acquisition and service vacancies at a time when the country is fighting two wars and with the budget issues the Pentagon is facing."
Empty Seats in Readiness Office
Defense experts said the most eyebrow-raising openings were the lack of service acquisition chiefs and comptrollers and various slots in the OSD personnel and readiness shop.
They include the undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness, the principal deputy in that office, and the assistant secretary for health affairs. Several former defense officials who worked under Republican and Democratic administrations said those posts should have been filled months ago. Military health care costs are growing, they said, and the Pentagon is beginning to address the costs of adding nearly 115,000 troops since 2007.
Meanwhile, the Air Force is without a confirmed undersecretary or an acquisition executive. But the air service is still better off than the Army and Navy, which also lack a Senate-approved comptroller.
The Army's upper echelon is particularly empty, with no undersecretary or acquisition executive or assistant secretaries for civil works, installations and environment. The Navy lacks a comptroller and an assistant secretary for manpower and reserve affairs.
In the meantime, many of the jobs are being performed by acting secretaries, many of whom are career civil servants, who will return to their former roles when the White House's picks are confirmed.
The administration spent several months finding a Pentagon acquisition chief. After Ashton Carter was tapped, several months passed before Frank Kendall was tapped to be Carter's top deputy. The nomination was made on the eve of Congress' August recess.
OSD's acquisition shop is without a deputy undersecretary for logistics and materiel readiness, and a director for defense research and engineering.
"Acquisition leaders, particularly the services acquisition executives, are not making strategic decisions," so their impact has likely not hindered 2010 QDR work, Gansler said.
"But those are the people who do things like write acquisition strategies and handle contracts," he said. "I'm a little worried that we're almost a year into this administration and these kinds of jobs are not filled."
Those on the Cusp
Seven of the vacant posts have nominees waiting for approval, such as Michael Gilmore for the director of operational test and evaluation.
The post of Army secretary is currently filled by Bush appointee Pete Geren, who is sticking around until Obama's pick, former Rep. John McHugh, R-N.Y., is confirmed.
Like McHugh, some of these picks have even appeared before the Senate Armed Services Committee for confirmation hearings. But with Congress on its annual August recess, not one will report for work until at least mid-September, defense observers say. For most of those eight, the administration will be lucky to get them through the Senate process by year's end, these observers predict.
Zakheim called the situation "a commentary on a confirmation system that has gotten totally out of control."
Steve Grundman, a former Pentagon industrial affairs chief and currently an aerospace and defense consultant at Charles River Associates in Boston, said the 19 remaining vacancies in mid-August would concern him if the Pentagon was about to drastically reshape its plans. "But I don't think we're at that kind of major inflection point," he said.
Yet Grundman said not having officials at the levels of undersecretary, deputy undersecretary and below could hinder the implementation of decisions and policies. "For any administration, the transmission belt usually slips in the implementation phase."
Others criticized the administration.
"The hidden message in the Pentagon personnel data is that this White House really doesn't care much about defense," said Loren Thompson of the Lexington Institute. "The picture I get from all this is that President Obama's main security goal is just to keep defense off the front page. As long as the Pentagon doesn't present him with any political problems, he's content to focus on his domestic agenda and let military matters drift."
Mackenzie Eaglen of the Heritage Foundation said, "the number of vacancies is surprising … especially when you consider that the Pentagon started vetting candidates with both [presidential] campaigns last year."
Citing "this White House's lack of experience running large organizations," she gave the administration a D grade. Eaglen added, "And that equates to a failing grade when the subject is national security."
http://www.defensenews.com/story.php?i=4235795&c=AME&s=TOP