The Department of Homeland Security has lacked a Senate-confirmed management chief for almost five years despite organizational problems that have vexed the agency since its creation.
DHS is relying on an acting official in the role of under secretary for management, entrusting him with key decisions about budgets, acquisition plans, facilities, and personnel. The White House withdrew President Joe Biden’s nominee for the job last year and hasn’t selected anyone new.
The absence of a presidential appointee is not uncommon in federal agencies. But, it undermines DHS’s ability to tackle mounting workforce challenges and advance the administration’s agenda, several homeland security professionals said — even as they credited agency veteran Randolph “Tex” Alles with having a steady hand while performing the duties of under secretary.
“You have political leaders in positions in agencies for a reason, and that’s to provide strategic leadership,” said Monument Advocacy lobbyist Andrew Howell, who works on cybersecurity and other DHS issues.
The Biden administration’s recent artificial intelligence order, for example, requires the department to rapidly hire hard-to-recruit AI experts and train current employees, an initiative that demands a deep understanding of legal authorities, human resources, and budgets. “All of those functions are essential management functions,” Howell said.
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That’s just one example. DHS’s management chief is also charged with overseeing agency budgets, procurement, IT systems, and facilities — areas that are especially complex in a sprawling department made up of agencies and offices rammed together after the 9/11 attacks.
High-Risk Agency
The senior management role stands out among DHS vacancies for being both critical to agency-wide operations and unlikely to spur the kind of hostile Senate confirmation battle common with other DHS positions, such as unfilled posts atop Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection.
DHS is one of the largest but youngest Cabinet agencies, factors that contribute to persistent problems within the under secretary’s purview: wasteful spending, competing demands, low worker morale, and ineffective communication between components.
“The hardest part about the under secretary for management’s job at DHS is just having to manage across so many different missions,” said Chris Currie, a director on the Government Accountability Office’s homeland security and justice team.
DHS’s acquisition programs, overseen by the management under secretary, spent more than a decade on GAO’s “high risk list” of programs and operations vulnerable to fraud and waste or in need of an overhaul. They were finally removed earlier this year, but the department’s IT systems and financial management, also overseen by the undersecretary, are still on the list.
The benefit of a political appointee, Currie said, is that they can approach DHS problems with a fresh perspective unburdened by the potential biases of those more enmeshed in the bureaucracy.
“How would you implement change if somebody that’s been there for 30 years has a certain perspective on it?” he said.
Acting Power
The management chief is the third-ranking official within DHS, charged with leading the department if both the secretary and deputy secretary are sidelined. The agency has an acting official in the deputy slot now, too, meaning two of the top three roles lack Senate-confirmed appointees.
DHS insiders credit acting management chief Alles for bringing deep agency experience to bear while tackling long-running challenges in the department. The Marine Corps veteran was Secret Service director and a top-ranking CBP official before moving to the management office.
But, acting officials inherently face disadvantages in exerting power within DHS, particularly when there are disputes with the leaders of other parts of the agency, said Chris Cummiskey, a former DHS official who spent a year as acting management under secretary.
Acting officials also often have to wear multiple hats while taking on big responsibilities, said former DHS official Patricia Cogswell, who was acting head of DHS’s intelligence branch.
“All of that gets hampered if you’re having leadership changes or insufficient leadership to keep the trains moving,” said Cogswell, now at the consulting firm Guidehouse.
DHS declined to make Alles available for an interview for this story but provided a list of the management office’s recent accomplishments, including shepherding a new pay system for the Transportation Security Administration and overhauling the Coast Guard’s financial system.
Congressional Oversight
Members of Congress have complained about DHS’s reliance on acting officials across many administrations, coming to a head amid a rotating cast of leaders during President Donald Trump’s administration. The last Senate-confirmed DHS under secretary for management was Trump appointee Claire Grady from 2017 to 2019, but she spent her whole tenure also serving as acting deputy secretary.
Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Chairman Gary Peters (D-Mich.) said he’s pushing the Biden administration to fill all the current vacancies in DHS posts, including the management role.
House Homeland Security Chairman Mark Green (R-Tenn.) agreed the management vacancy is a problem and noted that under secretary roles are particularly critical at DHS, with its relatively slim leadership team compared to other big agencies.
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But the window for an appointment is rapidly closing, with just a year left in Biden’s term and questions about whether the White House and the Senate should spend their time pushing agency nominations when they have judges, military promotions, and government funding bills to advance. The White House didn’t respond to questions about the vacancy.
The result is less political accountability for DHS’s management decisions, said Jefferson Business Consulting vice president Bradley Saull, a former GOP House committee aide. When acting officials go before Congress, they often face questions about decisions beyond their control and above their pay grade, he said.
“If you have people that were put there by the president and the Senate,” he said, “you can hold them accountable for the decisions that were made.”
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