DHS Lags in Preparations for Transition of Power, Study Says

A new study suggests the Department of Homeland Security is moving too slowly to prepare for the risks that will accompany the upcoming presidential transition, particularly since it is the first transition of power since the department was formed.

In an article in the Washington Post, Spencer S. Hsu says the 118-page report by the National Academy of Public Administration was funded by Congress and DHS. It found that the DHS’s “plan to train scores of key career officials, temporarily fill the posts of 26 departing political appointees and complete a transition plan are insufficient or should be accelerated,” Hsu adds.

The report urged the presumptive presidential nominees, Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama, to move more quickly than previous candidates to submit the names of top aides for security clearances in order to ensure that they are ready to handle a national security crisis upon taking office.

“For a first-ever presidential transition in an era of terrorism, we need to think and act nontraditionally,” the academy’s president, Jennifer L. Dorn, told Hsu. She warned that if there was a 9/11-style incident or other crisis after Inauguration Day, Jan. 20, an untested team of presidential advisers and unfamiliar career officials would have to make instant decisions.

“The question is, will there be trust and confidence in the judgment of career personnel who come rushing in to the White House to say, ‘Mr. President, we recommend shutting down the nation's air traffic control system?’” Dorn told Hsu.

Hsu says terrorists may seek to exploit the transfer of power especially since the first World Trade Center attack in 1993 took place five weeks after President Bill Clinton took office, and the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks took place eight months after President Bush took office.