By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com
Homeland Security has been without a head of Homeland Security for more than two months after President Trump made John Kelly his chief of staff.
The delay of replacing Kelly with a new head of Homeland Security could leave the agency without a leader of the agency for longer than any period in history, the Washington Post reports.
Asked about a timeline for Kelly’s replacement, Trump said on Sept. 29 that “we’ll be making that decision probably within a month.”
The Post wrote:
With 240,000 employees, a $40 billion budget and a mile-wide organizational chart, the DHS is managing multiple threats, crises and disasters, both natural and man-made. While leading the recovery efforts after three major hurricanes, the department is also busy policing America’s borders, airports and seas; implementing Trump’s controversial immigration policies; and guarding the country’s electoral system and infrastructure from unprecedented hacking attempts, among other tasks.
Acting secretary Elaine Duke has been in the role since July 31, but she does not have a background in emergency management, counterterrorism or law enforcement. Though she has earned mostly praise for her stewardship of the agency during a difficult stretch, she is not considered a candidate for the secretary job, according to several administration officials with knowledge of the search.
