White House plans to name Chad Wolf acting DHS secretary
WHITE HOUSE
White House plans to name Chad Wolf acting DHS secretary
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Department of Homeland Security Under Secretary Chad Wolf. | Alex Brandon/AP Photo
By DANIEL LIPPMAN, IAN KULLGREN and ANITA KUMAR
10/31/2019 05:33 PM EDT
Updated: 10/31/2019 08:18 PM EDT
The White House plans to name Homeland Security official Chad Wolf acting secretary, according to three people familiar with the situation.
Wolf will replace acting DHS Secretary Kevin McAleenan, whose last day in the job was supposed to be Thursday. McAleenan will now stay until Nov. 7, according to one of the people with knowledge of the matter.
President Donald Trump called Wolf a few days ago and told him to expect to be appointed, a person familiar with the plan told POLITICO. Two other officials said that the White House has been speaking to reluctant GOP senators — including Sens. Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) — and asking them not to oppose Wolf’s appointment to be undersecretary of the department.
The search has been complicated by a federal law that requires acting agency chiefs to have served under a Senate-confirmed secretary for 90 days. Grassley said this week there is no legal way to name someone acting DHS secretary if that person hasn't been confirmed in any capacity by the Senate. Wolf has not been confirmed in his present position as undersecretary for policy.
White House officials also told senators they are considering nominating Customs and Border Protection chief Mark Morgan to hold the position permanently but that a final decision has not been reached. The White House had considered nominating acting Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Ken Cuccinelli for the job, but learned that 20 senators opposed him, dooming his nomination, according to a person involved in the discussions.
Wolf has received some opposition from lawmakers because he was a registered lobbyist for the National Association of Software and Service Companies, which represents Indian and U.S. companies that aim to keep the H-1B visa program for foreign workers with exceptional or unusual skills.
Several people within the administration and in ideologically aligned groups expressed concern that Wolf would not be tough enough on immigration to satisfy Trump. Privately, they worry that Wolf will end up clashing with Trump in the same was his predecessors did, creating more dysfunction within the beleaguered agency.
The White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment. McAleenan offered earlier this week to remain in the acting job for another week if the White House did not name a successor before his departure. A DHS spokesperson said McAleenan is “very adamant” about ensuring a smooth transition.
“This is an outstanding pick by the President,” said a senior administration official. “Chad is uniquely qualified to lead the Department and he’s widely respected within DHS and the interagency community for his experience and vision.”
https://www.politico.com/news/2019/1...cretary-063363
Trump says Chad Wolf will be next acting DHS secretary
15 min ago
By Vandana Rambaran | Fox News
President Trump said Friday that longtime Department of Homeland Security (DHS) official Chad Wolf would be the new acting head of Homeland Security, the fifth person to hold the job in Trump's administration.
Trump casually announced the appointment in response to a reporter's question as he departed the White House for a campaign rally in Mississippi: “He’s acting, and we’ll see what happens,” he said, not confirming whether Wolf would be nominated for the job permanently.
White House spokesman Hogan Gidley later clarified that the current acting DHS secretary, Kevin McAleenan, would remain on the job until Veterans Day, Nov. 11.
"As the president has said, Kevin McAleenan has done a tremendous job," Gidley told reporters. "He'll be leaving after Veterans' Day and after he departs, Chad Wolf will serve as acting secretary in the interim."
Wolf, a onetime chief of staff to former DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, has been involved with the 240,000-person department off and on since its creation following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. He left the role as Nielsen's chief of staff to take on another role within Homeland Security before she resigned in April.
In February, Trump nominated Wolf to be the department's first under secretary of the department's Office of Strategy, Policy and Plans. That nomination has not been yet confirmed by the Senate.
Trump has struggled to find a replacement for McAleenan, whose last day was supposed to be Oct. 31. Federal vacancy rules placing restrictions on who can fill the position had been thought to bar immigration hardliner Ken Cuccinelli, currently the acting head of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, and Mark Morgan, the current acting commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, from taking the job.
The Federal Vacancies Reform Act of 1998 stipulates that candidates who succeed an acting DHS chief must have Senate approval, have worked under the previous secretary or are the next in line of succession.
The New York Times reports that the White House has been exploring a possible loophole under which Trump's top pick could be made the assistant secretary of the Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction Office and then bumped up to DHS a short time later, a risky strategy sure to face legal pushback from Congress.
Wolf is also expected to face an uphill battle receiving confirmation from the Senate because of his similar stances on immigration to his former supervisor Nielsen.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/tru...-dhs-secretary
