President Trump announced Friday the appointment of Chad Wolf to acting secretary for the Department of Homeland Security, marking the organization’s fifth leader since he took office in 2017.
Wolf was nominated to under secretary at the department’s Office of Strategy, Policy, and Plans but has yet to be confirmed. Trump, to reporters before a campaign rally in Mississippi, said Wolf will be acting for the time being.
“He’s right now acting and we’ll see what happens,” Trump said. “We have great people in there.“
Wolf previously worked as the chief of staff to former DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen. Nielsen herself worked as chief of staff to Trump’s first DHS secretary, John Kelly.
The last person atop the 240,000-person department was Kevin McAleenan, who resigned and was supposed to see his last day in the administration on Thursday. However, McAleenan vowed to extend his stay until Nov. 7, and DHS spokesperson indicated that he is still in charge soon after Trump’s announcement.
“McAleenan is the acting secretary,” the spokesperson said in a statement to the press pool. “Wolf is the acting undersecretary for policy.“
White House spokesperson Hogan Gidley later clarified, “As the president has said, Kevin McAleenan has done a tremendous job. He’ll be leaving after Veterans’ Day and after he departs, Chad Wolf will serve as acting secretary in the interim.” The Washington Examiner has reached out to DHS for confirmation of Gidley’s comment.
Trump had been in favor of moving acting United States Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Ken Cuccinelli or acting U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Mark Morgan into the job but was warned by his legal team against doing so because of issues with the Federal Vacancies Reform Act since both were already in acting capacities and likely could not get confirmed, according to several senior administration officials and top Senate Republican aides.
Under the Federal Vacancies Reform Act of 1998, acting secretaries can only stand in for 210 days. McAleenan was at 204 days as of what was initially supposed to be his final day in office Thursday.
The Trump administration had until Wednesday, Nov. 6, to pick a a permanent leader, Stanford Law professor Anne Joseph-O’Connell explained to the Washington Examiner. If a nomination is not made by Nov. 6, DHS will be bound to promote the next-in-line to carry out the secretary’s duties. The next in line official would not have a cap on how long they can temporarily hold down the office.
Wolf is not the next person in line and has a few officials above him, according to the 2016 succession list.
The last list has the deputy secretary, the under secretary for management, and the administrator of Federal Emergency Management Agency as successors. However, all three positions have acting officials in them, and Justice Department rules forbid an acting official from stepping into a new acting role.
The next in line is the under secretary for National Protection and Programs, an office that was wrapped up into the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. CISA Director Christopher Krebs is Senate-confirmed and a legally acceptable option, Joseph-O’Connell noted.
“There are, however, presumably constitutional limits to having an inferior officer serving indefinitely in a principal office. But the courts have not figured out those limit,” Joseph-O’Connell said.
