About a quarter of senior leadership positions at DHS are vacant, according to a report by the House Homeland Security Committee, which also said that a large number of such jobs that are filled are held by political appointees, raising questions of continuity should an emergency arise during the next presidential transition.
Committee chairman Rep. Bennie G. Thompson, D-Miss., said a lack of leadership is contributing to morale problems at the department, doing "an immeasurable disservice to the hundreds of thousands of men and woman working on the front lines to protect our country."
The committee said that as of May 1, there were vacancies in 138 of 575 "executive resource" positions at DHS, which it defined as presidential appointees without Senate confirmation, presidential appointees with Senate confirmation, SES, senior level and senior scientific/professional appointments.
By component, the vacancies were greatest in the office of the assistant secretary for policy, 11 of 23 vacant, office of general counsel, 9 of 19, assistant secretary for intelligence, 8 of 22, Citizenship and Immigration Services, 16 of 47, FEMA, 24 of 77, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, 19 of 62.
Of the vacant positions, the report said, 44 percent are under recruitment, 5 percent have a tentative or pending appointment and the remainder have no explanation.
