Overseer: Officials serving illegally
WASHINGTON — President Trump’s top two leaders at the Department of Homeland Security are illegally serving in their positions, with appointments that violated the laws governing who can fill Senateconfirmed positions, according to a report released Friday by the Government Accountability Office.
Chad Wolf, the acting secretary of homeland security, and Ken Cuccinelli, his deputy at the sprawling agency, are serving in violation of the Federal Vacancies Reform Act, which sets specific orders of succession when senior officials resign, according to the GAO, Congress’ nonpartisan watchdog.
The report said the improper appointments began after Kirstjen Nielsen was forced out of office as the department’s secretary in April 2019.
“Because the incorrect official assumed the title of acting secretary at that time, subsequent amendments to the order of succession made by that official were invalid,” the GAO said. The agency said Wolf and Cuccinelli “are serving under an invalid order of succession.”
DHS rejected the finding. “We wholeheartedly disagree with the GAO’s baseless report,” the agency told the Associated Press.
The report by the GAO follows a similar finding in March by a federal judge, who ruled that Cuccinelli’s appointment violated federal law and that two policies he put in place while he served in the position should be nullified.
“Cuccinelli’s appointment fails to comply with the FVRA for a more fundamental and clearcut reason,” the judge,
Randolph Moss of the U.S. District Court in Washington, said in his ruling.
The GAO does not have the ability to enforce its findings on the Trump administration, which has repeatedly defended its appointments of Wolf and Cuccinelli. In a statement, the GAO said it is referring the issue to the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general and to Congress, which could attempt to force their removals.
The Vacancies Reform Act requires that only certain officials within a department’s existing chain of command can be tapped as “acting” leaders while a president seeks Senate confirmation of a permanent replacement.