Watchdog: Top 2 DHS officials are not legally eligible to serve

WASHINGTON — The top two officials at the Department of Homeland Security are serving unlawfully in their roles, the Government Accountability Office said Friday, dealing a rebuke to President Donald Trump’s affinity for filling senior executive roles in his administration with “acting” leaders who lack Senate confirmation.

The GAO, an independent watchdog agency that reports to Congress, said Chad Wolf, the acting secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, and Ken Cuccinelli, the acting deputy, are serving in an invalid order of succession under the Vacancies Reform Act.

Democrats in Congress called on the two men to resign, but DHS officials rejected the findings as “baseless.”

Trump has repeatedly circumvented the Senate confirmation process by installing appointees to interim positions, and then has left them in those roles indefinitely without a formal nomination or the backing of Congress.

Cuccinelli’s formal job title — senior official performing the duties of the deputy secretary — is among the most strained in the administration. The DHS leadership chart also shows him occupying the acting director role at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, a job he has had for more than a year without a nomination.

According to the GAO, Trump’s installation of Wolf and Cuccinelli violated the law because of the sequence of events following the resignation of DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen in April 2019. The official who assumed the title of acting secretary at that time, Kevin McAleenan, had not been designated in the order of succession, the GAO said.

Subsequent personnel moves were also therefore illegitimate, and Wolf and Cuccinelli “are serving under an invalid order of succession,” the agency found. The GAO said that it was referring the matter to the DHS inspector general for review and that any further actions would be up to Congress and the Inspector General’s Office.