Obama asks for review of White House homeland security coordination

The White House is replacing Homeland Security Presidential Directives with Presidential Study Directives, and President Barack Obama issued the first PSD Feb. 23 requiring the Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism to lead an interagency review of how the White House is organized on these issues.

The Federation of American Scientists first obtained the memo.

The President asked the interagency team to review four main areas:

• Strengthening interagency coordination of homeland security and counterterrorism polices;
• Ensuring seamless integration of international and domestic efforts to fight transnational threats;
• Ensuring seamless capability within the White House to coordinate the federal response to any national security incident;
• Retaining in the White House the ability to coordinate federal, state and local efforts to respond to natural disasters.

The President gave the team 60 days to complete the review and report back to him. In the memo, President Obama says the study group should consider many of the previous recommendations and findings.

"I believe homeland security is indistinguishable from national security - conceptually and functionally, they should be thought of together rather than separately," President Obama writes. "Instead of separating these issues, we must create an integrated, effective and efficient approach to enhance the national security of the United States. The White House must be organized in ways that reflect this reality."

The memo comes after the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs held a hearing Feb. 12 looking at the structure of the White House's national security and homeland security offices.

During the hearing, Frances Fragos Townsend, the former assistant to President George W. Bush for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism, told the committee that any change in structure must have a single person responsible for both homeland and national security. This person must have direct access to the President and the person's staff must have a variety of experience at the federal, state and local levels and with emergency response.

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On the Web:

FederalNewsRadio - Merging two White House Councils

Federation of American Scientists - White House PSD-1 memo (pdf)

Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs - Hearing on White House national security structure (Video)

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