Bill makes DHS secretary eligible for presidential succession

The House Government Reform Committee last week approved a bill that would officially make the Homeland Security Department an executive agency, rendering its secretary eligible to succeed the president.

The bill (H.R. 1455) sponsored by Committee Chairman Tom Davis, R-Va., cleared the panel on voice vote, with little discussion. Since the bill changes policy, but does not authorize appropriations, there is no cost associated with it, a committee aide said.

The bill would make the department subject to the same laws governing contracting and training that apply to the rest of the federal government. This is only a technical change to current law, a committee aide explained. Since its inception, the department has been operating under the assumption that is an "executive department" and already complies with those regulations, he said.

The legislation would also place the secretary of Homeland Security eighth in line to succeed the president in the event of an assassination, impeachment or other emergency, putting him or her behind the vice president, speaker of the House, Senate president pro tempore, secretary of State, secretary of Treasury, secretary of Defense and attorney general, and ahead of the secretary of Interior and the rest of the cabinet officers.

Ranking member Henry Waxman, D-Calif., who supported the bill at markup, noted that, in the past, the heads of new agencies were placed at the end of the line of succession, rather than somewhere in the middle. He said that his vote in the favor of the legislation was "not necessarily an endorsement of the line of succession."

A spokesman for Davis defended the decision saying, "We feel that placing Secretary of Homeland Secretary toward the top of the presidential succession list accurately reflects the expertise needed to take over the reins in the event that a national emergency wiped out the federal government's senior leadership."

The legislation is expected to be approved on the floor of the House, a committee aide said.