Management chief to fill in as DHS deputy secretary

President Bush on Thursday tapped the Homeland Security Department's management chief to act as deputy secretary after Michael Jackson vacates the job next week.

Paul Schneider, a former acquisition executive at the National Security Agency, has been Homeland Security's undersecretary for management since January. He will assume the acting position when Jackson departs Oct. 26.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff issued a statement saying he was "enormously pleased" by the selection of Schneider.

"Paul has exhibited tremendous leadership and dedication as the undersecretary for management," Chertoff said. "He has the respect and admiration of staff and my full support."

Leslie Phillips, spokeswoman for Sen. Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said, "Senator Lieberman believes Undersecretary Schneider is perfectly capable of performing the job he was named to and hopes the president will name a candidate as quickly as possible to fill the job permanently so the committee can take up the nomination."

As undersecretary for management, Schneider oversees the agency's line of business chiefs in financial management, information technology, human capital and acquisition. That experience will serve him well as he assumes the deputy secretary position, which Chertoff described as "chief operating officer with responsibility for managing day-to-day operations of the department."

In testimony before the House Homeland Security Committee last month about management challenges at DHS, Schneider said, "Without question, the most significant challenge we face at DHS is to continue to transform the department into a unified force that protects our country."

But Schneider took issue with a recent Government Accountability Office assessment (GAO-07-454) of the agency's progress over the last four years, in which GAO found Homeland Security had "generally achieved" only 78 out of 171 performance expectations.

"The GAO report treats all of the performance expectations as if they were of equal significance," Schneider said. While all of the measures are important, "they are not of the same priority when it comes to securing the nation's homeland," he said.

Jackson announced late last month that he was leaving for financial reasons. His departure has exacerbated concerns in Congress that high turnover of senior personnel at Homeland Security is jeopardizing operations.

Through a spokesman, Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said, "We look forward to working with Mr. Schneider to address many of the unresolved problems at the department, particularly the level of critical vacancies." In July, Thompson's committee released a report concluding that 24 percent of top positions at the agency were vacant.