Redundancy Question Returns With Townsend’s Resignation

Redundancy Question Returns With Townsend’s Resignation
By Matthew M. Johnson, CQ Staff

The departure of homeland security adviser Fran Townsend has revived the debate over whether the White House needs a separate Homeland Security Council or if it should be merged with the National Security Council.

Townsend tendered her resignation Monday after more than four years in the White House. She had been homeland security adviser since 2004. While the Bush administration is already moving to find her replacement, homeland security experts said the next president might be better served if the position were eliminated.

“I think that will be a major question for the next administration — whether you have a separate Homeland Security Council and separate National Security Council or not,” said P.J. Crowley, a homeland security expert at the Center for American Progress. “I think that the two are essentially integrated and it doesn’t make sense to have an Iraq policy where you are creating terrorists disconnected from a homeland security policy where you are supposed to be able to defend against them. Certainly there will be someone whose day-to-day job it is to focus on these issues, but I would argue that it should be integrated into the National Security Council.”

David Heyman, a homeland security expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, agreed.

“There has been much debate as to whether the homeland security council and national security council should be merged, and I am a big proponent and advocate of it,” said Heyman. “We should abolish the HSC and it should be subsumed by the National Security Council because homeland security is one element amongst many national security policies. I suspect whether it’s a Democrat or a Republican, we will probably see something across those lines, but probably not until 2009.”

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