Defense Secretary dismisses hundreds of members of Pentagon advisory boards including late Trump picks
Retired
general Lloyd Austin speaks after being nominated by US President-elect
Joe Biden to be US Defense Secretary, at The Queen Theater in
Wilmington, Delaware on December 9, 2020. (Photo by Jim WATSON / AFP)
(Photo by JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images)
(CNN)Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has dismissed hundreds of members of 42 Pentagon advisory boards, including controversial late appointments by the Trump administration, as the Pentagon announced a review of the boards' memberships Tuesday.
The announcement comes after the previous administration appointed several loyalists
to advisory boards in the final months of former President Donald
Trump's term including former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski
and David Bossie, who served as his deputy campaign manager.
The
Pentagon took no pains to hide the fact Austin took the action because
of concerns the Trump administration had openly packed some boards with
loyalists.
"The
Secretary was deeply concerned with the pace and the extent of recent
changes to memberships of department advisory committees and this review
will allow him now to quickly get his arms around the purpose of these
boards and to make sure the advisory committees are in fact providing
the best possible advice to department leadership," chief Pentagon
spokesperson John Kirby said.
The Wall Street Journal was first to report Austin's decision.
Current
members being told to step down are only those appointed by the
Pentagon and not those appointed by the White House or Congress. For
example four people appointed by the Pentagon to a congressionally
mandated commission on stripping the names of Confederate generals from
military bases will be removed but others on that panel appointed by
Congress will remain.
A review of all the boards, and whether they are still needed, will now be the focus before new members are named.
"There's
no question that the frenetic activity that occurred to the composition
of so many boards in just the period of November to January deeply
concerned the secretary and certainly helped drive him to this
decision," Kirby added.
"Our
stewardship responsibilities require that we continually assess to
ensure each advisory committee provides appropriate value today and in
the future, as times and requirements change," Austin said in a memo to
the department.
The
42 advisory boards cost taxpayers millions of dollars each year and
some of their work is believed to be potentially redundant, which added
to the need for the review.
The
action effectively removes, for now, several hundred people serving on
boards who advise on everything from defense policy, science,
innovation, health issues, coastal engineering, sexual misconduct and
diversity and inclusion.
In
December CNN reported that Trump purged a Pentagon business advisory
board and replaced its members with Bossie and Lewandowski, neither of
whom have served in the military or have any apparent experience with
the defense industry.
Members
who were suddenly removed from the Defense Policy Board, an outside
advisory group that provides the defense secretary with advice on
defense policy, included former Secretaries of State Madeleine Albright
and Henry Kissinger, former ranking member of the House Intelligence
Committee Jane Harman and former House Majority Leader Eric Cantor,
One
Trump loyalist expected to keep her advisory role is Kellyanne Conway,
who Trump named to the Air Force Academy of Visitors. Seats on that
board are controlled by the President so the Austin memo does not cover
the panels where the White House names members.
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