By REBECCA NEAL

High turnover and low staff morale may imperil the Homeland Security Department's ability to smoothly navigate the upcoming presidential transition, Sen. Daniel Akaka said last week.  

The department "has faced many tests in its short history, and it has not always handled them well. Even without the transition, I believe that DHS presents the most serious management challenge in the federal government today," Akaka, D-Hawaii, said at a hearing that examined DHS' ability to ensure a safe and secure transition.  

Presidential transitions are seen as a prime opportunity for terrorist attacks, experts told the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs subcommittee on oversight of government management, the federal workforce and the District of Columbia. They cited the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and the October 2000 attack on the USS Cole.  

Some security analysts see last week's strike on the U.S. embassy in Yemen as a possible attempt to seize the embassy and influence the upcoming election, said John Rollins, specialist in terrorist and national security for the Congressional Research Service.  

Akaka said he was worried that high numbers of vacancies at the department could make DHS less stable during the transition. DHS is the third-largest Cabinet department and has been on the Government Accountability Office's high-risk list since its creation.  

"DHS has had the highest career executive turnover rate of any Cabinet department over the last several years," Akaka said.

One of five top positions are vacant, as are half of the executive positions at the department's National Protection and Programs Directorate. Forty percent of executive positions in the general counsel's office are unfilled, as are one-fourth of the executive positions at the Federal Emergency Management Agency.  

And more than half of current executives have been in positions for less than two years.  

However, Undersecretary for Management Elaine Duke said DHS is making concerted efforts to hire Senior Executive Service (SES) employees.  

"SES vacancies have been able to be reduced from 20 percent to 13 percent now, and we have 35 selections pending that should be complete by the end of the month. Then we'd have a vacancy rate under 10 percent for the first time," she said.  

According to a recent National Academy of Public Administration report, employees left for various reasons, including being near the end of their careers when they joined DHS. A 2005 reorganization of the department led to frustrations among career employees, as well as having to deal with a high number of transient political appointees, said Frank Chellino, chairman of the academy.  

"The average political appointee is in for 24 months and out," he said.  

Akaka and ranking member George Voinovich criticized the number of presidential appointees in DHS and its agencies and questioned whether the agency can run smoothly with so many inexperienced managers at the top.  

"FEMA executives must have the qualifications necessary to manage emergencies and disasters, and I do not think noncareer executives should fill 34 percent of FEMA's executive positions," said Voinovich, R-Ohio, adding that the governmentwide average of noncareer executives is 15 percent.  

Voinovich said he wonders if Congress shouldn't mandate that more of FEMA's positions be filled by career employees, including regional administrators.  

Akaka said he would like to see the new president keep on several political appointees until their successors are named in order to provide continuity of leadership.  

"A lot of FEMA vacancies could be filled with career employees. I'm worried there may be a vacuum during a transition which could hinder the response to an emergency during the transition," Akaka said, acknowledging that Duke has said she is willing to serve during the transition if asked.  

Duke said she'd like to see Barack Obama and John McCain's campaigns begin to make contact with DHS and start thinking about administration appointees.   "

We have not been contacted by either camp at this time, but we're poised and ready," Duke said, adding that DHS has appointed Coast Guard Rear Adm. John Acton as the department's full-time transition director.  

Chellino said, "I do wonder why the transition teams haven't been engaged. ... The initial paperwork is lengthy and time-consuming, and it should be started and submitted preliminarily so we don't lose time waiting for elections to come around."  

Voinovich offered a solution.  

"How about Senator Akaka and I sending a letter to each of the campaigns ... telling them the sooner you do it, the better you're going to be off in Homeland Security," he suggested.  

"That'd do it," Chellino replied.  

Rollins said both campaigns have nominally chosen transition leaders, and they both have senior staffers who have been designated homeland security representatives.  

But campaigns need to move faster to prepare nominees and obtain pre-security clearances, said Patricia McGinnis, president and chief executive officer of the Council for Excellence in Government.

"It's funny how the dance goes on this time of year where no one wants to seem to be presumptuous, measuring drapes and getting ready with a list of nominees," she said.  

Chellino said he was "dismayed" by remarks two weeks ago by Clay Johnson, deputy director for management at the Office of Management and Budget, that he would like to see 100 political appointee nominees confirmed by the Senate by April 1 and 400 by August.  

"I find that completely unacceptable," he said, suggesting that wasn't enough.  

But Akaka pointed out that previous administrations have only been able to get only about 25 senior political positions confirmed by the Senate in that time, and that shooting for 100 was a great improvement. Voinovich added the guidelines would be reasonable if campaigns would work with departments to identify critical positions to be filled first.  

Having the entire Cabinet sworn in on Inauguration Day would be ideal, McGinnis said.  

Rollins said the department could be in worse shape.  

"DHS is farther ahead than most other agencies with homeland security or national security responsibilities [in preparing for the transition]. The department is still young enough that it hasn't developed enough bad [habits] or grown complacent," he said.  

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