Power Plays? Payback Time? Agencies Realign Their Stars
Disaster Plans List Pecking Orders for Those Left Standing By Peter Baker <http://projects.washingtonpost.com/staff/email/peter+baker/> Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, March 24, 2006; Page A17 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/23/AR2006032301 694.html If a terrorist attack wiped out the top layer of government, the law has a plan for who would step in: Without the president or vice president, a succession of congressional leaders and Cabinet secretaries stand in line to assume control of the country. But forget about the presidency. What about the National Archives? Who would take charge of the nation's files in case of a catastrophe? <javascript:void(popitup('http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/photo/postpho tos/orb/asection/2006-03-24/index.html?imgId=PH2006032301813&imgUrl=/photo/2 006/03/23/PH2006032301813.html',650,850))> <javascript:void(popitup('http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/photo/postpho tos/orb/asection/2006-03-24/index.html?imgId=PH2006032301813&imgUrl=/photo/2 006/03/23/PH2006032301813.html',650,850))> The leadership succession scheme for the National Archives won President Bush's approval this week, the fifth agency plan since the start of 2005. The leadership succession scheme for the National Archives won President Bush's approval this week, the fifth agency plan since the start of 2005. (By Elise Amendola -- Associated Press) Fortunately, the White House has an answer. President Bush this week endorsed a new order of succession for the National Archives and Records Administration detailing down to the 10th level who would assume command in a national emergency. If the top nine guys are gone, it turns out, the director of the Jimmy Carter Library and Museum takes over. That's right -- 25 years after leaving office, Carter, in the form of his top librarian, would return to power, of a sort. In a government fixated on doomsday scenarios, the White House memo issued Wednesday was at least the fifth time since the start of last year that an executive branch agency has created or revised an order of succession. Many departments rushed to draft emergency plans in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. But nearly four years later, government officials in agencies such as the budget and personnel offices still busy themselves with the macabre exercise of figuring out who would be on top should the worst happen. "It's kind of a sign of the thinking of government that there are so many high-level people at all these agencies that you need to have an order of succession," said Paul C. Light, a government specialist at New York University. "At the risk of being flip, the question would not be 'Who's in charge at these agencies?' but 'Who cares who's in charge at these agencies?' " Evidently people at the agencies. Some of the recent lineups reflect one official moving up the chart at the expense of colleagues. Others seem to be even more brazen power plays intended to put rivals in their places. In case there are any doubts, the succession orders make plain which associate director stands above which other associate director in an agency pecking order. All of this, of course, stems from the serious post-9/11 concern about the government's ability to keep running after an attack using nuclear, chemical or biological weapons. Long before 2001, a single member of the Cabinet was kept away from the U.S. Capitol during the president's State of the Union address to ensure that a senior executive would survive should disaster strike. But Sept. 11 brought home how rudimentary plans for continuity of government really were. After the attacks, Bush activated a shadow government, dispatching about 100 senior civilian managers to live and work secretly in fortified locations outside Washington on a 24-hour basis. Vice President Cheney famously retreated to "undisclosed locations." Congress, on the other hand, has debated and debated without coming up with its own plan. The House passed a bill last year, just as it did the year before, requiring states to hold elections within 49 days if 100 or more of the 435 House seats are empty, only to have the idea languish in the Senate, where critics favor immediate temporary appointments. But at least the National Archives has a plan. Under this week's memo, if the archivist and his deputy are unable to serve, power devolves to the assistant archivist for administration, followed by the assistant archivist for records services and then the assistant archivist for regional records services and so on down the line. "It's good to know they're taking care of this because, without a Congress, they've got someone to chronicle the abuses of the martial-law state," said Rep. Brian Baird (D-Wash.), who has proposed a constitutional amendment permitting governors to name interim House members in case of mass casualties. Baird laughed but then added that the archives plan makes sense: "One of the best ways to deter terrorist attack is to be so protected in terms of maintaining government continuity that you could say, 'Go ahead, take your best shot.' What a powerful message it would be to be able to have your government up and going within days." Others said the White House has more important issues to tackle. "We have huge problems with presidential succession," said Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.), "and knowing who is head of the archives is not my number one concern." Sherman has proposed removing the House speaker and Senate president pro tempore from the presidential succession because putting either in the Oval Office could represent a radical departure from who voters thought they were electing. The new archives plan supersedes one issued in March 2002, and the main effect seems to be demoting the assistant archivist for information services from third in line of succession to seventh. A memo issued for the Office of Personnel Management last year bumped the agency's general counsel ahead of the chief of staff and the communications director up to fourth in line from 10th. Now serving as 10th is the associate director for human capital leadership and merit systems accountability. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld rewrote his succession plan in December to put his inner circle closer to the top, placing Undersecretary for Intelligence Stephen A. Cambone right behind Deputy Secretary Gordon R. England, and effectively demoting the secretaries of the Army, Air Force and Navy. The new national intelligence director, John D. Negroponte, has issued his first succession chart. In Atlanta, Jay Hakes, director of the Jimmy Carter library, said he figured he was tapped to be part of the archives' succession because he works outside Washington but in a city with a significant federal presence. He said he has not been mapping out what he would do with his power should the occasion arise. "I don't spend a lot of time thinking about it," Hakes said. "But I think this is a case where being overprepared is better than being underprepared." [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? 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