Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said Sept. 13 that he would block a possible Obama administration proposal to separate the National Security Agency (NSA) and U.S. Cyber Command (CYBERCOM).
Saying he is “troubled” by recent media reports suggesting that Defense Secretary Ash Carter and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper have endorsed the potential split, McCain threatened to object to the confirmation of anyone President Obama nominates to replace the NSA director if that person is not also nominated to lead CYBERCOM.
Chairman, Senate Armed Services Committee
“I urge Secretary Carter to provide this committee and the Congress the details of this plan and his reasoning for supporting it,” McCain said while holding a hearing on cybersecurity. “And I hope he will explain what has changed since the last time the administration rejected this idea in 2013.”
Adm. Mike Rogers, who currently heads both agencies, testified before McCain’s committee that he supports continuing the “dual-hatting” arrangement.
Asked about the matter while speaking at TechCrunch’s Disrupt conference in San Francisco, Carter said that “we haven’t made any decisions in that regard yet.” Noting that the NSA is an intelligence-gathering organization and that CYBERCOM is mainly charged with protecting DoD information networks, Carter said that tying the two agencies together has allowed them to share key personnel but that a different approach might make more sense in the future.
“We don’t have any timeline, but we’re looking at this question,” Carter said. “It’s basically a management question.”
A senior administration official offered a similar comment. “We are constantly reviewing if we have the appropriate organizational structures in place to counter evolving threats, in cyberspace or elsewhere,” the official said in a statement. “While we have no changes to this structure to announce, the relationship between NSA and Cyber Command is critical to safeguarding our nation’s security.”