GOP chairs press Mayorkas on 'lack of transparency,' potential bias of rebranded DHS board

House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark Green, (R-Tenn.) and Subcommittee on Counterterrorism, Law Enforcement, and Intelligence Chairman August Pfluger (R-Texas) are pressing Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas for answers on the “rebranding” of the “Homeland Security Experts Group” as the “Homeland Intelligence Advisory Board.” 

 

Green’s office said the original group was dissolved after DHS’ appointment of two former intelligence professionals, James Clapper and John Brennan, “who had falsely claimed that the New York Post’s reporting on Hunter Biden’s political influence peddling was the product of Russian disinformation.”

Both chairmen said in a news release that their main concerns relate to “potential political bias of the revamped board’s members and the serious challenges DHS’ Office of Intelligence and Analysis (I&A) faces in fulfilling its mission to help keep the homeland safe.”

In the letter sent to Mayorkas, the lawmakers wrote that there appears to be a “lack of transparency” around the new DHS group.

“The Committee is concerned that the Department claims the new Board will represent ‘diverse perspectives’ and ‘without regard for political affiliation,’ while it seeks to include the ‘19 members of the Experts Group when constituting the Board.’ It is also troubling that you ‘exempted the Board from the public notice, reporting, and open meeting requirements of the Federal Advisory Committee Act.’ These actions raise serious concerns about the Board’s lack of transparency to the Committee and the American public,” read the letter.

“The Committee has concerns that participants in the disbanded-Experts Group, and newly-formed Board may provide biased contributions to I&A—possibly hindering efforts to provide useful and timely intelligence to relevant stakeholders, especially at a time when I&A faces serious challenges to complete its mission to help keep the homeland safe,” the lawmakers also wrote.