Michael O’Hanlon
In today’s partisan debate over whether to implement major reforms to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Department of Homeland Security, Republicans would do well to remember the precedent of the 1986 Goldwater-Nichols reforms of the Department of Defense. These streamlined military command and control strengthened the advisory role of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff as well as the regional commanders at places like Central Command, and paved the way for much greater collaboration between the military services.
Then, as now, a powerful Republican president and much of his administration took proposed reforms as an affront to their track record and a challenge to their power. But then, as now, change made sense. It ultimately served the administration and the relevant government department. Republicans in Congress should think about the issue less in terms of partisan politics and more as a proper exertion of independent action by the legislative branch of government, as specified in Article I of the US Constitution.
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