The Pentagon did not bother to hide the fact that Austin acted due to concerns that the Trump administration had openly packed some committees with legalists.
“The secretary was deeply concerned with the pace and extent of recent changes in the composition of the department’s advisory committees and this review will now allow him to quickly grasp the purpose of these councils and make sure that the advisory committees are in fact providing the best possible advice for department leadership, “said Pentagon spokesman John Kirby.
The current members being instructed to resign are only those appointed by the Pentagon and not those appointed by the White House or Congress. For example, four people appointed by the Pentagon to a commission mandated by Congress to remove the names of Confederate generals from military bases will be removed, but others on that panel appointed by Congress will remain.
A review of all boards, and if they are still needed, will now be the focus before new members are appointed.
“There is no doubt that the frantic activity that occurred with the composition of so many councils only from November to January deeply worried the secretary and certainly helped to propel him to this decision,” added Kirby.
“Our management responsibilities require that we continually evaluate to ensure that each advisory committee provides the appropriate value today and in the future as times and requirements change,” Austin said in a memo to the department.
The 42 advisory boards cost taxpayers millions of dollars each year and some of their work is considered potentially redundant, which has increased the need for revision.
The action effectively removes, for now, several hundred people who serve on councils that advise on everything from defense policy, science, innovation, health issues, coastal engineering, sexual misconduct and diversity and inclusion.
In December, CNN reported that Trump purged a business advisory board from the Pentagon and replaced its members with Bossie and Lewandowski, neither of whom served in the military or apparently had any experience with the defense industry.
Members who were suddenly removed from the Defense Policy Board, an external advisory group that provides defense policy advice on defense policy, included former Secretaries of State Madeleine Albright and Henry Kissinger, a former member of the House Intelligence Committee, Jane Harman and former Most Leading Chamber Eric Cantor,
A loyal to Trump who must retain his role as a consultant is Kellyanne Conway, whom Trump has appointed to the Air Force Visitors Academy. Seats on that board are controlled by the president, so Austin’s memo does not cover the panels where the White House nominates members.