War Secretary Pete Hegseth will chair a newly established Pentagon advisory board, intended to provide military guidance on homeland security missions and address needs not covered by existing federal advisory committees.
The board will have up to 20 members, including Hegseth as chair and the assistant secretary of defense for Homeland Defense and Americas Security Affairs as vice chair. It will also include the deputy assistant secretaries of defense for Homeland Defense and Defense Continuity and Mission Assurance, along with one civilian and one field- or mid-grade officer from each military branch.
The board’s establishing documents say the Pentagon needs independent, consensus-based advice on homeland defense that is not available from other federal advisory committees or agencies. They say existing advisory bodies at the Department of Homeland Security and State Department have different mandates and cannot provide the military-specific guidance needed for domestic troop deployments, military crises and campaign planning in the Americas.
The documents also point to the increased overlap between military and homeland security missions, citing the deployment of National Guard troops to U.S. cities to support law enforcement, military deployments to the southern border and expanded War Department involvement in drug interdiction missions traditionally carried out by the Coast Guard. The board is intended to provide recommendations on security cooperation, military operations and resource allocations, as well as help coordinate the Pentagon with domestic homeland security agencies.
