2. Executive Office of the President · Minor
Assign senior NSC officials accountability for named policy initiatives
Printed page 51 2. Executive Office of the President
“In addition to realigning the staff organization to the President's priorities, the NSA should assign responsibility for implementation of specific policy initiatives to senior NSC officials from across the NSC staff structure. These officials should develop, direct, and execute tangible action plans in coordination with multiple agencies to achieve measurable, time-defined milestones.”
What has happened
- Not started
Moved nearby. NSPM-1 reorganized the NSC staff, which is the ask's own subject, but it assigns no policy initiative to any official. Its Policy Coordination Committees are "the main day-to-day fora for interagency coordination and integration of national security policies", chaired by members of the NSC staff and charged to "review, coordinate, integrate, and monitor the implementation of Presidential decisions in their respective national security and homeland security policy areas" — the standing machinery of the Council rather than an act of assignment. That machinery is not new: the 2017 organization memorandum (NSPM-4, 82 FR 16881) already made the PCCs the day-to-day fora chaired by NSC staff and provided that they "shall review and coordinate the implementation of Presidential decisions in their respective policy areas". Neither limb of this Quote is delivered: no senior NSC official has been given responsibility for a named policy initiative, and no "measurable, time-defined milestones" appear in any public document. The NSC publishes almost nothing, so this negative is strong about presidential directives and weak about internal practice.
Research log
What was searched, and what didn’t count as evidence
Research notes
Read NSPM-1 in full at whitehouse.gov. Section D is the operative passage. No PCC roster, action plan or milestone schedule has been published; the NSC publishes almost nothing, so absence of a record is weak evidence either way on the milestone half.
- Reviewed 2026-09-01. This item shared NSPM-1 with #59 (“Eliminate NSC directorates not aligned with the President’s agenda”, a major ask, partial) on printed page 51 and sat on the same rung. #59’s partial is carried by the dated May 2025 directorate cuts, not by NSPM-1; this item’s partial rested on NSPM-1 alone. Comparing NSPM-1’s section D with the equivalent passage of NSPM-4 of April 4, 2017 (https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2017-04-06/html/2017-07064.htm, read in full) shows the PCC structure is carried over rather than created — so it is not delivery of a piece of this ask. Re-leveled to not started, with NSPM-1 kept as dated Primary Evidence of action nearby: standing machinery that predates an ask is not delivery of it. The 2017 memorandum predates the tracking window and so is cited here rather than as Evidence.
- Action
- appoint
- Object
- Accountable senior NSC officials
- ID
- 60