United States Deputy Secretary of Defense

The deputy secretary of defense (acronym: DepSecDef) is a statutory office (10 U.S.C. § 132) and the second-highest-ranking official in the Department of Defense of the United States of America.

United States Deputy Secretary of Defense
Seal of the Department
Flag of the Deputy Secretary
Incumbent David Norquist since July 31, 2019
United States Department of Defense Office of the Secretary of Defense
Style	Mr. Deputy Secretary
Status	Chief operating officer
Reports to	Secretary of Defense
Seat	The Pentagon, Arlington County, Virginia
Appointer	The President with Senate advice and consent
Term length	No fixed term
Constituting instrument	10 U.S.C. § 132
Formation	1949[1]
First holder	Stephen Early[1] May 2, 1949
Succession	1st in SecDef succession
Salary	Executive Schedule, level II[2]
Website	www.defense.gov

The deputy secretary is the principal civilian deputy to the secretary of defense, and is appointed by the president, with the advice and consent of the Senate. The deputy secretary, by statute, is designated as the DoD chief management officer and must be a civilian, at least seven years removed from service as a commissioned officer on active-duty at the date of appointment.[3]

The current deputy secretary of defense is David Norquist, effective July 31, 2019.[4]

History

Public Law 81-36, April 2, 1949, originally established this position as the under secretary of defense, however Public Law 81-2 16, August 10, 1949, a.k.a. the 1949 Amendments to the National Security Act of 1947, changed the title to Deputy Secretary of Defense. Former assistant to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Stephen Early, became the first officer holder when he was sworn-in on May 2, 1949.[1]

Public Law 92-596, October 27, 1972, established a second deputy secretary of defense position, with both deputies performing duties as prescribed by the secretary of defense. The second deputy position was not filled until December 1975. Robert F. Ellsworth, serving from December 23, 1975, until January 10, 1977, was the only one to ever hold that office. Public Law 95-140, October 21, 1977, established two under secretaries of defense and abolished the second deputy position.[1]

Responsibilities

By delegation, the deputy secretary of defense has full power and authority to act for the secretary of defense and to exercise the powers of the secretary of defense on any and all matters for which the secretary is authorized to act pursuant to statute or executive order.[1] The deputy secretary is first in the line of succession to the secretary of defense.

The typical role of the deputy secretary of defense is to oversee the day-to-day business and lead the internal management processes of the $500-billion-plus Department of Defense budget, that is as its chief operating officer; while the secretary of defense as the chief executive officer focuses on the big issues of the day, ongoing military operations, high-profile congressional hearings, attending meetings of the National Security Council, and directly advising the president on defense issues.

Prior to February 1, 2018, the deputy secretary of defense also served as the department's chief management officer, to whom the deputy chief management officer reported, but those responsibilities were split into a new chief management officer of the Department of Defense position.[5]

The deputy secretary, among the office's many responsibilities, chairs the Senior Level Review Group (SLRG), before 2005 known as Defense Resources Board (DRB), which provides department-wide budgetary allocation recommendations to the Secretary and the President. Traditionally, the deputy secretary has been the civilian official guiding the process of the Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR).

The deputy secretary of defense chairs the Special Access Program Oversight Committee (SAPOC), which has oversight responsibilities and provides recommendations with respect to changes in status of the Department's Special Access Programs, for either the deputy secretary defense or the secretary of defense to make.

List of deputy secretaries of defense

No.	Image	Name	Term of Office			Secretaries of Defense serving under:	President appointed by:
			Began	Ended	Days of Service
1		Stephen Early	May 2, 1949 August 10, 1949[1]	August 9, 1949[lower-alpha 1] September 30, 1950[lower-alpha 2][1]	516	Louis A. Johnson George Marshall	Harry S. Truman
2		Robert A. Lovett	October 4, 1950	September 16, 1951	316	George Marshall
3		William Chapman Foster	September 24, 1951	January 20, 1953	484	Robert A. Lovett
4		Roger M. Kyes	February 2, 1953	May 1, 1954	453	Charles E. Wilson	Dwight D. Eisenhower
5		Robert B. Anderson	May 3, 1954	August 4, 1955	458
6		Reuben B. Robertson Jr.	August 5, 1955	April 25, 1957	629
7		Donald A. Quarles	May 1, 1957	May 8, 1959	737	Charles E. Wilson Neil H. McElroy
8		Thomas S. Gates	June 8, 1959	December 1, 1959	176	Neil H. McElroy
9		James H. Douglas Jr.	December 11, 1959	January 24, 1961	410	Thomas S. Gates Robert McNamara
10		Roswell Gilpatric	January 24, 1961	January 20, 1964	1091	Robert McNamara	John F. Kennedy
11		Cyrus Vance	January 28, 1964	June 30, 1967	1249		Lyndon B. Johnson
12		Paul Nitze	July 1, 1967	January 20, 1969	569	Robert McNamara Clark Clifford
13		David Packard	January 24, 1969	December 13, 1971	1053	Melvin R. Laird	Richard Nixon
14		Kenneth Rush	February 23, 1972	January 29, 1973	341
15		Bill Clements	January 30, 1973	January 20, 1977	1451	Elliot Richardson James R. Schlesinger Donald Rumsfeld
16		Robert Ellsworth	December 23, 1975[6]	January 10, 1977[6]	384	Donald Rumsfeld	Gerald Ford
17		Charles Duncan Jr.	January 31, 1977	July 26, 1979	906	Harold Brown	Jimmy Carter
18		W. Graham Claytor Jr.	August 24, 1979	January 16, 1981	511
19		Frank Carlucci	February 4, 1981	December 31, 1982	695	Caspar Weinberger	Ronald Reagan
20		W. Paul Thayer	January 12, 1983	January 4, 1984	357
21		William Howard Taft IV	February 3, 1984	April 22, 1989	1905	Caspar Weinberger Frank Carlucci Dick Cheney
22		Donald J. Atwood Jr.	April 24, 1989	January 20, 1993	1367	Dick Cheney	George H. W. Bush
23		William J. Perry	March 5, 1993	February 3, 1994	335	Les Aspin	Bill Clinton
24		John M. Deutch	March 11, 1994	May 10, 1995	425	William J. Perry
25		John P. White	June 22, 1995	July 15, 1997	754	William J. Perry William Cohen
26		John Hamre	July 29, 1997	March 31, 2000	976	William Cohen
27		Rudy de Leon	March 31, 2000[7]	March 1, 2001[7]	335	William Cohen Donald Rumsfeld
28		Paul Wolfowitz	March 2, 2001[8]	May 13, 2005[8]	1533	Donald Rumsfeld	George W. Bush
29		Gordon R. England	May 13, 2005 January 4, 2006[8]	January 3, 2006[lower-alpha 3] February 11, 2009[8]	236 1134	Donald Rumsfeld Robert Gates
30		William J. Lynn III	February 12, 2009[8]	October 5, 2011[8]	965	Robert Gates Leon Panetta	Barack Obama
31		Ash Carter	October 6, 2011[8]	December 4, 2013[8]	789	Leon Panetta Chuck Hagel
Acting		Christine Fox	December 5, 2013[8]	May 1, 2014[8]	149	Chuck Hagel
32		Robert O. Work	May 1, 2014	July 14, 2017	1170	Chuck Hagel Ash Carter Jim Mattis
33		Patrick M. Shanahan	July 19, 2017	June 23, 2019[9]	704	Jim Mattis Himself (Acting)	Donald Trump
Acting		David Norquist	January 1, 2019	July 23, 2019	203	Patrick M. Shanahan (Acting) Mark Esper (Acting) Richard V. Spencer (Acting)
Acting		Richard V. Spencer	July 23, 2019	July 31, 2019	8	Mark Esper
34		David Norquist	July 31, 2019	Incumbent	369

See also

• Defense Acquisition Board
• Defense Policy Board Advisory Committee
• Deputy's Advisory Working Group, a panel chaired by the Deputy Secretary of Defense
• Packard Commission

Notes

1. As "Under Secretary of Defense"
2. As "Deputy Secretary of Defense"
3. Served as Acting Deputy Secretary of Defense

References

Citations

1. Department of Defense Key Officials 1947–2015: p. 15.
2. 5 U.S.C. § 5313.
3. 10 U.S.C. § 132.
4. "Deputy Secretary of Defense". US Dept of Defense. Retrieved July 31, 2019.
5. "Report to Congress: Restructuring the Department of Defense Acquisition, Technology and Logistics Organization and Chief Management Officer Organization" (PDF). August 1, 2017. Retrieved February 22, 2018.
6. Department of Defense Key Officials 1947–2015: p. 16.
7. Department of Defense Key Officials 1947–2015: p. 17.
8. Department of Defense Key Officials 1947–2015: p. 18.
9. "Acting Secretary of Defense will Resign as Deputy Secretary of Defense". United States Department of Defense. June 18, 2019. Retrieved June 24, 2019.

Sources

• Department of Defense Directive 5100.1: Functions of the Department of Defense and Its Major Components (PDF). Department of Defense Directive. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Defense. December 21, 2010.
• Department of Defense Key Officials 1947–2015 (PDF). Washington, D.C.: Office of the Secretary of Defense, Historical Office. 2015.
• Deputy Secretary of Defense position profile at Prunes Online

External links

• defense.gov