Washington, D.C. – Today, House Armed Services Committee Ranking Member Adam Smith (D-WA) made the following statement about the Trump administration’s presidential memorandum on organization of the National Security Council (NSC) and the Homeland Security Council (HSC):

“This arrangement could hardly be more ominous for the U.S. national security decision-making process and the security of our friends and allies. The moves laid out in the National Security Presidential Memorandum take an unprecedented step to politicize the NSC. By placing a political operative at the table for all meetings, it concentrates power in the hands of Steve Bannon, an ultra-right-wing political strategist who wants to take national security policy in a direction that will undermine global security, strengthen our enemies, and shred American values. This goes beyond the long-standing practice of including the President’s Chief of Staff. At the same time, the memorandum downgrades the role that objective intelligence and military advice will play in the president’s decision-making process. We should not be going down this road. Congress will have no choice but to question the integrity of the NSC’s recommendations going forward.”

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