Stevenson’s army, February 20

– More details on John Rood’s firing.  NYT links it to policy disagreements with the WH; FP says he had a toxic work environment and many staff left. 
– Amb. to Germany Richard Grenell has been named acting DNI. His major qualification for the job is fierce public loyalty to the president. He can only serve until mid-September, and would have to step down immediately if formally nominated for the job [as SecDef Esper had to do].

This lets me remind you of two of the most consequential but little known laws — the Vacancy Act and the Administrative Procedures Act.  The former limits the use of non-Senate confirmed officials and people in “acting” positions. The latter prevents replacement of older executive orders and regulations without a lengthy and detailed process. The new team can’t just say, we want to change.

-Georgetown had a special event featuring former Amb. to Ukraine Yavonovitch. 

My SAIS colleague Charlie Stevenson distributes this almost daily news digest of foreign/defense/national security policy to “Stevenson’s army” via Googlegroups. I plan to republish here. If you want to get it directly, To get Stevenson’s army by email, send a blank email (no subject or text in the body) to stevensons-army+subscribe@googlegroups.com. You’ll get an email confirming your join request. Click “Join This Group” and follow the instructions to join. Once you have joined, you can adjust your email delivery preferences (if you want every email or a digest of the emails).