Quick Hits

*** The heads of the House Homeland Security Committee and the Committee on Oversight and Reform are asking the internal watchdog of the Department of Homeland Security to weigh in on the validity of the appointments of senior acting officials including Acting Secretary Chad Wolf. A recent legal opinion from the Government Accountability Office found that several officials were elevated unlawfully and outside of agency rules. In an Aug. 27 letter, Reps. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) and Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) are asking the Office of Inspector General at DHS to review GAO's referral with regard to the legality of Wolf's appointment and those of other senior officials, and to weigh in on the legality of decisions taken by those officials if DHS OIG concurs with the GAO opinion.

*** The Government Accountability Office is concerned that the compressed time frame for the Census count will result in an inaccurate measure of the population and also potentially put workers at risk. In an Aug. 27 report, GAO cautioned that the follow-up to count households that didn't respond electronically or by mail could be understaffed and that in particular college students and unhoused persons risk being undercounted.