*** House Democrats reached a deal on Monday to give the Homeland Security Committee the role of coordinator in developing authorization legislation for Department of Homeland Security component authorizing legislation. The memorandum of understanding doesn't give the Homeland Security Committee new authority, but it does establish an arrangement by which the panel will be able to work with the multiple committees of the House – Transportation, Judiciary, Oversight, Intelligence and others – that have longstanding jurisdiction over DHS components and functions dating back to before the creation of DHS.
"While I regret that the Homeland Security Committee's jurisdiction was not expanded, the committees with jurisdiction over parts of DHS are poised to collaborate to an unprecedented degree to put the Department on a positive path," Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), the committee chairman, said in a statement.
*** The General Services Administration named two officials on Monday to lead the implementation of executive orders on pandemic response at the agency. The move at GSA is important because of its role in managing the workplaces of federal facilities across the government. Zoe Garmendia will serve as the senior advisor to the administrator on COVID and Josh Sawislak, a GSA veteran, will be senior advisor to the administrator for putting executive actions into effect.