Opinion ID: 3172147
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Principals Committee

Text: The Principals Committee referenced in PPD‐1 has operated since 1989 as “the senior interagency forum for consideration of policy issues affecting 41 national security.” PPD‐1, at 2–3 (emphasis added).20 Obviously, it assists the President in carrying out his national security responsibilities to have heads of various executive departments meet together and jointly consider issues affecting national security. The coordination objective at the core of the NSC’s authorizing legislation contemplates both channeling jointly considered policy recommendations up to the Council, and thereby to the President, and channeling the President’s policy decisions down for consistent implementation across departments. See supra at [20–21]. The fact that the Principals Committee may reach “‘conclusions’” and “‘decisions’” does not manifest an exercise of independent authority by the committee. See Appellant’s Br. 24 (quoting PPD‐1, at 3). There may be a “conclusion” that a national security policy needs to be formulated or clarified and a “decision” to refer it to the Council and, thereby, to the President himself. That circumstance manifests advice and assistance to the President, not the 20 The National Security Advisor chairs the Principals Committee, on which serve the Secretaries of State, Treasury, Defense, Energy and Homeland Security; the Attorney General; the Director of the Office of Management and Budget; the U.S. Representative to the United Nations; the President’s Chief of Staff; the Director of National Intelligence; and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Other designated persons can be invited to all or some meetings depending on the agenda. See PPD‐1, at 3. 42 exercise of authority independent of him.21 Or there may be a “conclusion” to coordinate agencies’ implementation of a particular presidential policy and a “decision” about how to achieve that. In that circumstance, however, the Principals Committee does not itself exercise independent authority. Rather, it serves as a forum for members to coordinate the action authority of their individual agencies in furthering presidential policies. Such a coordinating forum assists the President but exercises no authority independent of either him or the forum’s members.