Bush names Jackson DHS deputy; Hutchinson resigns
Asa Hutchinson resigned Monday as undersecretary for border and transportation security at the Department of Homeland Security, effective March 1.
The top three officials in the department have announced their departures since December. Secretary Tom Ridge and Deputy Secretary James Loy have also said they are leaving. Hutchinson, a former three-term Republican congressman from Arkansas, lobbied to be head of the agency, but President Bush passed him over twice, finally settling on federal judge Michael Chertoff to succeed Ridge.
President Bush on Monday named Michael Jackson, a former aide to White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card and former deputy secretary of transportation during the Bush first term, to be deputy secretary of homeland security. Jackson is chief operating officer of AECOM Technology Corp.
Shippers NewsWire previously reported Hutchinson would leave because the administration wanted new blood in the position and that Hutchinson might seek the Arkansas governorship.
The Bureau of Border and Transportation Security is in charge of the department’s cargo security policy and had oversight over Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the Transportation Security Agency.