WEDNESDAy, MARCH 18 , 2020. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ RE A25
A
t a moment when Americans
have new appreciation for the
government professionals who
protect against global threats,
the Trump administration is weighing
cuts in funding and staff for the National
Counterterrorism Center, created after
Sept. 11, 2001, to shield the homeland
from attack.
The debate about trimming the NCTC,
as it is known, is part of a broader
examination of intelligence coordination
by Richard Grenell, a Trump loyalist who
was named acting director of national
intelligence last month. Grenell replaced
Joseph Maguire, a 36-year Navy SEAL
who had headed the NCTC before he
became acting director of national intel-
ligence last August.
A statement from the DNI’s office said
Grenell and his staff had begun a “careful
review” of past studies that “have identi-
fied opportunities to refocus or transfer
activities at ODNI to eliminate duplica-
tion of work with other agencies.” While
this review is underway, the statement
said, Grenell has imposed a “short-term
pause in external hiring” at the Office of
the Director of National Intelligence and
its components, such as the NCTC.
This “review” of intelligence-
c oordinating activities has created con-
cern among intelligence professionals
that a campaign is beginning against
what President Trump and his loyalists
view as a “deep state” in the national
security community. Foreign intelligence
partners share this worry about a
Trump-led campaign to control intelli-
gence.
Fear of a purge increased last July,
when Daniel Coats was pushed out as
director of national intelligence. His
widely respected deputy, Sue Gordon,
resigned in August after she wasn’t
tapped to replace Coats. Then came the
departures of Maguire and his chief
deputy, A ndrew Hallman, last m onth. A ll
four had angered the White House, in
part because they supported the intelli-
gence community’s findings that Russia
has been meddling in U.S. politics to
benefit Trump.
The debate about trimming the NCTC
dates back two years, to a “summer
study” launched by Coats. Officials say it
has accelerated as a more political team
has taken over intelligence policy. This
group includes Michael Ellis, named this
month to a National Security Council
post overseeing intelligence, and Kashy-
ap Patel, Grenell’s senior adviser at
ODNI. Both formerly worked for Devin
Nunes (Calif.), the top Republican on the
House Intelligence Committee and a
passionate Trump supporter.
The management issue is complicat-
ed. Some critics have long argued that
the NCTC duplicates some functions of
the CIA’s Counterterrorism Center. Simi-
lar complaints have been made about the
larger ODNI structure, which duplicates
some of the legal, communications and
management functions of the 17 a gencies
it supervises.
The NCTC’s biggest problem right
now, officials say, is that it is under-
staffed. Of its roughly 1,000 employees,
about 700 are full-time government
workers and 300 are contractors. About
30 percent of the government workers
are supposed to be loaned by the CIA and
other agencies. But a significant number
of these interagency transfer positions
are vacant, an NCTC veteran said, weak-
ening the cross-government mission.
With Grenell’s hiring freeze, and the
reluctance of the CIA and other agencies
to send transfers, the personnel shortage
is becoming more severe.
The lack of adequate staff is felt
especially at the NCTC’s Directorate of
Strategic Operational Planning, which
coordinates counterterrorism policy
across government agencies. This direc-
torate was mandated by law when the
NCTC was created in 2004 to “connect
the dots” within government and avoid
the catastrophic intelligence-sharing
failure that allowed the terrorist attacks
of 9/11.
Another key NCTC function that could
be affected by the current squeeze is the
modernization of its data collection. The
current database, the Te rrorist Identities
Datamart Environment, or TIDE, col-
lects names, passport numbers and other
biographical information. The agency is
building a broader registry that would
include biometric and biographical data.
But that work has slowed because of lack
of resources, potentially leaving the na-
tion vulnerable.
Russell Travers, a widely respected
career intelligence officer, has been act-
ing director of the NCTC since Maguire
left to become acting DNI last year.
Travers formerly served as chief data
officer for both the NCTC and ODNI, and
he’s an expert in the data-management
techniques that are part of the NCTC’s
core mission. A half-dozen intelligence
veterans told me it is crucial that Travers
remain in his job.
The stakes here are immense. The
NCTC receives about 8,000 threat-
r elated messages each day. Officials fear
there aren’t enough people now to input
all that information efficiently or to
modernize the system.
“This review is not an effort to purge,”
said the statement from Grenell’s office
about his plans. Members of Congress
and the administration who care about
the nation’s security should make sure
that promise is kept.
Twitter: @IgnatiusPostDAVID IGNATIUSA ‘review’
that looks
like a purge
L
ast week, Atlantic writer Yas-
cha Mounk called on America
to “cancel everything.” At the
time, this seemed radical.
This week, approximately
17,000 years later in covid-19 time, it
is conventional wisdom.
As Treasury Secretary Steven
Mnuchin stepped u p to the lectern on
Tuesday to announce that the gov-
ernment would be looking for a way
to send checks to every American in
the next week or so, I thought of my
own parallel proposal to Mounk’s:
subsidize everything.
Those are hard words for a liber-
tarian to say. But then this is a harder
crisis than we’ve faced in anyone’s
living memory. To put this in per-
spective: By some of the higher
estimates, this virus could kill more
than 1.5 million Americans. That’s
more than all the Americans who
have died in all wars since the
country announced i ts independence
from Britain.
To avoid this disastrous outcome,
we need to “cancel everything” for
some, hopefully s hort, period of time.
But that won’t w ork u nless we ensure
that the people who will b e most hurt
— people and businesses who make
things or provide services in a physi-
cal location — come through this
relatively unscathed.
We’re going to have a recession,
and in a certain sense we want a
recession; if the economy is growing,
it means too many people are still
moving around. So there’s little use
for traditional policies like payroll
tax cuts, which aim to get people
back to working and shopping as fast
as possible. Instead, we have to think
first about mitigating the suffering of
those who have lost their jobs and,
second, about keeping businesses onlife support so they can go back to
normal production as quickly as
possible whenever we get the virus
under control.
In this unprecedented situation,
the government will need novel,
creative policymaking to minimize
the damage — and not just the same
old predigested ideological pro-
grams. The first priority should be
laid-off workers, who need secure
access to what financial guru Dave
Ramsey has dubbed the “four walls”:
food, transportation, rent or mort-
gage, and utilities. That will mean, in
part, putting cash into the hands of
individuals who have been laid off or
quarantined, first through checks,
then through unusually generous
unemployment insurance and some
sort of federal sick-leave program. It
will also mean declaring a moratori-
um on evictions and utility shutoffs,
like the one Maryland Gov. Larry
Hogan (R) has already put into place.
Vehicle repossessions a nd residential
mortgage foreclosures should be
added to the list.
But that won’t be enough. Halting
evictions, repossessions and the like
will just shift the problem and the
cost back to utilities, landlords and
other providers of vital services, who
have their own loan payments to
make. So the government must keep
those businesses solvent, with zero-
interest loans if necessary, to help
them survive the coming months.
Finally, the government must tar-
get employers, to ensure that as
many people have a job to go back to
when a ll of this is over. T here are a lot
of ways we could do that, but one of
my favorites is Tim Bartik’s proposal
to encourage “labor hoarding.”
Labor hoarding sounds nasty, but
actually it’s good: It’s how econo-mists describe employers who hold
on to more employees than they
really need during recessions. Find-
ing and training good workers are
expensive, so it is often cheaper in
the long run to keep people on when
demand falls. But employers also do
this because, despite the stereotypes,
most bosses hate to fire people and
will go to almost any length —
including letting unproductive em-
ployees skate — to avoid having to
say, “We’re letting you go.”
This is a tendency the government
should encourage right now. So Bar-
tik suggests we offer employers a tax
credit to maintain their payrolls
above 90 percent of their 2019 aver-
age. It’s m uch cheaper t han o ffering a
payroll tax cut to people such as me
who can easily transition to working
from home, and provides employers
a much more direct incentive to do
what we want.
At this point, conservative readers
may be shuffling uneasily. Isn’t this
going to be expensive? Won’t unscru-
pulous people try to game the sys-
tem? Won’t this distort the economy?
The answer to those questions is
yes, yes and yes. In a normal time, or
even a normal recession, I’d never
suggest any of these measures.
But this is a most abnormal time.
Our collective health relies on every
other citizen doing the right thing
and keeping their distance from
everyone else. We need to make it as
easy as possible for everyone to do
the right thing. That’s going to cost
money, some of which will go to
people who don’t deserve it. The only
justification is that it will cost all of
us a lot more if we don’t take these
steps. They are as necessary as they
will be expensive.
Twitter: @asymmetricinfoMEGAN MCARDLEA libertarian’s unlikely pandemic
plea: Subsidize everything
MAX BECHERER/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Willie’s Chicken Shack in New Orleans is locked up following an order from Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards
to shut bars and restaurants statewide to limit the spread of the coronavirus pandemic on Monday.sure which pitch and volume I should
seek. But something happened that was
both personal and intimate — and yet of
all one thing.
Perhaps this is why so many people
attend a house of worship regularly. Or,
perhaps, the danger of a life-threatening
disease opens us up to the possibility of
grace. As Americans and people around
the world seek a nswers during this strang-
est of times, I suspect millions of others
will seek spiritual solace along with the
medical tests that may foretell each indi-
vidual’s degree of suffering or reprieve.
In t he meantime, social distancing and
self-quarantine these next couple of
weeks (or longer) offer opportunities we
might not otherwise have had. I was
struck by Hanke’s plea that we embrace
the slowing down. Some people may feel
lonely as they ride out the virus in
isolation; others may feel crowded by
large families or rambunctious children.
But many will also have a chance to
enjoy that rarest of p leasures or perhaps
torments — free time. The 17 th-century
philosopher Blaise Pascal said that “all
of humanity’s problems stem from
man’s inability to sit quietly in a room
alone.” On normal days, for many of us,
it’s off to the races preceded by a rude
and ruthless alarm. There are stocks to
trade, newspapers to publish, movies to
direct, businesses to run, children to
educate, invalids to feed and, yes, wars
to wage. So accustomed are we to the
weird virtue of multitasking that the
notion of sitting alone in a room can be
more angst-inducing than a multitudePAWLEYS ISLAND, S.C.
A
n odd thing happened last Sun-
day. A friend was visiting and
invited me to join her for church
— not in a physical house of
worship but streamed via Zoom from her
pastor in Arlington, Va.
Churches around the state are sus-
pending services, and the Rev. David
Martin Hanke of Restoration Anglican
Church was road-testing Zoom with con-
gregants who wanted to worship virtual-
ly. Jody and I sat side by side, possibly in
our PJs, while Hanke fidgeted with vari-
ous audio and visual gadgets. Fellow
parishioners — some solo, some couples,
others families — came into focus in a
Hollywood Squares grid along one side of
the screen.
Most were casually dressed, as was
Hanke, who was seated in his office. At
one count, more than 100 had joined the
service, which meant that at least
200 would have been seated in the pews
on a pre-coronavirus Sunday. Zoom,
which I hadn’t experienced previously,
made possible what the virus had made
impossible — t he gathering o f community
in common prayer and worship. At one
point, some attempted to sing a hymn a
cappella. Let’s j ust say, t he Apostle’s C reed
and the Lord’s Prayer were smoother.
More novel than the virtual service
was the experience of joining a friend of
20 years in prayer. Our more natural
bonding experiences have revolved over
the years around journalism and, in the
sole interest of anthropological research,
shopping. For just a moment, I wasn’tof alternatives.
Now, suddenly, there’s time to think —
to read, write, paint, build, create. Time
for long walks, time to pay attention to
the arrival of spring and time to listen.
Grace, they say, comes to those who
listen. Of course, so much time will drive
some people crazy, so it really is a chal-
lenge as well as an opportunity. Binge-
watching movies is also an option, don’t
get me wrong. As a highly functional
obsessive-compulsive, I’ve already reor-
ganized my r efrigerator to within an inch
of its life and am plotting other projects
that will leave no molecule unturned.
Who knows what will come of all this?
When Shakespeare was quarantined dur-
ing the plague, he wrote “King Lear.” The
only book I ever wrote was while I had a
broken leg, a lesser contribution to the
arts, I concede. Perhaps I’ll write another
— o r at l east long letters to friends I never
meant to set aside.
I’ve often said that America needs a
common enemy to make us come togeth-
er — to solve the riddle of partisan
gridlock and to become one, united na-
tion again. Perhaps covid-19 is that foe.
Hanke closed out his sermon by remind-
ing us that it doesn’t matter whether we
are lined up in pews or piled on a sofa
with a gaggle of giggly children waving to
their Sunday school pals on a computer.
What matters, in good times as well as
bad, are people and community. It has
taken a terrible virus to at l east remind u s
of this eternal truth. Surely, there is grace
in that.
[email protected]KATHLEEN PARKEREmbracing grace amid covid-19
W
hen the history of covid-19 is
written, March 16 will be a
turning point. After weeks of
struggle to find his footing in
the crisis, President Trump finally ac-
knowledged a force greater than his own
agenda. The virus is bigger than Trump
and bigger than his critics. It demands
profound changes to American daily life
— i rrespective of who might win or lose in
political terms. The global disruption
will be severe and long-lasting. Trump
finally buried the dangerous and divisive
notion that this worldwide public health
emergency is exaggerated, ginned up by
his enemies to damage his achievements.
The most important thing Trump said
was also the most personal.
“I’ve spoken actually with my son,” the
president said, referring to 13-year-old
Barron Trump. “He says, ‘How bad is
this?’ ”
Across the country, and maybe around
the world, parents perked up when we
heard this. Part of the pain the past few
weeks has been the struggle to answer
that question for ourselves so that we
could answer the question convincingly
for our children. Their lives are being
upended: no school, no clubs, no sports.
They may be losing their jobs, their
hobbies, their access to healthy meals,
their counseling, their coaching, their
pursuit of long-sought goals. How bad is
this? Of course they are asking.
I’ve been critical of Trump’s fumbling,
solipsistic approach to the pandemic, but
in this case, I thought his answer was
perfect: “It’s bad,” he told his son. Just
like that, no sugarcoating. It’s e asier to lie
to our enemies than to our loved ones.
“It’s bad,” h e repeated, “but we’re going to
be hopefully, a best case, not a worst case,
and that’s what we’re working for.”
Covid-19, a respiratory disease that can
be a death sentence, is indeed bad. With
the pandemic raging in Europe, the Mid-
dle East and the United States, there are
now more cases outside China than in-
side. Studies project that the eventual
death toll will run into the hundreds of
thousands in the United States — if not
higher. Britain abruptly adopted a new
policy after a gold-standard review by
London’s Imperial College projected a
quarter of a million excess deaths if the
existing policy was pursued.
By first admitting that this is bad, we’re
freed to consider best-case and worst-
case responses as a nation rather than as
factions. The sorting hasn’t b een easy, but
for the first time in what seems like ages,
Americans of resolve and goodwill are
aligned against the unreasoning threat of
disease and those who would exploit the
outbreak for personal gains. Governors
of red states and governors of blue states
are sharing data and best practices. Lib-
erals in New York are admonishing the
lefty Mayor Bill de Blasio to join the fight
in a serious way, while conservatives in
Oklahoma are sending the same message
to right-wing Gov. Kevin Stitt.
We are — dare I say it? — on the same
page. People of all stripes have come to
see that a handful of covid-19 cases in
Europe and the United States have
turned into tens of thousands of cases in
just a few weeks. And we’re all doing the
math, some more expertly than others,
but all smart enough to realize what the
curve will look like if we do nothing to
flatten it. We’re ready to take the pain, if
only because there are no alternatives.
We hope we are ready. We want to
measure up.
This challenge hits us in some of our
most treasured, vulnerable places. Our
freedom to do as we please and go as we
wish. Our dauntless consumer confi-
dence. Worst of all, perhaps, our convic-
tion that we are cloaked in the armor of
dumb good luck. So many of us guessed
that this pandemic was overblown, and
why not? Waves of bad news almost
always break and dissipate far from mod-
ern shores. Worst-case scenarios are filed
away under “hype,” while best cases were
assumed to be our birthright.
Not anymore. To achieve the best case
in this genuine crisis, we are going to
have to make it happen. And that will
demand sustained, cheerful effort — for
months, not weeks. Repairing the dam-
age to lives and livelihoods will probably
take years. We will need to cooperate
with people unlike ourselves. We’ll be
called on for patience, for understanding,
for courage, for compassion.
Pulling together must be the priority
for people of goodwill. We can leave for a
time the political clashes and culture
wars and other things that divide us. Our
children want to know how bad this will
get. The most reassuring answer we can
give them is the unity and charity of our
actions.
[email protected]
DAVID VON DREHLE
Working
together for
a best-case
scenario
By first admitting
that this is bad, we’re freed
to consider best-case
and worst-case responses
as a nation rather than
as factions.