Panel OKs Bill Expanding Role of Head of Joint Chiefs

The House Armed Services Committee Tuesday approved a bill expanding the power of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff as a way to reform the Pentagon and end interservice rivalries.

The bill, which would put the staff now assigned to all the chiefs under the control of the chairman and make him the chief military adviser to the President and secretary of defense, is expected to reach the full House for debate next week.

Seat in Security Council

It was approved on a 38-2 vote after the panel refused to eliminate a provision that the chairman sit in at all National Security Council meetings.

In addition, the measure creates a deputy to assist the chairman, and both would serve four-year terms rather than the two-year term the chairman now serves.

The bill falls well short of a series of changes proposed two weeks ago by the staff of the Senate Armed Services Committee, which said that the five-member Joint Chiefs should be eliminated.

“I believe we can take the chiefs and make reforms in the present structure rather than throwing the baby out with the bath water,” said Rep. Bill Nichols (D-Ala.), one of the House measure’s chief sponsors.

Reform Derided

The Pentagon has criticized the Senate proposal, and Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger has derided calls for reform, arguing that the present system works fine and saying: “If it isn’t broke, don’t fix it.”

The Senate bill “is a leap into the unknown,” said Rep. Larry J. Hopkins (R-Ky.). “We have chosen to take the basic product and improve it.”

“This bill would promote more joint planning,” said Rep. Ike Skelton (D-Mo.). “You cannot fight jointly unless you think and plan jointly.”

Skelton and other supporters of the bill cited the October, 1983, invasion of Grenada, when Army troops and Marines on the Caribbean island couldn’t talk to each other because their radios had incompatible frequencies.

Both the Senate and House proposals are aimed at overhauling the Joint Chiefs, the structure created by a 1947 law designed to modernize the U.S. defense Establishment after World War II.

Little Statutory Power

The chairman of the Joint Chiefs has little statutory power. But the other four members, who are the top officers of each service, have two roles--heading their individual services and sitting on the five-member board, which is supposed to resolve disputes among the services.

In recent years, there have been numerous calls for reform, amid complaints that the current system is too unwieldy and is so torn by interservice rivalries that it is ineffective and wastes money through duplication of weapons.