A little bit. Chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Jason Chaffetz (R, UT) led a letter to President Barack Obama in which he and 17 other Congressmen called for OPM Director Katherine Archuleta and OPM Chief Information Officer (CIO) Donna Seymour to be fired.
My disagreements are two. Chaffetz, in his letter, said
Director Archuleta and her leadership team failed to correct serious vulnerabilities to OPM’s network and cybersecurity posture….
He said much the same thing about Seymour. This was no failure to correct, though. These are two highly intelligent women, at the pinnacle of their careers whose talents have taken them to upper reaches of our Federal government. They knew what they were doing and not doing. They chose not to correct the vulnerabilities and security.
My second point of disagreement is this. Chaffetz closed his letter with this request of Obama:
Therefore, we respectfully request that you address this serious issue by removing Director Archuleta and Ms. Seymour from their positions.
That’s inadequate. Archuleta’s and Seymour’s number twos in their respective offices also knew what was going on and what was not being done, as did Archuleta’s and Seymour’s senior staffs. Those folks condoned the inaction by their decision not to scream bloody murder about their boss’ decisions not to act. Judgment like that cannot be acceptable in such positions; those people should be fired, also.
There is one point on which I do agree with Chaffetz most definitely. These two…officials…and their number twos, and on down the respective senior staffs, should be fired. Not allowed to resign, not allowed to retire—fired.