Roles, responsibilities of Cyber Command debated.

• Author: Magnuson, Stew

Language in the 2017 National Defense Authorization Act called for the elevation of U.S. Cyber Command's status and the end of the "dual-hat" role for its leader.

The head of the National Security Agency and Cyber Command may soon be two different jobs and the Defense Department will have a new "joint unified command."

Changes to the relatively new Cyber Command, established in 2009, come as the nation reels from allegations that Russian electronic spies interfered in last year's presidential election, which followed a series of high-profile hacks of sensitive government and commercial data. Lawmakers and pundits alike are complaining that the nation lacks a strong national policy to thwart the network intrusions.

While there was some opposition to separating Cybercom and the NSA's leadership, the reaction to the proposal was largely positive.

"We should discontinue the dual-hat arrangement which I helped design when I was undersecretary of defense for intelligence seven years ago," Director of National Intelligence James Clapper testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee prior to leaving office. "This isn't purely a military issue. I don't think this is in the NSA's or the [intelligence community's] best interest to continue the dual-hat set up."

Another section of the law, however, called for the secretary of defense and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to both certify that ending the dual-hat arrangement "will not pose risks to the military effectiveness of Cybercom that are unacceptable to the national security interests of the United States."

While President Barack Obama signed the law, he noted that he was opposed to Congress managing what should be a role of the executive branch.

"Congress should leave decisions about the establishment of combatant commands to the executive branch and should not place unnecessary and bureaucratic administrative burdens and conditions on ending the dual-hat arrangement at a time when the speed and nature of cyber threats requires agility in making decisions about how best to organize and manage the nation's cyber capabilities," he wrote.

Nevertheless, he supported the move because Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter and Clapper agreed that it was for the best.

"While the dual-hat arrangement was once appropriate in order to enable a fledgling Cybercom to leverage NSA's advanced capabilities and expertise, Cybercom has since matured and the current construct should be replaced through a...