WASHINGTON--Rep. Christopher Cox, R-Calif., has announced the appointment of Ben Cohen, a deputy counsel at the Pentagon, as the new staff director of the House Homeland Security Committee.

The appointment of Cohen, who replaces veteran former CIA analyst John Gannon, was made as the homeland security committee becomes empowered the newest permanent committee in the lower house.

A graduate of the University of Chicago Law School and Yale University, Cohen has previously served as associate counsel to President Ronald Reagan, as senior counsel at the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, and as a deputy assistant attorney general.

“I’ve known Ben since our service together two decades ago in the Reagan White House,” Cox said in a prepared statement. “Ben is a superb manager who has had a long and successful career in national security policy. He will be an outstanding leader on our committee.”

Before coming to Cox's committee, Gannon was the person on the White House transition team charged with standing up the new Department of Homeland Security’s Information Analysis and Infrastructure Protection Directorate.

Last June, then CIA Director George J. Tenet presented Gannon with the National Security Medal.

“It is impossible to thank (Gannon) sufficiently for his contribution, or to overstate the pleasure it has been to work with him,” Cox said. “The staff he built, the friendships he made, the respect he earned, and the committee he established will long stand as testament to his intelligence, integrity, vision, leadership, and dedication.”

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