The administration may also decide to have two military officers lead the two agencies.

The fact that the administration is considering whether to split the commands isn’t a direct response to the revelations about the NSA’s surveillance operations, but it does reflect growing concern over the power of the NSA director and a shortage of oversight of the position.

It also is an indication of the growing importance of cyber attacks in military operations.

But Alexander is lobbying policymakers to keep the positions united.

“I believe it has to remain dual-hatted,” he said last month during a discussion on cybersecurity hosted by Politico.

“If you try to break them up, what you have is two teams not working together. Our nation can’t afford–especially in this budget environment—to have one team try to rebuild what the other team does,” he said.