Deputy Energy Secretary Nominee Faces Long Road After Senate Energy Hearing
Todd Jacobson and Mike Nartker
NS&D Monitor
7/25/2014
Madelyn Creedon was confirmed by the Senate this week as the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Principal Deputy Administrator, giving the agency a full complement of Senate-confirmed officials for the first time in nearly 20 months. Creedon, who was confirmed by a voice vote, joins NNSA Administrator Frank Klotz, Defense Programs chief Don Cook and Nonproliferation chief Anne Harrington as the agency’s Senate-confirmed leaders. Creedon replaces Neile Miller, who left the NNSA last year.
In her new role, Creedon will help Klotz run the agency as its No. 2 official, providing leadership in operations as well as policy decisions. It’s unclear when Creedon will be sworn in, but she’ll make the move to NNSA headquarters from the Pentagon, where she has served as the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Global Strategic Affairs since 2011. She previously was a staffer on the Senate Armed Services Committee, and had stints as NNSA’s Deputy Administrator for Defense Programs from 2000 to 2001 and as the Associate Deputy Energy Secretary for National Security Programs from 1995 to 1997.
Moniz: A ‘Critical Point’ for NNSA
Creedon was nominated to the position Nov. 7 and reported out by the Senate Armed Services Committee in March but her nomination had languished in the Senate as part of a partisan disagreement over nominees. “Madelyn Creedon’s confirmation comes at a critical point for the National Nuclear Security Administration,” Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz said in a statement. “She is well-prepared for her new role at the Department as it follows a long career of public service in national security, including at the Department of Defense, with the Senate Armed Services Committee, and, previously, at the Department of Energy. NNSA Administrator Klotz and I thank the Senate for their attention to Madelyn’s nomination, and look forward to working with her.”
With her extensive Capitol Hill, Pentagon and NNSA experience, Creedon is expected to aid in the repair of the NNSA’s image, and with the agency facing potential governance restructuring—a Congressionally named panel is examining the issue—her experience at NNSA in its early years is expected to be particularly valuable. “What she provides is continuity,” one Congressional aide told NS&D Monitor when Creedon was nominated. “She started out in DOE and knows it well and will be a trusted person for Congress to turn to. The major problems she’ll face are the major problems facing NNSA: getting the money to do the projects and getting them completed on time.”
A Long Road For Nominees
While Creedon was confirmed, a handful of DOE nominees remain in limbo, and a key Senate Republican warned DOE’s newest nominee this week that she could face a long road to confirmation. Liz Sherwood-Randall appeared before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee for a hearing on her nomination to serve as the next Deputy Energy Secretary. If confirmed, she will replace Dan Poneman, who has announced plans to leave DOE this fall after having served as Deputy Secretary for five years.
Randall currently serves as Special Assistant to the President and White House Coordinator for Defense Policy, Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction, and Arms Control. Among her previous positions, she served as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for European Affairs at the National Security Council from 2009 to 2013; and as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Russia, Ukraine, and Eurasia from 1994 to 1996.
Moniz ‘Needs to Have a Full Team Around Him’
At this week’s hearing, though, Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) warned Sherwood-Randall may have a difficult time making it through the Senate confirmation process. A number of other DOE nominees that have been approved by the Senate energy panel have not yet made it to the Senate floor, including Under Secretary for Science nominee Franklin Orr, Chief Financial Officer nominee Joseph Hezir, Director of the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy nominee Ellen Williams and Director of the Office of Science nominee Marc Kastner.
Earlier this month, the White House withdrew the nomination of Elizabeth Robinson to fill the position of Under Secretary of Energy for Management and Performance after her progress through the Senate also appeared to have stalled. “You’re going to need to navigate a floor process that has not been very kind to our DOE nominees,” Murkowski told Sherwood-Randall. “We’ve certainly cleared a lot of judges this year, a lot of officials for other agencies and departments. So perhaps we can take a little breather from that and focus on DOE for a change. I think that Secretary [of Energy Ernest] Moniz needs to have a full team around him, and I want to help support him in that.”
