NNSA No. 2 nom questioned on workforce needs

WASHINGTON, DC. — In testimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee Tuesday, Vice Admiral Scott Pappano, President Donald Trump’s pick for principal deputy administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration, was asked by Chairman Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) if he thought the agency’s workforce should increase.

“What you’re going to be tasked with, you and others, is going to require a huge infrastructure investment,” Wicker said. “Am I correct, you’re going to need more workforce, by a great deal, to get this done?”

Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) also expressed concerns over the agency’s workforce, saying the staff level is down 8 or 9% since January. Ranking member Jack Reed (D-R.I.) said the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) workforce, which was at 2,000 before getting cuts from the Trump administration and the Department of Government Efficiency, is now 1,650.

Pappano told Wicker in person that he would need to “look across the enterprise blueprint” to “figure out where the barriers are to get that [infrastructure investment] done with urgency,” and look into “the workforce that goes along with that.” 

Meanwhile, in Pappano’s prepared remarks, he said that “in terms of workforce, the biggest challenges facing NNSA are recruitment and retention of highly skilled technical employees.”

Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) specifically asked Pappano how he would address the challenge of recruitment and retention, to which Pappano replied he would “advocate for the men and women in NNSA and the laboratories,” understanding it’s a “unique skillset” and that he would try to do everything he could to “attract, recruit, train, retain” those workers.

The principal deputy administrator is the second highest position in the NNSA, under the administrator or the undersecretary of energy.