The Senate Armed Services Committee this week cancelled a scheduled nomination hearing for the man the Donald Trump administration’s nominated to be second-in-command at the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA).
William Bookless, a senior physicist form the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California was scheduled to testify before the Senate Armed Services Committee Tuesday, but “this hearing has been postponed,” the committee wrote on its website. “It will be rescheduled at a later date.”
Bookless’ canceled nomination hearing was an apparent casualty of the deal Senate Democrats cut last week with the chamber’s Republican leadership: approving a slew of judicial nominees in exchange for freedom to adjourn and campaign ahead of the Nov. 6 midterm elections.
Bookless’ day in the Senate, and that of other people nominated for senior administration jobs, “was postponed because the Senate went into recess,” a Senate Armed Services Committee spokesperson wrote in an email Monday.
Bookless, nominated in August to be principal deputy administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration, is the last remaining senior leadership slot the administration needs Senate confirmation to fill.
There are four Senate-confirmed slots in total at NNSA: the administrator; the principal deputy administrator; the Deputy Administrator for Defense Programs; and the Deputy Administrator for Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation.
The Trump administration has filled each position, except Bookless’. Last week, Charles Verdon, another old Livermore hand, was sworn in as deputy administrator for defense programs, following his unanimous confirmation in September. The Trump administration’s first political appointee to NNSA’s senior executive service was Administrator Lisa Gordon-Hagerty, who was confirmed in February after a December nomination.
