Tim Morrison, a staffer on the House Armed Services Committee who helped shape the ongoing nuclear modernization program started under the Barack Obama administration, left the Hill last month to become senior director for weapons of mass destruction and biodefense at the White House National Security Council.
That is according to a farewell email Morrison sent to colleagues, and which was seen recently by Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor.
“Leaving the House Armed Services Committee is the most difficult professional decision I have made to date,” Morrison wrote in the email. “The Committee is replete with patriots and public servants of the highest order, both Members and staff. I am not one for emotion or sentimentality, so I will just say thank you to all of you and I look forward to continuing to work with you.”
In his new role, Morrison will be responsible for advising the president about not only nuclear arms threats, but chemical and biological weapons. The post is also responsible for coordinating strategies to prevent damage from naturally occurring epidemics. Morrison replaces Andrea Hall, whose LinkedIn profile still listed her in her old job at deadline Friday for Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor.
The career move puts Morrison, for now, a little further away from the active nuclear weapons, nonproliferation, and nuclear naval programs of the National Nuclear Security Administration. The congressional Armed Services committees shape the agency’s program and budget every year with the annual National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).
Morrison served as the policy director for the House Armed Services Committee for seven years. In that role, he would have had a strong voice in shaping annual NDAA bills, including the amount of funding authorized for NNSA and Department of Defense nuclear modernization programs. Prior to his work in the House, Morrison was the national security policy adviser for then-Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.).
The Daily Beast ran a detailed piece on Morrison this week, though Politico was first with the news before the July 4 holiday. In the Daily Beast article, Morrison was characterized by one ex-State Department staffer as “the hardlinest of the hardline on nuclear policy” for his deep antipathy to curbs on the U.S. deterrent.
The 2019 NDAA, which got its final approval from Congress this week, authorizes $15 billion for the NNSA for the budget year beginning Oct. 1. It allows the agency to start work on a new low-yield, submarine-launched ballistic-missile warhead.
