Todd Jacobson
NS&D Monitor
2/07/2014
President Obama has nominated a pair of Administration officials to fill key vacancies in the Pentagon’s policy shop. On Jan. 31, Obama nominated Christine Wormuth to be the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy and Brian McKeon to serve as the Principal Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Policy. Wormuth has served as the Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Strategy, Plans and Forces since 2012, and previously served as a special assistant to the president for national security affairs and senior director for defense policy on the National Security Staff from 2010 to 2012. She replaces Jim Miller, who left the Pentagon in early January.
McKeon has served since 2012 as the Deputy Assistant to the President, Executive Secretary of the National Security Council, and Chief of Staff for the National Security Staff at the White House. Previously, he worked as the Deputy National Security Advisor to the Vice President from 2009 to 2012, and served as the deputy staff director and chief counsel on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee from 1997 to 2009. Wormuth and McKeon will appear before the Senate Armed Services Committee at 9:30 a.m. Feb. 25 for their confirmation hearing, but it’s anyone’s guess how long it will take for Wormuth and McKeon to be confirmed. More than 100 nominees remain logjammed in the Senate, including Frank Klotz, the Obama Administration’s nominee to be NNSA Administrator, and NNSA Principal Deputy Administrator nominee Madelyn Creedon.
