Donald Trump appointee Charles Verdon has taken over as acting administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration, the semi autonomous Department of Energy nuclear-weapons agency confirmed Friday.
Meanwhile, David Huizenga, No. 3 at the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and its top career official, will take over as acting Secretary of Energy until the Senate confirms President Joe Biden’s nominee for the post, former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm (D), the administration said this week.
Granholm is scheduled for a Jan. 27 confirmation hearing before the Senate Energy Natural Resources Committee. Biden was sworn in as president at noon on Wednesday.
Huizenga was nominally in line to lead NNSA, after former Acting Administrator William Bookless resigned just before the inauguration. However, with Huizenga getting a temporary call to the big office in the Forrestal Building, Verdon will take the helm while remaining in his post as deputy administrator for defense programs.
It is more often the case than not that NNSA appointees from one administration stay on to serve a president other than the one that appointed them.
As with the Secretary of Energy, the Senate must confirm Biden’s choice to lead the NNSA on a full-time basis. The Biden administration had not nominated anyone for the top NNSA post at deadline for Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor. The NNSA’s administrator, principal deputy administration and its deputy administrators for defense programs and defense nuclear nonproliferation all need Senate confirmation.
Brent Park, the nonproliferation chief, has also left his post, NNSA said Friday. Kasia Mendelsohn is the acting deputy administrator for defense nuclear nonproliferation.
In an introductory all-hands letter to DOE, incoming agency chief of staff Tarak Shah thanked “NNSA’s David Huizenga for answering the call to be Acting Secretary until a Secretary is confirmed by the Senate. Dave’s decades of service in [DOE’s Office of Environmental Management] and NNSA mean that DOE is in good hands.”
