If confirmed, Christine Wormuth would be the first woman to take the place.
In a historic nomination, President Joe Biden has nominated Christine Wormuth to be the Army secretary.
If confirmed by the Senate, Wormuth, who was head of Pentagon policy in the last years of the Obama administration, would be the first woman to hold office.
He was also appointed to two major Pentagon positions, former California Representative Gil Cisneros to be Undersecretary of Personnel Defense and Preparedness, and Susanna Blume to serve as Director of Cost Assessment and Evaluation. of Programs (CAPE).
Wormuth, a veteran national security officer with previous experience at the Pentagon, also served as the National Security Council’s director of defense policy during the Obama administration.
Wormuth has recently served as director of the Rand Corporation’s Center for International Security and Defense Policy and was an influential player on the Biden transition team at the Pentagon, where he led the Agency’s review team. Biden-Harris defense.
“Christine is a true patriot with a dedicated career in the service of America and the security of our nation,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a statement while traveling in Berlin.
“As a former Secretary of Defense for Policy, Christine advanced the department’s ISIS campaign and rebalancing into Asia, and her in-depth experience will be critical in addressing and determining current global threats, including the challenge of the pace of China and the nation-state threats emanate from Russia, Iran and North Korea, ”Austin said. “I have no doubt that, if confirmed, she will lead our soldiers and represent their families with honor and integrity as secretary of the army.”
The Biden administration has lagged behind in appointing senior officials from various national security agencies, especially at the Pentagon, where career civilians have been working in positions that normally require confirmation in the Senate.
Until Wormuth’s nomination this week, none of the civilian heads of military service had been nominated by the White House.
The Pentagon’s three nominations on Monday included nearly a dozen national security nominations that included Christy Abizaid to be the next director of the National Counterterrorism Center.
“Defending our nation from foreign and domestic enemies requires a deeply experienced team capable of building on a commitment to the ideals of our nation and a deep understanding of the great challenges facing our armed forces today,” he said. said Austin. “Presidential nominations today will help us form this team.”
“Christine Wormuth, Gil Cisneros and Susanna Blume represent decades of combined experience in national security and we are in a position to take on the crises we face at the present time and prepare for the threats of tomorrow,” he continued. “I urge the Senate to confirm them soon, so that they can take on this critical task.”
Cisneros was a one-term Democratic congressman who represented the 39th district of the California Congress before losing his re-election in 2020.
During his time in Congress, Cisneros, 50, served on the House Armed and Veterans Services Committee. After the death of Army Spc. Venessa Guillen, Cisneros, participated in discussions about the status of Latinos in the army and helped introduce Law I Am Vanessa Guillén, which would make sexual harassment a crime within the Uniform Code of Military Justice.
He became a philanthropist in 2010 after winning a $ 266 million Mega Millions award shortly after being fired as Frito-Lay’s manager.
Prior to her appointment, Blume has already been serving as director of CAPE. She has held multiple political and budgetary positions at the Pentagon and, most recently, was a senior fellow and director of the Defense Program at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS).