President Biden this week hit the refresh button on dozens of nominations left over from 2023, including several for officials that may have big impacts on the Federal technology and workforce fronts within the Department of Defense (DoD) if their nominations are cleared by the U.S. Senate.
The list of renominations released by the White House on Jan. 8 features a hefty share of ambassador and judicial picks from last year, but also several nominations of interest to the government tech community – particularly within the Pentagon.
Absent special arrangements being made for them in the Senate, nominations expire at the end of the calendar year in which they were made and need to be refreshed by the administration for the current calendar year.
At the DoD, the White House renominated Derek Chollet to be the undersecretary of defense for policy. Chollet was originally nominated by Biden in July following Colin Kahl’s – who led the defense policy shop since April 2021 – resignation.
Chollet currently serves as the counselor at the State Department and previously served at the Pentagon as the assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs.
The Senate Committee on Armed Services held Chollet’s nomination hearing on Sept. 28, but a vote to advance his nomination to the full Senate was never held before the end of the calendar year.
The top defense position serves as the principal advisor to the secretary of defense for defense policy and leads the formulation and coordination of national security policy within the DoD.
Melissa Griffin Dalton’s nomination to be the undersecretary of the Air Force was also refreshed this week. Dalton was nominated in September after former Undersecretary of the Air Force Gina Maria Ortiz Jones stepped down in March.
Dalton’s nomination was referred to the Senate Committee on Armed Services, but a hearing was not scheduled in 2023. Currently, she serves as the assistant secretary of defense for homeland defense and hemispheric affairs.
The top Air Force position is responsible for the affairs of the Department of the Air Force, comprised of the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Space Force, to include organizing, training, and equipping Air and Space Forces and for the welfare of approximately 700,000 active duty, Guard, Reserve and civilian airmen and guardians and their families serving around the world. The position oversees the department’s annual budget and directs strategy and policy development, risk management, weapons acquisition, technology investments, and human resource management across a global enterprise.
Biden Refreshes Julie Su for top Labor Dept. Role
The White House on Monday announced it has also renominated Julie Su to be secretary of labor as her confirmation has languished in the Senate for more than 10 months.
Su has served as the Department of Labor’s (DoL) deputy secretary since 2021. She became acting secretary of labor in March after former Secretary Marty Walsh resigned.
Su’s nomination cleared the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee along party lines in April, but was never voted on in the full Senate.
All Democrats on the committee voted in favor of Su’s nomination, but she did not receive support from any Republicans, who criticized her “decades-long record of partisan activism, promoting policies that undermine workers to the benefit of politically connected labor unions.”
