FORMER LOCKHEED CEO AUGUSTINE TO CO-CHAIR NNSA GOVERNANCE PANEL

Former Lockheed Martin CEO Norm Augustine will serve as the co-chair of the Congressionally mandated panel on the governance of the National Nuclear Security Administration alongside former Strategic Command chief Richard Mies. Augustine was selected by Democratic lawmakers to his spot as the co-chair, with Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) and House Armed Services Committee Ranking Member Adam Smith (D-Wash.) informing the Department of Defense of their selection Friday. Mies was selected earlier by Republican lawmakers to head up the committee, which will make recommendations on revising the governance structure of the NNSA.

Eleven of the panel’s 12 members have been selected, and only Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has not appointed a member to the commission. The panelists include four retired lawmakers: New Mexico Rep. Heather Wilson (R), California lawmaker and State Department official Ellen Tauscher (D), South Carolina lawmaker John Spratt (D), and Ohio lawmaker David Hobson (R). Also included on the panel are former NNSA Naval Reactors chief Adm. Kirkland Donald, former Bush Administration national security expert Frank Miller, former Reagan Administration Under Secretary of State for Security Assistance, Science and Technology William Schneider, and former Deputy Energy Secretary T.J. Glauthier. The panel is required to finish an interim report by the end of June and complete its report Feb. 1, 2014, but funding issues have delayed efforts to get the panel off the ground and its members have yet to meet.