Marvin Adams, the Joe Biden administration’s to lead the National Nuclear Security Administration’s defense programs from agency headquarters, has the support of the Senate Armed Services Committee’s powerful Republican ranking member.
Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) “expects to support this nomination when the committee votes,” a spokesperson for committee Republicans wrote Monday in an email.
Adams, a professor of nuclear engineering at Texas A&M University and an advisor for years to nuclear weapons labs under various management and operations contracts, had his nomination hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee on March 22. There, he told lawmakers he supported the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) strategy to build a pair of plutonium-pit factories but that he also supported a review of the program, which has fallen behind schedule.
The White House announced Biden’s intent to nominate Adams on Dec. 15.
If approved by the committee and confirmed by the full Senate, Adams will replace Charles Verdon as the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) deputy administrator for defense programs. Verdon has served in that role since Oct. 9, 2018 and, following Biden’s inauguration, did a short stint as the acting NNSA administrator until the Senate confirmed Jill Hruby for the role.
Biden’s NNSA nominees have managed for the most part to avoid partisan gridlock in the Senate. The most recent nominee to clear the full Senate was Corey Hinderstein, the deputy administrator for defense nuclear nonproliferation, who sailed through on a voice vote Nov. 30.
