A National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) official said Monday that reports that President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team is already dismissing the agency’s top two leaders are “not accurate.”
In an article posted Monday, Gizmodo reported that NNSA Administrator Frank Klotz and Principal Deputy Administrator Madelyn Creedon were being dismissed from their current roles come Jan. 20, the day Trump will take office. The article cited an Energy Department source and noted that no details are known about potential replacements for the two officials.
However, an NNSA official told NS&D Monitor Monday afternoon there have been no discussions between Trump’s transition team and any of NNSA’s political appointees on extending their public service past inauguration day.
A separate source familiar with the NNSA told NS&D Monitor that Creedon had already planned to leave by Jan.20, but that Klotz’s intentions were unclear. The individual said NNSA offices are staffed by a strong career federal service that would continue operations under either situation, meaning the departure of some top-level political appointees would have limited impact.
The NNSA, a semiautonomous branch of the Energy Department, is tasked with ensuring the safety, security, and reliability of the U.S. nuclear arsenal. Its work, funded by more than $12 billion annually, primarily takes place at its various sites across the country, not at headquarters, the source said.
Meanwhile, NNSA funding is worked out in the House and Senate Armed Services committees, where the agency boasts strong congressional support for its mission and would therefore be unlikely to suffer budget impacts from the presence – or lack thereof – of political leadership, the source said.
NNSA spokeswoman Francie Israeli said by email, “The political appointees, career federal officials, and uniformed military who comprise NNSA are committed to NNSA’s vital and enduring national security mission—and to the people who perform it—and therefore are doing all they can to ensure a smooth transition between the current Administration and the next.”
Klotz, a retired Air Force lieutenant general, has served in his current position since April 2014; Creedon, a longtime DOE and Congress hand, since July 2014.
