The Senate Armed Services Committee has scheduled an Oct. 16 confirmation hearing fro William Bookless, the Donald Trump administration’s nominee to be second-in-command at the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA).
The hearing is a central step to installing Bookless as principal deputy administrator at the semiautonomous Department of Energy agency. The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory senior physicist was nominated in August.
If Bookless passes muster with the committee and is subsequently confirmed by the full Senate before the 115th Congress adjourns for good, the NNSA will — about two years into the Trump administration — have its full complement of Senate-confirmed senior managers.
The Senate has about one more month of legislative days on its calendar between now and Dec. 15, the day on which the upper chamber is provisionally scheduled to conduct its last day of business in the 115th Congress.
If Bookless is not confirmed by the full Senate before the 116th Congress gavels in the following month, his nomination could be rendered null and void, forcing the White House to nominate him all over again. Lawmakers could agree to hold the nomination over into the 116th Congress, however. Whether they do could depend on whether Republicans retain control of the upper chamber.
If confirmed, Bookless will replace William “Ike” White, a career NNSA official who has been the agency’s interim No. 2 since Madelyn Creedon resigned around the time Trump was sworn into office in January 2017.
