Trump Team, NNSA Dispute Leadership Dismissals Rumor

Both the National Nuclear Security Administration and President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team this week denied new reporting earlier that the incoming administration is dismissing the agency’s top two officials.

Gizmodo reported Monday 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. An NNSA official told NS&D Monitor later that day that there have been no discussions between Trump’s transition team and any of the agency’s political appointees on extending their public service past Inauguration Day.

On Tuesday, Politico quoted a transition team official saying, “There is no validity to this,” referring to the initial dismissal rumor. A source familiar with the NNSA on Tuesday agreed that Klotz and Creedon were likely not given any such formal notification and told NS&D Monitor that the incoming administration is still actively considering a couple names to fill the administrator role.

One of them is rumored to be Paul Longsworth, a Fluor executive and former NNSA deputy administrator for defense nuclear nonproliferation. Another name floated is Jay Cohen, a retired Navy admiral who served in the Department of Homeland Security.

Gizmodo updated its story to say the transition team “has declined to ask” Klotz and Creedon to stay past Inauguration Day, and that an Energy Department source said both officials have indicated they may be willing to remain on through the transition, if requested.

Stephen Young, senior analyst with the Union of Concerned Scientists, tweeted Friday, “I am told NNSA heads still have not been told whether or not they should clean out their desks next week.”

A separate source told NS&D Monitor on Monday that the departure of top-level political appointees has a limited impact on the work done at NNSA laboratories and with the support of the career federal service workforce.

The NNSA, a semiautonomous branch of the Department of Energy, 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 and Appropriations 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.

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.