Biden announces key nominees for Department of Defense ANI | Updated: Dec 31, 2020 01:40 IST
Washington DC [US], December 31 (ANI): US President-electJoe Biden on Wednesday selected two former senior officials for top positions at the Pentagon, according to the Biden-Harris Presidential Transition team.
As per an official release, Biden has selected Kathleen Hicks, who currently leads his Pentagon transition team and works as a strategist at the Washington-based think tank, as his nominee to be deputy defense secretary.
Hicks would become the first woman to hold the second-highest-ranking job at Pentagon.
Besides Hicks, the President-elect has picked a former Pentagon official for the Middle East, Colin Kohl, his former national security advisor, to be undersecretary of defense for policy.
Biden names Kathleen Hicks as first woman deputy defense secretary
Joe Biden’s transition team announced Wednesday that former Obama Pentagon official Kathleen Hicks is the President-elect’s pick to serve as deputy secretary of defense, and she would be the first woman to serve in the role if confirmed by the Senate.
The transition team also announced Colin Kahl, who served as national security adviser to Biden when he was vice president, is Biden’s nominee for under secretary of defense for policy.
“These respected, accomplished civilian leaders will help lead the Department of Defense with integrity and resolve, safeguard the lives and interests of the American people, and ensure that we fulfill our most sacred obligation: to equip and protect those who serve our country, and to care for them and their families both during and after their service,” Biden said in a statement.
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Sputnik International
Biden Announces Two Key Nominees for Department of Defense
Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden announced two key picks for Department of Defense (DOD) roles on Dec. 30, calling them “crisis-tested patriots” who will ensure that department “policies are accountable to the American people.”
Biden announced his choices of Dr. Kathleen Hicks for deputy secretary of defense and Dr. Colin Kahl for undersecretary of defense for policy, both of whom previously served in former President Barack Obama’s administration.
Hicks and Kahl will answer to Lloyd Austin, whom Biden earlier said he would nominate to be secretary of defense.
The former vice president said the two nominees will play a key role in keeping Americans safe including, in his administration’s COVID-19 vaccine distribution effort, addressing security threats related to the climate crisis, equipping service members and their families, and preparing for potential conflicts.