Appointee Watch: Trump Announces Picks for Justice, State and Other Agencies

The big news in federal staffing this week was the abrupt resignation of Office of Government Ethics Director Walter Shaub on Thursday.

As Charlie Clark reported, although Shaub’s term runs until January, he will leave his post on July 19. He posted his resignation letter on the agency’s Twitter account, and in a statement announcing his intent to join the Campaign Legal Center, appeared to rebuke the Trump administration.

“In working with the current administration, it has become clear to me that we need improvements to the existing ethics program,” Shaub said. “I look forward to working toward that aim at Campaign Legal Center, as well as working on ethics reforms at all levels of government.”

While the pace of the White House’s announcements of appointees for key posts slowed this week as President Trump attends the G20 summit in Hamburg, Germany, Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price announced Friday that Dr. Brenda Fitzgerald will become director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Fitzgerald has served as the commissioner of the Georgia Department of Public Health and the state’s health officer for the last six years. The post, which does not require Senate confirmation, has been held on an acting basis by Dr. Anne Schuchat since January.

According to the Washington Post and the Partnership for Public Service, which have been tracking more than 500 key administration posts that require Senate confirmation, 46 appointees have been confirmed and are on the job. Another 134 people either have been announced or formally nominated, while 384 positions remain vacant.

Among the recently named appointees are:

Defense: Matthew Donovan, undersecretary of the Air Force. Donovan, most recently the policy director for Republicans on the Senate Armed Services Committee, served 31 years in the Air Force, retiring as a colonel. During his military career, he commanded the U.S. Air Force Officer Training School and an F-15C fighter squadron.

Office of the Director of National Intelligence: Susan Gordan, principal deputy director. Gordon is deputy director for the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, and has served as director of the Central Intelligence Agency’s Information Operations Center and the agency’s senior advisor to the director on cyber.

Equal Employment Opportunity Commission: Janet Dhillon, member. Dhillon is a corporate lawyer, who has served as general counsel for a number of large companies. She is currently executive vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary for Burlington Stores, Inc. She has served in similar roles at JC Penney Company and US Airways.

Federal Communications Commission: Brendan Carr. Carr is general counsel of the FCC. Prior to that post, Carr was lead advisor to FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai on wireless, public safety and international issues, and he previously served as an attorney in the agency’s Office of General Counsel.

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission: Richard Glick. Glick is general counsel for the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Commission. Prior to joining the committee, he was vice president of government affairs for Spanish corporation Iberdrola’s energy companies in the U.S.

Justice: Eric Dreiband, assistant attorney general, civil rights division. Although the White House did not include a bio for Dreiband, he is an attorney who served as the top lawyer at the EEOC during the George W. Bush administration. More recently, he defended a number of corporations against discrimination lawsuits. Most prominently, he was unsuccessful in defending Abercrombie and Fitch before the Supreme Court in a case where the company refused to hire a Muslim woman because she wore a headscarf.

Darlene Hutchinson, director, Office of Victims of Crime. Hutchinson is a longtime crime victims’ advocate, both helping victims through court proceedings and advocating for tougher sentences for those convicted of crimes. She worked with the Alabama General Assembly in 2016 on a law that institutes a mandatory 30-year prison sentence for juveniles convicted of capital murder before they are eligible for parole.

State: Krishna Urs, ambassador to Peru. Urs is a career member of the Senior Foreign Service, currently the Charge d’ Affaires of the U.S. Embassy in Madrid, Spain.

Kay Bailey Hutchison, U.S. representative to NATO. Hutchison was a senator representing Texas from 1993 until 2013.