The White House this week hit the refresh button on dozens of nominations left over from 2022 and even earlier, including several for officials that may have big impacts on the Federal technology and workforce fronts if their nominations are cleared by the U.S. Senate.
The list of renominations released by the White House on Jan. 3 features a hefty share of ambassador and judicial picks from last year, but also several nominations of interest to the government tech community. Absent special arrangements being made for them in the Senate, nominations expire at the end of the calendar year in which they were made, and need to be refreshed by the administration for the current calendar year.
Some of the renominations with tech-sector angles announced by the White House are:
- For FCC commissioner, the nomination of Gigi Sohn. Originally nominated in 2021 and renominated in 2022, Senate approval of the nomination would break the current 2-2 tie among Democratic and Republican FCC commissioners.
- For commissioner and head of the Internal Revenue Service within the Treasury Department, the nomination of Daniel Werfel. The White House sent the nomination to the Senate on Nov. 14, where it made no headway before the end of 2022. If his nomination is confirmed, Werfel would have a big role in rebuilding agency staffing and IT capabilities using $80 billion of funding approved by Congress for that purpose last year.
- For chair of the Merit Systems Protection Board, the nomination of Cathy Ann Harris. She was nominated last year and is currently a member of the board and acting chairwoman.
- For archivist of the United States at the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), the nomination of Colleen Joy Shogan. The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee deadlocked on her nomination in September, with former Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, citing what he called the nominee’s “partisan views.”
Also on the list of refreshed nominations are:
- Ronald T. Keohane, for Assistant Secretary of Defense;
- Lester Martinez-Lopez, for Assistant Secretary of Defense;
- Brendan Owens, for Assistant Secretary of Defense;
- Laura Taylor-Kale, for Assistant Secretary of Defense; and
- Radha Iyengar Plumb for Deputy Under Secretary of Defense;
- Elizabeth H. Richard, of Virginia, for Coordinator for Counterterrorism at the State Department;
- Dilawar Syed, for Deputy Administrator of the Small Business Administration; and
- Richard R. Verma, for Deputy Secretary of State for Management and Resources.
