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Summer break delays confirmations

More than two months after the Air Force chief of staff and secretary were ousted in an unprecedented decapitation of a military service, the Air Force’s new leadership team is still not fully functional.

Gen. Norton Schwartz has been confirmed by the Senate and is poised to take over officially as chief of staff by mid-August, but the nominations of Michael Donley to become secretary and Lt. Gen. William Fraser III to become vice chief are languishing in the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Congress is taking its summer recess until early September, so it may be late September or after before the committee can approve the Donley and Fraser nominations and the full Senate can confirm them.

That means Schwartz will take the stick by himself — without the help of a confirmed secretary and vice chief — at a time when the Air Force needs to move quickly on priorities as divergent as fixing its nuclear enterprise, resolving acquisition problems and deciding what to do about maintenance reorganization.

“The fact that there are [delays] on a senior Air Force nomination is cause for concern,” said Mackenzie Eaglen, senior policy analyst with the Heritage Foundation. “This is a critical time for the service, and it must have strong, capable leaders who have the confidence of Congress to most effectively carry out their responsibilities.”

The Senate Armed Services Committee on July 31 approved the nominations of Schwartz and Gen. Duncan McNabb — nominated to take over for Schwartz as head of U.S. Transportation Command — but did not act on the Donley or Fraser nominations. Donley is serving as acting secretary and will continue in that capacity until the committee and the full Senate act. Fraser is still serving as the assistant to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs.

A committee spokeswoman said the committee does not comment on pending nominations, but other sources said the Donley nomination appears to have fallen victim to politicking by committee members, any of whom is able to hold up military nominations for virtually any reason.

A Pentagon source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Fla., is holding up the Donley nomination because of the Air Force’s mishandling of privatized housing projects that failed last year, leaving Patrick Air Force Base, Fla., and three other bases short on housing.

Nelson questioned Donley and Schwartz about the projects during a confirmation hearing July 22, but he did not indicate he would hold up either nomination because of the issue. Nelson’s office declined to comment for this story.

A Senate source, also speaking anonymously, said the Donley nomination is being delayed because of some senators’ concerns about the process by which the Air Force chose the team of Northrop Grumman and EADS to build its new refueling tanker. After the Government Accountability Office upheld Boeing’s protest of the award, the Pentagon took the decision out of the Air Force’s hands and reopened bidding.

Meanwhile, Washington Democratic Sen. Maria Cantwell said she intends to block Senate action on Donley’s nomination because she is unconvinced that he recognizes the seriousness of problems with the competition for the tanker contract and thinks the Pentagon may not conduct a fair rebidding process.

Donley was not working for the Air Force at the time of the privatized housing projects or the tanker decision, but Eaglen said senators are likely holding up the nomination to get Pentagon and Air Force officials to pay attention to their issues.

“Often, a hold can generate more rapid and productive dialogue with military and defense officials if members feel they’re not being heard or requests are going unmet,” she said.

Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said the delay is disappointing because Defense Secretary Robert Gates had hoped to have the new Air Force leadership team confirmed and in place by now.

“Our goal as soon as Congress returns from their summer recess is to push them to get Mike Donley confirmed as Air Force secretary as soon as possible,” Morrell said.

There is no word why the committee has not acted on the Fraser nomination.

As acting secretary, Donley has all the authority of a confirmed secretary. Not being confirmed for another month or more should not affect Donley’s ability to do the job, Eaglen said.

“For all practical purposes, he should still be able to work diligently to address the many Air Force challenges in an acting capacity,” she said. “Many of the current problems plaguing the Air Force are internal, and therefore Donley should be able to continue working in earnest to identify and address them in priority order.”

Top priorities

Donley’s top priorities since becoming acting secretary June 21 have been fixing the nuclear enterprise and repairing the acquisition system, both internal matters that he should be able to address in an acting capacity.

Donley told lawmakers July 22 he has established a nuclear task force to coordinate the various improvement actions across the Air Force’s major commands, and he said that task force will deliver a strategic nuclear roadmap to him by the end of September.

He also said he has directed Sue Payton, assistant secretary of the Air Force for acquisition, to come up with a plan to improve the acquisition process. He said he is planning two 90-day reviews — one internal and one external — of Air Force acquisition to come up with long-term solutions.

Lt. Col. Brenda Campbell, Donley’s spokeswoman, said the nuclear and acquisition initiatives are moving forward.

“These initiatives are underway and, as acting secretary, he can direct these initiatives and he can make decisions based on the results of these initiatives,” Campbell said in an e-mail.

Less certain is whether Donley, as acting secretary, will have the political clout to address accountability issues related to the Air Force’s recent nuclear mistakes.

As many as eight general officers and possibly senior civilians are expected to be fired for their roles in the accidental transfer of nuclear weapons across the U.S. last August and the 2006 shipment of nuclear warhead fuses to Taiwan, discovered in March.

Sources said Donley was expected to announce firings soon after being confirmed, but it is unclear when that will happen given the delay on his confirmation.