{"id":15431,"date":"2021-01-14T16:50:58","date_gmt":"2021-01-14T16:50:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/uncategorized\/2021\/01\/14\/norquist-to-serve-as-acting-defense-secretary-acting-service-secretaries-named\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T21:38:02","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T21:38:02","slug":"norquist-to-serve-as-acting-defense-secretary-acting-service-secretaries-named","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2021\/01\/14\/norquist-to-serve-as-acting-defense-secretary-acting-service-secretaries-named\/","title":{"rendered":"Norquist to serve as acting defense secretary; acting service secretaries named"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">WASHINGTON \u2014 David Norquist will serve as acting secretary of defense for the start of the Biden administration, Defense News has learned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Biden team has decided that Norquist, the current <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/congress\/2021\/01\/14\/heres-why-bidens-first-defense-secretary-may-be-a-trump-appointee\/\" target=_blank>deputy secretary of defense<\/a>, is the best choice to keep the day-to-day operations of the Defense Department running while Lloyd Austin, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/congress\/2021\/01\/12\/all-eyes-on-reed-as-austin-waiver-splits-democrats\/\" target=_blank>retired Army general<\/a> who is President-elect Joe Biden\u2019s choice to lead the department, awaits his confirmation from Congress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Meanwhile, three current service officials will join Norquist in staying in the building; those officials serve in fiscal roles with their respective services:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u2022 Thomas Harker, the Navy comptroller, will become acting Navy secretary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u2022 John Roth, the Air Force comptroller who has been serving as acting undersecretary for the service, will be acting Air Force secretary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u2022 John Whitley, the Army comptroller, will serve as acting Army secretary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u2022 Defense News <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/smr\/transition\/2021\/01\/13\/cummings-to-serve-as-acting-pentagon-acquisition-head\/\" target=_blank>previously reported<\/a> that Stacy Cummings will become acting undersecretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment (A&amp;S), replacing Ellen Lord, the politically appointed A&amp;S head.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It\u2019s commonplace for incoming administrations not to retain the previous administration\u2019s service secretaries or undersecretaries, and retaining financial management leaders appears to be a move to help Biden complete a revised Defense Department budget for fiscal 2022. Norquist himself started as comptroller in the Pentagon, before being tapped in 2019 as deputy secretary of defense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Under Title 10 (the federal law governing the armed forces), a confirmed deputy secretary automatically assumes the duties, responsibilities and authorities of the defense secretary during a defense secretary\u2019s absence; however, there was speculation that the Biden team may be uncomfortable keeping a Trump political appointee in place given the pressures surrounding the military since the Jan. 6 attack on Congress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Asked <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/smr\/transition\/2021\/01\/12\/norquist-issues-guidance-on-cmo-breakup\/\" target=_blank>directly on Monday<\/a> whether he would stay on if asked, Norquist declined to comment. But he described his view of the transition as one in which his job is to set up the next administration for success, something he said the Obama team did for him when he came in as comptroller, particularly with regard to planning for the Defense Department\u2019s first-ever audit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cFor those of us who are political, we\u2019re stepping onto a relay track, and when we\u2019re part of a team, and somebody runs behind you and hands you the baton and then you get on the track and you run. But you know, at the end of the day you\u2019re going to hand it to somebody else,\u201d Norquist said. \u201cAnd you need to hand it off in a way that is effective and coherent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWhat I want to do is to do for them what they did for me, which was to leave in place all the tools necessary in a sensible structure.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A Pentagon spokesperson referred all questions to the Biden transition team; a spokesperson for the transition team declined comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The three current service comptrollers will serve as acting secretaries as well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":35352,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":68,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[100,23,92,12,25,68],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3323],"class_list":["post-15431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-home","category-left-column","category-news","category-newsletters","category-pentagon-congress"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"CMVVGW77LVB3ZC7NXZFDWMARSA","arc_canonical_url":"\/smr\/transition\/2021\/01\/14\/norquist-to-serve-as-acting-defense-secretary-acting-service-secretaries-named\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.0 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Norquist to serve as acting defense secretary; acting service secretaries named - Army Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The three current service comptrollers will serve as acting secretaries as well.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/smr\/transition\/2021\/01\/14\/norquist-to-serve-as-acting-defense-secretary-acting-service-secretaries-named\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Norquist to serve as acting defense secretary; acting service secretaries named\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The three current service comptrollers will serve as acting secretaries as well.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2021\/01\/14\/norquist-to-serve-as-acting-defense-secretary-acting-service-secretaries-named\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Army Times\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-01-14T16:50:58+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-08-07T21:38:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Aaron Mehta\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Aaron Mehta\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\n\t    \"@context\": \"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\n\t    \"@graph\": [\n\t        {\n\t            \"@type\": \"Article\",\n\t            \"@id\": \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/armytimes\\\/news\\\/pentagon-congress\\\/2021\\\/01\\\/14\\\/norquist-to-serve-as-acting-defense-secretary-acting-service-secretaries-named\\\/#article\",\n\t            \"isPartOf\": {\n\t                \"@id\": \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/armytimes\\\/news\\\/pentagon-congress\\\/2021\\\/01\\\/14\\\/norquist-to-serve-as-acting-defense-secretary-acting-service-secretaries-named\\\/\"\n\t            },\n\t            \"author\": {\n\t                \"name\": \"migration\",\n\t                \"@id\": \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/armytimes\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/cc76c831bb37a926738c8391fca7a3b1\"\n\t            },\n\t            \"headline\": \"Norquist to serve as acting defense secretary; 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