Warren hits Trump nuclear weapons nominee over qualifications, China business ties

USA Today

07-04-2025

Warren hits Trump nuclear weapons nominee over qualifications, China business ties Brandon Williams, Trump's nominee to head the National Nuclear Security Administration, faces scrutiny ahead of his confirmation hearing.
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The nominee, former GOP Rep. Brandon Williams, served nearly six years as a Navy submarine officer before launching a business career.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., sent a letter to Williams outlining her concerns Monday, the day before his confirmation hearing.
Warren said she fears Williams lacks "the experience and judgment" to run the nuclear weapons agency.
WASHINGTON − On the eve of his confirmation hearing before a Senate panel, President Donald Trump's nominee to lead the National Nuclear Security Administration faces scrutiny from one of the lawmakers he will face Tuesday.
Trump's pick, Brandon Williams, is a former Navy submarine officer who served one term as a Republican congressman from New York. During a nearly six-year Navy stint, Williams completed the rigorous Naval Nuclear Power School and served aboard the USS Georgia missile submarine.
But Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said she fears Williams "lack[s] the experience and judgment" to oversee the agency that designs, produces and maintains the U.S. nuclear arsenal, according to a letter she sent to Williams.
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Previous NNSA heads brought specialized experience to the role. Two previous agency administrators, including one of Trump's previous NNSA heads, were retired Air Force generals with decades of experience as nuclear missile officers. In his first term, Trump tapped a seasoned nuclear professional, Lisa Gordon-Hagerty, to lead the agency.
The Biden administration's pick, Jill Hruby, spent 34 years working at one of the agency's weapons laboratories. Williams left the Navy in 1996 as a lieutenant.
Warren's letter, obtained by USA TODAY, further questioned Williams' ability to reverse the agency's struggle to meet the timelines and budgetary requirements of its ongoing $200 billion nuclear modernization program, part of a broader $1.7 trillion effort.
In the letter Warren pressed Williams for his views on the workforce tumult that followed the firing (and unfiring) by Elon Musk's DOGE of hundreds of NNSA employees in February.
The Government Accountability Office, a top federal watchdog agency, has for decades considered the NNSA and its weapons programs to be at "high risk" for fraud, waste and abuse. The agency's roughly 2,000 federal employees manage and oversee more than 60,000 contractors who operate the nation's nuclear weapons labs.
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In its 2025 "high risk" report, the GAO identified the NNSA's "understaffed" federal workforce and difficulties monitoring project performance as factors hampering the agency's ability to meet deadlines and cost targets in its nuclear modernization campaign.
"This would be an enormous challenge for anyone appointed to this position," said Warren. "I am concerned that a leader without strong technical expertise and extensive experience could put our nuclear deterrent at risk and waste billions of dollars."
The senator also highlighted Williams' work as a businessman "and the extent to which it was intertwined by the Chinese government." The NNSA nominee co-founded an industrial control software company in late 2013, and Williams later announced a partnership with a Hong Kong-based communications company that itself was partially owned by a Chinese state telecommunications provider, according to Warren's letter and reporting by the American Prospect.
Williams did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The former congressman is tentatively scheduled to appear before the Senate Armed Services Committee Tuesday.
Davis Winkie's role covering nuclear threats and national security at USA TODAY is supported by a partnership with Outrider Foundation and Journalism Funding Partners. Funders do not provide editorial input. If you wish to share a news tip, please contact Davis via email at [e-mail] or via the Signal encrypted messaging app at 770-539-3257.