Trump Dumps 3 Agency Leaders In Wake Of Election

[ZiprHead]

https://www.npr.org/sections/live-updates-2020-election-results/2020/11/06/932376507/trump-dumps-3-agency-leaders-in-wake-of-election?fbclid=IwAR2vb2f9yiPWCZ2jrc50TjDSyO1UMFDTqeDuP8bhfkMuRYrER_KAAeuOKaY

The Trump administration abruptly dumped the leaders of three agencies that oversee the nuclear weapons stockpile, electricity and natural gas regulation, and overseas aid during the past two days, drawing a rebuke from a prominent Republican senator for one of the decisions.

The sudden departures included:

Lisa Gordon-Hagerty, administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration, the first woman to oversee the agency in charge of the nuclear stockpile. She was required to resign on Friday.

Bonnie Glick, deputy administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development. She was replaced by the acting administrator John Barsa, who had run out of time for his more senior role under the Federal Vacancies Reform Act.

Neil Chatterjee, chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and a former aide to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. He was replaced as chairman, though he will remain at FERC, an independent agency, as a commissioner.

The firings were overshadowed by the prolonged drama of the presidential election, which as of Friday had not yet been declared.

 

[TomC]

Might this belong in the "and the coup begins" thread?
Tom

 

[Politesse]

Sorry to see Lisa Gordon-Hagerty go, she is one of the last trained scientists to have any administrative role, as well as the first female head of the NNSA. It's said her resignation has as much to do with a long-standing power dispute with DoE Sec Dan Brouliette as anything to do directly with Trump (Brouliette neither understands nor respects why the NNSA is supposed to be a semi-autonomous agency, and has been trying to undermine her role ever since she stepped into it). It's been a month since some of that autonomy was obliterated formally by the passage of the Department of Energy Organization and Management Improvement Act, which starkly defunded NNSA and took away much of Gordon-Hagerty's authority. I would have quit, too. But I worry about the future of that office. No idea where Biden will stand on the question but there was a reason why the Dept of Energy was never meant to have absolute control over nuclear security issues, especially now that a brainless lobbyist with no meaningful qualifications is the Secretary of that department.

 

[Don2 (Don1 Revised)]

We don't really need a qualified person to run National Nuclear Security anyway.

 

[crazyfingers]

Sorry to see Lisa Gordon-Hagerty go, she is one of the last trained scientists to have any administrative role, as well as the first female head of the NNSA. It's said her resignation has as much to do with a long-standing power dispute with DoE Sec Dan Brouliette as anything to do directly with Trump (Brouliette neither understands nor respects why the NNSA is supposed to be a semi-autonomous agency, and has been trying to undermine her role ever since she stepped into it). It's been a month since some of that autonomy was obliterated formally by the passage of the Department of Energy Organization and Management Improvement Act, which starkly defunded NNSA and took away much of Gordon-Hagerty's authority. I would have quit, too. But I worry about the future of that office. No idea where Biden will stand on the question but there was a reason why the Dept of Energy was never meant to have absolute control over nuclear security issues, especially now that a brainless lobbyist with no meaningful qualifications is the Secretary of that department.

Recall that Rick Perry was head of the Dept of Energy until last year. He was at least as brainless.

 

[Politesse]

Sorry to see Lisa Gordon-Hagerty go, she is one of the last trained scientists to have any administrative role, as well as the first female head of the NNSA. It's said her resignation has as much to do with a long-standing power dispute with DoE Sec Dan Brouliette as anything to do directly with Trump (Brouliette neither understands nor respects why the NNSA is supposed to be a semi-autonomous agency, and has been trying to undermine her role ever since she stepped into it). It's been a month since some of that autonomy was obliterated formally by the passage of the Department of Energy Organization and Management Improvement Act, which starkly defunded NNSA and took away much of Gordon-Hagerty's authority. I would have quit, too. But I worry about the future of that office. No idea where Biden will stand on the question but there was a reason why the Dept of Energy was never meant to have absolute control over nuclear security issues, especially now that a brainless lobbyist with no meaningful qualifications is the Secretary of that department.

Recall that Rick Perry was head of the Dept of Energy until last year. He was at least as brainless.

I am aware. Almost all of Trump's appointments have been talentless morons. But the Department of Energy actually has a very important job, indeed several. I despair of trying to convince Americans that they need a functioning government, but they do.