The chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee said Tuesday that he thinks Patrick Shanahan is ready to be President Trump’s Secretary of Defense, and expressed surprise that Trump has yet to formally nominate him.
“Right now, there’s a general good feeling about him,” Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) said of Shanahan. “I think he’s ready, and I’m surprised the president hasn’t already done it.”
Shanahan has served as acting Defense secretary following the January resignation of former Pentagon chief James Mattis, making him the longest acting secretary in the Pentagon’s history. His tenure as acting secretary was marred by accusations of ethics violations, of which he has since been cleared.
{mosads}Shanahan’s nomination to take the job permanently was widely anticipated last month – but the Pentagon’s inspector general opened an investigation into allegations Shanahan violated his ethics agreement by promoting his former employer, Boeing.
The inspector general cleared Shanahan last week, but Trump has yet to announce a nomination.
Inhofe said he last spoke with Trump about the Defense secretary opening in mid-April. Trump did not give Inhofe a reason for the delay on the phone call and even appeared frustrated it hasn’t happened yet, despite the fact it’s up to Trump to nominate someone, according to the lawmaker.
“I said, ‘We really need to have someone who’s not an acting. We need to have a person get confirmed because in these foreign countries they don’t know what acting means,’” Inhofe said he told the president.
Trump “expressed his impatience for the fact that we don’t have someone already confirmed,” Inhofe added. “He’s the one who needs to decide.”
The Trump administration has faced scrutiny from critics concerned about the large number of acting officials filling key posts at any given time.
Another reported reason for the delay was Shanahan’s lackluster performance at congressional hearings. Shanahan did not commit any major gaffes at recent budget hearings, but also did not appear to blow anyone away.
On Tuesday, Inhofe said he saw an improvement between the first time Shanahan testified before his committee and the second time. The first hearing was a general posture hearing, while the second hearing was specifically about Space Force, a pet project of Trump’s that Shanahan has taken the lead on implementing.
“Shanahan has done a good job before the committee,” Inhofe said. “In fact, he was before us twice, and the second time he did a lot better job.”
Shanahan is next scheduled to be appear before Congress on Wednesday, at a House Appropriations Committee defense subcommittee hearing.
Lt. Col. Joe Buccino, Shanahan’s spokesman, told The Hill that Defense is “focused on the department, on the National Defense Strategy, on our operations.”
The White House declined to comment on the record.
–Updated at 8:16 p.m. to include comment from Buccino.