Nominations of Leslie Becera to be Assistant Secretary of Transportation for Government Affairs, Danielle Severs to be a Federal Communications Commissioner, Josh Shoemaker to be CFO and Robert Steinau to be IG of NASA

Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee
253 Russell

11/10/2026 at 10:30AM

Full committee hearing.

Nominees:

  • Leslie Becera, of Virginia, to be an Assistant Secretary of Transportation for Government Affairs
  • Danielle Thumann Severs, of North Carolina, to be a Member of the Federal Communications Commission
  • Joshua Shoemaker, of Virginia, to be Chief Financial Officer of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration
  • Robert Steinau, of Maryland, to be Inspector General, both of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration

A native of Plano, Texas, Leslie (Allison Parker) Becera is now a Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Government Affairs. Her nomination hearing was originally scheduled for September. She was a long-time Republican staffer for Rep. Sam Graves (R-Mo.) in his office and then under him at the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

Danielle K. Thumann Severs is Senior Counsel, Chairman Brendan Carr, Federal Communications Commission. Before that, she spent a year in the private sector where she led on state and local government relations for Crown Castle, a nationwide telecommunications infrastructure provider. Before her first stint with Commissioner Carr’s office in 2021, Severs was an Associate Attorney in the Washington, D.C., office of Wilkinson Barker Knauer. After attending the University of Virginia for her undergraduate degree, Severs earned her J.D. cum laude from the Catholic University of America’s Columbus School of Law where she was Associate Editor of the Catholic University Law Review. She also earned a certificate from the Columbus School of Law’s Law & Technology Institute. She has also worked for Republican FCC commissioner Michael O’Rielly and several telecom trade associations, including the Wireline Competition Bureau, the National Cable and Telecommunications Association, Telecommunications Law Professionals, and CTIA-The Wireless Association.

Joshua Shoemaker was was Controller of the Republican National Committee from March 2025-March 2026. His wife Lisa Shoemaker is the SVP for Global Corporate Relations for Idemia, a military contractor that specializes in biometrics, and a member of the executive board for the Meridian Corporate Council, an international corporate diplomacy organization. She worked for the Donald J. Trump For President 2024 campaign.

Robert Steinau is currently NASA’s Assistant Inspector General for Investigations and the acting NASA Inspector General. A former Marine and then Secret Service agent who served on the detail for Vice President Dick Cheney, Steinau served for ten years in the leadership of the NASA cyber crimes division before joining the NASA IG office in 2021.