William Kimmitt, of Virginia, to be Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade
Kenneth Kies, of Virginia, to be Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Tax Policy
William Kimmitt is a litigation partner in the Washington, D.C., office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. During the first Trump administration, he served as Counselor to the United States Trade Representative, where he advised the U.S. Trade Representative on trade policy and legal matters.
Ken Kies, a tax lobbyist who has advocated for big corporations such as Microsoft and Hess, has advised Trump on his own taxes.
Preston Wells Griffith III to be Under Secretary of Energy
Dr. Dario Gil to be Under Secretary of Energy for Science
WITHDRAWN: Kathleen M. Sgamma to be Director of the Bureau of Land Management, Department of the Interior
During the first Trump term, Wells Griffith served as the Senior Advisor to the CEO of the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation, Senior Director for Energy and Environment on the National Security Council, as well as Acting Assistant Secretary for International Affairs at the Department of Energy. Previously, he was executive director of the Mississippi Republican Party.
Gil currently chairs the National Science Board and is the director of IBM Research, and co-chairs the MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab. In its present form, the role of under secretary for science and innovation oversees DOE’s applied R&D programs and the Office of Science, which is the steward of 10 national labs.
Kathleen Sgamma has been the head of the Western Energy Alliance since 2006, working to protect the interests of oil and gas producers amid an international embrace of cleaner energies. Sgamma and the Western Energy Alliance have been a vocal critic of former President Joe Biden’s increased regulation of the oil and gas industry. Her nomination to helm a 10,000-person agency responsible for vast swaths of the country’s landscapes sent shockwaves through Western environmental groups. Sgamma was a contributor to the interior department section of Project 2025.
In 2009, after natural gas production caused a spike in smog in Wyoming’s Upper Green River Valley that exceeded air quality standards, Sgamma complained that proposed ozone regulations under consideration by the state “would create undue burdens and complexities for industry.” In the winter of the following year, the smog in Pinedale, Wyoming exceeded the worst air pollution in Los Angeles, and local residents were warned to stay indoors to protect their health.
Sgamma’s nomination was withdrawn at the last minute because she criticized the January 6th insurrection.
Elon Musk is destroying our democracy, and he’s using the fortune he built at Tesla to do it. We are taking nonviolent action against Musk’s illegal coup.
Dance Against DOGE will be outside the General Services Administration building, where DOGE workers are (illegally) sleeping. We thought we’d throw them a Slumber Party!
General Services Administration, 1800 F St., NW, Washington DC
We’ll be there in our PJs, with stuffed animals, as we dance the night away.
Tesla Takedown is a peaceful protest movement. We oppose violence, vandalism, and destruction of property. This protest is a lawful exercise of our First Amendment right to peaceful assembly.
Full committee hearing entitled “Reducing waste, fraud and abuse through innovation: how AI and data can improve government efficiency.”
Witnesses:
Dr. Brian J. Miller, Nonresident Fellow. American Enterprise Institute
Dr. Sterling Thomas, Chief Scientist, Government Accountability Office
Neil Chilson, Head of AI Policy, Abundance Institute
Andrew Cannarsa, Executive Director, Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency
Prior to joining GAO, Thomas was Chief Scientist at Noblis, a nonprofit research institute. He managed the institute’s applied research programs and conducted his own research projects, which included creating new methods for synthetic biology and methods for using artificial intelligence to detect sophisticated cyberattacks. Sterling also served as a principal investigator where his research was funded by the Department of Defense, the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity, and other intelligence community partners.
U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, will convene a nominations hearing for Jared Isaacman, nominee to be Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and Olivia Trusty, nominee to be a Member of the Federal Communications Commission, at 10:00 AM EST on Wednesday, April 9, 2025.
Nominees:
Jared Isaacman, of Pennsylvania, to be Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Olivia Trusty, of Maryland, to be a Member of the Federal Communications Commission
Jared Isaacman made his billions as CEO of the Shift4 payment processing firm and has flown to space twice on SpaceX missions he financed himself. He co-founded Draken International, which trains pilots for the U.S. military. Isaacman is a pal and an extreme admirer of Elon Musk.
According to a recent reporting by Ars Technica, the Trump administration is looking to slash the space agency’s science budget by as much as 50 percent, which could prove disastrous for the future of space research.
You’d think that would be top of mind for Isaacman, but his head is instead blissfully empty.
“I’m a humble nominee on the outside, hoping for a chance to contribute,” he tweeted, responding to a post that referenced the news. “I don’t know anything about those supposed cuts, but the President said he’s targeting fraud, waste & abuse w/ a scalpel — not a hatchet.”
Trusty is the policy director on the United States Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, and is a longtime aide to Sen. Roger Wicker. She was also a Verizon and Qwest lobbyist.
Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee
S.154, to amend the Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2015, to reauthorize the Colorado River System conservation pilot program
S.362, to allow certain Federal minerals to be mined consistent with the Bull Mountains Mining Plan Modification
S.544, to provide for the location of multiple hardrock mining mill sites, to establish the Abandoned Hardrock Mine Fund
S.714, to amend the Energy Act of 2020 to include critical materials in the definition of critical mineral
Nominations:
Katharine MacGregor, of Florida, to be Deputy Secretary of the Interior
James Danly, of Tennessee, to be Deputy Secretary of Energy
MacGregor and Danly’s nomination hearing took place on April 2nd. Danly’s response when asked about plans to freeze climate grants and cut climate programs: “I don’t know what the plans are, if there are, in fact, plans.”
