Senate confirms Michael Duffey, Trump’s pick for Pentagon acquisition chief
The Senate voted 51-46 on Tuesday to confirm Michael Duffey as undersecretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment.
President Donald Trump officially nominated Duffey in January to lead the A&S directorate and be the Pentagon’s top weapons buyer.
During his confirmation process, Duffey told lawmakers that some of his top priorities, if confirmed, would be to help “rebuild” the military, rapidly accelerate delivery of capabilities and “repatriate” supply chains.
He also noted his desire to “modernize and streamline” the defense acquisition system, including by attracting more private capital investment and new entrants to the Pentagon’s acquisition ecosystem in order to “maximize competition, quality, and affordability in the defense industrial base,” according to his responses to advance policy questions from senators ahead of his confirmation hearing in March.
“In addition to creating and maintaining a workplace culture focused on performance and results, if confirmed I intend to drive implementation of key initiatives that will keep our acquisition and sustainment system at the cutting edge of 21st century management practices that drive performance, including implementation of ongoing initiatives such as capability portfolio management, the adaptive acquisition framework, modular open system architectures, other transaction authority contracting, and acquisition workforce development,” he wrote.
He also told lawmakers that he would review the Pentagon’s controversial Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification 2.0 (CMMC 2.0) initiative, if confirmed.
Duffey has previous experience working in government, including at the Pentagon. He served as associate director of national security programs in the Office of Management and Budget during the first Trump administration. He’s also served as deputy chief of staff to the secretary of defense and chief of staff to the undersecretary of defense for research and engineering, among other roles.
The new A&S chief will be expected to work closely with Emil Michael, a former Uber executive who’s now serving as undersecretary of defense for research and engineering, to help bring next-generation capabilities into the U.S. military’s arsenal.
