Kathleen Hicks has been confirmed by the US Senate on Monday (local time) as Deputy Defence Secretary. Hicks has become the first woman to be confirmed by the Senate to the post.
Hicks, who led President Joe Biden’s transition team at the Pentagon, was a deputy undersecretary of defence under the Obama administration. Before her nomination, she led the international security programme at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies.
Hicks’s nomination garnered attention both because of the history-making aspect and because Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin pledged to empower Pentagon civilians, such as her to assuage senators concerned about him being a recently retired general, The Hill reported.
When she is sworn in, Hicks will be the department’s first Senate-confirmed female deputy Defence secretary, though Christine Fox served as acting deputy Defence secretary for six months in the Obama administration.
