Senate opposition is “mounting to President Obama’s nomination of William Lynn to be deputy Defense secretary, with senior Republicans now questioning his competence in addition to his recent lobbying activity,” Congressional Quarterly reports.
Despite new ethics and lobbying rules implemented by President Obama last week, Mr. Lynn was already granted a waiver for his past lobbying activities with Raytheon, a defense contractor, last week.
The nomination is eventually expected to be approved by the Senate Armed Services Committee and the full Senate, but it is not without criticism.
The objections have expanded to include not only his role as a senior executive for defense contractor Raytheon, but his responsiveness to committee questions and his record as Pentagon comptroller during the Clinton administration.
Sen. John McCain of Arizona, ranking Republican on the Armed Services panel, sent a second letter to Lynn on Thursday in which he criticized the nominee’s response to his Jan. 26 call for details about how Lynn would separate himself from issues related to his former employer.
“Instead of providing such a list, your letter refers to a screening process run by lawyers,” McCain wrote. “That is an inadequate response from an individual who is a former lobbyist who seeks to become the second most powerful person in the Department of Defense.”
Lynn’s approach to dealing with potential conflicts of interest is crucial to determining whether he could be an effective deputy Defense secretary, said McCain, who added he has not decided whether he will support the nomination.
From outside Armed Services, Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, the ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, sent a letter to the Office of Management and Budget asking why it granted Lynn a waiver of the new ethics rules signed by President Obama last week. He sent another letter Thursday to Lynn focused on his tenure as comptroller.
Meanwhile, Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) is threatening to take action on the nomination with a possible delay.
But John Cornyn, R-Texas, who led a brief opposition to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s nomination on ethical grounds, said he was considering action as a means of ensuring thorough scrutiny.
“There seems to be a rush to get people confirmed no matter what. Things that would have disqualified people in the past are not operative anymore,” Cornyn said.
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