Wilson nominated to head Air Force
Ex-congresswoman is academy graduate
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump announced Monday that he will nominate former New Mexico Rep. Heather Wilson as secretary of the Air Force.
If confirmed, Wilson would be the first Air Force Academy graduate to serve as secretary and the second consecutive woman in the position.
“Heather Wilson is going to make an outstanding Secretary of the Air Force,” Trump said in a statement. “Her distinguished military service, high level of knowledge, and success in so many different fields gives me great confidence that she will lead our nation’s Air Force with the greatest competence and integrity.”
Wilson, 56, has been serving as president of the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology in Rapid City since 2013. She said she will work to boost U.S. power in air and space if confirmed.
New Mexico is home to three Air Force bases — Kirtland in Albuquerque, Holloman in Alamogordo and Cannon in Clovis.
“America and our vital national interests continue to be threatened,” Wilson said in a statement
issued by the White House. “I will do my best, working with our men and women in the military, to strengthen American air and space power to keep the country safe.”
A Rhodes scholar, Wilson represented New Mexico in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1998 to 2009, serving on the Armed Forces and Intelligence committees. She lost a bid for the U.S. Senate to Democrat Martin Heinrich in the 2012 general election.
Heinrich, a New Mexico Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, praised Wilson and congratulated her on her appointment.
“Her distinguished service in the Air Force, experience working on the National Security Council, and her firsthand knowledge of New Mexico’s Air Force installations would offer a unique and valuable perspective at the Pentagon,” said Heinrich, who defeated Wilson in 2012 to win his seat in the Senate.
Wilson, who met with Trump in December to discuss a possible appointment to the director of national intelligence post, could not be reached for comment Monday.
She would take over the Air Force leadership at a time when the military branch is conducting major air strikes in Afghanistan, Syria and Libya. She would also enter the longstanding debate over the controversial and expensive development of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.
The position would require Wilson to move back to the Washington area. She would report to the secretary of defense, retired Marine Gen. James Mattis, who has been confirmed.
Although the former congresswoman has been out of public office since 2009, she has a deep well of experience in the national security field.
In 1989, Wilson was named director for European defense policy and arms control on the National Security Council staff, and she remained active in national security matters as a member of Congress. She served as chairwoman of the House Intelligence Subcommittee on Technical and Tactical Intelligence, and the Albuquerque-based congressional seat she held includes Sandia National Laboratories and Kirtland Air Force Base.
Although Wilson comes highly recommended for the position, she’s likely to face questions at her confirmation hearing about a lucrative and controversial consulting contract she entered with Sandia after leaving Congress.
A 2013 Department of Energy inspector general’s report alleged Sandia had inappropriately paid Wilson about $226,000 in consulting fees, beginning in January 2009, to lobby for Sandia to take on new assignments for the federal government. Sandia and Wilson have said no prohibited lobbying occurred.
However, Sandia reimbursed the government more than $226,000 for fees paid to the consulting company run by Wilson, who was not mentioned in the settlement agreement between the Justice Department and Sandia Corp.
In 2015, Wilson told the Journal there was no impropriety.
“There is no finding of any contact by me with any member of Congress or executive branch official concerning Sandia contract extension,” Wilson said in 2015. “That’s because there was none. I was not a lobbyist for Sandia and I was not a member of the Contract Strategy Team criticized by the Inspector General’s report.”
Former Sen. Pete Domenici, who served as Wilson’s political mentor in New Mexico, cheered the announcement and said Wilson “has the ethics, dedication and personal conduct standards of the highest order.”
“In all my dealings with her, she exhibited honest, data-driven, and tough-minded approaches to difficult questions involving military, nuclear weapons, and intelligence matters,” Domenici said. “I depended on her assessments greatly as I moved through my career. She was a great partner and will be a great Secretary of Air Force.”
Wilson is just the second person with New Mexico ties to be tapped for a top Pentagon job in the past 14 years. Then-President George W. Bush nominated Colin R. McMillan, a Roswell oilman, to become secretary of the Navy in 2003. McMillan died before he was confirmed.
Deborah Lee James, the outgoing secretary of the Air Force, told Breaking Defense (a military news publication) in an exit interview that her successor should be prepared for the unexpected. James was forced to confront a major scandal involving cheating on tests by 34 of the 190 officers who man the nuclear missile silos at Montana’s Malmstrom Air Force Base. The military branch has also been beleaguered by low morale and staffing shortages.
“The first thing I would say is, you think you know everything, but beware the unknown unknowns,” James told Breaking Defense. “You’ll have an agenda of things you’ll begin working on and, boom, real life will intervene.”