The Senate on Monday confirmed John Phelan to serve as the next secretary of the Navy, making him only the seventh non-veteran to serve in the role in the last 70 years.
Phelan, founder of the private investment firm Rugger Management LLC, was confirmed by a 62-30 vote with nearly all of his support coming from Republicans. He is expected to be sworn into the military leadership role in the next few days.
Phelan was the first service secretary pick to be announced by Trump but the second to be confirmed. Last month, lawmakers approved Daniel Driscoll as Army secretary by a similar 66-28 partisan vote.
In his confirmation hearing on Feb. 27, Phelan testified that he saw the Navy as a service in desperate need of reform and innovation.
“The U.S. Navy is at [a] crossroads, with extended deployments, inadequate maintenance, huge cost overruns, delayed ship building, failed audits, subpar housing and, sadly, record high suicide rates,” he told members of the Senate Armed Services Committee. “These are systemic failures that have gone unaddressed for far too long. Frankly, this is unacceptable.”
He also argued that his lack of military experience was an asset to his role leading the Navy, because of his ability to reject “traditional” military thinking.
“The Navy and the Marine Corps already possess extraordinary operational expertise within their ranks,” he said. “My role is to utilize that expertise and strengthen it, step outside the status quo and take decisive action with a results-oriented approach.”
Earlier this month, former Virginia Senate candidate and Navy special operations veteran Hung Cao was sworn in as under secretary of the Navy, giving Phelan a veteran with significant Navy experience as his top deputy.
The Senate Armed Services Committee is expected to hold a confirmation hearing this week for Trump’s third service secretary pick, Troy Meink, who has been tapped to lead the Air Force.
The Navy is currently without an official in its top uniformed leadership post. Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Lisa Franchetti, the Navy’s first female chief, was dismissed by Trump last month in a Pentagon leadership purge.
Leo covers Congress, Veterans Affairs and the White House for Military Times. He has covered Washington, D.C. since 2004, focusing on military personnel and veterans policies. His work has earned numerous honors, including a 2009 Polk award, a 2010 National Headliner Award, the IAVA Leadership in Journalism award and the VFW News Media award.
