All Bill Lynn’s Friends Are Now Pentagon Officials But He’s Not

Congratulations to Michele Flournoy, whom the Senate just confirmed as the new undersecretary of defense for policy; Jeh Charles Johnson, whom the Senate just confirmed as Pentagon general counsel; and Robert Hale, whom the Senate just confirmed as Pentagon comptroller. All of these newly-minted senior Pentagon officials testified together in a joint confirmation hearing on Jan. 15. Funny thing: they testified alongside controversial deputy secretary-designate Bill Lynn, until recently Raytheon’s top lobbyist; and the Senate Armed Services Committee approved them all on Feb. 5. But the Senate took no action on Lynn’s nomination today.

I put in calls and emails to Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), the chairman of the committee, who put a hold on Lynn’s nomination on Jan. 22 for ethics reasons, only to lift it the next day after the Obama White House exempted Lynn from its ethics requirements against lobbyists joining the agencies they lobby. As far as I’m aware there isn’t an additional hold on his nomination, but I’ll post as soon as I have more information on why the Senate didn’t move on Lynn’s nomination today.

Update, 7:03 p.m: Regan Lachapelle, a spokeswoman for Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.), the Senate Majority Leader, says that Reid’s office anticipates bringing Lynn’s nomination to the Senate floor tomorrow. More to come.