Senate Confirms DeWit as New NASA CFO

The Senate confirmed Jeffrey DeWit to be NASA’s new Chief Financial Officer (CFO) today.  He is the first Trump nominee for NASA to be confirmed.

DeWit was formally nominated to be NASA’s CFO on December 1.  The nomination was placed on the “privileged” calendar because it was considered non-controversial, which allows an expedited confirmation process without a hearing or other committee action.  The Senate confirmed the nomination today by voice vote.

Confirmed by voice vote: PN1357 Jeffrey DeWit to be Chief Financial Officer, National Aeronautics and Space Administration @NASA

— Senate Cloakroom (@SenateCloakroom) March 14, 2018

DeWit has no background in space.  He was the Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer of the Trump Campaign and State Treasurer of Arizona.

He is a financial professional who started his career at Smith Barney in 1992, according to his Facebook page.  In 1999 he started his own firm, ECHOTrade, of which he was CEO, which grew to more than 500 licensed professional traders worldwide.   He was elected as Arizona’s State Treasurer in 2014 and assumed office in January 2015.  As noted, in 2016 he was COO and CFO of the Trump campaign.

He has an MBA from the University of Arizona, a B.S. in Business Administration with a concentration in finance from the University of Southern California (USC),  an accounting degree, and a certificate in Public Treasury Management from the National Institute of Public Finance.

He is the successor to David Radzanowski, who was NASA’s CFO during the latter years of the Obama Administration.  Andrew Hunter has been serving as Acting CFO since Radzanowski left at the end of the Obama Administration.

The nomination of Rep. Jim Bridenstine to be Administrator of NASA remains pending in the Senate.  President Trump has not yet submitted a nomination for Deputy Administrator.