The Senate voted Friday to confirm Stephen Feinberg, a billionaire investor, as the deputy secretary of defense, instilling the top two civilian leaders in the Pentagon as the administration prepares drastic changes to the military.
The 59-to-40 vote margin was wider than that for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who required Vice President JD Vance to cast a tie-breaking vote in January. Still, it was a narrower-than-usual share for the Pentagon’s No. 2 position, which, like the secretary, usually receives bipartisan support.
Feinberg is the CEO of Cerberus Capital Management, a firm heavily invested in American defense programs. He has promised to use his experience as a business leader to reform the Pentagon’s dense bureaucratic rules for buying weapons and other equipment — a bipartisan priority in Washington.
Still, in his February confirmation hearing, Feinberg faced sharp questions from Democrats concerned about the administration’s planned cuts to the military. Hegseth has pledged to reduce the Pentagon’s civilian workforce by 5% to 8% and started laying off employees already. The secretary is also reshuffling some $50 billion each year in the defense budget toward some of his higher priorities.
The deputy secretary manages the Pentagon’s day-to-day work, and Feinberg would be heavily involved in both workforce reduction and budget reshuffling, even as those efforts face confusion.
A federal judge ordered Thursday that the Trump administration wrongfully fired civilian employees and must start reinstating them. The ruling included those laid off in the Defense Department, a number that hasn’t yet been made public. It’s not clear whether the administration, which is expected to appeal the ruling, will immediately comply.
Meanwhile, the Senate is poised Friday to pass a temporary spending bill to avoid a government shutdown, beginning the Pentagon’s first-ever year without a full congressional budget. Military leaders testified before the Senate this week that the bill would challenge their work to keep equipment ready to fight and to keep weapons programs on schedule.
Noah Robertson is the Pentagon reporter at Defense News. He previously covered national security for the Christian Science Monitor. He holds a bachelor’s degree in English and government from the College of William & Mary in his hometown of Williamsburg, Virginia.
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