President Donald Trump this week nominated Texas Sen. Brian Birdwell to serve as an assistant secretary of defense, the White House announced Tuesday.
The Granbury Republican currently oversees a Texas legislative committee that hears border and homeland security proposals.
If confirmed by the U.S. Senate, the move would be a return to the Pentagon for Birdwell, a six-term state senator who suffered severe burns when a plane crashed yards away from his office during the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. At the time he worked at the time as Department of the Army staff. His 20-year career in the Army also included operational and training deployments.
Birdwell announced in June that he did not intend to seek reelection to the Legislature’s upper chamber.
This article first appeared on The Texas Tribune.
