Levine tapped for DCMO

President Barack Obama on March 3 nominated former Senate Armed Services Committee staff director Peter Levine to be the Defense Department's next deputy chief management officer.

Levine worked on the Armed Services Committee from 1996 until January 2015, according to a White House-provided biography. Prior to that, he was general counsel to former Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), and counsel to the Senate Committee on Government Affairs Subcommittee on Oversight of Government Management.

Congress created the position of DCMO in 2007 to better coordinate business practices across the vast Pentagon bureaucracy. Elizabeth McGrath served as the first DCMO from July 2010 to November 2013. Since May 2014, David Tillotson has filled the role on an acting basis.

Tillotson has emerged as the right-hand man for acting DOD CIO Terry Halvorsen's efforts to better leverage IT for cost savings. For DOD business operations, IT is "normally an embedded part of the problem, the solution or both," Tillotson told FCW in a recent interview. He added that getting DOD to an "auditable financial position" will require grappling with a "multiplicity of IT systems."

A spokesperson said Tillotson, who was originally tapped as assistant DCMO, could conceivably stay on in the office once Levine is confirmed.

Levine's nomination had been expected in the DOD community since at least early February, when William Greenwalt returned to the Senate Armed Services Committee. Multiple sources told FCW that the administration wanted to get Defense Secretary Ashton Carter confirmed and on the job before turning to the DCMO nomination.

Paul Brubaker, who served as DOD's director of planning and performance management from January 2013 to May 2014, welcomed Levine's appointment. Levine will "bring a well-informed and needed perspective to the DCMO office," Brubaker told FCW. "I don't know why it took so long to fill that position except to say that the White House was probably looking for a candidate with a unique background, like Peter's, and candidates like him aren't that common."