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.