White House Nominates Navy Submariner to Run Maritime Administration

Former submarine officer Capt. Brent Sadler (USN) has been nominated to run the U.S. Maritime Administration, the unit of the Department of Transportation responsible for the Ready Reserve, the Maritime Security Program, the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy and several other maritime-related programs. MARAD has been without a nominated leader since former administrator Adm. Ann Phillips' resignation in mid-January.

Capt. Sadler is a Navy veteran with 26 years of experience, and currently works as a researcher with the conservative Heritage Foundation. He is an engineer by training and a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, with multiple Indo-Pacific submarine tours on his resume. As a policy leader at Indo-Pacific Command, he helped pass a program for maritime security training for Southeast Asian partners in FY2016, and helped direct $12 billion in defense funding to the Asia-Pacific under the "rebalance" initiative in 2013-15.

When confirmed, he will help lead the drafting of new legislation to create a "strategic commercial fleet" focused on ensuring "adequate cubed footage," according to a White House draft executive order obtained by USNI. This unit of measurement applies to ro/ro capacity, the most frequently-discussed element of the U.S. strategic sealift fleet.

When confirmed, Sadler will have wide latitude to remake MARAD or reduce its size, an administration priority across government. High staff turnover and high retirement eligibility have left MARAD with more than 100 vacant positions (as of last September). In the fall, the agency had openings for 12 percent of all authorized positions, according to GAO - long before the White House's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) offered all federal employees a voluntary buyout. MARAD officials told GAO last year that the staff shortages made it hard to accomplish missions, and that the problem was worsening.