Arizona’s Barbara Barrett Confirmed By Senate As USAF Secretary

ARIZONA – Barbara Barrett of Arizona was confirmed by the Senate Wednesday as the U.S. Air Force’s next secretary. Her nomination drew bipartisan support, with a senate vote of 85 to 7, azcentral.com reported. Senators Martha McSally (R-AZ) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) both voted yes on Barrett’s confirmation.

Barrett, a chairwoman of the Aerospace Corp. for five years, plans on bringing a Western vantage point to the USAF secretary’s office. “We think often that decisions in Washington are made with an East Coast perspective,” Barrett told The Arizona Republic after her appointment Wednesday. “This will be an instance where Arizonans can know that someone who understands the American West, the water issues, the space issues, the arid lands issue, the topics of diversity, things that are Arizona topics, are familiar to me and will be applied when I, if I, [am] able to make those decisions.”

Barrett also intends to increase the USAF’s technical and competitive edge while modernizing the organization. She pledges to strengthen the United States’ partnerships with foreign allies and to build national space capabilities to stop foreign threats against U.S. assets. She also committed to help the president establish Space Force, a disparate military space branch falling under the Air Force’s umbrella.

The new USAF secretary also plans to implement a “zero tolerance” stance on sexual assault accusations in the USAF.

Barrett is a longtime friend of U.S. Senator Martha McSally (R-AZ), and it was McSally who got the ball rolling in Barrett’s direction after McSally called President Trump in May to request that he nominate Barrett for the USAF secretary position.

Heather Wilson had resigned the USAF secretary's post in May to become the University of Texas at El Paso’s president.

Read the full story at azcentral.com.