WASHINGTON, D.C. (TIP) : President Donald Trump has nominated Indian American official Harry Kumar, serving as Director of Government Relations in the Department of Commerce for the last four years, as Assistant Secretary of Commerce. Kumar’s name was announced by the White House in a broad list of nominees for diplomatic, defense, and administrative roles sent to the Senate for confirmation.
He previously served as Associate Director for Legislative Affairs from November 2019 to Jan 2021 during Trump’s first term. Prior to that he worked as Legislative Assistant at the U.S. Senate (Mar. 2017- Nov. 2019) and as Legislative Counsel at the U.S. House of Representatives (Apr. 2015- Mar, 2017).
Earlier, he also worked as Legislative & Policy Aide at HBW Resources LLC in Houston, Texas, where he did direct legal research and analyses on various congressional and regulatory energy initiatives affecting oil, natural gas, land-use and emissions.
Before working as an attorney at Steven S. Toeppich & Associates, PLLC, in Houston, Texas, Kumar focused on oil and energy. On a Public Policy Fellowship with Consumer Energy Alliance in Texas, he directed efforts to research and develop an assessment of Florida energy policies and assisted with legal research and analyses of Congressional energy initiatives affecting oil, natural gas, land-use and emissions.
Trump also nominated Janet Dhillon of Virginia, for the position of Director of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation for a five-year term.
Dhillon, who is married to Uttam Dhillon, an American attorney and law enforcement official, previously served as Chair of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), a position she was nominated for by Trump in 2019. She remained in that role until January 2021 and continued as a commissioner until her resignation in November 2022.