The senior head of a Navy office that helps organize critical research and funding for the service has been replaced by a 33-year-old former DOGE employee who previously pressed for thousands of job cuts at the Department of Health and Human Services.
Rear Adm. Kurt Rothenhaus was booted as chief of naval research for Rachel Riley, a former partner at the consulting firm McKinsey & Company who joined HHS as part of the unofficial Department of Government Efficiency in January, The Bulwark first reported Thursday.
HHS Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Rich Danker confirmed Riley’s move to the Navy but did not say when she left the department, telling The Hill in a statement that “We appreciate the work Rachel Riley did for HHS to improve and right size the agency across its structure, programs, and grants.”
Rothenhaus, who had been in the top post at the Office of Naval Research since June 2023 overseeing billions of dollars in grants, has been moved to an unknown position.
His replacement is highly unusual given that the office — created by Congress in 1946 to fund Navy and Marine Corps research — is typically run by a two-star admiral with extensive experience in technology, science, and engineering.
Rothenhaus is an engineering duty officer who oversaw command control computers communications and intelligence, also known as PEO C4I, before he took over the Naval research office. His official biography still lists him as the chief of naval research.
Riley, a Rhodes Scholar recipient, has no apparent naval experience and has reportedly had a tumultuous several months working in the Trump administration.
She was the main push behind an attempt to lay off nearly 8,000 HHS employees at the end of September, but agency officials had rejected the plan, Politico first reported last week.
She has also come under fire along with Brad Smith for their secretive handling of firings at HHS this spring, failing to share data files with career staff responsible for carrying out layoffs, creating confusion, according to Politico.
In addition, she pushed in September for the near-dismantling of the NIH’s Center for Scientific Review, run by 500 employees to review grant applications at the health research agency, Politico reported.
Her LinkedIn profile lists her job experience as working for eight and a half years at McKinsey, rising to partner before starting to work for the HHS in January.
“I have been working on a range of confidential projects since Inauguration,” her profile states.
