President Donald Trump on Thursday nominated David Norquist to be the Pentagon’s top budget official.
If confirmed as the under secretary of defense (Comptroller) and chief financial officer, Norquist will serve as the principal advisor to Defense Secretary Mattis on all budgetary and financial matters at the Defense Department. 
Norquist is currently with the accounting and consulting firm Kearney & Company, which specializes in “solving government-specific problems,” the firm says on its website. Prior to that, Kearney was the first senate-confirmed chief financial officer at the Department of Homeland Security, holding that position from May 2006 until December 2008, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Norquist also spent three-and-a-half years in the Pentagon Comptroller office, serving as deputy under of defense (Comptroller) between December 2002 and May 2006. On his LinkedIn site, Norquist says that in his last two years in the deputy’s job, he worked with the congressional defense authorization and appropriations committees “to build support for budget requests and critical administration initiatives.”
Earlier in his career, Norquist worked as a professional staff member on the House Appropriations Committee’s defense panel, and for the Army in program, budget and resource management positions.