Senate Confirms Investment Banker John Phelan as Navy Secretary

The Navy has a new civilian leader with a hefty business resume but no military experience after the Senate voted Monday evening to approve John Phelan as the service's secretary.

The Senate voted 62-30 to confirm Phelan as Navy secretary, making him the civilian head of both the Navy and Marine Corps and putting him in charge of the health and well-being of more than 1 million sailors, Marines, reservists and civilian personnel and an annual budget of more than $250 billion.