Biden to tap intelligence expert Corless for Treasury terrorism post

By Andrea Shalal

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Joe Biden will nominate Shannon Corless, a career intelligence expert, as assistant secretary of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence at the Treasury Department, the White House said on Tuesday.

Corless currently oversees economic security, energy security, export controls, sanctions, supply chain, telecommunications, threat finance, and trade partnerships at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI).

If confirmed, Corless, a former naval intelligence officer, will be part of a team making decisions about sanctioning the Taliban and other issues impacting the flow of capital into Afghanistan.

Before ODNI, Corless served as the director of investment security at ODNI's National Intelligence Council, where she played a critical role on reviews conducted by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS).

Corless will join a queue of 10 other people awaiting confirmation at Treasury, including five nominated back in April and May to oversee key issues such as tax policy, economic policy and terrorist financing, the White House said.

Biden administration officials have expressed mounting frustration about congressional holds placed by Republicans on dozens of nominees for key posts at the State Department, Treasury and elsewhere for reasons unrelated to the nominations. To date the U.S. Senate has confirmed just 131 of Biden's 368 nominees, a pace slightly ahead of former President Donald Trump, but lagging that of Barack Obama and George W. Bush, according to the nonprofit Partnership for Public Service.

(Reporting by Andrea Shalal in Washington; Editing by Heather Timmons and Matthew Lewis)