A handful of Republicans on the Senate Armed Services Committee expressed their frustration about the tight-lipped Pentagon during a hearing on Tuesday morning.
Lawmakers of both parties on the committee used the routine confirmation hearing of three assistant secretary appointees as their opportunity to ask questions of them publicly about the decision-making processes in the department.
Despite having a “relatively positive relationship” with Secretary Pete Hegseth and Deputy Secretary Stephen Feinberg, committee Chairman Roger Wicker (R-MS) said, “Members and staff of this committee have struggled to receive information from the policy office and have not been able to consult in a meaningful way with the shop either on the National Defense Strategy or the Global Posture Review.”
Wicker, during his opening remarks at Tuesday’s hearing, said he has “noticed an unsettling trend this year,” in that, “At times, Pentagon officials have pursued policies that are not in accord with President Trump’s orders or seem uncoordinated within the administration.”
The chairman referenced last week’s announcement that the U.S. would be reducing its presence in Romania. Specifically, the military decided it would bring home and replace the 2nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team of the 101st Airborne Division.
“We saw one example of this last week, in the decision to withdraw an infantry brigade combat team from Romania. I spoke about this in a statement with Chairman Rogers of the House Armed Services Committee. We noted that this decision did not appear to reflect the policy mandate of President Trump. Just two weeks ago, the president had said that troops would not be withdrawn from Europe. It is unclear to me how the move fits with the commander-in-chief’s direction,” Wicker said.
“Is the U.S. planning further drawdowns of our ground forces in Europe? If so, this committee and this Congress would appreciate being advised as members of the same American team,” he added.
Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK) expressed frustration toward Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Elbridge Colby, whom he said was “the hardest guy to get a hold of in the Trump administration.”
The Pentagon is nearing the release of the National Defense Strategy, which is a broad document that outlines the department’s priorities typically every four years, and a Force Posture Review that looks at the current U.S. military posture across the globe to see whether the military should increase or decrease its presence in various places.
Hegseth has made clear that this version of the NDS, unlike previous ones, will include a heavy emphasis on defending the homeland. The military has increased its presence along the southern border, began carrying out lethal strikes on alleged drug smuggling vessels heading to the United States, and they are working on creating and developing the Golden Dome, a comprehensive air defense system that Trump supports.
“The department is allegedly conducting a broad review of U.S. forces stationed abroad. I say ‘allegedly’ because the department has not formally conveyed to this committee that it is actually undertaking such a review,” Wicker continued.
In a strange moment at the hearing, Austin Dahmer, whose confirmation to be the Assistant Secretary of Defense Strategy, Plans, and Capabilities, said there had been four briefings with members of committee about the withdrawal of some U.S. forces from Romania, three of which occurred before the announcement went public.
Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) asked for more information about those meetings because “I wasn’t invited to those meetings,” and Wicker said, after conferring with both majority and minority staffers, no briefings had in fact occurred.
Dahmer also disputed reporting from earlier this year — which Wicker cited as an example of the Pentagon not operating in concert with President Donald Trump’s stated policy goals — that the U.S. briefly paused military aid to Ukraine.
He was asked these questions because he’s currently the acting Deputy Under Secretary of War for Policy.
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Later in the hearing, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AK) raised the subject of the Ukraine aid dispute, the Romanian troops withdrawal and whether they were notified ahead of time, the surprise review of the U.S.-U.K.-Australia deal known as AUKUS, opposition to deploying more U.S. troops to the Middle East during the Iran-Israel war in June, the cancellation of a meeting among top U.S. officials and their Japanese counterparts.
“I understand that media reports can be wrong, believe me, but it just seems like there’s this pigpen-like mess coming out of the policy shop that you don’t see from, say, intel and security and acquisition and sustainment,” Cotton said.
Dahmer blamed “fake news” and “inaccurate reporting.”
