Transcripts For CSPAN2 Hearing On Defense Department Confirm

The Senate Committee held a confirmation hearing for several underground divisions including Inspector General and deputy undersecretary for intelligence and security. Some of the topics covered the Committee Hearing included whistleblower protections, election interference and servicemember misconduct. The meeting will come to order, we consider the nominations of mr. Jason, Inspector General of the department of defense. Mr. Lucas to be assistant secretary of defense that Nuclear Chemical biological and defense rooms and mr. Lewis to be assistant secretary of defense special operations. I think everyone for being here today, let me briefly say these people are and i think we have a great bunch that is certainly qualified for the mission they are accommodated for. Senior advisor, u. S. Customs and border protection, you have extensive experience leading litigation as part of the Inspector Generals offices for the federal Housing Agency and the u. S. Department of housing and urban Development Given former secret Service Agents and winner of the 2015 count of Inspector Generals words for excellence. You are currently an associate director of the Consulting Group and its north American Private sector. Having previously served as assistant to the president for National Security affairs and a senior director for national threats, on the staff is a special forces officer you commanded and the forced team on the ground in afghanistan. Prior to your recent services managing member of the Everest Technology llc, he served as Senior Intelligence support officer with the cia, you also have a 36 year career of service in the u. S. Army, culminating as Deputy Director for u. S. Command for combating weapons of mass destruction and retiring as the Major General in the army reserve. Mr. Bremer, you have a 20 year civilian career in financing Capital Management 2007, you were appointed by president george w. Bush for the white house fellow and later served on the homeland security, you are author of the 2007 National Strategy for homeland security. Prior to that, he served four years as a navy seal. We have a great bunch here standard, we have required questions requested so we will ask these questions to each one of you and we ask you to respond locally. If you adhere to the laws and relations governing conflict of interest. All four of you. Yes. Was that for . Okay. Will you ensure your staff complies with the deadlines established for the request and communication including questions for the record in the hearings . Yes,. Yes. Yes. Congressional request . Yes. Those witnesses protected for reprisal for the testimony and briefings . Yes. Do you agree its confirmed to testify before this committee . Yes. Do you agree to provide documents including electronic forms of communications in a timely matter when requested by constituted committee or consult with the Committee Regarding the basis for any good delay or denial and providing documents . Have you assumed duties in taking action which appear to resume outcome of the hearing . No. I dont have to tell you the series threatened time in this hearings. Its very significant this time. Thank you very much. I want to thank you for having this hearing and also families who are watching and i would be remiss if i did not take this opportunity to remind my colleagues the administration recently disregarded our constitutional role to consent in respect to the appointment. , this would continue to serve me and should pose the appropriate role, i constitutional role in the u. S. Senate. I would hope the administration would take action directed by and prevent any further erosion or disruption of the appropriate role between the u. S. Senate and administration. I have the opportunity to talk with most of you previously and i want to thank you for our conversation, you have extensive experience as an investigator but you have never really had the experience as Inspector General, which is a specific and very sophisticated operation. You served in many areas but youve never served in the military and youre being asked now to be Inspector General for the proper defense. Again, we acknowledge your skill but you will be leading 1600 professionals and jobs that transcend investigations and complex operations. Also in 2008, we passed Inspector General form act in one of the functions was the creation Inspector General and integrity or its called the cig i. E. , one of their roles is to make recommendations to those positions in your is the only one not submitted for recommendations so we have no input for the council and i think that is unfortunate for you. Youve been nominated under security, i believe your service has been on National Security and provide you with with relevant experience in the position and your question consistently emphasizing the importance of collaboration and coordination for the effective performance of the duties of office and i appreciate this perspective very much. You must be focused on providing intelligence support for Security Services for all proponents of the department of defense. You have been nominated to position of sick. Nuclear chemical and biological defense programs as a form of chemicals, have an experience in defending against chemical and biological weapons and that knowledge will be important as you oversee the Defense Department, particularly in the role of the role of developing a vaccine against the coronavirus. Another year part of your portfolio will deal with nuclear, you have oversight and energies nuclear, National Nuclear Security Administration under production schedule for the nuclear warhead. Will be involved managing the Nuclear Weapons council which is the joint duty, dod body for these efforts. I have concerns about your expertise in nuclear matters. You have great experience in chemical and biological weapons and i would hope and i know focus your attention on getting up to speed these matters. Your nominated for the next secretary for special operations for the asd, a critically important position task for the oversight advocacy for special Operations Forces in addition to other policies response abilities related to counterterrorism, airline nuclear warfare, and building capacity. Its confirmed you will be charged with completing longoverdue action to enable officers for service like responsibilities. Related to special Operations Forces. The department has fallen short of the clear mandate four years ago and the efforts to hire qualified personnel for the department to integrate solar into the decisionmaking bodies, all of this must be accelerated. Unfortunately, several highprofile this conduct instances in recent years have led to questions about professionalism and ethics of special operators. I oppose the president s inappropriate intervention in several work cases last remains concerned about the actions send to our troops, the American People, allies and adversaries. Im interested in the comments you made regarding that. I believe he needs to be a person whos willing to advocate and hold each member to the highest sense of conduct and not support those who abandoned the standards. I look forward to the testimony of all the nominees. Thank you. Thank you. As a reminder, we are going to be joined by some of our members coming in via computer and i hope it will work better than it did last tuesday. Im going to take the opportunity here to make for a problem that existed last, they were not able to give that much time without objection. We are going to hear from members starting with mr. Albin and handle and then went county. Would like to suggest you make your remarks brief because you will be getting a lot of questions during the process. Lets start with you, try to keep these brief. Good morning. Im grateful and humbled to be before you today for consideration of my nomination to the Inspector General of department of defense. I like to think the president for his nomination and for my incredible Family Friends and colleagues who have brought me to this day and most especially to my wife, valerie who met me on a blind date 20 years ago and has stood by me ever since. She inspires me every day. Amazing children who are constantly reminders for why i continue this great career in Public Service, my parents who instilled in me an early love of country and most especially, my father was the proud product of army rotc and its signal corps. A longtime friends and mentors, ken and john who over decades, have given themselves to me. If confirmed, ill have the high honor and privilege of serving alongside 73 other federal inspectors general as well as 1500 extraordinarily skilled professionals of the department of Defense Office of Inspector General. Its a huge response ability, i would not take it lightly but one, if confirmed, i will gladly accept. Inspectors general, center stage of todays most important matters more so than the dod ig. To oversee the federal investment to the covid19 pandemic. Congress has appropriated ten points explain dollars to the department of defense for prevention, preparation and response to covid 19, as well as a separate 20 million appropriation to the ig for over inside of the same. If confirmed, i am confident that my over two decades of diverse management and oversight experience will serve me well in lady the dod ig and having served as a special agent with two other offices of Inspector General as well as with the u. S. Secret service i have led complex investigations into civil, criminal and employee misconduct. Through these experiences i witnessed firsthand how fraud, waste and abuse negatively impacted government programs, services and ultimately our taxpayers and how sustained oversight and preventative corrective actions are critical to the effective operations of our government. In closing, and many of my meetings with both you and your staff we discussed the importance of independence and transparency. I stated then and publicly reaffirm now my commitment to champion both of these values without reservation and without exception. If confirmed i will exercise my response bullies as i have throughout my entire career by gathering and following the facts wherever they lay, analyzing the data objectively and applying the law without favor or preconception. I want to thank you, mr. Chairman, Ranking Member read and members of the committee and i look forward to answering your questions. Thank you. Chairman, distinct numbers of the committee thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today and for your consideration of my nomination to be deputy under secretary of defense for intelligence and security. I appreciate the trust and confidence the president secretary has placed in me and truly grateful for the opportunity to serve again if confirmed. My journey to this hearing room today began with Lessons Learned in my family at an early age grade the value of service, love of our country and my grandfather was a sailor in the pacific during world war ii. My father and uncle were both naval officers, submariner and pilots. My brother brian is an active duty marine officer in an f35 pilot who himself married a marine naval flight officer but my other brother michael and his wife are both dod civilians sorting the navy as my mother in law did. For three generations of my family has sworn to protect and defend the constitution. As i myself have had the honor to do multiple times. Each chapter of my career has helped to uniquely prepare me for this role. As a special forces officer i was both the consumer and collector of intelligence. I saw firsthand how timely accurate intelligence affects the fidelity of military strategy, operations and risk to force trade as a senior director of national secured Council Staff i had an opportunity to work closely with the inter agency to coordinate governmentwide efforts, enhancing our collective security. In this role as minded daily of how essential integrated intelligence is to supporting National Policymaking and its implementation. And now as a leader on the boston Consulting Group north american sector team i worked to bring commercial best practices to government problems. I approach my nomination with a clear focus under the criticality of Defense Security efforts in support of the National Defense strategy. These efforts are essential to ensure the United States retains a strategic advantage in the competitive and contested environments we face today. The foundational military intelligence necessary to inform Great Power Competition and the Technology Environment in which it will occur is paramount. With Program Costs to meet these credit threats and currently i and the cost of misallocation even higher the premium on intelligence in forming prudent investment acquisition is at an alltime level. Furthermore, as malign actively from adversaries short of Armed Conflict continues to rise the timely and accurate intelligence required to inform leaders and war fighters alike and response is critical. Lastly, ensuring we are fully leveraging protection our National Security Innovation Base will remain is in a vacant imperative. The Defense Intelligence and security enterprise must continue aggressively seeking commercial partnerships to retain our innovation advantage while at the same time protecting this advantage against the growing range of auxiliary attempts to infiltrate and undermine our sources of strength. If confirmed i look forward to supporting these crucial efforts in serving the men and women of the Defense Intelligence and security enterprise. In closing, im committed to working closely with this committee and other committees to restriction to provide the information needed to carry out oversight responsibilities. Thank you for your time today in consideration of my nomination. I look forward to your questions. Thank you. Thank you, chairman inhofe, Ranking Member read and members of the committee. As you consider my nomination to be assistant secretary of defense for nuclear, chemical and biological defense programs. I am honored to be considered for this supported position and it is a great povich to appear before you today. I wish to thank President Trump and secretary esper for this opportunity and their confidence in me and support for my nomination. I am very appreciative of my family who have supported me during my long career of past government service, especially my children and my sister who unfortunately cannot be here today. I am here today desiring to continue to serve our nation and our National Defense and the Nuclear Chemical and biological defense areas. After my commissioning at the center goal i serve the majority of my 36 year army career defending our nation against the scourge of weapons of mass destruction. I believe my career today has both prepared me and given me great insight into the ast and cb portfolio and a sound appreciation for the needs of the war fighter and the joint force in both acquiring and sustaining nuclear, chemical and biological defense capabilities. During these times are regard modernizing our Nuclear Deterrent and its associated National Nuclear Security Administration infrastructure as critical to our nations security and preserving our american way of life. My previous Senior Leader tours at both u. S. Strategic command and at the joint staff of a lipped in me a deep understanding of u. S. Strategic commands, Nuclear Deterrent mission, and the joint forces roles in preventing, countering and, if needed, defending our nation against weapons of mass destruction. If confirmed, i pledged to focus on modernizing our Nuclear Triad, building on the partnership the department of defense has with the nasa. Improving counter wmd programs and completing destruction of the remainder of our legacy chemical weapon stockpile within budget and on time. If confirmed, i pledged to work with the congress in these efforts and to enhance our communication and cooperation. Thank you again. I look forward to your questions. Thank you mr. Polakowski. Stir bremer. Chairman inhofe,