Transcripts For CSPAN3 Hearing On Defense Department Confirm

Defense department. This is live coverage on cspan 3. Mr. Louis bremer to the assistant secretary of defense special operations. We thank everyone for being here today. Briefly say who these people are and i think we have a great bunch that is certainly qualified for the admissions that theyre nominated for. Mr. Abend, youre presently the southeastern adviser to the u. S. Customs and Border Protection and you have extensive experience leading the investigations part of the Inspector General offices for the federal Housing Finance agency and the u. S. Department of housing and urban development. Youve been former secret Service Agent with in the winter of the 2015 council of Inspector General award for excellence. Mr. Hansell, you are currently an associate director of the Boston Consulting Group in its north American Public sector, having previously served as the special assistant to the president for National Security affairs and a senior director for national threats, transnational threats, on the nsc staff, as a special forces officer you commanded the force team on the ground in afghanistan. Mr. Polakowski, prior to your recent service as managing member of the everest technology, llc, you served as a southeastern intelligence support officer with the cia. You also have a 36year career of distinguished service in the u. S. Army, culminating as a Deputy Director for u. S. Strategic command for combatting weapons of mass destruction and retiring as the Major General in the army reserve. Mr. Bremer, you have a 20year civilian career in finance and capital management. In 2007 you were appointed by president george w. Bush to be a white house fellow and later served on the Homeland Security council where you were an author of the 2007 National Strategy for Homeland Security. Prior to that you served four years as a navy s. E. A. L. We have a great bunch here and gentlemen, its standard, we have some required questions, there are nine required questions, so im going to ask these questions and ask each one of you to respond vocally. Okay. Have you adhered to ap pla kabul laws coveraging the conflict of interest . Yes. Was that four . Okay. Will you ensure that your staff complies with the deadlines established for requested communication including questions for the record in hearings . Yes. Will you cooperate in providing witnesses and briefers in response to congressional requests . Yes. Will those witnesses be protected from reprisal for the testimony and briefings . Yes. Do you agree if confirmed to appear and testify before this committee . Yes. And do you agree to provide documents, including copies of electronic forms and communications in a timely manner, when requested by a duly constituted committee or to consult with the Committee Regarding the basis for any good faith delay or denial in providing such documents . Yes. Have you assumed any duties or undertaken any actions which would appear to presume the outcome of this hearing . No. Well, i dont have to tell you guys have this is the serious time, the threatened time that were in this wearing hearing i think is very significant at this time. Senator reed. Thank you very much, mr. Chairman, i want to thank you for having this hearing. Also welcome our nominees and also their families who are watching and supporting them. I would be remiss, however, if i once again did not take this opportunity to remind my colleagues that the administration recently disregarded our constitutional role with advice and consent with respect to of mr. Tatum to the department of defense. When it was clear he would not receive confirmation from this body. This is an abuse of power that continues to disturb me and should cause us all consternation about the appropriate role, constitutional role, of both the president and the United States senate. I would hope that the administration would be taking actions to rectify and prevent any further erosion or disruption of the appropriate role between the United States senate and the administration. I had the opportunity, gentlemen, to talk with most of you i think previously. Mr. Abend, he want to thank you for our conversation. You have extensive experience as an investigator, but you have never really had the experience as an Inspector General, which is i think a specific and a very, very sophisticated operation. Youve been a special agent. You served in many areas, but youve never served in the military and youre being asked now to be the Inspector General for the department of defense a and, again, we acknowledge your skill as an investigator but you will be leading 1600 professionals in jobs that transcend investigations, very complex operations when it comes to the department of defense and to the inspector gentles operations. Also, in 2008, we passed the Inspector General reform act and one of the functions was the creation of a council of Inspector General on integrity or efficiency, the cigie. One of their roles is to make recommendations for departments to ig positions and your nomination is the only recent ig nomination that was not submitted for a recommendation. And so we have no input from the council. Again, i think that is unfortunate detriment to you and we are lacking the advice and the insight of the council. Mr. Hansell, youve been nominated to serve as deputy undersecretary of defense for Intelligence Security. I believe your service in the army and special operations on the National Security council and as a Management Consultant in the industry provide you with valuable and relevant experience at the position. In your answers to the committees advanced policy questions you consistently emphasized the importance of collaboration and coordination to the affect the performance of the duties and office and i appreciate this perspective very much. The office for Intelligence Security must be supportive for all components of the department of defense. Mr. Polakowski, you have been nominated for the position of assistant secretary of Defense Nuclear chemical and biological defense programs. As a former chemical officer you have an experience in defending against chemical and biological weapons, and that knowledge will be important as you oversee the Defense Departments expertise in these areas in the departments role in the whole of government effort to develop a vaccine against the coronavirus. Mr. Polakowski is confirmed in other major part of your portfolio will deal with Nuclear Matters, department of Energy Nuclear National Nuclear Security Administration on the reduction schedules for the nuclear warheads. You will also be involved in managing the Nuclear Weapons council which is the joint d. O. D. d. O. E. Body to coordinate these efforts. I have concerns about your expertise in Nuclear Matters since you have great experience in chemical and biological weapons and i would hope and i know that you will focus a great deal of your attention in getting up to speed with nuclear maeps. Mr. Bremer you are nominated to be the next assistant secretary of defense in special operations and low intensity conflict of the asd. Critically important position tasked with the oversight of advocacy for special Operations Forces. In addition to other possibility responsibilities related to counterterrorism, irregular warfare and building partner capacity. If confirmed you will be charged with completing long overdue actions to enable the office of the asd to fulfill its service life responsibilities related to special Operations Forces. The department has fallen short of the clear mandate provided by the commerce nearly four years ago in an effort to hire qualified Department Guidance to integrate into the Decision Making bodies all of this must be accelerated. Unfortunately, several highprofile misconduct instances in recent years have led to questions about the professionalism and ethics of our special operators. I oppose, as i indicated to you on the phone, the president s inappropriate intervention in several war crimes cases last november and remain concerned about the message that action sent to our troops. The American People, our allies and our adversaries. Im interested in the comments you made regarding chiefs gallagher and ill address those during our questioning. I believe the asd needs to be a person who is not only willing to advocate, but also hold each member to the highest conduct and to the applaud those who abandon those standards. I look forward to the testimony of all the nominees. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you, senator reed. As a reminder, were going to be joined some of our members will be coming in via computer and im hoping its going to work better than it did last tuesday and im going to take the opportunity here to make up for a problem that existed cotton was on, but was not able to talk and well give him twice as much time without objection. Well hear from the members in the order of starting with mr. Abend and then hansell and polakowski and bremer. We would like to suggest you make your remarks brief because you will be getting a lot of questions during the process of this. So well start with you, try to keep our brief and mr. Abend, youre recognized for your opening statement. Good morning, mr. Chairman, Ranking Member reed and distinguished members of the committee and their staff. I am grateful and deeply humbled to be before you today for consideration of my nomination to be Inspector General of the department of defense. I would like to thank the president for his nomination and for my incredible family, i has std by me ever since. She inspires me every day. My amazing children and its core. My longtime friends and mentors ken and john who over decades have selflessly given themselves to me. If confirmed i will have the high honor and privilege of serving alongside 73 other federals inspectors general and 1600 extraordinarily skilled professionals of the department of Defense Office of Inspector General. It is a huge responsibility i would not take lightly, but one if confirmed i will gladly accept. Inspects general are center stage at todays most important matters and none more so than the dodoig. In addition to overseeing the department of defenses activities around the globe ther facing the pandemic including broad oversight with the Pandemic Response accountability, committee and the Government Accountability office to oversee the federal investment in and response to the covid19 pandemic. Congress has appropriated 10. 6 billion to the department of defense for prevention, preparation, and response to covid19 as well as a separate 20 million appropriation to the ig for oversight of the same. If confirmed im confident that my over two decades of diverse management in oversight experience will serve me well in leading the d. O. D. oig. Served as a special agent with two other offices of Inspector General 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, in 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 commit comment to champion both without reservation. I will exercise my responsibilities 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 reed and members of the committee and i look forward to answering your questions. Thank you, mr. Abend. Mr. Hansell . Chairman inhofe, Ranking Member reed, thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today and for your consideration of my nomination to be deputy undersecretary of defense for intelligence and security. I appreciate the can trust and confidence the secretary placed in me and i am grateful for the opportunity to serve again if confirmed. My journal to this hearing room today began with Lessons Learned in my family at an early age, the value of service and love of our country. My grandfather was a sailor in the pacific during world war ii. My father and uncle were naval officers. My brother brian is an active duty marine officer and f35 pilot who married a marine naval flight officer. My other brother michael and his wife are d. O. D. Civilians serving be the navy as my motherinlaw did. For three generations 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 officers i was a consumer and collector of intelligence. Down range, i saw firsthand how timely and accurate intelligence affects the fidelity of military strategy, operations, and risk to force. As a senior director on the National Security council staff, i had an opportunity to work closely with the interagency to coordinate government wide efforts, enhancing our collective security. In this role i was reminded daily how essential integrated intelligence is to supporting National Policy making and its implementation and now as a leader on the Boston Consulting Group north American Public sector team i work to bring commercial best practices to government problems. I approach my nomination with a clear focus on the criticality of Defense Intelligence and security efforts in support of the National Defense strategy. These efforts are essential to ensure that the United States retains its strategic advantage in the competitive and contested environments with we face today. The foundational military intelligence necessary to inform power competition and the Technology Environment in which it will occur is paramount. With Program Costs to meet these threats incredibly high and the cost of misallocation even higher the premium on intelligence informing prudent investment acquisition is at an alltime level. Furthermore as malign activity from adversaries short of Armed Conflict continues to rise the timely and accurate intelligence required to inform leaders and war fighters alike in response is critical. Lastly, ensuring we are fully leveraging protecting our National Security Innovation Base will remain a significant 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 a growing range of adversarial attempts to infiltrate and undermine our sources of strength. If confirmed i look forward to supporting these efforts and the men and women of the Defense Security intelligence enterprise. Im committed to working closely with this committee and other committees of jurisdiction to provide the information needed to carry out oversight responsibilities. Thank you for your time today and consideration of my nomination. I look forward to your questions. Thank you, mr. Hansell and mr. Polakowski. Thank you, chairman inhofe, Ranking Member reed, 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 important position and it is a great privilege 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 could not be here today. I am here today desiring to continue to serve our nation and National Defense in the nuclear, chemical and biological defense areas. After my commissioning at the citadel, i served the majority of my 36year army career defending our nation against the scourge of weapons