A Pentagon official acknowledged that the department had not consulted with senators about two of the major policy decisions being evaluated, which has caused frustration from the lawmakers.
Alexander Velez-Green, who is currently a senior adviser to the undersecretary of war for policy and is up for the nomination to be deputy undersecretary of defense for policy, said during his confirmation hearing that the department has not consulted with Congress over the national defense strategy or the global force posture review.
His acknowledgement comes amid bipartisan criticism largely directed at Undersecretary of War for Policy Elbridge Colby for not engaging with Congress on Pentagon policy decision-making in the new administration.
“Senator, I’m not aware that there has been formal consultations with Congress on the national defense strategy. I know we interact on a regular basis on issues related and policy that inform the internal discussions and development process,” Velez-Green said, adding that he “would offer the same response,” regarding the global posture review.
Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS), the chairman of the committee, elicited the answer from him and responded, “That’s really not the way it’s supposed to work.”
This was the second Senate Armed Services Committee hearing this week. Wicker, among others, was critical in both hearings of the lack of communication from the Pentagon’s policy department, speculating that the policy shop was not acting in unison with the administration’s priorities.
“Members of this committee are in regular contact with people inside the executive branch, both career civilians and political appointees,” he added. “We talked to the Japanese, we talked to the Taiwanese, the Koreans, and the Baltic nations. In many of these conversations, we hear that the Pentagon policy office seems to be doing what it pleases without coordinating even inside the U.S. executive branch; some might hope to chalk up such accusations to faulty news reporting. But as I’ve said, it is not that simple. Either all of these other administration officials and senior foreign officials are deliberately misleading us, or we have a problem coming from this office at the Pentagon.”
While Velez-Green said that if he’s confirmed into his position, he would engage with the committee, Wicker responded to the pledge by saying it would “require a change in a mindset.”
Sen. Deb Fischer (R-NE) said she has “been disappointed with [the] engagement this committee has had [with] the office of the undersecretary [for] policy.” During Tuesday’s hearing, Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK) called Colby the “hardest guy to get a hold of in the Trump administration.”
Colby and Sullivan met for a private conversation on Wednesday.
Sullivan’s office told the Washington Examiner the conversation was “constructive.” A Pentagon spokesperson declined to provide specific details but confirmed the meeting took place.
“I think I had a good meeting with Undersecretary Colby yesterday, where he walked me through a lot of the pillars of the NDS that the Pentagon’s working on right now, which I appreciated a lot,” Sullivan said during Thursday’s hearing.
Senators raised multiple examples where the Pentagon was seemingly not operating in line with the president’s agenda, such as the U.S. decision to withdraw some troops from Romania, the surprise review of the U.S.-U.K.-Australia deal, opposition to deploying more U.S. troops to the Middle East during the Iran-Israel war in June, and the cancellation of a meeting among senior U.S. officials and their Japanese counterparts.
REPUBLICAN SENATORS AIR FRUSTRATIONS OVER LACK OF INFORMATION FROM PENTAGON
Velez-Green, like Austin Dahmer, whose confirmation hearing to be the assistant secretary of defense strategy, plans, and capabilities was on Tuesday, denied that the Pentagon “paused” aid to Ukraine earlier this year.
Dahmer blamed the confusion on “fake news,” but senators on Thursday, when talking about it with Velez-Green, referenced comments made over the summer by top Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell, who on July 2 told reporters, “I can’t go into detail about what weapons were paused and when and what we’re providing and when.”
