Defense Secretary Jim Mattis met with members of the House Armed Services Committee on Tuesday after the transition team did not allow him to appear before the panel ahead of his confirmation in January.
Rep. Mac Thornberry, R-Texas, and chairman of the committee, told reporters on Wednesday that Mattis answered questions before the full committee meeting “informally” for about 90 minutes in a classified setting. Thornberry provided few details of conversation during the closed session, but said the budget was one topic of discussion.
“He has been anxious to do that every since he was denied the opportunity to come and testify before his confirmation and with his travel schedule, our schedule, this was the first opportunity we had,” Thornberry said. “Incredibly open and anxious to work with us.”
While Cabinet nominees typically testify only before the relevant Senate committee, lawmakers in the House wanted Mattis to answers questions since becoming the Pentagon’s top civilian required a law change because of his recent military service, which the House also had to pass. Mattis had agreed to appear before the committee, but the transition team blocked him from doing so.
Thornberry also expressed concern about the slow rate at which Trump is getting his people into positions in the Pentagon, blaming it on both intentional delays by Senate Democrats and the administration “not moving out” in nominating people.
“I am concerned that basically you’ve got the secretary and a lot of other folks who don’t necessarily share this administration’s viewpoint,” he said.
He also said he’s worried that the difficulty of serving in government is something that drove away Philip Bilden and Vincent Viola, Trump’s picks to be the secretaries of the Navy and Army respectively. Both withdrew after they faced difficulty getting their businesses in line with what’s required for government service.
“I do worry in general about government, about running people who have been successful, running them off of government service,” he said. “I just think we do have to be careful about making it too hard for people to serve in government and the talent pool that that restricts.”
