President Joe Biden’s nominee for Army secretary, Christine Wormuth, on Thursday promised senators she would provide them data on extremism in the ranks as Republican lawmakers warned of unfounded claims about troops after a pro-Donald Trump mob stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6.
Wormuth, a former Obama Pentagon undersecretary for policy, would be the first woman to serve in the role if confirmed. Senate Armed Services Committee members on both sides of the aisle praised her as “the right person” for the job, as put by Iowa Republican Joni Ernst. But Alaska Republican Dan Sullivan expressed frustration that Army soldiers were being targeted by the media as racists and extremists without proof, and he called on the nominee to commit to protecting soldiers.
“Extremism, racism, of course we don’t want that in the ranks at all, at all,” Sullivan told Wormuth before a lengthy description of the verbal attacks soldiers were facing.
Sullivan said he had discussed the lack of diversity in top ranks with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and that the Pentagon should “crush” any extremism, but data was needed.
BIDEN NOMINATES OBAMA-ERA OFFICIAL TO BE FIRST FEMALE ARMY SECRETARY
“There are wild claims,” he continued. “Just pick up the Washington Post every day. They seem to make them, through anecdotes, that somehow our U.S. military is a hotbed of extremists, racists at very high levels.”
Sullivan, a 26-year Marine Corps veteran, said the worst example of such a claim without evidence was by controversial Biden nominee Colin Kahl for undersecretary of defense for policy. In Kahl’s March 4 confirmation hearing, he said the country faced “a moment of reckoning” and that he would work to “end racism and violent extremism within the ranks.”
But Kahl could not provide data to support his conclusions.
Sullivan pressed Wormuth to end statements about extremism and racism in the ranks that were not based on data.
“The vast majority of soldiers are tolerant and inclusive in terms of working with their peers,” Wormuth said in response.
“I do think it would be useful to have additional data,” she said. The nominee, however, added that survey data indicated “there are some pockets and some cases of racist behavior, there are still some institutional barriers to promotion.”
In other areas, senators drilled down on issues such as cybersecurity, military housing, and a commitment to root out sexual assault and harassment in the Army.
Wormuth promised to implement all 70 recommendations in the Fort Hood independent review and said she expected the Pentagon’s independent review commission to recommend taking prosecutions of sexual harassment and assault out of the chain of command.
“I will absolutely make it a top priority,” she told Massachusetts Democrat Elizabeth Warren. “I would like to see us put more emphasis on trying to prevent incidents of sexual harassment and sexual assault.”
Although she would be charged to support Biden’s flat defense budget of $715 billion, senators asked Wormuth to be a strong voice for defense dollars and maintaining the Army’s modernization priorities.
“The Army has not completely modernized itself in over 40 years,” she said. “I believe in a strong defense, and you have my commitment that I will make my views heard on that matter.”
The service did have its massive Future Combat Systems soup-to-nuts initiative at one time. But it was scuttled when Army officials and industry could not deliver the promised technologies on time and on budget.
Wormuth explained to Arkansas Republican Tom Cotton why she believes long-range precision fires were the top Army modernization priority, making the case that anti-access and area denial by adversaries in Europe in the Indo-Pacific region required that the Army have the capability to fire from long distances. She also called for a “more distributed forward presence in the region,” ahead of DOD’s global force posture review due by mid-summer.
Wormuth also promised Army readiness and force structure would not suffer on her watch.
“I would not want to see us return to the days of 15-month long deployments and regular use of stop loss,” she said.
Ernst, among others, did not let the historic nature of the occasion go unnoticed.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
“You are certainly making history and charting course as our first female nominee for secretary of the Army,” said the retired Iowa Army National Guard member.
Ernst reflected on her daughter’s coming commission in the Army: “I am so thankful that she will have a strong, intelligent, and well-qualified woman leading our United States Army.”
