Marilyn Strickland Slams Pete Hegseth For Cutting DoD Programs And 'Curbing' Defense Innovation

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During a House Armed Services Committee hearing held before the congressional recess, Rep. Marilyn Strickland (D-WA) questioned Military officials about DoD cuts.

Transcript

00:00I recognize Ms. Strickland. Thank you, Chairman Rogers and Ranking

00:03Member Smith. I have the honor of representing Joint Base Lewis-McChord,

00:07home to tens of thousands of active duty service members, including the first

00:12multi-domain task force and future elements of the third MDTF, Fifth

00:17Security Forces Assistant Brigade, First Special Forces Group, and America's

00:21First Corps. And it's great to see you, General Bunsen. Those stars look good on

00:25you. All of these things are regionally aligned toward the Indo-Pacific

00:28theater, and JBLM plays a central role in the U.S.'s ability to ensure a free and

00:33open Indo-Pacific. I'm going to talk about two issues. I will start with climate

00:38change and then the alliances and partnerships of AUKUS. Admiral Paparo, how

00:43are the U.S. military operations and plans being affected by factors like rising

00:48sea level, extreme heat, and displacement in heavily populated coastal areas? Some

00:55of our efforts align our Pacific partnership and our operations with the typhoon

01:01season within the Pacific so that we can be more ready to respond to humanitarian

01:08assistance disaster relief. Similarly, many of our expeditionary engineering

01:13capabilities work on key critical infrastructure, particularly through the

01:17Pacific Island countries. And so that ability to respond is front of mind.

01:23Thank you. Mr. Doe, under President Trump and Secretary Heggs' leadership, DOD is now

01:30canceling programs that do a few things. Extend rage and on-station time, mitigate

01:36contested logistic challenges, and make our forces more easier to detect by

01:41lowering thermal signatures. All because these programs also happen to have a climate

01:46benefit. In his approach, Secretary Heggs has said, quote, we do not do climate

01:51change crap. And this approach is actually curbing innovation and making us less

01:56ready. They don't make us more lethal, they don't protect our troops, and they

02:00don't help us confront a peer competitor. How can the department prepare for the

02:04realities of a conflict in Indopaycom, an environment of censorship where key

02:09decisions are being made because of a catchphrase instead of the actual

02:12benefits that protect our warfighters?

02:16Congresswoman, the focus of the department is and will remain on

02:23strengthening our posture and warfighting capabilities. And I believe the

02:28President's budget, which will be released soon, will reflect both the

02:32priorities of the President and the Secretary's priority of reestablishing

02:39deterrence in the Indo-Pacific. Okay, so the three things I mentioned

02:42specifically, extending range and station time, mitigating contested logistics, and

02:47making our forces harder to find by lowering thermal signatures. Are those

02:51things actually going to happen even though the Secretary said that this was

02:54climate change crap? Congresswoman, that woman, that's a issue I'll have to take back

03:01and follow up with you on. Okay, so you don't know? I'm not sure. Okay, thank you. Now I want to switch over to

03:07AUKUS and we know that this particular partnership is incredibly important. It

03:12prevents Chinese malign influence and actually reduce costs for the US. So

03:17Admiral, can you talk about how this partnership has already benefited the US

03:22and what capabilities it's delivering to our Australian allies? Congresswoman, first

03:27is that it's benefited us in the contributions that Australia's made to the

03:31defense industrial base to the amount of three billion dollars in order to

03:35enhance the submarine industrial bases capability to deliver on on pillar one.

03:40Second, the working towards submarine rotational force, Sterling, would give the

03:47United States a Indian Ocean capability which is more responsive to the South

03:52China Sea and gives us the ability to operate with submarines with impunity

03:57without having to go through straits in the Indian Ocean and its approaches

04:01through the critical straits of Malacca, of Lombok, and of Sunda, among others. And

04:07then on pillar two, Australia hits way, way above its weight from a cyber standpoint. It does some

04:16critical things that really complement what we do. So AUKUS is a winner in every way

04:21for Indo-Pacific Command. Thank you. And then Mr. Ngo, are there any obstacles that you think the US faces in

04:27fully implementing AUKUS and specifically upholding our partnership, particularly in transferring three to

04:34five Virginia-class submarines?

04:37Congresswoman, I think our industrial capacity remains a limiting factor. We're

04:44able to produce 1.28 Virginia-class submarines a year. That number needs to be above two for us to both

04:52fulfill our own submarine requirements and to fulfill our obligations to Australia

04:57under pillar one. Thank you. And you may want to tell your boss that some of the

05:03trade decisions that are being made actually have time.

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