Rick Scott Presses DoD Nominee About Frustration From Allies In Foreign Military Sales Process

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During a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing last week, Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) questioned Daniel L. Zimmerman, nominee to be Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs, about the foreign military sales process.

Transcript

00:00Thank you very much. Senator Scott. Thank you, Chairman. Well, first off, congratulations on

00:06your nominations. Your jobs are going to be exciting. It's going to be an exciting time to

00:11be part of building and making sure we have a great military. So you guys are all three going

00:16to do a great job. So I just, I didn't know I was supposed to come and ask for a military base

00:22in my state, but I've got one that's important, Homestead. But anyway, I just got back from

00:29Europe. And this is, this is, this has been consistent for since I've been up here. As

00:35I talk to allies, they complain, they complain about two things. They're trying to buy our

00:40equipment. They complain about the, I guess, the foreign military sales process to get

00:46approval from the government. Then they complain about they can't get the equipment quickly

00:52because our defense contractors are not on time. So Mr. Zimmer, can you talk about what

00:58what you're, what you think we can do and what you plan on doing to make it easier to make a

01:04decision? Because I just, I, we were just in Denmark, Finland, and Estonia. The two that we had the

01:12conversation with all three of them, but a lot of it, they don't understand when they're our ally

01:17and they can't get an answer. No is an answer. I'm a business guy. What frustrates me about the

01:22government is just give me a stupid answer. Because if you tell them no, that they can go to Israel,

01:26they can go to South Korea, they can go to other places and buy some of the equipment they need.

01:29But if it's just a black hole, that doesn't make any sense. Senator, from my understanding of the,

01:38from the issue, I, I think I share your frustration and understand why allies have, have, have thoughts

01:46about the process. If confirmed to the role, I understand that the, the way in which I would be

01:53connected to the FMS process is an advising role and particularly looking at prioritization in both

02:00with our European allies and here, we are in a situation dealing with an underinvestment in the

02:05defense industrial base over the last several years that has limited the supply of what they need.

02:11So that's a challenge, but I would give my best advice, if confirmed, to the secretary and undersecretary

02:16about how to prioritize allied, uh, security needs through the FMS system. So you might not be

02:24involved in this, but, but, um, it's my understanding that we, with our defense contractors, we pay for

02:30them to develop a, um, a product and then they own the IP for that product. Is that true? Or do you

02:38know? Senator, I, I, I don't know the answer to that. Uh, I would like to get back to you about that.

02:43Does that make sense? Just off the top of your head, did that make much sense? If we, if we pay

02:48for it, our government pays for it with our, our taxpayer dollars, they own the IP. It sounds like

02:53if true, it might be one of the challenges in the program. Yeah. So what do you think we can do to

02:59get our defense contractors to fulfill the obligations that they've committed to? Because we hear this all

03:06from our allies all over the world that our defense contractors are not meeting, uh, not just with

03:11their commitments to us on time, but commitments to our allies for equipment that they need to make

03:17sure they can defend, which is exactly what president Trump wants them to do, be able to defend

03:21themselves first. Uh, Senator, it's a, it's a great question. And if confirmed, I would do all that

03:27I could within the scope of the ISA portfolio and how it touches on FMS, uh, to ensure that the process

03:33is, is, uh, painless and seamless as possible. It is very important for our allies and for the

03:37administration's goal of burden sharing to have an efficient FMS process. Okay. Thanks.

03:42You're all three are going to do a great job. Thanks, Chairman. Thank you, Senator Scott.

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