Pete Hegseth Rips Biden-Era Defense Department For 'Weakness And Mismanagement' & Touts Reforms

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Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth delivers his opening statement to the House Appropriations Committee.

Transcript

00:00of your remarks. Secretary, you recognize. Well, Chairman Calvert, Ranking Member McCollum,

00:06distinguished members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to testify in support

00:10of President Trump's proposed fiscal year 2026 budget for the Department of Defense.

00:16I'm honored to testify today alongside General Dan Cain, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff,

00:21and Bryn McDonnell, who is performing the duties of DOD's Comptroller and Chief Financial Officer.

00:26I'm also proud to represent and serve our warriors and their families. Today, as they do every day,

00:34they are keeping America safe. They're defending the homeland, they're standing up and deterring

00:39Communist China, and we're working hand-in-glove with allies and partners to achieve peace through

00:46strength. I'd actually like to start by thanking this committee and Congress for your bipartisan

00:52leadership to give our troops a big pay raise in 2025. This included an additional 10.5% raise for

01:01our junior enlisted service members, E1 to E4. Thank you also for supporting other initiatives that

01:08will improve quality of life for our warriors and their families. With a focus on our troops

01:13and their loved ones, I've directed additional actions that will further improve their quality

01:19of life. These include making historic investments in improving the living conditions in barracks

01:26and base housing, reforming the PCS process to reduce the cost and stress of moving, and improving the

01:32quality of care provided by the defense health care system. Now, the best part of my job is meeting and

01:39interacting with troops and their families. I hear their concerns. I know how it feels to face those

01:44challenges. I've been there recently. Each of these initiatives responds to feedback that I've

01:49received from the force, and I'll keep listening and looking for ways to improve their quality of

01:54life. Under President Trump's leadership, this budget puts America first and gives our warriors what

02:01they need. The $961.6 billion budget request, over $1 trillion for national security, will end four

02:10years of chronic underinvestment in our military. In the last four months, we've moved quickly to

02:16reverse course after four years of weaknessness and mismanagement. We found nearly $30 billion in savings

02:25across the department, and we have reinvested those savings. We've killed wasteful programs, targeted

02:30bureaucratic excess, and redirected funding from Biden-era priorities to President Trump's

02:35priorities. We are re-optimizing the civilian workforce and repositioning resources to better

02:41support our warfighters. We're working with the Department of Homeland Security to increase

02:45border security. We've reduced China's malign influence in our hemisphere. We've defended freedom

02:52of navigation in the Red Sea. However, we still have a lot of work ahead of us to achieve peace

02:58through strength. To carry out the President's mission, we have three core priorities,

03:03as was mentioned. Restore the warrior ethos, rebuild our military, and re-establish deterrence.

03:09First, we're restoring the warrior ethos. President Trump has charged me with focusing on warfighting,

03:13lethality, meritocracy, standards, and readiness. That's exactly what we're doing. We're focused on

03:20what's important, warfighting and warriors. We're sweeping away distractions and bloated bureaucracy.

03:26We've set standards that are high, equal, and unwavering. DEI is dead. We replaced it with a

03:35colorblind, gender-neutral, merit-based approach. Our force is responsibly, is responding, excuse me,

03:43positively, incredibly to these changes. And thanks to President Trump, recruiting and retention is

03:48higher than it's been in decades at historic numbers. This budget provides a historic level of

03:55funding for military readiness, putting our warfighters and their needs first. Second, we're

04:01rebuilding our military. Twenty-five years ago, our military was unchallenged, yet we squandered that

04:06advantage as China carried out an unprecedented military buildup. President Trump is correcting

04:12those mistakes. We're reviving the defense industrial base, reforming our acquisitions process, rapidly

04:17fielding emerging technologies to put the best weapons in the hands of our warfighters.

04:21This includes investment of $25 billion in the Golden Dome for America, a down payment on President

04:27Trump's priority to defend our homeland. It also commits more than $62 billion to modernize and sustain

04:33our nuclear forces. The budget allocates $3.5 billion for the F-47, the world's first sixth-generation

04:41air superiority fighter. This budget will revitalize our shipbuilding industrial base with $6 billion in funding

04:48in FY26, $47 billion in shipbuilding total. The budget increases significantly funding for autonomous systems,

04:57long-range fires, drones, and hypersonics. We will put these capabilities in the hands of our warfighters.

05:04Third, we're reestablishing deterrence. When our opponent sees our well-equipped, tough-as-nails warriors, they will decide that

05:11today is not the day to test American resolve. Credible deterrence starts at home, and it starts with securing our

05:18borders. We will achieve 100% operational control of the southern border with crossings already dropped 99.9%.

05:26It also starts in our neighborhood in the western hemisphere. As you know, as we've said, the Indo-Pacific is our

05:34priority theater, and China our pacing threat. That's why I've traveled twice to the Indo-Pacific region to meet with our

05:40allies and partners, and they have responded. As we shift in that direction, President Trump looks to those allies and

05:47partners to step up, to share in the burden of their own defense. He also sees them, as I do, as force multipliers

05:55alongside the United States, and we are making progress in that. As the President has rightly pointed out, it's only fair that our

06:02allies and allies and partners do their part. We can't want their security more than they do.

06:09So the Department of Defense is executing a common sense agenda to achieve peace through strength.

06:15The threats we face are serious, and so must our investments be.

06:20So what this budget does, it matches capabilities to threats. We must overcome decades of neglect and decline.

06:27We must fortify our position as the world's most lethal fighting force, and we must act fast.

06:35This committee is our critical partner in everything we do, and your leadership and oversight is essential.

06:42So we look forward to accomplishing these goals, to achieving peace through strength, to supporting our warriors,

06:47protecting our citizens and taxpayers, together with you. May God grant us the wisdom to see what is right,

06:57and the courage to do it. Thank you.

06:59Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Secretary. General Cain, you're now recognized for your remarks.

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