'More Interested In Fighting Culture Wars Than Real Ones': Chris Coons Calls Out Sec. Pete Hegseth

Forbes Breaking News

During a Senate Appropriations markup meeting on Thursday, Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) spoke about Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth.

Transcript

00:00I would now turn to the ranking member, Senator Coons, for his statement.

00:05Thank you, Madam Chair. And I first want to thank Chairman McConnell.

00:09He has been a great partner this year, and our working relationship on this important bill

00:13is what I think the American people would be proud to see out of their elected leaders.

00:18We see eye to eye on today's critical national security challenges,

00:23deterring China, standing with Ukraine,

00:26standing up to the increasing coordination of the People's Republic of China, Russia, Iran, and the DPRK,

00:35maintaining our asymmetric advantage of our global network of allies and partners,

00:40and modernizing the DoD with a sense of urgency because the clock is ticking.

00:46That is not to say that this has been easy tackling these problems.

00:50The administration submitted the latest budget in history.

00:54We received some official budget documents last Friday, and others are still missing.

01:01And for the first time in history, the administration decided to split its request into discretionary

01:07and budget reconciliation sections, which, as the chairman has noted, has not worked well.

01:13This decision and OMB's inability to explain it thoroughly,

01:17and the challenges the Armed Services Committee faced as a result subjected our national security

01:23to an uncertain partisan process, but also ended up creating $10 billion of shameful mistakes

01:31and disconnects that were utterly unnecessary.

01:34We've also, frankly, had to deal with a Secretary of Defense more focused on fighting culture wars

01:39than deterring real ones,

01:41and a Director of National Intelligence too focused on distributing disinformation

01:45than supporting unbiased analytic work.

01:49It has been hard to get answers to basic questions

01:51and to figure out the best ways to use this bill

01:54to invest in and help expand the capabilities of our military and intelligence community.

02:00Time again, when we did get solid or timely information,

02:03it was our professional military and career civilians who got it to us.

02:08This bill is better because of them, and I thank them for it.

02:12In summary, the bill before the committee recommends $852 billion for DOD

02:16and our intelligence community, an increase of $21.7 billion, or 2.6 percent,

02:23above the fiscal year 26 request.

02:25This bill reduces waste and duplication by making hundreds of cuts to underperforming programs

02:33and realigning those billions of dollars in savings into higher-priority programs.

02:39Let me just make a point here about rescission.

02:42Rescission accomplished by a party-line vote outside the appropriations process

02:47is corrosive to our role and to trust.

02:50But doing it this way, oversight, rescission, and reallocation of billions of dollars

02:57within the appropriations process is constructive.

03:01And anyone who wants the details of the rescissions and reallocations

03:05that were accomplished through this bipartisan process,

03:08I'd be happy to give you those details.

03:11One of my highest priorities was our allies, and this bill delivers.

03:14Thanks to the chairman's leadership, we restore aid to Ukraine

03:18and add additional funds on top for $800 million

03:21and restore $225 million in security assistance to the Baltic states,

03:26which the request had cut.

03:29These allies are on the absolute front line of resisting Russian aggression,

03:33and we are learning critical lessons about the future of warfare

03:36as well as standing with those who fight for freedom.

03:39Learning these lessons from Ukraine,

03:41we include critical change in the Army's budget,

03:45most notably their shift, funding their shift

03:47to rapid, affordable, addressable UAVs and counter-UAV technologies.

03:52We also made lots of improvements in the underlying request.

03:55Given the challenges with missile stockpiles

03:57that we're seeing in Ukraine and the Middle East,

04:00I can't explain why the administration didn't propose

04:03to buy every single missile it could on existing production lines

04:08and expand others, but it didn't.

04:10So we took the savings that we found to buy $5 billion more in munitions

04:15because we must increase our nation's magazine depth.

04:19We make significant investments in shipbuilding, especially submarines.

04:23We restore next-generation platforms like the Navy's sixth-generation fighter

04:27and the Air Force's E-7 early warning aircraft.

04:31Again, I can't explain why the department wanted to wait on Navy fighters

04:35or Air Force early warning programs or why submarines were cut in budget reconciliation,

04:40but we identified these issues and addressed them appropriately.

04:44We also make significant down payments on readiness across the services.

04:49Once again, I can't explain why the administration continues to raid these accounts

04:54for unrelated immigration enforcement

04:56or why budget reconciliation cut these accounts,

04:59but we have added funds for readiness and training.

05:03As the chairman mentioned, a billion dollars for the Marine Barracks 2030 program,

05:07which the Armed Services Committee left out of reconciliation.

05:11We also added a 3.8 percent pay raise for the entire military,

05:16as well as other quality-of-life initiatives

05:19that I think we value as we invest in military families as well.

05:24We got rid of the basic housing allowance for service member and families 95 percent

05:29and raised it to 100 percent, a six-year-old problem,

05:33and we fully fund the Child Care Fee Assessment Program.

05:37In sum, this bill recognizes we're confronting a world more dangerous today

05:41than at any time since the Cold War,

05:43that we all need to focus, put politics aside, and get to work.

05:47I urge this committee to support this legislation.

05:51As the chair referenced, 95 senators filed 11,000 requests.

05:56I want to thank and recognize the subcommittee staff

05:58who assisted the chairman and me on this bill.

06:01The buck stops with us,

06:02but the staff at our direction conducted critical oversight of DOD

06:06and the intelligence community, bringing to us what they found.

06:10I want to thank the members of my staff,

06:12Gabriela Armanda, Dylan Bird, Abby Grace,

06:15Bridget Kolisch, Rob Leonard, and Ryan Pettit,

06:18and thank Chairman McConnell's staff,

06:21Rachel Dapieving, Laura Forrest, Megan Handel,

06:24Cole Hodge, Robert Karam, Alexa Lurik, Todd Phillips,

06:28Kim Segura, Cole Spiller, Tom Schaefer, and Elise Stiebeck.

06:33Every day this year, these two teams have worked together seamlessly,

06:37seamlessly to do the right thing for our national security.

06:40Their long nights and weekends are why we are ready to proceed with this bill.

06:44I hope they get some sleep.

06:46Last, I hope my colleagues will consider what our legacy will be.

06:50We cannot run our national security on a continuing resolution.

06:54Please join with the chair and vice chair and the chair of this subcommittee

06:57in supporting all of our appropriations bills.

07:00Thank you, Madam Chair.

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07:26Thank you, Madam Chair.

07:27Thank you, Madam Chair.

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