Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) and other Republicans hammered Austin Dahmer, the nominee for assistant secretary of Defense for strategy, plans and capabilities, who, if confirmed, would report to Elbridge Colby, the under secretary of Defense for policy.
"You know who the hardest guy to get a hold of in the Trump administration is? The undersecretary of Defense for policy. I hope he's watching. I'm meeting with him tomorrow. Maybe he'll cancel on me. I don't know," Sullivan said.
Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), the chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, echoed Sullivan's view and slammed the Pentagon's policy office over what he described as a lack of information sharing.
Wicker said the committee has a "relatively positive relationship" with the Pentagon, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Deputy Secretary of Defense Steve Feinberg, but the policy office is a different matter.
"I've been disappointed to find one exception to that cordiality. Members and staff of this committee have struggled to receive information from the policy office and have not been able to consult in a meaningful way with the shop, either on the national defense strategy or the global posture review," Wicker said on Tuesday.
Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), who chairs the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, characterized Colby's office as a "pigpen-like mess," citing news reporting.
Dahmer responded, stating there is a lot of "fake news out there" and "a lot of inaccurate reporting."
Senators pointed to several decisions from Colby's office during Tuesday's hearing, stating they had not been notified about changes in defense policy.
Changes include last week's move to withdraw a rotational brigade from Romania, the DOD's review of the AUKUS submarine pact and the Pentagon's pause of some shipments to Ukraine earlier this year, the lawmakers said.
Dahmer claimed that Congress was briefed three times ahead of the U.S. decision to pull the brigade from Romania, an assertion that was met with skepticism from GOP senators.
"That was not done to our knowledge. I just checked with staff from the majority and the minority, and the information I have is that was not communicated," Wicker told Dahmer.
When asked where he received that information, Dahmer said he got it from DOD's legislative affairs arm.
"I think all of us would like to have more information on how the decision was made," Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) added.
Read the full report at thehill.com.
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