Jeanne Shaheen Grills DoD Nominee On Impact Of Trump's Steel Tariffs On US Defense Industry

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During a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Tuesday, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) spoke about President Trump's tariffs on steel.

Transcript

00:00Senator Shaheen. Good morning. Welcome to both of you. Thank you for being here and

00:08for your willingness to continue to serve the country. I couldn't agree more

00:14with you Mr. Kananasi on your response to Senator King's question about

00:18workforce and I think the Maine and New Hampshire delegations are both very

00:23proud of our Portsmouth Naval Shipyard and the mission of the workforce there

00:27and the good work that they do. So I think you explained very well what the

00:32benefits are of working on the civilian side in the defense industry. And of

00:38course you got your education in the state of Mississippi Senator. I did and so

00:45I know how important Mississippi is to shipbuilding too Senator Wicker. You said

00:51in your remarks that you weren't aware of the impact of the tariffs

00:57tariffs on the aerospace industry. And I just wanted to give you an example. Last

01:03week I visited a company called New Hampshire Ball Bearings that does work on

01:08makes bearings for the aerospace industry solely. It does a lot of its business with

01:13the defense industry. And what they told me is that as the result of the steel

01:19tariffs the uncertainty around that and the president's intent to raise the

01:26tariffs on steel that their lead time for steel has gone from twenty weeks to two

01:32and a half years. So think about that. What the impact of that is going to be on

01:37our defense industrial base and our ability to supply the military with what

01:42they need which was has already been understressed as we've seen as the result

01:46of the war in Ukraine. So I just want to follow up on Senator Reed's question

01:52about how how you expect to keep track of the impact of these kinds of tariffs on

01:57the defense industrial base. And and how do you think about addressing the

02:01shortage of steel which is not just a shortage in terms of capacity but they

02:07said as the result of the tariffs they're one domestic suppliers has

02:12increased prices significantly because they're able to do that because of the

02:17tariffs and and they can't get supply from our allies which they had been doing

02:24which helped with both the cost and the availability. So how do you think about

02:29addressing that problem because that's significant. Senator I appreciate the the

02:33question and your concerns on this issue as I mentioned before that the

02:37tariffs issue is significant and obviously is going to have impact in

02:40differential ways. First I'm not aware of any analysis that the

02:43Industrial Base Policy Office has produced in this. I presume that they have but I've

02:47not been provided with that so so I'd be loath to go ahead and provide an

02:52assessment of what the department believes the impact is in the industrial

02:55base right now. It is likely wide and varied. There's probably pockets where

02:58they're benefiting from it and other pockets where you're highlighting one of

03:01the challenges. Well not to interrupt but I think the concern is is there an

03:08analysis that's been done and what does that where does that start and what are

03:14we seeing as the result of these tariffs over time. It's not at all clear to me

03:17that that analysis has been done. Certainly I'm not aware that this

03:20committee has seen any of that work so I think that's number one. We need to see

03:25that and secondly we need to track what happens and to feel like there is we are

03:31responding to the shortcomings that we're seeing as the result of policies so

03:36that we're not further handicapping our defense industry. Senator I've confirmed

03:41I commit to come back and make sure to provide whatever analysis has been done

03:45and if there's particular requests for the type of analysis on the mix of

03:49companies you're talking about or a particular technology area I'm happy to

03:52work with you on those issues as well that's critically important. Regarding the

03:56steel issue specifically again I'm not aware of any particular analysis on the

04:00impact of tariffs on steel or their steel in the context of the industrial base. The

04:05industrial base consumes a lot of domestic steel so there's some unique

04:08characteristics of that relative to other industries. Again if confirmed I'm

04:12eager to discuss this issue with you and what can be done to mitigate the issues

04:16on the industrial base. Good thank you I appreciate that. That's a pretty good

04:19answer isn't it Senator Shaheed. The proof is in the pudding. Right. Admiral Papano the

04:29since the invasion of Ukraine this committee has supported the National

04:33Nuclear Security Administration's cooperation with Ukraine by monitoring

04:37Russian occupied power plants in Ukraine and training the Ukrainians to detect

04:41radiation releases. This cooperation has been really important particularly as we

04:47look at Russian attacks on the largest power plant in Europe the Zaporizhia

04:55power plant and can you speak to the importance of NNSA's cooperation with

05:02Ukraine especially during ongoing negotiations. Thank you Senator I am not

05:07fully apprised in all the details of that cooperation right now but if

05:11confirmed I would make sure that NSA provided the tools and and capabilities

05:16to go do those verifications so that we can monitor verify whatever we need to do

05:23as far as far as the administration desires. Thank you. Thank you Mr. Chairman.

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