Mike Rounds Presses Defense Nominee On Expanding DoD Authorities To Retain Cyber Talent

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During a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing last week, Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD) questioned Sean D. O’Keefe, nominee to be Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness, about retaining cyber personnel.

Transcript

00:00Member Reed, Senator Rounds. Thank you, Madam Chair. First of all, let me just say thank you to

00:05both of you and your families for allowing you to continue your service to our country.

00:11Mr. Obedal, the Army has exhibited outstanding leadership developing our nation's cyber war

00:17fighters and should be commended. I was at Fort Eisenhower in July last year and I was very

00:22impressed with the Cyber Center of Excellence and Army Cyber Command. Dakota State University

00:27and Army Cyber Command have a very special relationship. DSU provides both professors

00:33and professional training for the Army's Cyber Center of Excellence on Fort Eisenhower and the

00:40Army allows cyber operators to help teach classes and provide training at DSU. The Army has sponsored

00:47the DSU SCIF reaccreditation for the mutual benefit of both organizations and our nation. Unfortunately,

00:54the SCI reaccreditation has been delayed by bureaucratic hurdles and inertia for months,

01:01although I do believe that we are on the verge of finally completing this endeavor and getting

01:05that SCIF reaccredited. If confirmed, will you commit to expediting the reaccreditation of the DSU

01:11SCIF in Madison, South Dakota and the accreditation of their new SCIF facility in Sioux Falls?

01:18Senator, I thank you for the question and thank you for the time that we spent last week

01:23talking about cyber in the Army. As I said then, I believe cyber is ubiquitous. The operations are

01:30ubiquitous, both protecting our own forces and being able to apply effects on the adversary without

01:39kinetic use of weapons. Anything that advances that capability for Army Cyber Command, I would be

01:47wholeheartedly in support of if confirmed and I would commit to trying to understand the issue and why the

01:55SCIF accreditation for those two facilities has taken so long. Thank you, sir. I'll take that as is. You'll work with

02:01us and we'll get to the bottom of this, okay? Absolutely, Senator. Thank you. Mr. O'Keefe, this committee has

02:10historically been supportive of providing special authority to the Department of Defense so that it can better

02:15manage its military and civilian cyber personnel. You've worked on much of that legislation. In your

02:22judgment, how useful are these authorities and what more could be done to improve talent management for

02:30military and civilian cyber professionals? Senator, this committee, as you mentioned, has taken a keen

02:36interest in making sure that the Department of Defense has the authorities necessary to appeal to this

02:41highly technical workforce, both the military and the civilian side. In my judgment, I think the cyber

02:47accepted service, which is currently in place in cybercom, is a good start. I continue to hear stories

02:54that we are losing civilians out of cyber command to other government agencies who have perhaps more

03:01flexible authorities. I think that's an area to take a look at. Working with the CIO and our friend,

03:08Ms. Sutton, if confirmed, I think there's a good potential there to come and work with the Congress

03:13to continue to make cyber accepted service more appealing and more effective. Certainly, DOD has

03:19always perhaps may struggle competing with the private sector. There are certain things the private

03:24sector can do that DOD just won't be able to do. But it shouldn't be the case that DOD is losing talent

03:30to other government agencies. We should be on an even footing there. On the military side, I'm quite

03:37encouraged by the things I'm seeing out of the Army. They have a pretty robust talent management

03:43group that has, I think, taken the lead in using many of the authorities that the Congress has provided.

03:50Things like accelerated promotions, different ways to more flexibly structure a career, and that's

03:59encouraging as well. On the military side, I do think there's more room to better integrate the active

04:04in the reserve components. Because in cyber, that is perhaps a particularly useful approach,

04:11as the private sector tends to be where you get a lot of the innovation. So we want to make sure that

04:15the reserve components are a place where we can bring talent back into the government who have

04:20that very relevant and critical private sector experience as well.

04:24Thank you. And look, gentlemen, I just think that your technical expertise, your capabilities,

04:30and your background are both well-fitted for the positions that you have been nominated for,

04:35and look forward to supporting your nominations in the next few days, or as quickly as possible.

04:42Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair.

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