00:00Thank you Senator Collins. Senator Murray and then Senator Graham. Thank you very
00:05much Mr. Chairman. Secretary Hague, Seth, you oversee one of the largest and most
00:12important organizations on planet Earth. More than anything, the
00:16Department of Defense needs stable, competent, and strategic leadership. And
00:22much as I had feared back in January is not what we are seeing under your
00:27leadership. In a matter of months you have lost top aides and reportedly struck
00:32the higher new ones. You have fired highly respected top military officials.
00:37You shared highly sensitive attack plans over signal and apparently with people in
00:43your own personal circles. And you've not taken responsibility for those mistakes.
00:47All the while the security challenges we face have grown larger, not smaller. And
00:53then in the face of these challenges you've taken a series of actions that
00:57weaken our posture. For example, in my home state of Washington, which is home to
01:01many DOD installations, critical to our Indo-Pacific strategy, you have pushed out
01:07almost 2,000 highly trained civilian employees, including at Puget Sound Naval
01:14Shipyard. Mr. Secretary, you talk about returning the department to its mission of
01:18warfighting, but I am repeatedly hearing that your policy and personnel changes at
01:24the Pentagon are only undermining, not strengthening our military's preparedness to
01:30protect our country. You are deploying the American military to police the American
01:36people. He's sending the National Guard into California without the governor's request.
01:40Sending the Marines, not after foreign threats, but after American protesters. And now
01:47President Trump is promising heavy force against peaceful protesters at his DC
01:53military parade. Those sorts of actions and that sort of rhetoric from a president of the United
01:58States should stop every one of us cold. Threatening to use our own troops on our own citizens at such
02:05scale is unprecedented. It is unconstitutional and it is downright un-American. We should all be
02:13speaking out against this and demanding accountability. Now, Mr. Secretary, I have to say for people who tout their
02:21commitment to transparency and efficiency, I've never seen an administration more bent on hiding
02:27basic facts from American people. Your department has been unresponsive to congressional inquiries and
02:34oversight requests, all the while you are working to muzzle the free press, denying journalists access to the
02:40Pentagon press corps. Now, before I turn to my questions, let me just note, it is now mid-June and we only, just a few days ago, received some
02:50some, but not all, important portions of your budget request. It should not have taken
02:56this long to get a request, to get this request, and we do still need to see the
03:01justifications in order for this committee to do its work. We're missing those. Not having a full budget at this juncture is really unacceptable. So I am deeply concerned.
03:12So let me turn to my questions, and this is important. This administration has put the civilian workforce under attack from day one, encouraging resignations, firing probationary
03:23employees, instituting hiring freeze, requiring OPM to approve any new hire, one by one, and now, new last week, requiring prospective employees to explain how they would, quote, help support the president's executive orders and policy priorities.
03:32We have spoken with military installations across our country. Almost all of them have been forced to fire skilled civilian employees who are badly needed, and all of them also have hundreds and in some cases, thousands of new hires ready to bring on board. But now, the
04:02will now have to individually be reviewed by OPM, apparently to ensure that they support the president's priorities. Secretary Hague said, I want to know, and keep your answers short, I have limited time, will you be firing more shipbuilders, yes or no?
04:18Senator, we haven't fired shipbuilders. We've offered through a right sizing of our civilian positions, which everyone in this committee would acknowledge that the Defense Department has had a bloated bureaucracy for a long time.
04:29We have given a voluntary process by which some people can choose to take a DRP, so it's not a firing of shipbuilders. That's a totally disingenuous characterization of what our department is doing. We are focusing on shipbuilding.
04:42Mr. Secretary, do we need more or fewer shipbuilders?
04:46We are investing historically in our shipbuilding defense industrial base and workforce and ships in this budget, more than anything the previous administration ever did.
04:55So, well, you managed to fire highly skilled workers, including my home state of Washington, for no reason. So, let me just say, the Navy needs welders, not people who can recite a president's executive orders. If the Navy wants to hire a qualified candidate for the role, but that candidate happened to vote for or donate to Democrats, would they be hired?
05:18Senator, there's never been a litmus test for hiring welders.
05:23Well, that is what they're being asked. And, Mr. Secretary, I just have to say, we need to drop the politics in our military. We need to hire the best people. We do not need to force them out. That is simply the case at this point. I'm out of time. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.