At today's Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) spoke about obstacles to military service academy recruitment.
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00:00Mr. Chairman, I'm also looking forward to continuing the bipartisan tradition of this
00:05subcommittee, and I hope to work with you and all of our members to make sure that we
00:11improve the lives of our service members, their families, and our civilian workforce
00:17so that they can stay focused on the mission of keeping Americans safe.
00:22I want to start by extending my condolences to the four families that just lost loved
00:28ones during a training mission in Lithuania.
00:31They remind us those who go into harm's way and their families are always at risk and
00:39put it on the line for the people of the United States of America.
00:42We are a deeply grateful nation.
00:46I am glad that we are starting this year by focusing on how we recruit and retain the
00:53next generation of military leaders.
00:56Our military service academies are among the top academic institutions in the nation.
01:02West Point, the Air Force Academy, the Naval Academy provide a high quality education and
01:08they recruit and train almost 20% of our military officers.
01:15Currently, our military academies are very selective, almost as tough to get into as
01:22the top colleges in this country.
01:25But that knife cuts both ways.
01:27Every student admitted to the military academies has other options.
01:33Academy students are often highly recruited by other schools.
01:36The competition for talent for tomorrow's leaders is already fierce.
01:42Attacks on our military academies or policies that shrink the pool of young Americans who
01:49will consider applying for military service will cause lasting damage to our military
01:55and to our nation.
01:57The latest U.S. Census found that the youngest generation of Americans is more diverse than
02:03ever.
02:04That means we need our military academies to continue developing successful leaders
02:09from all walks of life, not push away strong recruits because they feel unwelcome or undervalued.
02:19Unfisted efforts to reshape the academies are bound to backfire.
02:23For example, a mix of military practitioners and civilian instructors have successfully
02:29worked together for decades to shape students at the service academies into a lethal fighting
02:36force.
02:37In the same way that competition for talent exists for academy students, the same competition
02:44is true for faculty.
02:46All respected professors have options and many are aggressively recruited.
02:52When Secretary Hegseth seemed to suggest that academies should have fewer civilian professors
02:58and when the Department of Defense imposes a ban on travel by civilian personnel, it
03:04suggests that the military does not care about civilians supporting its mission and that
03:09it will make it harder to attract and keep top talent to teach tomorrow's military
03:16leaders.
03:17The foolishness of the travel ban was immediately apparent.
03:23Testing sites for military entrance exams were forced to close or reduce hours so fewer
03:28young people could apply to the military.
03:32While DOD has begun to allow civilians to travel to these testing sites again, these
03:38attacks on civilian personnel who help to support our military are worrying and civilian
03:44personnel are key to keeping our academies successful as well.
03:51Our military students deserve the best teachers, people who are experts in their field.
03:57Tying the hands of the academies as they compete with other top universities for talented faculty
04:03will undercut the academies and, over time, undercut the leaders the academies are teaching.
04:11Students need to develop their skills both inside the classroom and outside as well.
04:16I'm sure many of us can think of sports teams and extracurricular activities that help shape
04:22our experiences at school, that help build our communities, and that made us better leaders.
04:30Surely, as a coach, Chairman Tuberville saw students' leadership skills develop and
04:35grow through out-of-classroom work.
04:39The Executive Order's attacks on clubs at academies that it considers DEI isn't
04:47creating more effective warfighters, it's cutting off students from opportunities to
04:52grow as leaders.
04:55When we're trying to maintain a military force that can deter China, we can't afford
05:00to be shutting down engineering clubs.
05:03But under President Trump, West Point has already disbanded chapters of the National
05:08Society of Black Engineers and the National Society of Women Engineers.
05:14Both organizations have been praised repeatedly for helping recruit and retain more young
05:21engineers for military service.
05:25Closing those chapters at the military academies, while those chapters remain open at more than
05:30600 other colleges and universities, does not help our military recruit top talent.
05:39This committee held two hearings on recruiting last year, and both hearings made clear that
05:45the United States cannot meet its recruiting goals without women.
05:50The Army met its recruiting goals in 2024 primarily because of new female recruits.
05:57There was an 18 percent increase in women signing up for active duty, compared to an
06:02increase of just 8 percent for men.
06:06Let me be clear, these women are not looking for a preference or a handout.
06:11They just want a chance to compete straight up.
06:15But we won't be able to attract the women we need if they see a new glass ceiling on
06:21their opportunity to command.
06:23By removing women like the Chief of Naval Operations, Vice Admiral Franchetti, from
06:29leadership roles simply because they are women, and confirming a Secretary of Defense who
06:35has a long record of opposing women in combat, the Trump administration has already set a
06:42tone from the top that women are not welcome.
06:46We are already hearing concerns that women are hesitant to join certain military jobs
06:52because they believe they won't be welcome solely due to their identity, not because
06:58of their qualifications.
07:01Black recruits face their own challenges.
07:03When a black chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, a man who served honorably for over
07:0840 years, and who outlined our most successful strategy to deal with foreign terrorists is
07:15fired solely because President Trump cannot imagine that he earned the job on the merits,
07:21black military recruits across the nation get the message, your race makes you vulnerable.
07:28And when national organizations to support black college students who major in engineering
07:33are suddenly dropped at the military academies, while those organizations remain lively at
07:39600 other colleges and universities, the message that the military academies may not welcome
07:45you gets even louder.
07:48Recruiting and retaining talent, including black and female talent, is a critical job
07:54for the future security of our nation.
07:58Pushing away more than half our future leaders is wildly self-destructive.
08:04Mr. Chairman, 24 alumni from West Point and the Naval Academy have written to me sharing
08:10their stories about what the academies mean to them and why they are concerned about the
08:16direction this administration wants to take them.
08:19I would like to enter those into the record for their letters and their testimony.
08:26Let me read from just one of them, who wrote that these attacks on diversity are, quote,
08:31a direct affront to the principles upon which our military was built and a betrayal of the
08:37sacrifices made by generations of service members.
08:42Let those words sink in.
08:43A betrayal.
08:44We owe them better than that.
08:47I look forward to this hearing and hearing the testimony of the witnesses who are here
08:51today.
08:52I thank you for being with us.
08:54Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
08:55Thanks, Senator.