Angus King Expresses His Concerns About Trump ‘Alienating’ The US From Our Allies

2 days ago

During Wednesday’s Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, Sen. Angus King (I-ME) questioned officials about President Trump's foreign policy record and proposed tariffs.

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Transcript

00:00Senator King.

00:01Thank you, Madam Chair.

00:02A couple of preliminary questions about staff.

00:04Both of you mentioned in your testimony

00:06that you rely upon not only military personnel,

00:09but civilians.

00:11My question to each of you is, are you under any orders

00:14or have orders come down or have you already

00:17started to implement or has somebody

00:19started to implement reductions in force,

00:23firings, people who have taken the,

00:26I call it the early retirement option,

00:29General Cotton, what's the status

00:33of your civilian workforce?

00:35Well, our civilian workforce,

00:36we're about 65% civilian in the headquarters,

00:40but that doesn't count for the 41,000

00:42that make up the componentcies

00:45that work under my charge.

00:47Right now, Senator, very small amount of folks

00:51that took the early retirement activities,

00:56but the option for them to do so still exists.

00:59But right now, we're not seeing an effect.

01:00The numbers are pretty small.

01:02And no firings?

01:05We have not fired anyone.

01:07Are you under any orders to reduce that staff

01:09by a certain percentage?

01:13We're looking for the efficiencies piece,

01:14but right now, it's all volunteering.

01:16Like I said, from our perspective, from STRATCOM,

01:19the numbers have been very, very small.

01:21And are you subject to a hiring freeze?

01:23I am.

01:24So those people who are leaving,

01:26you're not allowed to replace, is that correct?

01:29We have an opportunity to get a waiver approved

01:35because of our mission set.

01:37And if there's a requirement for us to do a waiver

01:40to see if we can get someone through the hiring freeze,

01:43we can process that.

01:45General Blank, same set of questions.

01:48Senator, my answers were almost identical

01:50to General Cotton's.

01:53About 60% of my headquarters staff is government civilians.

01:55We've had a small number who have volunteered

01:58for the Deferred Retirement Program.

02:00We are under no orders to fire anyone.

02:04We are aware that we're looking at,

02:07need to look for efficiencies, as General Cotton discussed.

02:11We also are under a hiring freeze,

02:12and we have the opportunity for critical positions

02:15to ask for exemptions to that.

02:19General Whiting, I was interested,

02:21you mentioned the, I think it's called the Artemis Accord,

02:24which is clearly based upon allies.

02:28I'm concerned that we seem to be in a process

02:30of alienating our allies.

02:33Talk to me about the importance of the Artemis Accord

02:35in order to carry out your mission.

02:38Senator, the Artemis Accords are overseen by NASA

02:42and the Department of State,

02:43and that's a civil exploratory set of agreements

02:48about shared principles in space between countries.

02:51On the military side, I have a named operation

02:55called Operation Olympic Defender,

02:58which includes seven countries,

02:58which is the United States,

03:01plus the Five Eyes nations, Germany and France,

03:04where we cooperate in space together

03:06to understand what's happening there.

03:08And again, we're showing.

03:11Those relationships with other countries

03:13are important to the execution of your mission,

03:15is that correct?

03:16They are, Senator.

03:19A question I haven't been able to get a clear answer on

03:21is what's the concept of the Golden Dome?

03:26In other words, would it be 1,000 THAAD batteries,

03:28or is it conventional missile defense?

03:32Is it directed energy?

03:34What's the underlying concept of Golden Dome

03:36other than to protect the homeland,

03:38which is certainly a worthy goal?

03:41Senator, the department right now

03:42has been going through a series of meetings

03:45and working groups to define

03:46what that architecture will look like.

03:47But in the executive order,

03:49it lays out that the president's asking the department

03:51to develop a series of capabilities

03:53that will protect against these new modernized threats

03:56like hypersonics, maneuvering vehicles

04:00that put the homeland at risk.

04:03So I think it'll be a layered system

04:04that will have to account for all of those threats

04:07at multiple phases of the life cycle of a missile.

04:10Well, that's the mission, I understand.

04:12So I take it we're some distance away

04:14from the operational concepts

04:18of what it will consist of.

04:21A very specific question.

04:23Both of you rely heavily on Kwajalein Atoll

04:27for training and testing purposes.

04:31My understanding is the infrastructure there

04:33is woefully inadequate.

04:36Can you speak to an effort

04:38to try to upgrade that infrastructure

04:40so that that atoll can continue to be

04:42an important part of our strategic deterrence initiative?

04:49Senator, Kwajalein Atoll is very important

04:52for our space mission.

04:52I visited there last summer.

04:55There's five sensors there that support our mission.

04:58We have advocated with the Department of the Army

05:01for investments there to make sure

05:03that the infrastructure can support those missions.

05:06And in fact, my combatant command

05:08is in the process right now of defining

05:10exactly what the support requirements are

05:12that we need there so we can put those

05:14into our next O plan to make sure

05:17the Army understands exactly what requirements we need.

05:19But that is a very important location for us.

05:21If you can just keep the committee informed of that,

05:24of what the need is, whether it's authorities or funding,

05:27it could be an important part of our ongoing deliberations.

05:31Thank you, Madam Chair.

Angus King Expresses His Concerns About Trump ‘Alienating’ The US From Our Allies

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