▶ 0:15:14Chair Wicker: The hearing will come to order. We thank the witnesses for being here and those in attendance. Certainly all of us are concerned and saddened by the tragedy which occurred near reagan national airport last night.
▶ 0:15:42Chair Wicker: I ask that the committee observe a moment of silence before we begin the hearing. Thank you very much. The committee on armed services has convened this hearing to consider the pending nomination of Mr. dan driscoll to be the 26th secretary of the army. In support of operation iraqi freedom, Mr.
▶ 0:16:10Chair Wicker: Driscoll served our country in iraq, spending four years with the army. We thank him and the driscoll family, his wife and their two children, daniel and lila, who could not be with us today, for their willingness to serve this country again by accepting this new assignment. After his military service, Mr. driscoll received his law degree from yale and has worked in private equity and venture capital.
▶ 0:16:39Chair Wicker: All the while, he has retained many ties to his former service. The army faces a complex array of challenges. Retention and recruitment improved last year but the army still has more than 10,000 fewer recruits than it did in 2023. Since the beginning of the biden administration, the service is down 36,000 soldiers.
▶ 0:17:06Chair Wicker: The army is not taking full advantage of opportunities to nurture interest in military service. Almost 300 high schoolers sit on a waiting list to get their own army junior reserve officer training corps unit. These units mean more than potential individual recruits. They represent communities where the department of defense can put down roots, developing the army of leaders for tomorrow as well as excellent citizens for our entire society.
▶ 0:17:36Chair Wicker: As the service catches up on recruitment, it must also ensure those who do in this are equipped for the mission. The nature of large-scale combat operations is changing. He world sees this every week in ukraine. To be ready for potential combat in the western pacific, the army must expedite modernization efforts.
▶ 0:17:57Chair Wicker: On top of recruitment and modernization projects, the next secretary of the army must address service member quality-of-life issues that afflict this, the largest service. In fiscal year 2025, the army increased funding for barracks maintenance problems with the effects of decades of neglect cannot be fixed overnight. The army has a facility backlog of more than $100 billion.
▶ 0:18:27Chair Wicker: I offered an amendment that passed requiring all on the service to adopt minimum annual facility sustainment levels. My colleagues and I need to see evidence that this change has been embraced within the service. I believe Mr. driscoll's record and financial experience have prepared him to handle the myriad responsibilities of army secretary. If he is confirmed, Mr.
▶ 0:18:54Chair Wicker: Driscoll will face the challenges I have already outlined. He will be handed a budget that has not kept pace with inflation . He will take the helm of -- at a time of increasing danger around the world. The army is playing a largely quiet but crucial role in the western pacific. It is deepening partnerships with our allies and partners in southeast asia.
▶ 0:19:22Chair Wicker: And while, the service is helping us maintain deterrence against the chinese communist party and ensures our south korean allies are postured to prevent north korean aggression. Soldiers from across the united states remained stationed in europe. Their presence helps deter russia and assure our nato allies. In the middle east, the army continues to play a lead role in combating iranian aggression.
▶ 0:19:48Chair Wicker: Clearly the army's work has been instrumental in these theaters. In must choose to remain relevant in today's complex threat environment. The army should accelerate its transformation efforts, its focus on new portions of the defense industrial base, and expand work on small unmanned aerial systems.
▶ 0:20:15Chair Wicker: I say that even as I recognize and appreciate the chief of staff of the army's focus in this area. In the western pacific theater, the army contribution to sensing and shooting remains in its infancy. The service has the chance to realize its key logistics role for the joint force mac contested areas but can do so with significant investment and focus. I look forward to this hearing. Now Mr. driscoll -- on how Mr.
▶ 0:20:47Chair Wicker: Driscoll will work to change the culture around the issues I have listed as well as other pressing matters. I know recognize the ranking member on the committee, senator jack reed, for any opening remarks he may offer.
▶ 0:20:58Sen. Reed: Thank, Mr. chairman. Before I begin, I want to take a moment to express my profound sorrow for the crash at national airport last evening this is a tragedy beyond words for those on both aircraft and the entire army community. I'm grateful to the first responders who worked through the night in this committee will do everything it can to assist.
▶ 0:21:27Sen. Reed: I think the chairman for recognizing it with a moment of silence. Thank you, Mr. chairman. Mr. driscoll, welcome to this morning's hearing. We were expecting to see cassidy and lila, but they were working or otherwise occupied. Let me also thank you for your military service. Mr. driscoll is a third-generation soldier.
▶ 0:21:51Sen. Reed: He follows his father, who served during vietnam, his grandfather, who was a decoder during world war ii. The community is grateful to your family and for your willingness to continue serving your country. If confirmed as secretary of the army, you will -- of the united states army. This is no small task. The army is in the midst of a generational modernization effort, overhauling many major weapons systems.
▶ 0:22:23Sen. Reed: The army is seeking to transform the structure and organization of its combat teams, equipping them with cutting edge technology to be more mobile and lethal. The service is experimenting with rapidly evolving technologies such as unmanned systems and communications technologies, among others.
▶ 0:22:42Sen. Reed: However, the army continues to face a multiyear trend of flat budgets, which has forced leaders to find the highest priority programs by reducing procurement of modern capabilities. More and more continental forces maintaining readiness must be one of your priorities.
▶ 0:23:06Sen. Reed: The army has continuous deployment requirements, to defend our interests and allies in the middle east and maintain a presence in the indo pacific. I am concerned that the ministration's -- administration's orders to clearly on the southwest border will harm the army's readiness.
▶ 0:23:28Sen. Reed: This is a role for dhs and I am a supporter of a big increase in dhs budget in the appropriations process as part of a bipartisan border bill. That is the way to address the border. In my personal engagement with commanders at all levels, they have made clear fully running their formations needs time and border missions will not build these.
▶ 0:23:56Sen. Reed: How would you plan to ensure soldier time and keep abilities are not spent at the border cut rather on readiness issues? Army success audibly depends on soldiers and civilians. The army has been challenged to meet recruiting goals.
▶ 0:24:14Sen. Reed: The army has worked hard to improve and enjoyed success like the future soldier preparatory course but should continue to improve with all willing or qualified to serve. You state your intention to review the army recruiting strategy to ensure it effectively conveys a strong value proposition to young people across the nation.
▶ 0:24:40Sen. Reed: In addition to the army strategy I am concerned about comments from the secretary of defense about women in combat and the executive order on transgender troops may have a chilling effect on recruiting. I am interested in your thoughts on recruiting -- on this issue. We discussed the importance of a professional and a political army.
▶ 0:25:04Sen. Reed: I am concerned by reports the administration plans so-called warrior boards to screen senior military officers were supposed unfitness this raises the possibility the administration a fire officers were deemed to have the wrong political views or who have served effectively in military assignments that are disagreeable to president trump.
▶ 0:25:27Sen. Reed: We have already seen this happen with admiral fagan, who was fired from her position in the coast guard. I'm troubled that this firing was not based on performance. Furthermore, I'm alarmed that this week secretary hegseth will retire general mark milley of the protective security detail he had from credible security threats and revoke his security
▶ 0:25:58Sen. Reed: Clearance. Secretary hegseth has directed the defense department acting inspector general cut because the inspector general was fired monday cut to look into the facts and circumstances surrounding general milley's conduct so the secretary may determine whether it is appropriate. President trump seems to be fulfilling his longtime threat to fire military leaders as a political loyalty test.
▶ 0:26:28Sen. Reed: Our service members are loyal to the constitution rather than a leader. This is what makes our army the finest in the world. I'm interested in your views on military obligation to provide the best military advice even if that contradicts the views -- if they are subject to loyalty screening or purge boards and whether you think removing members of the military for their views will have a chilling effect.
▶ 0:26:58Sen. Reed: You face complex challenges that require all your skill. Thank you for your willingness to continue your service and lead the army at this could occult time. I look forward to your testimony. Thank you.
▶ 0:27:10Chair Wicker: Thank you, senator reed. Before Mr. driscoll makes his opening remarks, he will be introduced by two of our distinguished colleagues, first senator mullin. Senator mullin, you are recognized.
▶ 0:27:28Sen. Mullin: You guys are more intimidating from this side. I do not think I have ever been intimidated by you all until I'm looking at you now so this is really scary. I am so privileged and pleased to be able to introduce my good friend. We got to know each other and it has been a -- it has been quite an honor because I will say what you see is what you get.
▶ 0:27:56Sen. Mullin: I think everybody here has had the opportunity to sit down personally with you. This personality, no matter what pressure is facing us cut was the same personality you received 24/7. I do care if I was talking to him at 3:00 in the morning or at 11:00 at night, which we did multiple times. He always had the same personality, which is exactly what we need in our army today. We need consistency.
▶ 0:28:25Sen. Mullin: We need a leader that our war fighters can rally behind. We need someone that brings positive attention to the real challenges that the army is facing.
▶ 0:28:39Sen. Mullin: As has been pointed out by our ranking member, he has also -- he is also a third-generation in the family that has served proudly and honorably in the army and currently has a nephew stationed in korea. He is heavily invested, so I want to go through and read what he has accomplished because it makes me sometimes feel intimidated when you start thinking about it.
▶ 0:29:11Sen. Mullin: First, he graduated in three years from unc chapel hill with the highest distinction. I am still trying to figure out how to graduate from college. He used his 9/11 g.I. Bill to attend yale law school, worked at the veteran leavell -- legal service clinic. He ran for U.S. house of representatives in the north carolina 11 district in 2020. He lost my but I want to show he was willing to serve.
▶ 0:29:41Sen. Mullin: When that happened, he just got more involved in public service. He did not go away. He stayed involved, which sometimes defeats shows the biggest character. That is when we first started getting to know each other. He was not upset. He was not bitter. We know -- we all know individuals who lost elections and got better. He wanted to know how to be involved in public service.
▶ 0:30:09Sen. Mullin: He worked at an investment firm as chief operating officer at a venture capital fund, a member of the north carolina rotary club and theiava. Basic service training at fort jackson, commissioned as an army ivory -- army armory officer, stationed at the mountain light
▶ 0:30:43Sen. Mullin: Infantry division, deployed in 2009 to baghdad, iraq in support of operation freedom. Earned the rank of first lieutenant. Awards include the army commendation medal, national defense service medal, iraq campaign medal and a campaign star. Global war on terrorism service medal and overseas service ribbon. I think the thing he is most proud about is his wife and his two kids.
▶ 0:31:12Sen. Mullin: His personal life is something that guides him each day and I know this because we have had deep conversations about our family and how we balance the worklife and how it can be done. We have had conversations about how you center your life and make sure your priorities are right because I believe if your priorities are straight with god, family, and everything else that everything else will be highly successful and this is why he has been highly successful in everything he has
▶ 0:31:42Sen. Mullin: Put his hands on. For us to have someone like himself willing to step away from his family for a short period of time because you all know the challenges he is going to face, to be willing to still serve when he does not have to is exactly what we need. We need a selfless server will be willing to take on the task of the united states army. We have a winner here, so I hope that all my colleagues, that this could possibly be unanimous support of someone who is exactly what the united states needs.
▶ 0:32:14Chair Wicker: Senator blumenthal, I do not know about you but I did not know until this morning that senator mullin could be intimidated. This is a revelation to us. You are now recognized.
▶ 0:32:28Sen. Lummis: All -- Sen.
▶ 0:32:33Blumenthal: I joined senator mullin's observing how impressive the panel looks from this viewpoint. I want to join in expressing my deep heartbreak at the tragic loss on american airlines flight 5342 and the soldiers lost. My heart goes out to the families, especially of the servicemen who were lost.
▶ 0:33:02Blumenthal: My heart breaks for their loved ones and I want to thank the first responders for swiftly delivering their critical assistance at the scene and, as we await further updates I hope we will all pledge to redouble our efforts to ensure the federal agencies that make the nation's skies safe, the faa and others, have the tools, funding resources, support from the
▶ 0:33:36Blumenthal: Congress to prevent future tragedies like this one. We all fly in and out of that airport and I must say I often look out the window and as perhaps you do come planes taking off and landing and wondering how this dangerous dance is done safely day in and day out. But we have to invest in the technology as well as the people to make it safe. I have the great honor to introduce dan driscoll.
▶ 0:34:07Blumenthal: I want to thank his family,is wife, his son, and daughter. We all know that families serve along with public officials, especially in our military and a part a defense.
▶ 0:34:23Blumenthal: I joined the chairman and ranking member and that the army stands at a pivotal juncture, ongoing conflicts amended the army remains the strongest best fighting land force in the world and that we assure that they never have a fair fight and always have superiority in every space and sphere of this nomination comes at a time when leadership and accountability in
▶ 0:34:54Blumenthal: The apartment of defense require the highest standards of integrity, judgment, and capability. The next secretary of the army will be faced with training and equipping that land force in a way that reflect our nation's values and commitments. This introduction is personal for me. As many of you now when dan driscoll was a classmate of the vice president at yale law school, also my alma mater.
▶ 0:35:27Blumenthal: He came to know at yale law school jake sullivan, who just finished serving as national security visor for president biden in blumenthal, my son -- for president biden, and matt blumenthal, who is a united states marine corps veteran of afghanistan. Once his nomination be came public, I quickly heard from jake and matt.
▶ 0:35:51Blumenthal: Both shared stories of their friendship with dan and recounted his strong intellect, his powerful work ethic, and his willingness to find solutions to difficult problems aced on fact, whatever those solutions might be. As a lawyer, we follow the facts and the law and that is what dan driscoll will do as secretary of the army.
▶ 0:36:15Blumenthal: They assured me that he is a person willing to listen, to learn, and to work in a bipartisan way, to put our soldiers first. I am confident his prior service in the army will serve him well and he will remember that the army's strength comes not just from his technological prowess but from the americans who proudly wear the uniform he wants war -- he wonce war --
▶ 0:36:51Blumenthal: He once wore. Those conversations convinced me that he is willing to work on the basis of collegiality, to be transparent and open with this panel, with the congress and our colleagues.
▶ 0:37:11Blumenthal: I welcome this opportunity to introduce him, perhaps as a sign of not just the collegiality but the bipartisanship that has characterized this committee so clearly and consistently.
▶ 0:37:26Blumenthal: So I am proud introduce him today and I hope my colleagues will ask him tough questions because he has indicated to me that he is not only confident in his ability to serve but also his ability to learn and do it with an open mind and a willingness to listen to this committee when we have views
▶ 0:37:59Blumenthal: That he has to hear. Thank you and I yelled the floor. -- I yield the floor.
▶ 0:38:07Chair Wicker: I do not want either of you to feel anxious, so if you would like to return to your seats you may do so. Mr. driscoll, you are now recognized for your opening statement. We appreciate you being here.
▶ 0:38:30Mr. Driscoll: Chairman wicker, ranking member reed, members of the committee cut good morning. Thank you for the opportunity to appear before you as nominee to serve as secretary of the united states army. It is an honor to be considered for this role. To senator mullin and senator blumenthal, I am think for the introductions and grateful for the trust and confidence placed in me by president trump.
▶ 0:38:55Mr. Driscoll: Our thoughts and prayers go out to all involved in last night's tragedy, which occurred a few miles from this hearing room. If confirmed, I commit to working with this committee to ensure this never happens again. Returning to my repaired remarks, I like to begin by knowledge and my family, who'd -- who could not join me because of the rescheduled hearing but I know are watching. To my wife cassidy, who manages to keep us afloat despite being an accomplished surgeon and children daniel and lila, is your support that has made my service possible.
▶ 0:39:26Mr. Driscoll: I want to thank the men and women of the united states army past and present whose courage inspires all of us every day. My commitment is rooted in military service. My grandfather served in the army during world war ii. My father served. I served as a calvary scout. My sun daniel plans to join, too.
▶ 0:39:53Mr. Driscoll: We are a family grateful to have had the privilege of wearing the uniform of the united states army. We are a family that understands the gravity of leading soldiers in and out of combat. We are a family that has chosen for generations to serve alongside our brothers and sisters in arms. I joined the army as a middle class toolkit from north carolina.
▶ 0:40:17Mr. Driscoll: The values and experiences I gained from military service molded me to the man I am today and opened opportunities I scarcely could have imagined when I enlisted. The trans-formative power of military service is open to those who are willing to shoulder the task. During my time in the army, I was fortunate to serve alongside soldiers who represent the best of america.
▶ 0:40:40Mr. Driscoll: The american soldiers' professionalism and ingenuity are unmatched, on the training grounds or on the battlefield. I saw firsthand the sacrifices they and their families make to uphold the freedoms we hold dear. The world is changing rapidly and we must ensure the army is prepared to operate in complex and contested environments.
▶ 0:41:04Mr. Driscoll: From advancing capabilities to cutting-edge technologies, my sacred duty to our army is ensure our soldiers have the finest training, equipment, and leadership to accomplish any mission and be as lethal a force as they can be. If confirmed, I intend to be the soldier's secretary of the army. This is why I believe president trump has nominated me. America's soldiers and their families will be my mission. I recognize the importance of working closely with congress and this committee.
▶ 0:41:36Mr. Driscoll: Members of the committee, it is the honor of my life to be given the opportunity to earn your trust and continue my service to our great nation. I look forward to responding to our questions -- to your questions and discussing how we can support soldiers, civilians, and families who make up the united states army.
▶ 0:41:55Chair Wicker: Before I begin my questions, there are a few routine questions which we ask all civilian nominees that appear before this committee. If you would answer these questions, have you adhered to applicable laws and regulations governing conflict of interest?
▶ 0:42:12Mr. Driscoll: Yes.
▶ 0:42:14Chair Wicker: Have you assumed duties or taken actions that would appear to resume the outcome of >> the confirmation process? No. >> it is important to this committee and subcommittees and other appropriate committees of congress receive testimony by briefings, reports, records, and other information from the executive branch on a timely basis. Do you agree if confirmed to appear and testify before this committee would requested?
▶ 0:42:43Mr. Driscoll: -- when requested?
▶ 0:42:46Mr. Driscoll: Yes.
▶ 0:42:48Chair Wicker: Do you agree to provide documents in a timely matter when requested by congress and to consult with the requester regarding the basis for any good-faith delay or denial in providing such records?
▶ 0:43:02Mr. Driscoll: Yes.
▶ 0:43:04Chair Wicker: Will you ensure your staff complies with deadlines established by this committee for the production of reports, records, and other information, including timely spawning to hearing questions from the record?
▶ 0:43:16Mr. Driscoll: Yes.
▶ 0:43:17Chair Wicker: Will you cooperate in providing witnesses in response to irrational requests?
▶ 0:43:22Mr. Driscoll: Yes.
▶ 0:43:24Chair Wicker: Will this witnesses be protected from reprisal -- those witnesses be protected from reprisal?
▶ 0:43:33Mr. Driscoll: Yes.
▶ 0:43:35Chair Wicker: Let me begin by getting back to something I mentioned in my opening statement, junior rotc. This committee is serious about building junior rotc. It is a matter of scholarly study that junior rotc, more than army or other branches, is a citizenship builder.
▶ 0:44:03Chair Wicker: Students who volunteer for junior rotc, and they only take volunteers, they have better attendance records. They have higher graduation records.
▶ 0:44:17Chair Wicker: They attend postsecondary education at a higher rate and in general they are better students and this is without question based on peer review studies.
▶ 0:44:35Chair Wicker: We have increased the minimum number of junior rotc units by 200 in our legislation, yet there are today only 15 more units across the dod than there were two years ago. As chairman of this committee, I think I speak for the committee, we intend for the statute to be followed.
▶ 0:45:03Chair Wicker: This is not a ceiling that we have created. It is a floor. We intend for the department of defense and a part of the army to follow the statute as passed by the house and senate and signed by the president of the united states.
▶ 0:45:21Chair Wicker: So it troubles me that only 15 units across the country have been opened in spite of our statute. Meanwhile, there are 300 schools around the country that are on a waiting list. If you ask a principal in any state in the union, or they like a junior rotc, they say yes.
▶ 0:45:48Chair Wicker: If you ask the school board, they say we were love to have a junior rotc. This is a winner. The data are clear and a rand corporation study supports this. So, if confirmed, how would you plan to improve the situation I have described and to reduce the army junior rotc waiting list?
▶ 0:46:20Mr. Driscoll: I appreciate the question. Thank you for taking the time to dive into this for being deaf with me. My nephew did junior rotc in lexington, virginia. It was one of the most powerful experiences in his life and this is a topic that requires -- from the top.
▶ 0:46:42Mr. Driscoll: I commit to working with a team because these are the kind of lineages and relationships that we can build into communities that can get us not just one future soldier but generations of soldiers, so I would like to work with your office.
▶ 0:46:55Chair Wicker: Even those who do not go into military service are better citizens. So I appreciate that. How are we going to tackle the overall issue of army recruiting?
▶ 0:47:08Mr. Driscoll: I think we have an incredible opportunity this year is the 250th anniversary of the army. The army has an incredible history of the men and women who have served and the amazing deeds they have done in and out of uniform. This year, we can take that moment -- momentum and build a pipeline of soldiers think hopefully fill up for the next couple years. The army has been taking steps it seems from the outside.
▶ 0:47:35Mr. Driscoll: The future soldier course out of fort jackson has been helping with physical fitness prep and seems to be working. If confirmed, I would want to look and see if that can be scaled further. There are technology tools that have been integrated into the process. Some have had great benefits.
▶ 0:47:56Mr. Driscoll: Some of them, like digitizing medical records could have had unintended consequences where we are starting to find all sorts of things we would not have been able to see before. I think we need to take a deep dive on those unintended consequences and try to create pathways and mechanisms for more waivers or whatever it is to continue to strengthen the pipeline.
▶ 0:48:20Chair Wicker: Senator reed, you are recognized.
▶ 0:48:24Sen. Reed: Mr. driscoll, you will bring integrity, intelligence, and experience of a young officer leading soldiers, which is the greatest privilege and american can have, so thank you for that. In one of your advanced policy questions, you said the current promotion system does not necessarily select senior officers for institutional knowledge or should teach it acumen, which are increasingly desirable. Can you elaborate?
▶ 0:48:57Mr. Driscoll: Contrasting my experience in the military with the private sector, the private sector does recruiting differently, where it is often the best woman or man for the job. Time in a specific role is less correlated with promotion and there are all sorts of things that would be a larger mosaic of traits that you will look at. I think the army could take a similar view of promotion.
▶ 0:49:22Sen. Reed: How would you describe the current metric for promotion in the army? My assumption is that it is principally based on performance and merit. >> my understanding is that as a component of it with a heavy weighting toward time in service or time in your role.
▶ 0:49:43Sen. Reed: Will you look at this promotion system with an eye toward making appropriate changes?
▶ 0:49:49Mr. Driscoll: Yes, senator.
▶ 0:49:52Sen. Reed: In the acquisition process, we have come as you suggest, barriers to doing business. Particularly those in the 1980's designed to ensure fair competition. Could you generally describe these barriers and what you think you can do to eliminate them?
▶ 0:50:14Mr. Driscoll: The first thing we need to do is improve the army as a customer. The current model the army uses to acquire things rewards entities that are enormous. The five primes are the case study in who concurrently survive such a hard relationship with a customer.
▶ 0:50:35Mr. Driscoll: The army's ability to project what it needs in the future limits the ability for companies to build up infrastructure to provide that support and price things knowing how long the army will remain in his life. I think a hard focus on improving the army's ability to project what it needs and empowering the defense base to expand from five to seven to 25 to 50 would be powerful first steps.
▶ 0:51:07Chair Wicker: One of the issues he will face is the decreased -- increased deployment to the border for immigration activity. Back in june of 2020, before the appropriations committee, one of the previous commanders of the national guard said, as I have expressed in the building as well, there is no military training guide for what we do. This is a law enforcement mission under the department of homeland security.
▶ 0:51:38Chair Wicker: He emphasized the stress on families. What is your assessment of the training value and readiness status of forces?
▶ 0:51:51Mr. Driscoll: I think border security is national security. We have had soldiers at the border for a number of years. I think the army stands ready to execute any mission for the president of the united states and secretary of defense, including helping secure our border.
▶ 0:52:09Sen. Reed: Is there a cost in terms of readiness? Readiness to conduct military operations against a military opponent, not an immigrant?
▶ 0:52:17Mr. Driscoll: The army has a long history of balancing multiple objectives. If this is important to our commander-in-chief, the army will execute on it.
▶ 0:52:31Sen. Reed: There is -- how do you account for the observation after serving as commander of the national guard and looking closely at national guard deployments?
▶ 0:52:46Mr. Driscoll: I think the burden borne by our national guard is something when I was in coming when we deployed about the stress on their families is incredible. They were doing many deployments back to back. They had to managed jobs outside their military roles. As a stress level that a lot of times is forgotten or just set aside by leaders.
▶ 0:53:11Mr. Driscoll: My commitment is, if confirmed, I would want any time we work with national guard to make sure we are considering and taking into account the stress on their jobs back home and on their families.
▶ 0:53:23Sen. Reed: Thank you thank you for your family's service.
▶ 0:53:27Chair Wicker: Senator fischer.
▶ 0:53:30Sen. Fischer: It is good to see you. Thank you for your service and the sacrifice service commitment of your family as well. The last several years from the war in ukraine and U.S. response to iranian and houthi attacks in the middle east come a it has demonstrated how quickly munitions are expended in modern conflicts.
▶ 0:53:54Sen. Fischer: If confirmed, will you commit to reviewing our current stockpile requirements for army munitions to ensure our stockpiles are right sized for modern conflicts ? Especially for potential conflicts that would last more than a few weeks?
▶ 0:54:13Mr. Driscoll: Absolutely. This is a topic you and I talked about. What we have learned in ukraine and with other conflicts is it is no longer sufficient to build a munitions supply, put it on the shelf for 20 years, and hope we guessed the right amount that we need. We have got to have an industrial base able to scale with us. I think the committee for the work on munitions and getting it going again, but we have to do more.
▶ 0:54:41Mr. Driscoll: If confirmed, I would want to work with this committee and your office to do a deep dive on this. >> since the cold war, we have seen this pattern of feast and famine. When there's conflict, the first couple years we boost production and then we let it slide and I do not believe we can continue to have that kind of pattern. You said you would work with congress and the committee on that.
▶ 0:55:13Mr. Driscoll: Just what do you think, off the top of your head, since we had the discussion, what do you believe is a path forward that you would suggest to the committee and do we have the necessary resources available to accomplish that currently, do you think? >> to the resource question, I would need to take a deeper dive.
▶ 0:55:41Mr. Driscoll: What we could do, I think the unites states has an incredible history of agile and innovative manufacturing. It has decayed as a united -- as a nation. The american people will be with us if we include them. If you look at the private sector and the innovation loop, we have some case studies of being able to create things with soldiers, having coders in the field and updating products to get back to the manufacturer for a tighter innovation loop.
▶ 0:56:12Mr. Driscoll: I think we can do that working together and it could make Sen.
▶ 0:56:17Fischer: An incredible difference. We have the authorities to accomplish that now or do you think you would need more authority to be able to move as quickly forward?
▶ 0:56:27Mr. Driscoll: I think we do have the authority.
▶ 0:56:30Sen. Fischer: Small drones are undoubtedly going to play a key role in conflicts, but where do you see opportunities to expand the army's use of those droned -- drones and unmanned systems?
▶ 0:56:50Mr. Driscoll: It has changed how warfare is fought. The way we have designed much of our equipment, our tanks are built to receive fire from the front or indirect fire from the top. They are not meant to receive it from the rear or back corners, so there are soft spots which are some of our most dependable fighting machines that very cheap drones with cheap explosives can exploit.
▶ 0:57:17Mr. Driscoll: I think we saw this with the russian invasion in ukraine and a lot of the way we thought about how to fight will have to change because of drones. We can no longer shoot for million-dollar missiles to take down a $400 drone. That simple math does not add up. We are going to have to find solutions, whether directed energy or whatever it is that can have a cost-effective way to provide security.
▶ 0:57:43Sen. Fischer: You answered my second part of the question on how we are going to make sure it is cost-effective because right now it is not. Ok. Recruiting. See tremendous challenges with recruiting across the army and all services. What is your current assessment of the army's recruiting challenges and how would you address them?
▶ 0:58:11Mr. Driscoll: The last three or four years, we have missed our goals. I believe even the goals we hit from the outside, it seems as if the army lowered their goals are the best analogy I heard is the army through a dart at the dartboard and drew a bull's-eye around where the dart landed that is not a great way to staff and army. We have the fewest number of active-duty soldiers we have had since world war ii. Conflict is erupting around the world.
▶ 0:58:38Mr. Driscoll: I think there is a story to tell of the united states army that young people want to hear and I think we have complicated that story over the last couple years. I do not think it is throwing more money at the problem. I think it is nice to get things like the g.I. Bill, but I did not enlist for that. I am listed because I wanted to serve my country and I think young people will stand by ready for us to tell that story again in a compelling way.
▶ 0:59:07Chair Wicker: Senator shaheen.
▶ 0:59:12Sen. Shaheen: Congratulations on your nomination. Thank you for your past service and the willingness of you and your family to continue to serve this country. I want to start by expressing my condolences as the chair and ranking member on the loss of lives last night. Those members of the military who were lost as well as everyone lost in that tragedy.
▶ 0:59:38Sen. Shaheen: According to the army fiscal year 2024 accident or mishap assessment that was just released this month, 2024 had the most flight mishap rates per 100,000 hours since 2007. So what will your strategy be to keep training flights out of harm's way?
▶ 1:00:01Mr. Driscoll: To echo your remarks, it is an absolute tragedy. It is an accident that seems to be preventable from what we can tell today. That should not happen. I think a focus from the top down on a culture of safety. There are appropriate times to take risk and inappropriate times to take risk. I do not know the details around this one.
▶ 1:00:28Mr. Driscoll: If confirmed, working with this committee to figure out the facts, we might need to look at an appropriate time to take trading risk and it may not be near an airport like reagan.
▶ 1:00:39Sen. Shaheen: As I am sure you know, historically the secretary of the army has unique homeland defense responsibilities and it is especially critical in times of crises. At the direction of the army secretary, you could direct the national guard being available to coordinate with civilian authorities on airspace. Is this something you will be willing to consider and to work with civilian authorities?
▶ 1:01:09Mr. Driscoll: Absolutely.
▶ 1:01:10Sen. Shaheen: I want to follow up on your conversation with senator fischer. As you know, most of the capabilities we have provided to ukraine come from army stock or army programs, tanks, anti-air weapons come along way in -- long-range strike rocket launchers or the national security supplemental that congress passed last year is providing real for leaf to the U.S.
▶ 1:01:36Sen. Shaheen: Industrial base, including in new hampshire where we have significant defense industrial base. If confirmed, will you ensure that army stockpiles can meet our national security requirements and will you include in your budget enough funding to replenish the defense industrial base? >> as I told your colleague, I think this is one of the great problems facing our time.
▶ 1:02:03Sen. Shaheen: In getting our munition and magazines back up to where they need to be, we need to use this moment to figure out how we create sustainable, scalable solutions so if in the future we need to tap back into those stockpiles, how do we get them to scale faster?
▶ 1:02:24Sen. Shaheen: I commit to working with your office to get us to where we were -- where we need to be to replace what we use in ukraine or to what we have had our friends use in ukraine but also to get lessons learned from that that we can record so we are ready to go if we need to for a friendly china.
▶ 1:02:42Sen. Shaheen: One of the things we talked about what some of the challenges, the exact challenges. One of the companies I mentioned was l3 and the nightvision goggles that have been so important to the army. You talked about improving ability to project what it needs over the long-term.
▶ 1:03:04Sen. Shaheen: One of the challenges we have had is the army budget requests have been up and down over the years. They have not been consistent, despite positive feedback from our war fighters. How will you commit to dealing with that budget inconsistency and how will you address it? What strategies are you thinking to address it?
▶ 1:03:30Mr. Driscoll: This is the perfect kind of topic where working with this committee can find solutions for funding. This is a problem that includes different parties. I think a level of transparency and inclusion and planning will be helpful. As the army does things, it may be expanding way for the previous technologies it used.
▶ 1:03:53Mr. Driscoll: We have to keep our eye on what has worked on the past and keep our hybrid of maintaining and refurbishing old technologies to smooth out the transition to new ones. I look forward to working with your office on these topics is confirmed.
▶ 1:04:09Sen. Shaheen: Thank you. As you point out, we will not be able to replenish the stockpiles that we are losing we do not have a strategy for how to deal with this long-term and ensure that our companies that are so critical to that replenishment are engaged in the conversation. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. chairman.
▶ 1:04:29Chair Wicker: Thank you for that excellent point, senator shaheen. Senator sullivan.
▶ 1:04:36Sen. Sullivan: Congratulations. Appreciated our meeting. I look forward to supporting you. In spite of your yale law degree, which I think generally is disqualifying but I will overlook that this time, 10 years ago I was in this position , a brand-new U.S. senator, been here for a month, and the obama administration announced as part of its gutting of our U.S.
▶ 1:05:08Sen. Sullivan: Military they were going to cut 40,000 active-duty army troops. Including the four to five in alaska, the only airborne brigade combat team in the entire indo pacific, strategic national security suicide in my view. I was a new senator. I fought that was everything I had. I put a hold on the chief of staff of the army's confirmation .
▶ 1:05:38Sen. Sullivan: For several weeks until we got the army to see the light. Obama ended up cutting 35,000 troops and kept the 45 in alaska , 5000 airborne army troopers which became the cornerstone of the 11th airborne division as we built up the army in alaska. Are you aware the army now has two active-duty airborne divisions?
▶ 1:06:04Mr. Driscoll: I am.
▶ 1:06:06Sen. Sullivan: The 82nd and the 11th airborne division. So imagine my surprise -- they have been recent articles in the paper saying certain leaders and policy roles in the trump pentagon had passed ideas in the debate about shifting resources to the end of pacific, which I support, but ideas on how we can do that.
▶ 1:06:39Sen. Sullivan: One was a report, an idea from a report from 2021 that would deactivate four stryker brigade combat teams, six infantry per grade -- per grade -- gade combat teams. More than 10% of the army's active-duty combat power.
▶ 1:07:01Sen. Sullivan: If idea ever saw its head in the pentagon from a non-senate confirmed desk, I need your commitment to me in this committee that you would kill it.
▶ 1:07:14Mr. Driscoll: Senator I commit to fight as hard as I can for the army. As I said to your colleague, the army is at its lowest staffing since world war ii.
▶ 1:07:24Sen. Sullivan: Do you think cutting 12 brigade combat team's worth of combat power is a good idea?
▶ 1:07:30Mr. Driscoll: Without knowing the specifics, no. Do you think cutting 12 brigade -- this is obama 2.0. Do you think cutting 12 brigade combat teams from the army would end laments president trump and secretary hegseth -- implement president trump and sec. Hegseth's policies of peace through strength? It would not.
▶ 1:07:58Mr. Driscoll: Do you think it would deter xi jinping and vladimir putin -- maybe this idea has been discarded, cutting 12 brigade combat teams would help with deterrence? I do not think so either. Thank you on that. Very disturbing when I read that. I am glad you agree with me that we are not doing obama 2.0. We are doing reagan and trump one 2.0.
▶ 1:08:28Mr. Driscoll: Peace through strength. Ideas of cutting the army's active-duty force? That is what I fought when I came here. If there's anyone trying to do that, we will fight it. I will fight it. Let me go to another question. In addition to the 11th airborne brigade in alaska, we have the 49th missile-defense battalion.
▶ 1:08:55Mr. Driscoll: A lot of people do not know this, but the cornerstone of missile-defense for america is in alaska and led by the U.S. army here in the president put out his iron dome executive order recently for layered missile-defense. I support that. Will you work with me, senator cramer, we are introducing legislation to bolster what the president is trying to do, but a lot of it will involve the army. A lot of people do not know that.
▶ 1:09:23Mr. Driscoll: 40 not the missile -- 49th missile-defense battalion like to call themselves the 300 protecting the 300 million. Because they protect the whole country. Will you commit to working with this committee and me on bolstering our missile defenses, particularly as it relates to our brave soldiers doing a great job defending our nation and come to alaska with me to see them and the 11th airborne division?
▶ 1:09:53Mr. Driscoll: It would be an honor. I was stationed in new york. When you go there, you would assume 10th mountain division would have mountains and I think the highest elevation is 50 feet.
▶ 1:10:08Chair Wicker: Senator moran.
▶ 1:10:11Sen. Warren: Congratulations on your nomination cut Mr. driscoll. I would like to continue the conversation we started in my office. The army buys a lot of stuff, from tanks to helicopters. They buy a lot of stuff from big defense contractors. Those giant companies often sneak restrictions into the contracts.
▶ 1:10:39Sen. Warren: They hog up the software rights or technical data to prevent service members from being able to repair their own equipment. So today I would like to talk examples so we can see the difference in banks with the army is not hamstrung by right to repair restrictions.
▶ 1:10:59Sen. Warren: Last year, the army needed a new cover for a safety clip, but the contractor told the army they could not have it for months and the safety clips would cost $20 a pop. Thankfully, the army had managed to keep rights to repair restrictions out of this contract and was able to buy -- was able to 3d printing the part in less than an hour for a total
▶ 1:11:30Sen. Warren: Cost of $.16. Does being able to get the parts we need in hours instead of months and for nichols instead of dollars help U.S. readiness and national security?
▶ 1:11:46Mr. Driscoll: Unequivocally.
▶ 1:11:49Sen. Warren: And right to repair restrictions are in place, it is bigger profits for giant defense contractors, but also higher prices for dod. And longer wait times for service members who need to get equipment repaired so they are ready to go. Chairman wicker has an acquisition reform agenda which calls for a complete review of data rights across the department of defense.
▶ 1:12:19Sen. Warren: I think that is exactly right because it would help put the army fully in command of the equipment that it has paid so much for them. Mr. driscoll, if confirmed, will you work with this committee to identify more opportunities where the army can save money and time by making their own parts and fixing their own equipment?
▶ 1:12:44Mr. Driscoll: If confirmed.
▶ 1:12:46Sen. Warren: Would you like to expand on that?
▶ 1:12:49Mr. Driscoll: This type of innovation happening in the private sector at scale seems to have not trickled into the army as much. If we think about engagement with a peer like china, being able to prepare -- repair our parts in areas around the world will be crucial to that. If we are having six-month delays in paying 100 extra rate, that is not scalable international conflict.
▶ 1:13:15Chair Wicker: A very good answer.
▶ 1:13:17Sen. Warren: Excellent answer. Write to repair restrictions have truly gotten out of control. And they threatened our national security. In some cases, the army cannot even write his own training manual without a signoff off from a contractor. My servicemember right to repair act would help fix this problem.
▶ 1:13:41Sen. Warren: But a root cause of this defense contractor profiteering is the revolving door between senior pentagon officials and big defense contractors. Last year, I released a report that found 700 instances of top 20 dod contractors hiring former high-ranking officials. Do you think this is a problem got Mr. driscoll -- a problem, Mr. driscoll?
▶ 1:14:10Sen. Warren: When government officials cash in on public service by serving as board members and executives for companies that they used to regulate, it undermines public official integrity and casts doubt on the fairness of government contracting and it costs dod a lot of money. We owe it to taxpayers and to fx this broken system. I look forward to working with you on this, Mr. driscoll.
▶ 1:14:43Sen. Warren: Thank you. I yelled back.
▶ 1:14:44Chair Wicker: Senator cramer.
▶ 1:14:48Sen. Cramer: Thank you Mr. driscoll for your service and willingness to step in the gap again. I am going to first of all thank you for all of your answers to the previous questions. It is a high priority for the chairman and for all of us. Quite honestly, I worry less about witnesses answers to questions and promises that come from people at the pentagon then I do the culture.
▶ 1:15:18Sen. Cramer: To me that is the big thing -- all the policies in the world -- I appreciated you answering earlier to the question I think it was senator fischer asked when you said you have some of the authorities are ready you need. We just have to move faster. The army does it quite well, by the way. I am on the encouragement side.
▶ 1:15:41Sen. Cramer: Go faster, as I've said from this roster many times to witnesses, if people go faster and innovate more and encourage innovation, particularly from smaller companies, I promise not to be the person who said up here and says "I gotcha" was something bad happens.
▶ 1:16:04Sen. Cramer: I promise I will be the worst nightmare if you are worried about your backside or leader that doesn't have the guts to do what needs to be done to keep up with the pace of china. Having said that, great answers. I am going to go a different direction and talk about the U.S. army corps of engineers.
▶ 1:16:27Sen. Cramer: A number of us, including the chairman, up here also on the environment public works committee.
▶ 1:16:41Sen. Cramer: In the last congress, and act signed into law december 2022, I authored some bipartisan language with senator merkley requiring the army corps establish the western water cooperative committee. The core hates advisory committees.
▶ 1:17:02Sen. Cramer: This is a committee of western states -- at the encourage of western states, washington state to the dakotas and in between, and every attorney general -- pretty diverse group of leaders. It was to be implemented no later than 90 days after enactment.
▶ 1:17:29Sen. Cramer: Here we are more than two years later after it has been authorized and fully funded, it still has not been stood up. That is not your fault. Senator merkley and I sent the corps a letter in october last year asking for an update. After a whole bunch of back-and-forth, leading up to this hearing, I finally got a little bit of clarity the other day on the process -- process by the way is a word I am learning to hate.
▶ 1:17:59Sen. Cramer: Process is what dod officials use to kill. Good people and good ideas just my opinion. Thank you for listening. Yesterday I was told the committee's charter currently sits before the dod's advisory committee management office -- really? -- and will be approved within 30 days.
▶ 1:18:29Sen. Cramer: It is a law. It has been approved by the only people that matter, the people in congress and the president of the united states. So 30 days to prove something they are required to do by law seems a little outrageous to me but I am going to be generous today. After that "30 days" which I will believe it when I see it, it goes back to the army for action. That does not give me a lot of solace because, you know, because I have history.
▶ 1:19:00Sen. Cramer: It is a law and has been for over two years. I know you are not in your role yet, Mr. driscoll, and I do plan on using my -- I did not plan on using my time on this, can I get your commitment that it doesn't have to take 30 days to get something going that has been the law for over two years, the dod officials, who don't like this idea, have just tried to kill by stalling? Do I have your commitment to get to it and get it done in quick order?
▶ 1:19:30Mr. Driscoll: Unequivocally. Just to highlight, I would hold myself accountable to this next statement, having two of your colleagues here, I intend if confirmed to work with this committee and follow the law so I would absolutely commit to looking at that.
▶ 1:19:49Chair Wicker: Thank you for your question. Which is well taken and applies to the issue that I rose about increased floor of junior rotc units which -- for which there are 300 applications and only 15 have been created in response to a statute passed by the congress and signed by the president of the united states.
▶ 1:20:18Sen. Kaine: Congratulations on your nomination. Thank you to all my colleagues who offered thoughts about the crash, the three soldiers -- we don't have their identities yet.
▶ 1:20:35Sen. Kaine: That is something I know the army family feels and this region feels come all my colleagues do, actually, all my colleagues have staffers who work in this area and we are all kind of awaiting the manifest in the passenger list of those who died.
▶ 1:20:54Sen. Kaine: Here's a topic that this committee has really grappled with and I will say none of us are happy with it in a bipartisan basis, and that is the efforts of our dod to figure out strategies to counter uis incursions into our bases. A well-publicized one occurred at the langley base in hampton, virginia, but there have been other sightings that have been subject to these.
▶ 1:21:20Sen. Kaine: Langley is an example of the incursions occurred over a period of 17 days in december 2023 and 14 months later and we still have not been given good answers about what happened. I think we are frustrated by this because it was just a one day thing. Maybe you could not track it, figure it out. But if it happened for 17 days and we don't have answers, that is problematic.
▶ 1:21:46Sen. Kaine: I raise this with you because the army has been tasked with being the dod's executive agent on this topic. All the stakeholders are at the table but the army is tasked with being the lead in countering small uis's, charged with leading and directing relevant doctrine, training standards, capabilities to establish joint solutions not just army solutions for addressing current and future emerging small uis threats.
▶ 1:22:17Sen. Kaine: Should you be confirmed, what will you do to ensure coordination between the services and developing a joint counter small uis doctrine?
▶ 1:22:25Mr. Driscoll: I think these incursions highlight a problem with how we have thought of our nation's defense. We have not thought about it in a while. I got to speak with your colleague in depth about this specific incursion and it seems to be the buck falls between many agencies I know is empowered to act quickly. That is at scale when it continues to show up day after day, night after night.
▶ 1:22:57Mr. Driscoll: Building a network of communication and identifying for how you engage with these things, who owns what, who is calling what acceptable timeframe for this kind of communication. That would just be the people. From technology side, if you look at the tools like directed energy, we need to empower our agencies to protect our homeland from these types of incursions so that we can shoot them down and learn specifically who sent
▶ 1:23:29Mr. Driscoll: It, what was it collecting.
▶ 1:23:32Sen. Kaine: I know senator fischer asked you questions about recruiting when I was at another hearing but I want to come back to it. I'm on health education, so workforce issues, economy wide in the military, civilian space, are very important to me. What innovative approaches do you -- have either seen in the army or do you foresee trying so that we can have the size of the force we need to defend this country?
▶ 1:24:00Mr. Driscoll: From what I've heard of the future soldier program at a fort jackson which is where I did basic training, it is working well. It is helping future soldiers prep which in itself might have complications of how valuable -- the fitness side of things is obviously helping those soldiers , doing really well in basic training. Those are the types of solutions I think are going well.
▶ 1:24:26Mr. Driscoll: If you look at things like waivers, I mentioned I think we need to relook at the waiver process. Currently, the physicians in charge of giving waivers, their incentive structure as I understand it is they are punished when somebody they waive does not make it to basic training but no feedback to reward them for somebody who needed a waiver that got through basic training. I think we need to start look at things like that which could have some pretty meaningful impacts in the pipeline.
▶ 1:24:52Sen. Kaine: At his confirmation hearing eight years ago, former secretary defensive mattis said, "if you don't fund the state department fully, I need to buy more ammunition." he was talking about the fact you need to hold government approach to promote national security. Do you agree with that sentiment?
▶ 1:25:11Mr. Driscoll: Unequivocally.
▶ 1:25:15Sen. Kaine: That is why I'm troubled by the trump order pausing all foreign assistance. I think when a new order goes out, pausing for an assistance to other nations except for arms transfers to israel and egypt, china and our adversaries hear that and they rubbed her hands together because they are not pausing. They look at us pausing as an opening for them to build deeper and deeper ties into the hearts and minds of nations that should be our allies. Climate led you -- I am glad you agree with what general mehta said.
▶ 1:25:49Sen. Kaine: Thank you very much.
▶ 1:25:50Chair Wicker: Do you recall which member of the committee asked that question of general mattis?
▶ 1:26:01Sen. Kaine: I'm going to guess it was a senator from mississippi.
▶ 1:26:03Chair Wicker: You are correct. Senator tuberville.
▶ 1:26:08Sen. Tuberville: Thank you for your service. I want to echo the thoughts about what happened last night in her home territories of the devastating. Just so happens to coincide a little bit, not that it has anything to do with this, but my state of alabama, we train all of the vertical lift army pilots, as you well know.
▶ 1:26:33Sen. Tuberville: My first question, I would your thoughts on what you think about the new curriculum for flight school the army has proposed. This affects all the pilots in the army. I want to get your commitment to canyon -- continue an open dialogue about the army's intent on how best to leverage existing resources. We are cutting back, not putting money in training like we used to, that we need to do.
▶ 1:27:04Sen. Tuberville: We are undertrained in some areas. I would like your thoughts on the curriculum and your thoughts about the future of vertical lift, especially with the new vertical lift the army is purchasing for the future flights we might have.
▶ 1:27:17Mr. Driscoll: Senator, to your comment on last night, I think we are all collectively going to have to take a deep dive and figure out what occurred. The early indicators from what I have seen on television is that it might have been a training exercise gone wrong that had catastrophic outcomes. We are going to have to work together to make sure that never occurs again or at least to mitigate the odds it could ever happen again.
▶ 1:27:47Mr. Driscoll: It specifically to future vertical flight, if you look at the contested airspace with china and what we will have to do, our vertical assets are going to have to be able to get further and faster with lower signature than they do today. That being said, the current push for the army, it is early in the development, incredibly expensive, and we are likely going to have to work with the blackhawks in the assets we have today.
▶ 1:28:16Mr. Driscoll: If confirmed, I would want to do a deep dive with the team to figure out how we're going to position ourselves and what training do we need for the next one day to five years until we get to a better state.
▶ 1:28:29Sen. Tuberville: I want to discuss an issue that affects many installations, military construction milk on as we know it. We need to move fast. The process is far too slow. There are two warehouses as we speak being constructed, one fromk being constructed, one from being constructed, one from military nstructed, one from military butructed, one from military but ucted, one from military but accordinge from military but according -- one by the fbi.
▶ 1:28:55Sen. Tuberville: These warehouses are roughly the same size regarding the size but the fbi has a huge amount of bells and whistles, more than the military warehouse. The military warehouse is when you cost almost $56 million annual take 48 months -- four years to build this. Where the fbi facility is going to cost $40 million and only take basically a year and a half.
▶ 1:29:25Sen. Tuberville: We have got a problem. How on earth does this make any sense? The army is currently running a repair by replacement pilot program that is being tested at a couple of installations to demolish older barracks and replace them with new minor facilities. The key part of the program it is using operations and maintenance dollars versus traditional milcon dollars. Are you familiar with this?
▶ 1:29:50Mr. Driscoll: Senator, I had the opportunity to talk about it with you in your office. This is the type of thing that makes my blood boil on behalf of soldiers. The army has a limited budget to begin with. We have to be good stewards of the american taxpayers dollars. When we are not, it is but the taxpayer and the soldier -- the soldiers are my friends. It is my friends that live in these barracks and raise their families. We need to stretch these dollars as far as we can.
▶ 1:30:18Sen. Tuberville: The other point I want to bring up, talk about recruiting. The new recruit in the army mix $25,000 a year before taxes. We just gave a raise. We can't expect to attract the best and brightest young men and women in the military unless we do something else.
▶ 1:30:44Sen. Tuberville: I know we give them a lot of perks but we have got to understand $25,000, I mean, most of them can make that into months time in some kind of big tech or whatever. Just keep that in mind as you get into recruiting. We have got to start taking care of these young men and women if you're going to build a fighting force that we need.
▶ 1:31:03Chair Wicker: Thank you. Senator slotkin.
▶ 1:31:10Sen. Slotkin: Apologies, I'm not used to going anything but last, chairman. Shock to me. Thank you for being here. Congratulations on your nomination. I was glad to hear so many people talking about the collision that happened last night. You will have an important role in that investigation if confirmed.
▶ 1:31:34Sen. Slotkin: It does sound like it is a training mission but it is just important we lead a thorough process, people across the country are morning watching that and everyone on this panel here flies in and out of there. It is hard not to think about it. Thank you for your attention to that.
▶ 1:31:54Sen. Slotkin: I think the thing we talked about in my office is I am a democrat who won on the same ballot as donald trump. I understand donald trump has the right to nominate his own people, put forward his own policies. But the thing that I keep coming back to is the core constitutional responsibility. You will swear an oath to the constitution not to anyone president.
▶ 1:32:24Sen. Slotkin: Many of us have worked alongside were in the military for a long time and care deeply about it remaining apolitical. We are seeing now active duty military army being sent to the border, being sent on missions, right now to support dhs. But according to our constitution, the U.S. military active duty cannot perform law enforcement roles.
▶ 1:32:53Sen. Slotkin: When you are trained in the military, retrain on basic law enforcement techniques?
▶ 1:32:57Mr. Driscoll: I was down.
▶ 1:33:00Sen. Slotkin: Can we agree searching a building in iraq or afghanistan when you're in a combat zone as an army officer is fundamentally different than performing those kinds of search and activities inside the united states with american citizens?
▶ 1:33:14Mr. Driscoll: Senator, this -- I've been trained on it so I could not answer what would be different about it will stop
▶ 1:33:22Sen. Slotkin: The issue is not just the constitution, although that should be enough. I am deeply concerned active-duty troops are going to be forced into law enforcement roles and we are already hearing stories that really touch right on the line. They are not properly trained. There is going to be an incident. Someone is going to get hurt.
▶ 1:33:44Sen. Slotkin: There's going to be some sort of blow up and suddenly we are going to have a community deeply, deeply angry at uniformed military who were just told to go and drive those dhs vehicles, clear that vehicle, perform support to something. I have to ask you again that if the U.S.
▶ 1:34:01Sen. Slotkin: Army was asked active-duty to do something that contravened the constitution, can you say clearly that you will push back on anyone whether it is the secretary of defense for the commander-in-chief and stand up on behalf of the army instead of just doing whatever you are told?
▶ 1:34:23Mr. Driscoll: To answer the beginning part of the question, I reject the president or the secretary general would ask that. But I would always follow the law.
▶ 1:34:35Sen. Slotkin: Your predecessor had this exact thing he wrote about in his book, army asked to come in and clean up peaceful protests in washington, D.C. I reject your rejection this is theoretical, that this is hypothetical. A nominee and confirmed a secretary under trump -- I know they removed his portrait but I just have to say this is not a hypothetical.
▶ 1:35:01Sen. Slotkin: So we are counting on you to protect the integrity of a nonpolitical military that is not trained in law enforcement roles. Next, do you support revoking the pension that comes with anyone who is honorably discharged from the army?
▶ 1:35:19Mr. Driscoll: It is hard to deal on a hypothetical.
▶ 1:35:23Sen. Slotkin: It is not hypothetical. There is focus on the former chair of the joint chief mark milley. There's lots of controversy around him but you cannot debate he served many more years than anyone on this panel. Can you tell me that you support the seemingly political reprisal of removing someone's pension when they have already been honorably discharged?
▶ 1:35:50Mr. Driscoll: Without knowing the specific details, do support the president's right to execute law and order.
▶ 1:35:58Sen. Slotkin: You see the pattern the stars. Another administration comes in and suddenly people who supported donald trump are having their pensions removed. You can see how this politicized is institution that should be apolitical. For the january 6 guys and all these folks, there wasn't a question about their pensions. I have deep concerns about it. I know my time is up.
▶ 1:36:19Chair Wicker: Thank you very much. Senator ernst.
▶ 1:36:24Sen. Ernst: Thank you. I will also add my condolences to the families who lost loved ones near dcaa last night. Good morning, Mr. driscoll, and thank you for your testimony today and for being with us. I appreciate the time you took to meet with me in my office and dive into everything army. Very important to me.
▶ 1:36:50Sen. Ernst: My time in service, my family's time in service, and your time in service. Thank you. Once confirmed you will be facing challenging path ahead. You have already talked a little about recruiting. We also have to build upon the current modernization efforts and of course we have very complex geopolitical landscapes out there. I am going to start with recruitment.
▶ 1:37:19Sen. Ernst: I just want to give you some of my thoughts on this. Recruiting remains really critical issue for the armed forces. Army is on track to meet its recruiting goals. That is an encouraging sign. A key concern that has been brought to my attention is ensuring our recruiters have meaningful access to schools to be able to get into high schools and talk to young men and women.
▶ 1:37:49Sen. Ernst: I plan to introduce my serve act to enhance literary recruiters access to schools and mandate regular visits to improve information sharing with the students and their administrators. I would love to work with you on this particular issue once confirmed. Additionally, the military has faced challenges reaching potential recruits via social media.
▶ 1:38:15Sen. Ernst: We have seen a recent flurry of activities when it comes to meta and regarding reports U.S. army posts were being shadow band or removed for a legend violations. I did send a letter to meta about this last month. Mr. driscoll, given the challenges, do you commit to working with us on these recruiting challenges, and making sure we are able to spread our good message to young men and women?
▶ 1:38:44Mr. Driscoll: Absolutely.
▶ 1:38:47Sen. Ernst: Briefly, I am also the chair of the doge caucus in the united states senate and islands sent me here to make them squeal. I've made it my missing -- mission to find ways to identify waste, fraud -- eliminate it, get more accountable to our taxpayers. The department of defense and our great army should not be exempt from this effort.
▶ 1:39:18Sen. Ernst: Mr. driscoll, can I count on your commitment to collaborate on strategies for reducing waste in the army?
▶ 1:39:23Mr. Driscoll: Absolutely. As I told your colleague earlier, the dollars are limited, as they should be, and we are beholden to this committee and the congress for how to use those dollars. Once the dollars come to us, it is our responsibility to use them as effectively as we possibly can. It would be an honor to work with you if confirmed.
▶ 1:39:46Sen. Ernst: Another one of my top priorities remains dressing traumatic brain injuries or tbi. Last year I successfully passed conference of tbi legislation and I intend to build on that progress in the upcoming ndaa cycle. Can I get your commitment to collaborate with the agency to prioritize tbi initiatives and further enhance our army's immediate long-term health and safety?
▶ 1:40:16Mr. Driscoll: This issue is deeply personal. When we were deployed, we had mortars and ied's. You never know how that impacts a soldier but I know when we got back, a lot of our guys struggled with a lot of issues. I would be honored to do anything I possibly can to lend a hand here. If confirmed, absolutely.
▶ 1:40:36Sen. Ernst: I think both of us have had many friends that have been impacted by tbi. It is very, very important to them and their families will stop -- families. I have limited time but I do chair the subcommittee on emerging threats and capabilities. I prioritize the special operations community and the critical enablers that they provide. In recent years, the army implemented force reductions within sof.
▶ 1:41:07Sen. Ernst: Socom testified last year the demand for special operations forces remain high. Mr. driscoll, will I get your commitment to work with me to make sure that we are addressing these cuts and how we can continue to provide for our special operations community so that they may further support our conventional forces?
▶ 1:41:29Mr. Driscoll: Absolutely. If you look at the threats I had, we have a threat and china debt certainly does not mean other threats would not take advantage of us being in engagement with china and special forces are incredibly suited to both land a hand in that fight and also innovation laboratories that can test things more quickly, can learn and get their procurement lessons to the larger force.
▶ 1:42:00Sen. Ernst: Thank you, Mr. driscoll. Mr. chair, I was going to ask him to sing the army song but I will submit that for the record.
▶ 1:42:08Chair Wicker: Your time is expired, regrettably. Thank you for your questions.
▶ 1:42:15Sen. Gillibrand: I know you served your active duty tour with the army at fort drum post climb to glory. A little over a year ago, fort drum was selected to host the army's second multi-domain task force. If confirmed, your tenure as secretary will align with the army's target for the full dtf implementation by fiscal 28.
▶ 1:42:39Sen. Gillibrand: What challenges do you see in this timeline and do you believe the split structure between german and fort drum is sustainable and can the structure be leveraged in other theaters such as the pacific?
▶ 1:42:50Mr. Driscoll: I've not been specifically briefed on that unit. Ithe multi-domain will allow it across the army is the future of warfare. If you think of things like cyber and space, how war has been thought up until this point will no longer look the same. Those issues require network abilities near real-time or real-time, allow for communication across a lot of assets and sensing tools and human beings.
▶ 1:43:21Mr. Driscoll: So I look forward to both learning more, working with your office, specifically returning to fort drum.
▶ 1:43:28Sen. Gillibrand: A recurring challenge you and I talked about in our meeting for the military has been the recruitment and retention of skilled cyber operators both military and civilian. As of november, the military reported about 28,000 unfilled military and civilian cyber roles. To help address I created the cyber service scholarship program and secured language in the most recent ndaa to study the advisability of a cyber military service.
▶ 1:43:57Sen. Gillibrand: Army cyber is the largest of our cyber service components, placing a significant portion of this burden on you. How will you approach the cyber personnel challenge and how do you see things like the cyber service academy supporting your efforts?
▶ 1:44:11Mr. Driscoll: Sincerely, thank you for your work on this. We are going to have to figure out and work together to create unique pathways for the cyber experts among us to be the most lethal cyber person or soldier, that pathway may look very different from going to ranger school and ending up in ranger battalion.
▶ 1:44:33Mr. Driscoll: We need to work with the feeders in the pipelines and the civilian sector to empower those candidates who want to join the army, the future soldiers to come in. I think pathways like what you're describing our incredible viable.
▶ 1:44:48Sen. Gillibrand: The advisor has been vacant for nearly six months. Will you commit to me to quickly fill that role?
▶ 1:44:56Mr. Driscoll: If confirmed, one of the roles I would be most excited to fill. I don't know what has led to the delay in filling it so I can't speak to that but I can commit to very early on trying to prioritize that because as stated earlier, we multi-domain is going, how wars are going to be fought in the future, that will be critical.
▶ 1:45:17Sen. Gillibrand: One of the issues this committee has spent at least a decade working on is the scourge of sexual assault in the military. We put in place bipartisan reforms that have the support of 65 senators. Overwhelmingly supported. Reforms are geared toward more transparency, more training, and having the decision-maker whether a crime has been committed be given to a trained military prosecutor.
▶ 1:45:46Sen. Gillibrand: Who isn't in the chain of command, who arguably has more precise and applicable training to reach better decisions. Are you aware of these reforms and do you commit you will do everything to make sure these reforms are fully implemented so our military can be functioning place for everyone to work and that certain people are not, unfortunately, disregarded or devalued because of the system in place?
▶ 1:46:12Mr. Driscoll: Very sincerely, I thank you and your colleagues for the work on this. I mentioned in my opening statement my son is planning to join the army. It is hard to know if my six-year-old daughter once to join. My wife and I have been nudging. I want her to join an army that the skies the limit, the standards of excellent are hard but she is able to achieve them.
▶ 1:46:36Mr. Driscoll: She has faced zero instances of sexual harassment during her time in and it would be an absolute honor to work with you in -- from the top and ensure we are both rolling out the law and setting up a culture where that is not tolerated in any way.
▶ 1:46:53Sen. Gillibrand: You mentioned in the questions you get to the committee went to point a high-level position dedicated to ensuringocus on ending sexual assault in the military. You have any thoughts about what you're thinking as they are or what you would do for that position?
▶ 1:47:09Mr. Driscoll: I would want to work with you and your office and your colleague senator ernst. I know you have done a deep dive on this. I want to commit publicly to commit resources, time, energy and focus to scourging it from the united states army and I think that can be a powerful first step.
▶ 1:47:28Chair Wicker: Thank you. Senator scott.
▶ 1:47:33Sen. Scott: Congratulations on your nomination. Thank you for your willingness to do this. I told you my father was one of 3000 people who did combat jobs the second world war. He was crazy. After that he fought in the battle of the bulge. The whole childhood he told me -- horrible. I joined the navy.
▶ 1:48:03Sen. Scott: Tell me what you are -- thank you for your service. Tell me what did you learn that will make you better secretary?
▶ 1:48:13Mr. Driscoll: Secretary hegseth mentioned in his hearing dust on the boots model, had not thought of that in a long time. The experience of being able to think through when a decision from the top down, how does it impact the soldier.
▶ 1:48:31Mr. Driscoll: I can think of back to baghdad and we had these amazing vehicles which I think probably this committee had a lot of help in getting these and wraps out when our soldiers first deployed , the bottom of these humvees was then and perfectly absorbed the blast. These mraps were created that save a lot of lives but one of the problems was they were very heavy, very tall, very prone to rollover.
▶ 1:48:57Mr. Driscoll: I remember for the entire nine or 10 months we were at their commit was in a soldier out and they would start it, turn it on, run for a couple of minutes and then turn it back off in the process would repeat itself. It was a pretty sort of melon tension in the actions by those creating were for good purposes, which is fundamentally the mrap did not work in many areas because medicament dusty roads that just can't support a lot of weight.
▶ 1:49:23Mr. Driscoll: So I think those types of experiences of saying this may be the right answer, some of the time, but what is it going to look like for the actual soldier on the ground where we need this ? I think that will be a very impactful or a help if confirmed that will be a very impactful issue.
▶ 1:49:44Sen. Scott: I became governor of florida 2011. I know the idea the army corps of engineers was going to control every bit of development in my state. You could not do anything at the courts, rivers, so much army corps of engineers controlled. My experience is it is an absolute black hole. You could not -- they are wonderful people. You could never get an answer. Never get an answer about the timeline, about why they make that their decisions.
▶ 1:50:14Sen. Scott: An absolute black hole. Consistent from eight years as governor in six years here. Wonderful people, but for anybody that wants to get anything accomplished in their state, it is a pain in the royal butt. Have you thought about what you do to change that?
▶ 1:50:35Mr. Driscoll: One of the amazing parts of the army is it does touch so many different parts of both our countries lives and the lives of those abroad. When I talked to your colleague senator warren, one of the things we had talked about his is it possible to do something like a net promoter score that is pretty common in business. If you went to chick-fil-a, you might get a questionnaire afterwards zero to 10 how likely would you refer this to a friend.
▶ 1:51:04Mr. Driscoll: If we could start to do those in our communities where our bases are either abroad or in our communities locally come I think what we would start to find is there are some low hanging areas that when our soldiers are touching those in our civilian population, there are probably ways we could be more responsive.
▶ 1:51:24Mr. Driscoll: I would love to try to figure out what low hanging fruit exists to make the army a better co-inhabitant of the world and our country.
▶ 1:51:36Sen. Scott: In your private life, have you to recruit employees commit people to work with you, try to find how to work with people?
▶ 1:51:43Mr. Driscoll: I have.
▶ 1:51:46Sen. Scott: Why do you think the army has such a horrible experience try to recruit people?
▶ 1:51:50Mr. Driscoll: I think from my experience is a third-generation soldier, what my grandfather was a he joined for -- we all joined during times of war. I think if you asked us, it would have been -- we would've said the reason we join is we did not want to miss the opportunity to serve our country when it needed us. I think that very specific story is what a lot of soldiers -- women and men -- would say is the reason they join.
▶ 1:52:18Mr. Driscoll: I think we have oftentimes lost focus on that and started to focus on things like the benefits, which are important and valuable reasons to join, but I think for many of america's youth, it is the purpose of getting to serve this amazing nation. If confirmed, would love to work with this committee to clarify that story and tell it more broadly.
▶ 1:52:39Sen. Scott: You will do a great job. Thank you.
▶ 1:52:42Chair Wicker: Mr. driscoll, you made that point repeatedly during this hearing and I think it is got quite a bit of validity. Senator rosen.
▶ 1:52:55Sen. Rosen: Thank you. Thank you for holding this hearing. Mr. driscoll, I would like to thank you for your service, willingness to serve again, and for being here with us today. We will take a moment, privilege, like the rest of my colleagues and all americans, today our heart is broken by the events that dca last night and I want to offer my deepest condolences to the families, the fellow soldiers come to all of
▶ 1:53:27Sen. Rosen: Those who are lost. I want to thank our first responders for their immediate action, running to the scene in the dark of night in the iciest of waters to try to save lives. Now I'm going to turn to my home state of nevada. I'm going to talk a little bit about hawthorne army depot. World's largest ammunition depot and dylan's authorization facility.
▶ 1:53:53Sen. Rosen: Depot stores and demilitarized issues munitions readiness for all of dod. Despite its size and crucial role, the only one in the country, it is in need of continued infrastructure upgrades. Investing more has only become more important in light of our need to ramp up munitions production spoke to army against russian aggression and backfill our own stockpiles for just a few examples.
▶ 1:54:22Sen. Rosen: In recent years, army's posture hearings secretary chief of staff of the army made commitments to me to consider new investments in hawthorne. I'm happy the army is doing so. Mr. driscoll, can I have your commitment to include hawthorne in armies future years defense planning or unfunded priority list so congress can fund these crucial and critical investments to ensure our munitions readiness?
▶ 1:54:46Mr. Driscoll: Our munitions readiness, as I referenced your colleagues come is absolutely one of the primary challenges facing us as a nation as we face the threat of a pure like china. I absolutely committee of confirmed taking a deep dive and look at this topic.
▶ 1:55:06Sen. Rosen: I invite you to come to hawthorne. How is that?
▶ 1:55:08Mr. Driscoll: I would be honored.
▶ 1:55:12Sen. Rosen: I moved to women in combat. Prior to being served and combat arms, cultural support teams, largely from the army reserve and that was special operations forces in iraq and afghanistan to engage with female populations. They fill critical gaps, expanding operation and intelligence collection capabilities.
▶ 1:55:33Sen. Rosen: However, in so many cases their military records do not reflect they served in combat despite accompanying sof on rates and sustaining injuries, some even dying. This is because they are reserve units who oversaw them administratively were not there to document their service in combat. In some instances, these women have no record of ever having left the base despite having done so as a job requirement. As a result, they have struggled to prove to the v.a.
▶ 1:56:01Sen. Rosen: Their injuries are service-related, they or combat connector. Since women have only been able to serve in combat arms in the last decade. If confirmed, will commit to performing a review of these combat veterans? These women who have been to help us collect this important cultural intelligence?
▶ 1:56:28Sen. Rosen: These women come home and they are denied disability claims because the lack of documentation most of they really need to receive the care and benefits of -- their families as well in the recognition they deserve. It is the least we owe to our women in uniform.
▶ 1:56:43Mr. Driscoll: We have a sacred duty to care for our soldiers. From my experience, deploying some of the most competent heroic people I deployed with were women. They served incredibly important jobs with bomb sniffing dogs, right beside us every step of the way. I commit to working with your office to make sure that population is not forgotten and gets the care and respect they deserve.
▶ 1:57:11Sen. Rosen: I am proud to serve as some women who showed their valor. I just have another moment so we will submit this for the record but it is about cyber workforce development. It has been touched on here. The fy 24 ndaa and did include my bipartisan legislation authorizing the army to create a civilian cybersecurity reserve to provide cybercom with qualified civilian personnel for surge capacity in times of need to ensure the U.S.
▶ 1:57:41Sen. Rosen: Has the cyber talent needed to respond to malicious activities, secure jody's information and systems. -- secure dod's information and systems. To really build up that force. I will take the answer off the record but I would like to speak with you about the implementation of the civilian cyber reserve corps and have your commitment to see this through as we know cyber attacks are on the rise.
▶ 1:58:06Mr. Driscoll: If confirmed, it would be an honor.
▶ 1:58:10Chair Wicker: Senator thanks.
▶ 1:58:15Sen. Banks: , welcome and congratulations on your important nomination. You bring a unique background in business and private equity. One of the biggest things we have to accomplish in this moment is innovation at the pentagon. I wonder if you could talk about your background and how that uniquely helps you help us create better innovation in our national security.
▶ 1:58:38Mr. Driscoll: After attending law school on the g.I. Bill, I was fortunate to spend time as a seal at a venture capital firm where couple of years I got to spend time working with and learning and seeing how some of our country's most amazing innovators are building their businesses. Some of the lessons that they have learned in their private space of the last 10 to 20 years I think are right for transferral to the U.S. army.
▶ 1:59:08Mr. Driscoll: Creating a feedback loop and learning loop that gets lessons learned from the actual soldiers in the field back into the manufacturers or software developers occurs in a private space frequently. I think less frequent in the army. There are examples I think working wonderfully in the army like theivest system, shining beacon of effective veltman.
▶ 1:59:31Mr. Driscoll: I'm hoping to work with this in armies existing leaders to figure out where we can tighten the innovation loop and get a learning from the field in the learnings from our friends in places like ukraine. That battlefield is rife with lessons around drones and cyber and how can we get those lessons into our procurement processes and on the manufacturing floor as quickly as possible.
▶ 1:59:58Sen. Vance: Part of working venture-capital when it comes to
▶ 2:00:00Innovation -- Sen. Banks: , part of working venture-capital when it comes to innovation, we have a crisis right now with U.S. army, historic recruitment crisis. I know you have covered this but give us more specific ideas that we can use, new technologies come innovation recruit the best and brightest to serve our country?
▶ 2:00:20Mr. Driscoll: There are a lot of tools used by some were larger corporations in the country to recruit at scale. They give a very individualized and personalized experience. What I have heard with the recruiting process is you're looking at all sorts of different ways of creating a specialty where recruiter come if you are an incredible recruiter, perhaps that is how you serve your country for your entire time in uniform.
▶ 2:00:47Mr. Driscoll: Things like that that mimic the expertise that can lead into the private sector, depriving those -- applying this to the army I think will continue to unlock what has seemed to be no doubt a lot because of the work of this committee for momentum and recruiting in the army right now.
▶ 2:01:02Sen. Banks: We have talked at length about restoring the meritocracy to our military. I happen to believe the recruitment crisis space in the military has a lot to do with taking merit out of the military. Young men and women say why would I join the military if it is no longer the great meritocracy it used to be? I think restoring that would be important to the army.
▶ 2:01:27Sen. Banks: On that note, last year the army argued affirmative action in our service academies was "critical to mission success in national security." when I asked the secretary of the army last year in the house armed services committee were previously served whether the supreme court harmed national security when it banned affirmative action in schools with rotc programs, she admitted she was "a little puzzled why affirmative action at west point wasn't also banned."
▶ 2:01:58Sen. Banks: To racial admission preferences in service academies like west point help our national security?
▶ 2:02:03Mr. Driscoll: I don't believe so.
▶ 2:02:06Sen. Banks: He was support efforts as secretary hegseth has to end affirmative action as service academies?
▶ 2:02:12Mr. Driscoll: I think one of the most amazing parts of my time in service is the army was an incredible meritocracy. I can't remember a single time being when you went thought the system was against them.
▶ 2:02:28Mr. Driscoll: When I told our kids daniel and lila about what we hope they will do after high school, I have told my daughter it would be the proudest day of my life -- I don't think she understands the nuance of what I'm saying -- to pin a ranger to have on her if she can complete ranger school with incredibly difficult standards being the exact same as when I went through it. So I think those standards and excellent secretary of defense has talked about are important.
▶ 2:02:53Mr. Driscoll: It would make -- it is what makes our army the greatest in the last years on the planet earth. I hope you're able to hold those standards going forward.
▶ 2:03:04Sen. Banks: I am excited to work with you to make the army as strong as it can possibly be, fix the recruitment crisis, modernize the army for the future. Thank you for agreeing to serve our country. You have my support.
▶ 2:03:15Chair Wicker: Thank you. Mr. driscoll, the united states military is the greatest civil rights organization in the history of the world. What do you think about that?
▶ 2:03:30Mr. Driscoll: My experience is exact same thing.
▶ 2:03:33Chair Wicker: Having served in the air force, that is been my experience. Senator peters.
▶ 2:03:40Sen. Peters: Thank you,. Mr. driscoll, congratulations on your nomination to serve as the secretary of the army and I want to thank you for your service to our nation as well as thank you for the time we spent in my office earlier. We addressed a number of concerns. I think you had a very fruitful discussion. I appreciate that.
▶ 2:04:04Sen. Peters: As you know, senior officials in combat and commands have testified before this committee on the severe threat that is posed by p.r.c. Sponsored cyber actors. The threat is evidenced by the recent infiltration of U.S. telecommunication companies that left civilians, service members, and installations vulnerable to these attacks. The attack as part of a broader pattern of p.r.c. Cyber aggression targeting U.S.
▶ 2:04:33Sen. Peters: Infrastructure across the country. The U.S. army plays a critical role in deterring these threats through defense of cyber operations, intelligence, integration with U.S. cyber command as well to protect us. My question for you, do you agree with the army's current cyber strategy?
▶ 2:04:51Mr. Driscoll: I think the cyber threat to this country -- I was actually with one of our elected officials we found out our phones were hacked and I was reflecting with them all we do to protect our information to keep it classified. Things like our verizon cell phone network are going to be compromised, we have to think through a lot of the ways we design our information protection systems.
▶ 2:05:17Mr. Driscoll: Cyber, with the changes occurring with computing, generative ai, these are fundamentally going to alter how soldiers fight wars and how information is exchanged on the battlefield, how we prepare. The gray zone activities that our peers like tyner able to do our scary. I'm not received a formal brief but my understanding is the army is taking steps in the right direction. I look forward to working with your offices.
▶ 2:05:45Mr. Driscoll: I know this is close to your heart to make the army as effective as it can both offense and defense in cyber.
▶ 2:05:52Sen. Peters: We are in agreement but as far as to strategy the army is using now, what is your assessment? Would you change anything to support operations with what you know that strategy is now?
▶ 2:06:07Mr. Driscoll: My understanding now is our offense of capabilities -- offensive capabilities perhaps are not where they should be. I think our adversaries are being much more aggressive with us than we are with them. I would want to take a deep look at that.
▶ 2:06:25Sen. Peters: The intelligent systems play a pivotal role in informing commanders decisions. Adoption of ai is changing that dramatically. Question to you is about the ai implementation strategy that the army currently has. Do you have any changes or do you believe the army is adequately evaluating this threat and adapting accordingly?
▶ 2:06:48Mr. Driscoll: My understanding of how ai implementation is occurring is that it is silent right now. I think this is the type of work that should occur across the different services. Our lessons learned for the army will apply to the air force and navy. I think we need to be focusing on this ai threat because the speed and pace of the growth here is unbelievable.
▶ 2:07:16Mr. Driscoll: I don't know if you read the article about the chinese start that basically was able I think was between $4 million and $10 million. 1/1000 of what our american countries were able to develop. It is not going to be the pacing and the timeline of this is not going to allow us to be slow. We are going to need to be at the front curve of it.
▶ 2:07:39Sen. Peters: How do we stand? Things are changing dramatically. Innovation has not moved as quickly as it has in the civilian side. The civilian side is only accelerating including our adversaries.
▶ 2:07:57Sen. Peters: How would you engage with small businesses and other innovators to shake up the procurement process and make sure we are in the forefront of ai development, for example?
▶ 2:08:10Mr. Driscoll: I am optimistic. From what I have seen since being the president's nominee, we have had a lot of interest from silicon valley and other areas of the country for innovators. Small companies and big ones that want to get in the game on behalf of our country.
▶ 2:08:27Mr. Driscoll: I think having very deliberate conversations with them about how do we get into their r&d pipeline, how do we partner with them early on so as they are training these models, the army as I understand it today is getting access to these models once they go public china and other threats are also getting access. There is no reason from my understanding we could not be getting access earlier. So instead of having a six month lead, perhaps there are ways we could have a nine or 12 month lead on these things.
▶ 2:08:57Mr. Driscoll: I think those conversations could be important. I look forward to working with your office.
▶ 2:09:01Chair Wicker: Senator duckworth.
▶ 2:09:05Sen. Duckworth: Thank you I like everyone else and praying for the family members and thinking about the crew of the black hawk and all the people that we lost last night. I would like to caution that before we start calling it a training accident, that we have better idea of what exactly happened because I training accident has very specific definitions. Please be careful about that.
▶ 2:09:36Sen. Duckworth: Our military pallets are some of the best rate in the world. Earlier this week, the trump administration imposed a funding freeze on all federal grants and loans even though the omb memo was rescinded yesterday, the freeze has not been rescinded. What is your position on the legality of that funding freeze?
▶ 2:09:55Mr. Driscoll: Before answering your question, I sincerely -- last night I was watching what occurred on tv with a friend who was the downed chopper -- one of the platoons that had to deal with that in afghanistan. Watching the struggle and heartbreak as he had to relive those moments, we actually reflected in the moment and I want to take a quick moment to say I sincerely -- thank you for your service. I know it was an immense sacrifice. Soldier to soldier, I'm sorry for what we had to go through.
▶ 2:10:26Mr. Driscoll: The legality -- would you repeat it?
▶ 2:10:30Sen. Duckworth: Was the order from the president trump -- his current order to pause all grant funding legal?
▶ 2:10:37Mr. Driscoll: I've not been able to take a good -- deep enough look to know if it is legal or not but I would not believe the president would issue an illegal order.
▶ 2:10:47Sen. Duckworth: You don't believe the president of the united states can issue an illegal order?
▶ 2:10:52Mr. Driscoll: I don't believe president trump would do that.
▶ 2:10:56Sen. Duckworth: If president trump directed you to do something illegal, would you refuse to obey?
▶ 2:11:01Mr. Driscoll: I reject the premise of the question that he would, but I would only follow law and order.
▶ 2:11:08Sen. Duckworth: And constitutional once?
▶ 2:11:11Mr. Driscoll: And constitutional once.
▶ 2:11:14Sen. Duckworth: On time and without delay?
▶ 2:11:18Mr. Driscoll: I would follow all lawful requirements of my job if confirmed.
▶ 2:11:25Sen. Duckworth: I would like to follow-up on our meeting last week to be candid, you performed very poorly in your conversation with me. I asked you how many personnel are in a division and you told me 3500. You just recently when I came in had -- were answering my colic from alaska's questions about brigade combat teams. How many personnel in an average brigade combat team?
▶ 2:11:48Mr. Driscoll: I mention the purpose of this question is to get to my qualifications.
▶ 2:11:54Sen. Duckworth: I want you to answer the question. Do you not know? If you don't, that's ok. Answer my question. How many personnel are in -- you have performed very well today. I haven't impressed. It looks like -- you spoke with conviction about the number of brigade combat teams the army needs to be effective. Can you tell me how many soldiers are in a brigade combat team on average?
▶ 2:12:21Mr. Driscoll: 3500.
▶ 2:12:25Sen. Duckworth: I know you are filibustering. I get it. What isfm3-0.
▶ 2:12:29Mr. Driscoll: I believe these questions --
▶ 2:12:33Sen. Duckworth: What is fm3-0.
▶ 2:12:36Mr. Driscoll: Operations manual.
▶ 2:12:39Sen. Duckworth: This is working because you are doing your homework which you did not do because you could not name a country in africa where we have troops when I asked you.
▶ 2:12:47Mr. Driscoll: Senator --.
▶ 2:12:51Sen. Duckworth: The components and elements of posture as well as your understanding of the army's current force posture?
▶ 2:12:57Mr. Driscoll: I believe the president of the united states chose me specifically because -- my experience --.
▶ 2:13:08Sen. Duckworth: Do you not have an opinion on the army's force posture? It is my job to advise and consent. On the nominees out the president. Just because the president puts forward a nominee does not mean that person is automatically qualified to do the job. My question, sir, someone who will become secretary of army if confirmed, what is your current opinion of the army's force posture and can you describe the elements of that force posture?
▶ 2:13:35Mr. Driscoll: Absolutely. You are africa comments, west and horn of africa. I did study after you asked me that question so I'm grateful for the question.
▶ 2:13:45Sen. Duckworth: Force posture.
▶ 2:13:48Mr. Driscoll: We need to be prepared for a threat from china.
▶ 2:13:52Sen. Duckworth: I'm asking about the force posture.
▶ 2:13:55Mr. Driscoll: We need our forces postured all over the world.
▶ 2:13:59Sen. Duckworth: What are the components? Military -- it is in fm3-0 which you are reading last night. Can you outline the key capabilities?
▶ 2:14:13Chair Wicker: You can asked that for the record post up your time is expired.
▶ 2:14:20Sen. Duckworth: Rescued by the chairman.
▶ 2:14:27Sen. Duckworth: Mr. chairman, can I add fm3-0 for the record?
▶ 2:14:37Chair Wicker: Without objection. How many pages does that consist of?
▶ 2:14:49Sen. Duckworth: It is quite a few pages but basic reading for anyone who has gone through the officers basic course, which I believe you have co.
▶ 2:15:00Completed Mr. Driscoll: It is 350 pages.
▶ 2:15:03Chair Wicker: You want us to go through the expense of reprinting it?
▶ 2:15:12Sen. Budd: Welcome, Mr. driscoll . As a fellow north carolinian, and someone who served in the army, I know your hearts are broken with the recent flight, the aircrew, the black hawk, army aviators, our hearts are broken. I want to congratulate you as a friend.
▶ 2:15:41Sen. Budd: It has been good to know you for several years. This is a great role you have been nominated to. I am proud to see someone born and raised in north carolina -- specifically western north carolina, to serve in this role. Mr. driscoll, in your advanced policy questions you identified recruiting as one of the most significant challenges facing the army.
▶ 2:16:12Sen. Budd: If confirmed, how would you recommend the army fixed this recruiting challenge?
▶ 2:16:18Mr. Driscoll: I mention some things the army has done really well. The future soldier training course at fort jackson that prepares soldiers to take their test and get more prepared, get more fit before they go to basic training, that has seemed to pay dividends.
▶ 2:16:42Mr. Driscoll: That type of innovation could be spread further around the country to continue to increase the pipeline of the population that is qualified. More specifically, telling the story of the united states army with its 250th anniversary coming up is our incredible time. Communities across the country, building up the pipeline of freshmen, sophomores, juniors and seniors in high school to join.
▶ 2:17:10Mr. Driscoll: This is the time to tell the stories of the men and women who have done amazing things on behalf of the country and had their lives changed by this experience. I look forward to working with you and this committee if confirmed to make this year the army's best recruiting year in history.
▶ 2:17:29Sen. Budd: I think you spoke about this with some of my colleagues, they are essential in responding to warfare. North carolina is home and we will call it fort bragg, special operations forces are playing a larger role in the cyber and space domains at the army recently decided to cut a significant number of special operations forces.
▶ 2:17:58Sen. Budd: In your advanced policy questions you state army special forces play a critical role in supporting the joint force and accomplishing the objectives of defense strategy. Do you believe it is still relevant today?
▶ 2:18:12Mr. Driscoll: Wholeheartedly. The special operators I was fortunate enough to serve alongside of were some of the most incredible soldiers that I ever saw. They were in laboratories testing out weapons to backpacks to whatever it was. A lot of the lessons they learn, even if it was not formal, trickle down. I think unequivocally they are a crucial force multiplier.
▶ 2:18:42Sen. Budd: Thank you. In my recent visits to fort liberty and fort bragg I have seen the same things. As you work to address recruiting more broadly what strategies will you to pursue to increase the pool of recruits so they are eligible and have qualifications to serve in the army special operations forces positions?
▶ 2:19:06Mr. Driscoll: Senator, my understanding which I covered with your colleagues was one of the problems we have done by digitizing medical records is accidentally we have taken people who have broken arms but has been an ultramarathon or or had an inhaler prescribed when there were 13, these are the types of things for 244 years would have never come up.
▶ 2:19:36Mr. Driscoll: Your recruiter would have told you it was not relevant. Right now it is blocking a lot of possible soldiers I believe would be incredible future soldiers. Taking a deep dive on the incentive structure for waivers and may be working with this committee to look back at, showed flat feet still be preventative of joining? I do not have an opinion but I believe it is worth a fresh look.
▶ 2:20:02Sen. Budd: Thank you. I appreciate your willingness to serve our country.
▶ 2:20:05Mr. Driscoll: Thank you, senator.
▶ 2:20:07Chair Wicker: Thank you very much, Mr. driscoll. I want to make sure I get this straight. As a mississippi young man I joined, the air force. You would agree, would you not, that eastern north carolina barbecue is far superior to lexington type of barbecue?
▶ 2:20:40Chair Wicker: >> I would ask you not to answer the question. [laughter]
▶ 2:20:41Mr. Driscoll: As someone from western north carolina, my heart bleeds the thick kethcup-based barbecue I grew up with.
▶ 2:20:56Chair Wicker: There is no accounting for taste but a pretty good answer.
▶ 2:21:02Sen. Hirono: I wanted to take a moment to extend my condolences to all those affected by the tragic accident last night near reagan national airport and the brave army soldiers on for the helicopter. Mr. driscoll, I ask the questions of all nominees who come before the committee on which I sit to ensure the fitness of the nominees.
▶ 2:21:31Sen. Hirono: Since you became a legal adult have you ever made an unwanted request for sexual favors or committed any verbal harassment of a sexual nature?
▶ 2:21:42Mr. Driscoll: Never.
▶ 2:21:44Sen. Hirono: Have you ever entered into a settlement for this kind of conduct?
▶ 2:21:48Mr. Driscoll: Never.
▶ 2:21:50Sen. Hirono: Several of the critical training areas that the army uses in hawaii are leased from the state. The leases are set to expire in 2029. These leases are vital to ensuring military forces can adequately train in the pacific. However, the land involved also holds cultural significance to the native hawaiian community.
▶ 2:22:22Sen. Hirono: How do you plan to approach these important renegotiations? Will you commit to engaging in good faith with state officials and the community to ensure the leases are negotiated in a way that is fair to the state of hawaii, and the military?
▶ 2:22:41Mr. Driscoll: This is an incredibly important issue in all the places we engage with the community. I would absolutely commit to wanting to work with your office and to engage with community members to ensure the army is being the best neighbor it can be.
▶ 2:23:00Mr. Driscoll: Earlier in the hearing I was referencing that senator warren and I were chatting about this, both how the army exists in its footprint and specifically domestically how the army and its soldiers and the civilians that work on the bases engage with the community and the youth in that community is correlated to who gets a taste of what the army has to offer and what a life in the army can give to them.
▶ 2:23:28Mr. Driscoll: It is both the right thing to do in the selfish thing to do.
▶ 2:23:31Sen. Hirono: I want to particularly emphasize how important these negotiations are and how they are conducted because the military of late has been criticized for what happened at red hill. As far as the community is concerned, what happens to one service is something that impacts all of the other services so it is really critical you engage with the community.
▶ 2:24:06Sen. Hirono: Going to modernizing dod infrastructure, it is one of my top priorities. The army has a deep backlog of maintenance and modernization for its facilities. Sadly in hawaii, 50% of army facilities are classified as failing or failed and the cost to repair or replace them is over $5 billion.
▶ 2:24:32Sen. Hirono: We need to have a functioning infrastructure, critical to military readiness. How do you plan to address the army's infrastructure issue in hawaii and the greater pacific?
▶ 2:24:44Mr. Driscoll: Senator, I have had many friends stationed in hawaii. I think there might echo that some of the maintenance issues exist. We owe a duty to our soldiers and families. My six-year-old daughter is named after my e-6;s daughter.
▶ 2:25:04Sen. Hirono: Mr. driscoll, my time is running out. I get there is a commitment to deal with the lacking infrastructure throughout the military and the army. I will certainly be holding you to that should you be confirmed. Let me get to mass deportations. President trump has already ordered thousands of additional soldiers to the southern border.
▶ 2:25:30Sen. Hirono: Experts have said deporting over 11 million people -- these are the people who are undocumented -- would require tens of thousands of personnel and hundreds of billions of dollars and years to complete. The army is our primary military service would be called upon to support a mass deportation order. What impact would deploying tens of thousands of troops have on army readiness?
▶ 2:25:55Mr. Driscoll: Senator, my understanding from the outside is the army stands ready to support the president's mission and defend the border.
▶ 2:26:04Sen. Hirono: If you have to deploy 10,000 people or more from the army to do that I would say it would impact army readiness for the other impacts and reasons the army is stood up. Thank you, Mr. chairman.
▶ 2:26:19Chair Wicker: Thank you. Senator schmitt.
▶ 2:26:23Sen. Schmitt: I agree. Joe biden allowing 15 million people in and necessitating a mass deportation is a problem. Bill clinton deported 12 million people. Barack obama deported 8 million people. Deportations may have been suspended over the last four years but is exactly what people voted for. They are tired of the lawlessness.
▶ 2:26:51Sen. Schmitt: Thank you for being here and thank you for your willingness to serve. I am very supportive of your nomination. I think you will do a great job and provide a great perspective for what the army really needs. I think your energy and your attitude and the way you explained why you served, and I think a way forward to improve recruiting is -- I have not heard that before.
▶ 2:27:17Sen. Schmitt: You hear it from soldiers and people actually serving but for someone who is serving in your capacity, I think that is a great way to frame the importance of the recruitment challenges we have and how we get beyond it. I do want to ask -- missouri, we are blessed to have the fort in our state. It is uniquely situated. A rural setting with the march rain forest.
▶ 2:27:49Sen. Schmitt: -- the mark twain forest. The maneuverability. It is a pretty unique asset. A couple of questions on that. There has been some talk -- I mentioned this to you -- not from the army but the defense agency, there is a hospital that is important not just to the base but the community. There has been discussion of downgrading debt to some sort of health clinic.
▶ 2:28:20Sen. Schmitt: Will you commit to working with me to make sure that does not happen? I think they backtracked from that but that would be devastating for fort leonard wood.
▶ 2:28:28Mr. Driscoll: It would be an honor to work with your office. As someone from the mountains of north carolina -- and my wife as a physician -- access to health care is a real thing. If you take that away it can change how a community is able to function. I look forward to working with you if confirmed.
▶ 2:28:45Sen. Schmitt: Can you talk about the benefits of having a centrally located base like that, fort leonard wood? All the real estate you need. There have been significant upgrades made, hundreds of millions of dollars pumped into housing. For the long term it is a great place for us to stage operations. A lot of us get there early training there. Why is it important to the army to have a base like that?
▶ 2:29:15Mr. Driscoll: If confirmed I would be honored to visit it with you. The base can scale for future needs we just do not know about. In a lot of areas the bases are constrained by what is around them. This base seems to have the ability that if we needed it in one day, one year or 10 years, to scale for what we might need. We do not know what our testing requirements would be. Fort leonard wood seems like an amazing place to be able to expand.
▶ 2:29:43Sen. Schmitt: The folks vacco would be happy to hear you want to come by. Missouri barbecue is the best in the country. My texas friends and carolina friends may disagree but they are wrong. We talked a little bit in my office. Others may have touched on this, too. Clearly, our chief adversary is china. The army is reorienting itself a little bit for this challenge.
▶ 2:30:16Sen. Schmitt: Can you talk about how you see it? If you were just talking to someone on the street about what the army has traditionally done and what it needs to do in the future to prepare for what could potentially be the struggle for the 21st century.
▶ 2:30:33Mr. Driscoll: Absolutely, senator. My time being deployed and my friends being deployed to afghanistan and my experience in iraq, most of the movements were squad level movements. 15-25 men or women in action. If you needed water or fuel, you could get it from the continental united states to them quickly and relatively easily.
▶ 2:31:00Mr. Driscoll: Engagement in a peer with china would be different. Everything can be tested. It is a peer adversary that would do everything it could to. Getting ourselves ready to engage in the conflict that could fundamentally alter our future way of life if we are not ready for it.
▶ 2:31:26Sen. Schmitt: Thank you. As you know I support you and I think you will do a great job.
▶ 2:31:32Chair Wicker: Thank you, senator schmitt. Thank you, Mr. driscoll. We appreciate your answers to the questions today. We appreciate your willingness to serve and we will now close the hearing for the information. Questions for the record will be due to the committee within two business days of this hearing. With that, if there is no objection, we are adjourned.
▶ 2:32:02Chair Wicker: [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap.org]