'You Can Say It's Not Helping': Mazie Hirono Grills Military Officials On Impact Of DOGE Cuts To DoD

10 hours ago

During a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing last week, Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-HI) spoke about DOGE cuts to the Department of Defense.

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00:00I'm going to turn it over to

00:08Senator Hirono.

00:10Thank you Mister chairman. I

00:11would say that as our services

00:14with the exception of space

00:17force are facing recruiting

00:17challenges why should we

00:20discourage or why would we be

00:21discouraging women and

00:23minorities from enlisting with

00:28space force projects?

00:32Unfortunately not included in

00:33secretary Hicks' list of

00:35protected and prioritized

00:36programs following his

00:38directive to implement an 8%

00:40budget cut across the board at

00:42the pentagon. You testified

00:44today on the importance of

00:46PSYOP and of course clearly we

00:49need to do a better job of

00:52repair and maintaining our

00:54ships. So with the flexibility

00:57and the CR even if PSYOP is not

01:00on secretary Hicks' list of

01:02priorities are you planning to

01:04prioritize critical PSYOP

01:06projects across the fleet

01:08including for example

01:10completion of the dry dock and

01:11planning and design for a

01:13waterfront production facility

01:15at Pearl Harbor. Indeed we need

01:18to get on with continuing to

01:20modernize our 4 public ship

01:22yards so that you will have

01:24available ships to do what you

01:27need to do. So would you use

01:29the flexibility that you

01:31request in the CR to prioritize

01:34PSYOP?

01:35We want to continue on our

01:37PSYOP program, ma'am. I've

01:39talked about the 40 projects

01:41we've done. The additional 6.3

01:43billion that are in the budget

01:45that we want to continue on and

01:47the remaining projects we need

01:48to execute. So we're committed

01:50to PSYOP.

01:51Good. I'm looking to you for

01:52that because what is the point

01:56in enabling us to build more

01:58ships if we can't maintain the

02:00fleet that we currently have?

02:02A skilled workforce is

02:04foundational to military

02:06readiness. However, this

02:08administration has implemented

02:10a DOD hiring freeze and is

02:12planning to fire up to 60,000

02:14DOD employees. DOD is

02:17eliminating people across the

02:19spectrum from firing general

02:21and flag officers without cause

02:23to removing new and motivated

02:25employees. These would be

02:27employees who had just gotten

02:29hired and are being trained.

02:31And you would think that we

02:33would want to keep those folks,

02:35but the people in probationary

02:37status are among the first to

02:39go. As happened across the

02:41administration, for example,

02:43the VA, which is already

02:45strapped with the need to hire

02:47people, they just eliminated

02:49some 2,400 employees and about

02:51to eliminate 83,000 employees

02:53going forward. So gentlemen,

02:55Ms. Moore, how are these

02:57personnel actions impacting the

02:59hiring, training, and retaining

03:01of a skilled national security

03:03workforce? Briefly. You can say

03:05it's not helping.

03:07I'll start.

03:09Specific to the Marine Corps,

03:11we started our leaning-out

03:13process six budgets ago. We

03:15started our leaning-out process

03:17in January of last year. We

03:19started our leaning-out process

03:21in January of last year. We

03:23started our leaning-out process

03:25six budget cycles ago in

03:27accordance with force design and

03:29talent management. So the start

03:31game of this exercise for us,

03:33we're pretty lean. So any cut is

03:35going to have some impacts.

03:37However, of the 2,300 employees

03:39that we've identified, we've got

03:41protection, either exemption or

03:43exclusion down to a number south

03:45of 75. Not without impact, but

03:47manageable from the Marine Corps

03:49standpoint. What I'm also

03:51concerned about is the

03:53exclusions or exemptions for a

03:55hiring freeze. We lose about 7

03:57to 10 percent of our civilian

03:59workforce just through natural

04:01attrition each year, so we have

04:03to figure out a way to replenish

04:05that, or the number will just

04:07keep going down. Well, hundreds

04:09of thousands of federal employees

04:11are being fired. These firings

04:13are not based on any kind of a

04:15job performance evaluation. So

04:18what's going to happen to the

04:20DOD, I would say? So anybody

04:22else wants to weigh in? I'll

04:24just connect to our last

04:26exchange, Ranking Member. The

04:28shipyards are exempt from the

04:30probationary employees, and

04:32they're exempt from the hiring

04:34freeze. So we are trying to

04:36shape this in a manner that

04:38allows us to continue the most

04:40important work as we work

04:42through guidance from the

04:44administration. Also exempted

04:46from the hiring freeze is the

04:48Military Sealift Command, an

04:50important force for us to

04:52maintain our fleet. So I think

04:54those are efforts on the

04:56services part to manage this.

04:58Basically, all three of you are

05:00needing to identify some very

05:02critical people that you want to

05:04make sure that these firings do

05:06not hit. Is that what you're

05:08doing? Yes, Senator. Thank you,

05:10Mr. Chairman.

'You Can Say It's Not Helping': Mazie Hirono Grills Military Officials On Impact Of DOGE Cuts To DoD

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