Catherine Cortez Masto Questions Biden Officials On The Potential For Espionage In National Security

3 months ago

On Thursday, Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) questioned Biden Officials on national security and fiscal legislation during a Senate Banking Committee hearing.

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Transcript

00:00I'll begin the questioning with Senator Cortez Masto of Nevada.

00:05Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

00:06Thank you to the Ranking Member for the hearing today.

00:08Assistant Secretary Taylor, let me start with you, and thank you very much for your comments.

00:12I want to commend you for the work you've been doing to develop our national defense

00:16industrial strategy.

00:17It's been really a whole-of-government effort, and I thank you for that.

00:23One question I have, though, that concerns me, and I'm seeing it across the board, is

00:28the decline of the defense workforce.

00:32There were three million people working in U.S. defense industries in 1985.

00:35Today, it's only about 1.1 million.

00:39As we look to strengthen the defense and the industrial base, that includes the workforce.

00:44Can you talk a little bit about what we should be considering, what DOD is doing, what are

00:50we looking at, and what tools and resources are we utilizing to collaborate with federal

00:57agencies, with the private sector, in strengthening that workforce?

01:01Thank you, ma'am.

01:02I'm glad you asked that question.

01:05Indeed, the decline of the defense workforce is a key area of risk.

01:12It is a risk for production in general, certainly for production in defense-critical supply

01:18chains.

01:19As part of the national defense industrial strategy, we made workforce readiness one

01:24of the four strategic priorities for that very reason.

01:28The Department of Defense is in implementing the strategy and developing the implementation

01:32plan.

01:33Workforce will remain a very important issue.

01:36I'd also like to note, it's not just the defense industrial-based workforce, but it's also

01:41the organic industrial-based workforce, as well as our acquisitions workforce.

01:46We need all of them to be able to work in concert to be able to, again, bring the capabilities

01:52that our warfighters need at speed and at scale.

01:55We have a number of programs that we're developing.

01:57We've been focused on the submarine industrial-based workforce.

02:01I was just in Michigan on Monday with Secretary of the Navy Del Toro.

02:07We were unveiling a new initiative in Michigan to help reskill and upskill workforce there,

02:15particularly automotive workers who may want to work in the submarine industrial-based

02:20workforce, so creating an additional workforce in Michigan.

02:23We continue to promote manufacturing and advance trade skills as well.

02:31Again, workforce remains of a priority and will continue to be a priority for us as we

02:37continue to want to build out the resiliency of the industrial base.

02:40I appreciate that.

02:42Let me jump to Assistant Secretary Rosen.

02:46I want to talk a little bit about CFIUS.

02:49I welcome your proposed rulemaking, which adds the Hawthorne Army Depot in Nevada to

02:56CFIUS.

02:57A couple of questions.

02:59I know you're adding 50 additional facilities as well.

03:03What factors contributed specifically to adding, if you can tell me, adding the Hawthorne Army

03:10Depot to the list?

03:11Senator, thank you for the question and for your leadership on these issues.

03:16Of course, you mentioned Hawthorne, but there's a host of other facilities in your state that

03:20are on the list, importantly so Nellis and others.

03:25Back when Congress enacted FIRMA, it gave us this new real estate jurisdiction.

03:31At the time, we worked closely with our colleagues at the Department of Defense to develop the

03:35initial list.

03:38When we came in, when I came in a couple of years ago, we looked at cases and we decided

03:45working closely with our colleagues at DOD to take another look.

03:48In 2023, we added eight additional bases.

03:51As you point out, we're in the process of adding 59 more bases.

03:57I would defer to my colleague, Dr. Taylor Colley, for some details on this.

04:03As a general matter, what we look to is the sophistication of what's going on at these

04:07facilities, the possibility for potential espionage, how much of it is core national

04:14security, how much of it is training.

04:17That goes into whether something should be on a list and what the range should be.

04:22I should note that this update is the result of a broad strategic review led by my colleagues

04:29at the Department of Defense to really take a holistic view to make sure we're not leaving

04:35anything on the table in terms of plugging gaps to make sure the list is full and complete.

04:40No, I appreciate that.

04:42You mentioned FIRMA 2018 and I supported it and obviously was looking at that.

04:47The security of our installations that you just mentioned in Nevada and throughout Nevada.

04:52The collaboration is key and it's nice to see that happening.

04:55I thank you very much.

04:56I only have so much time left.

04:58One final thing I just want to touch on and it's Assistant Secretary Kendler.

05:02You mentioned this is more funds, more funds for the department.

05:07My understanding is you haven't received funding and increase since 2010.

05:14Based on that, I would imagine it is challenging now because of the increased capacity of your

05:21jurisdiction and oversight to cover some of the coverage that you need with less resources.

05:30Is that one of the reasons why you're seeking an increase?

05:32I guess talk a little bit about that if you would.

05:35Senator, thank you very much for the question.

05:38That's right.

05:39Taking inflation into account, our budget has essentially been flat for quite some time.

05:46Basically the last decade, it's barely kept up with inflation.

05:49We do support the president's budget for fiscal year 25, which is a down payment on what we

05:55need in the Bureau of Industry and Security.

05:58If I had one ask, it would be for funds for IT modernization.

06:01We need roughly $100 million to take antiquated systems and turn them into useful productive

06:09data and analytic support.

06:12We've had issues in providing answers to the Hill in a timely way because we don't have

06:20an updated modernization system and we're not taking advantage of the data capabilities

06:24we have to the best of our ability.

06:30With more funds, we would enhance our technical expertise.

06:34We would work on data and analytic capabilities and certainly our enforcement capacity as

06:39well.

06:41Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Catherine Cortez Masto Questions Biden Officials On The Potential For Espionage In National Security

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