During a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Tuesday, Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) questioned Anthony J. Tata, nominee to be Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness, about his past tweets.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Senator Tuberville. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thanks for both of you, Williston, to serve.
00:05Ms. Sutton, the President released the top line of his FY26 budget last week, and we look forward to
00:11learning all the details of the proposal in weeks ahead. We do know that this year's budget request
00:17for cyber operations will 14.5 billion, up 1 billion for the previous year. Given the rapid
00:24involvement of the landscape in cyber, do you believe this funding level is sufficient to meet
00:29our security needs? Senator, I share your concern with making sure we are balancing the resources
00:36available with the growing threat, as you indicated. One of the primary responsibilities, if confirmed
00:42in this role, is to review the budget and to certify that to ensure it's necessary. One of the things
00:49that is particularly unique about the cyber domain is that many of the capabilities are a software
00:54capability, and so investments in this domain can have a very immediate response into providing
01:01options for the President and Secretary and look forward to having the opportunity to highlight
01:06where we can better integrate this and perhaps shore up additional resources as needed.
01:10Mr. What role will cyber play in the future of possibly the Golden Dome?
01:14Senator, in my current role, I have not been involved in the specifics of that discussion,
01:20but I think that what we see with all of our weapon systems is the importance of building
01:25in cyber security from the beginning to make sure that as we put these capabilities out that
01:30we're able to defend them and that they're secure against what will be a very, um, uh, an attack
01:37surface that our adversaries will definitely look to exploit.
01:40Mr. Thank you. Mr. Tate, I reviewed your record. Public service, combat veterans,
01:44school superintendent, secretary of transportation, leading tens of thousands of military members and
01:50civil servants conducting complex missions. Anything you hadn't done?
01:53Mr. My goodness, uh, Mr. Senator, I appreciate that, uh, comment.
02:00Mr. Well, thank you for your service. But instead of exploring the experience, my colleagues seem
02:05to be focused on some things that you've said in the past, and I find this interesting given
02:08the last four years where a lot of the Democratic parties continue to call conservative Nazis,
02:14fascists, threats to democracy. You know, it goes both ways here. Uh, you know,
02:19the previous administration fully weaponized our justice system department to attack, punish
02:25their political opposition profile. Grandmothers are thrown into prison for peaceful protest.
02:30Uh, uh, just goes on and on. Out of curiosity, Mr. Tate, have you level, uh, label people you
02:37disagree with Nazis?
02:38Senator, I have not. Thank you. Have you ever weaponized your previous offices to punish
02:43your political opponent? Senator, I have not.
02:45I, I didn't think so. Uh, yesterday, Secretary Hastings announced a two-phase approach to
02:50reducing our top-level military. Phase one is a 20 percent reduction of active four-star
02:56generals and flag officers, as well as the 20 percent from the National Guard Bureau plea.
03:00Phase two will be an additional 10 percent. The Undersecretary for Personnel and Readiness
03:04will be leading this initiative. Uh, I'm interested in your thoughts on this announcement.
03:09Senator, any time that we're talking about two-to-tail ratio, I think it's a good conversation.
03:15Uh, you know, the, the Secretary's comment about the number of generals, uh, uh, when we were
03:20in World War II versus the number we have today, I think is a, is a stark reminder that perhaps,
03:26uh, we've become a little bit of a bureaucracy. And so, uh, but he talked about a methodical
03:31and measured way of going about finding, uh, the force structure realignment that would
03:37allow for the reductions he's talking about.
03:39Thank you. Can you, can we expect a complimentary effort to reduce the real bloat at OSD and
03:46joint staff, which have increased by two to five times respectively over the last 25 years,
03:52while our total force numbers have decreased?
03:55Senator, I, if confirmed, I, I would work with you and the rest of this committee on, uh,
04:00optimizing, uh, the workforce and, and, uh, the military.
04:04Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
04:06Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
04:07Thank you, Mr. Chairman.