By Cheryl Pellerin
DoD News, Defense Media Activity
WASHINGTON, Feb. 4, 2015 – President Barack Obama’s defense
secretary nominee this morning pledged to protect the nation and its allies in
a turbulent world and to work with Congress to find a way through defense
budget turmoil and the looming spending cuts of sequestration.
Ash Carter, who served as deputy secretary of defense from
October 2011 to December 2013 and was the Pentagon’s acquisition chief before
that, told members of the Senate Armed Services Committee considering his
nomination that he very much hopes to find a way with them out of the “wilderness
of sequester.”
Sequestration spending cuts are scheduled to take effect in
2016 unless Congress changes current budget law.
“Sequester is risky to our defense,” he said. “It introduces
turbulence and uncertainty that are wasteful and conveys a misleadingly
diminished picture of our power in the eyes of friends and foes alike.”
Carter said that if he is confirmed as defense secretary,
his responsibilities will be to protect America and its friends and allies in a
turbulent and dangerous world.
Dangers to the Nation
The dangers include continuing turmoil in the Middle East
and North Africa, “malignant and savage terrorism” emanating from the region,
an ongoing war in Afghanistan and a reversion to old-style security thinking in
parts of Europe, Carter told the Senate panel.
Dangers to the nation and its allies and friends also may
arise from long-standing past tensions and rapid changes in Asia, a continuing
need for the stabilizing U.S. role in that region, a continuing imperative to
counter the spread or use of weapons of mass destruction, and dangers in new
domains such as cyber, he said.
“Strategy,” Carter added, “needs to keep all these problems
in perspective and to craft lasting approaches to each of them.”
Despite these challenges, he said, “I never lose sight of
the fact that the United States remains the strongest, most resilient and most
influential nation on earth.”
World’s Finest Fighting Force
The United States has the finest fighting force the world
has ever known, and an innovative economy that has long set the pace for the
rest of the world, he said.
“Our country has friends and allies in every corner of the
world, and our adversaries have few,” Carter said. “This is clear testimony to
the appeal of our values, our principles and our leadership. All this makes me
proud and hopeful and determined to grab hold of the bright opportunities in
front of us, as well as to counter the very real dangers we face.”
Carter said he promised the president that as defense
secretary he would offer Obama his most candid strategic advice.
“In formulating that advice, I intend to confer widely among
civilian and military leaders, including [those] on this committee, and among
experts and foreign partners,” he added. “And when the president makes a
decision, I will also ensure that the Department of Defense implements it with
[the department’s] long-admired excellence.”
Carter said he also would ensure that the president receives
candid professional military advice, as is consonant with the law and with good
sense, “since our military leaders possess wide and deep experience and
expertise.”
Supporting Relief from Sequester Caps
On the fiscal year 2016 budget proposal submitted this week,
Carter said he’s unfamiliar with the details. But he pledged, if confirmed, to
come back before the committee for a full posture hearing to discuss those
details.
“But I strongly support the president’s request for relief
from the sequester caps in [fiscal] 2016 and through the future-year defense
plan,” he told the panel.
Carter said he would do his part if confirmed to help the
president work with Congress to resolve the defense budget and other issues of
the country’s fiscal future.
“But I cannot suggest support and stability for the defense
budget without at the same time frankly noting that not every defense dollar is
spent as well as it should be,” he said.
Making the Defense Budget Work
“The taxpayer cannot comprehend, let alone support, the
defense budget when they read … of cost overruns, lack of accounting and
accountability, needless overhead and the like,” Carter said. “This must stop.”
Every company, state and city in the country has had to lean itself out in
recent years, he added, and it should be no different for the Pentagon.
Carter said he began his career in defense in connection
with implementing the Packard Commission’s recommendations.
The commission, formally called the President's Blue Ribbon
Commission on Defense Management, led by David Packard, was a federal
government commission created by President Ronald Reagan’s Executive Order
12526 to study areas of defense management, including procurement.
Needed Changes in the Pentagon
“Issues and solutions change over time, as technology and
industry change. They extend from acquisition -- and this is important -- to
all other parts of the defense budget, [including] force size, compensation, and
training as well as equipment,” Carter said.
If confirmed as defense secretary, Carter said he’d work to
make needed changes in the Pentagon and to seek support from Congress, which
holds the power of the purse.
“I look forward to partnership with this committee in what
can be a period of historic advance,” Carter said.
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