Chuck Hagel’s views on defense spending should not be a major issue during Senate deliberations on whether to confirm him as the next defense secretary, key senators said yesterday.
Since word spread that President Barack Obama would nominate the former Republican senator from Nebraska to lead the Department of Defense, observers have repeatedly pointed to a September 2011 interview in which Hagel said the Pentagon “in many ways has been bloated” and “needs to be pared down.” A Financial Times reporter had asked if he believed the $500 billion in potential “sequestration” cuts at the Pentagon would be “very harmful to national security.”
Defense hawks jumped on Hagel’s comments, The Washington Post cited them in an editorial opposing his nomination, and Republican senators suggested Hagel wouldn’t fight against sequestration with the same vigor that outgoing Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has. Yet as the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) prepares for Hagel’s Jan. 31 confirmation hearing a week from tomorrow, the panel’s leaders said they don’t see the nominee’s views on Pentagon spending being a major stumbling block in his Senate confirmation process.
Incoming SASC Ranking Member James Inhofe (R-Okla.) has declared his opposition to Hagel’s nomination because of issues including the nominee’s past support of nuclear reductions and opposition to sanctions on Iran. But Inhofe told Defense Daily Hagel’s stance on defense budget cuts is not a major concern of his.
Inhofe said he perceived that Hagel “was not that offended by the budget cuts.” Inhofe said he was concerned that Hagel “was silent on” potential sequestration cuts, while Panetta continually portrayed them as “devastating.”
Yet Inhofe added: “But that’s not a very strong point,” downplaying any concerns he has about Hagel’s views on defense spending.
Inhofe’s comments at the Capitol yesterday came a week after he issued a statement declaring his opposition to Hagel’s nomination, in which he said: “One of my biggest concerns is avoiding…sequestration that, as Secretary Panetta has said, would be devastating to our military. However, Senator Hagel’s comments have not demonstrated that same level of concern about the pending defense cuts.”
SASC Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) said he is confident that Hagel is strongly opposed to the sequestration cuts to Pentagon spending. Levin said he had a “long” meeting with Hagel this month, during which the nominee convinced him that he “agrees with Panetta that sequestration would be terrible to the Defense Department.”
“I’m glad he takes that position because I think it’s the right position,” Levin told reporters yesterday on Capitol Hill.
Most lawmakers and Obama want to stop the sequestration cuts from starting in March. Hagel, thus, is poised to take over civilian leadership of the Pentagon right as the budget battle between Republicans and Democrats over how to address sequestration rages. Defense insiders say Panetta was instrumental in ensuring the start of sequestration was delayed from this month until March in the fiscal-cliff legislation the White House and Congress approved right after the start of this year.
Multiple congressional observers and aides predict Hagel will be confirmed as defense secretary by the Senate, though after a contentious confirmation process. Levin, for his part, said Hagel’s take on sequestration should not be a major stumbling block.
“I think if he doesn’t satisfactorily explain his position (on sequestration), that would be a stumbling block,” Levin said. “But I think his position is consistent with Panetta’s. And so that should not be a stumbling block, that particular position on that particular issue.”
Levin said he supports Hagel, but disagrees “with a number of statements he’s made in the past.” The SASC chairman declined to elaborate on those disagreements.
Some of Hagel’s most fervent critics are angry about his past remarks about “the Jewish lobby” and resistance to supporting sanctions on Iran. Some of his former Republican colleagues are still smarting from his harsh criticism of the Iraq War while in the Senate.
Outgoing SASC Ranking Member John McCain (R-Ariz.) met with Hagel yesterday. Hagel declined to tell reporters what they discussed, saying only that he had a “frank and candid conversation” with his once-close friend about his “concerns.” McCain previously said he has “serious concerns” about Hagel’s positions on “a range of critical national security issues in recent years,” including Iraq.
Hagel will be busy this week, when he’ll meet with more than 30 senators, Pentagon spokesman George Little told reporters yesterday at the Pentagon. The nominee planned to hold a photo opportunity last night, after press time, with Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.).
Hagel has received regular briefings from experts at the Pentagon on the budget and other matters since Obama announced Jan. 7 he would nominate him to replace Panetta. Obama signed Hagel’s actual nomination papers on Monday, after the presidential inauguration, and sent them to Congress yesterday.