During a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing last week, Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS) questioned Daniel L. Zimmerman, nominee to be Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs, about burden-sharing within the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
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00:00Well, thank you. Thanks to all three of you and again, welcome to the family and friends.
00:07We now move to standard questions, which are required of all civilian nominees.
00:17And so if you'll each turn your mics on and answer audibly.
00:24Have you adhered to applicable laws and regulations governing conflicts of interest?
00:31Yes.
00:31Have you assumed any duties or taken any actions that would appear to presume the outcome of the confirmation process?
00:39No.
00:40Exercising our legislative and oversight responsibilities makes it important that this committee, its subcommittees,
00:46and other appropriate committees of Congress receive testimony, briefings, reports, records,
00:51and other information from the executive branch on a timely basis.
00:55Do you agree, if confirmed, to appear and testify before this committee when requested?
01:00Yes.
01:01Do you agree to provide records, documents, and electronic communications in a timely manner
01:06when requested by this committee, its subcommittees, or other appropriate committees of Congress,
01:12and to consult with the requester regarding the basis for any good faith delay or denial in providing such records?
01:21Yes.
01:22Yes.
01:23Will you ensure that your staff complies with deadlines established by this committee
01:29for the production of reports, records, and other information,
01:33including timely responding to hearing questions for the record?
01:37Yes.
01:38Will you cooperate in providing witnesses and briefers in response to congressional requests?
01:45Yes.
01:45Yes.
01:46And will those witnesses and briefers be protected from reprisal for their testimony or briefings?
01:55Yes.
01:55Yes.
01:55Thank you very much.
01:59And now we will move to questions by individual members of the committee, and I'll begin.
02:07First, for each of you, much of the funding in the reconciliation bill, which is being put together now
02:19in House and Senate, because of our rules, has to be unspecific and will technically be at the discretion
02:27of the Department of Defense, though we will write recommendations for them.
02:31A quick yes or no from each of you, and beginning with Mr. Lohmeyer, do you commit to follow unequivocally
02:42the Congress's spending recommendation in defense reconciliation?
02:47Yes, Chairman.
02:48Mr. Overbaugh.
02:51Yes, Chairman Wicker.
02:52Mr. Zimmerman.
02:53Yes, Chairman.
02:54Thank you very much.
02:56And then let's move then to Mr. Zimmerman.
03:00In your prepared testimony, you mentioned burden sharing.
03:08Let's talk about NATO.
03:11In the first Trump term, the president demanded that all NATO allies meet their burden sharing
03:16obligations.
03:17Do you think the NATO members took this challenge seriously?
03:29It seems that they are reversing nearly two decades of decline.
03:35Do you believe this spending marks a renewed commitment on the part of our NATO allies to
03:43burden sharing, Mr. Zimmerman?
03:44Senator, thank you for the question.
03:49NATO is a very important alliance, that U.S. commitments there are grave and serious.
03:56I do think there's general consensus that the alliance has to adapt.
04:02You mentioned very appropriately in your opening remarks a threat environment where our adversaries
04:07are colluding and collaborating even more and more, underscoring the need for strong alliances
04:14and partnerships and greater burden sharing.
04:17I think there is reason to be encouraged by actions that some NATO members have taken to
04:24take greater ownership of their security needs and be alliance partners.
04:29I think the administration has identified a need, an urgent need, for that process to accelerate.
04:40Okay.
04:40And one other thing, and I'm glad to hear you come down strongly on behalf of our participation
04:50in this very important NATO alliance.
04:55As far as I know, we do not yet have a Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense, DASD, for NATO.
05:04Will you commit to filling this position at the earliest opportunity?
05:11Senator, to the extent I can manage that, I commit.
05:15Okay.
05:15And do you agree it would be very important for that to be filled, based on your earlier testimony?
05:22Senator, the NATO alliance is a very important alliance.
05:26Senator, the U.S. Department of Defense.
05:34Okay.
05:35And let me choose my words here.
05:36As the Department of the Air Force makes major basing decisions, currently including platforms
05:42and mission sets like F-15EX, KC-46, and space control, and very soon the future CCA,
05:52and the F-47 support infrastructure.
05:56Many of us on the committee remain concerned about the consistency, fairness, and transparency of the process.
06:03Mr. Lohmeyer, are you aware that in the FY25 NDAA,
06:10which was passed by the Congress and signed into law by the President,
06:13we prohibited programmatic basing decisions or programmatic sole-source basing decisions?
06:23Are you aware of that?
06:26Yes, Senator.
06:26And if confirmed, will you commit to upholding this law?
06:32Yes, Senator. I am committed to upholding the law in every respect if I'm confirmed.
06:37Okay, well, let me just say, how you do this is going to be very important.
06:45There are strategic imperatives and objective criteria that should be paramount rather than political considerations.
06:54And frankly, I'm going to say this, after the politicization of the Space Command Headquarters basing decision,
07:00do you think we've got some confidence rebuilding to do?
07:07And what specifically will you do to restore confidence that this is being called according to statute and called by the numbers?
07:15Well, I think it's very important, Senator, that, and I share your concern,
07:18that we eliminate the politics of the decision-making process.
07:23The service secretaries and the undersecretaries should work very carefully to make data-driven decisions
07:29and decisions that will most benefit the warfighter and our strategic posturing around the globe.
07:35And so you have my commitment, if confirmed, that we'll do our very best to make sure those decisions
07:39are based on the needs of those capabilities in various locations and strategy, not based on politics.
07:46Thank you very much. How's your Mandarin?
07:49Hi, how?
07:51Did you get that, Madam Clerk?