During a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Tuesday, Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD) questioned Anthony J. Tata, nominee to be Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness, about the teaching of ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’ in military schools.
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00:00Senator Rounds. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. First of all, to both of you, thank you for your
00:04continued service to our country. Ms. Sutton, look at air, land, sea, space, cyberspace. The next
00:14real conflicts that we're going to see will probably start with cyberspace activity.
00:21If you are confirmed, what will your priorities be as the Assistant Secretary of Defense for
00:29cyber policy? Senator, thank you for the kind introduction this morning and for your leadership
00:35over the years on making sure that the department is appropriately postured for cyber and AI.
00:41As you mentioned, the cyber domain is continuing to evolve, and the one constant that I've seen
00:48in being involved in this domain for over two decades is that the rate of change is exponential.
00:53My top priority, if confirmed in this role, will be to address this change with speed and agility
01:00in the department. As you're well aware, in 2018, there was a series of activities that enabled
01:07the offensive posture that the department is undergoing today, both establishment by President
01:12Trump of NSPM 13, the process to do cyber operations, as well as this committee's definition
01:18of traditional military authorities for cyber. I believe we're at a point where we need to
01:24reevaluate those and make sure that we're postured to be able to respond to the increasing speed
01:29of cyber attacks and that we are able to address the incoming impacts of AI. To do that, my second
01:37and third priorities will be to make sure that we have the talent that we need to understand this
01:42dynamic environment and that we have the technologies and we're leveraging them quickly to
01:48respond to challenges like AI.
01:51After having worked with you directly for about four years and the amount of knowledge that
01:57you have in this, I truly can't think of anyone who is more qualified for the position that
02:03you have been nominated for and I look forward to not only supporting but helping you to get
02:08in and to get to work as soon as possible. Clearly, we need to be moving forward as quickly
02:15as possible with regard to our cyber capabilities both offensively and defensively and I thank you
02:21for stepping forward once again. Thank you.
02:25Mr. Tate, part of the opportunity that we have here is to ask questions regarding items of not
02:32only the regular Army but also the National Guard. And I want to ask you a question about that but I
02:38also, in listening to your comments earlier, I wanted to give you an opportunity to respond.
02:43I think the ranking member asked a very specific question regarding whether or not you felt that it
02:51would be necessary or would you consider banning to kill a mockingbird. And I know that as we work our way
02:59through these processes, sometimes it catches a person off guard. I wanted to give you an opportunity.
03:04I think it was a pretty specific question by the ranking member. And I think if you are comfortable
03:10with your answer, that's fine. But I think that will become the headline of the day will be that you
03:15did not specifically respond to that. I want to give you an opportunity to quell that if you would like.
03:21Would you like to make anything on that? Absolutely. I read To Kill a Mockingbird in high school and I see no issue
03:27with To Kill a Mockingbird in schools. I'm not confirmed. I'm not in the position. I didn't make the decision.
03:35But certainly, if confirmed, I look forward to reviewing that and making sure that our students have access to a wide variety of
03:44materials that inform their learning. Thank you. I just wanted to give you that opportunity to perhaps clarify that answer.
03:51So, thank you. It's a classic and, you know, I read it and my belief is that we should have To Kill a Mockingbird in schools.
03:58Thank you. Let me talk about the National Guard for just a second. Given the National Guard's increased activity for both domestic
04:07and overseas missions, would you commit to fully funding their annual training requirements, even if it means diverting
04:15some resources from other locations? Senator, I think Reserve and National Guard training is paramount. I was executive
04:24officer, Vice Chief Dick Cody, 0405, when we were deploying National Guard and Reserve to and from Operation Iraqi and Enduring Freedom. We were
04:36moving some 350,000 troops either into combat or out of combat or training them. So, having trained
04:43and ready forces is paramount and certainly fully funding that training is part of being ready.
04:51Fair to say that right now we really can't go to war unless we also enlist and engage our National Guard today.
04:58I think that's an absolutely accurate statement. National Guard provides the combat support capability.
05:05The reserve provides that critical logistic capability. The total force is what makes us so lethal.
05:12Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
05:14Thank you, Senator.