{"id":69620,"date":"2025-02-25T19:41:13","date_gmt":"2025-02-25T19:41:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2025\/02\/25\/trumps-pentagon-deputy-pick-faces-scrutiny-over-budget-staffing-cuts\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T01:08:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T01:08:11","slug":"trumps-pentagon-deputy-pick-faces-scrutiny-over-budget-staffing-cuts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/pentagon\/2025\/02\/25\/trumps-pentagon-deputy-pick-faces-scrutiny-over-budget-staffing-cuts\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump\u2019s Pentagon deputy pick faces scrutiny over budget, staffing cuts"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Stephen Feinberg, the nominee to be the next deputy defense secretary, sought to reassure lawmakers in a confirmation hearing Tuesday that the Pentagon would follow the nation\u2019s laws and preserve its core workforce amid the Trump administration\u2019s drastic military shakeup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The hearing was a much more sober affair than that for<b> <\/b>Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who spent hours denying widespread allegations of personal misconduct before Senators in January.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2025\/01\/25\/hegseth-confirmed-as-next-defense-secretary-by-narrow-senate-vote\/\" target=\"_blank\">Hegseth was later confirmed<\/a> on a 51-50 vote after Vice President JD Vance broke the tie, marking<b> <\/b>the narrowest margin ever for a defense secretary, who usually receives bipartisan support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Feinberg, a billionaire investor, is a far more cautious public figure than Hegseth and hasn\u2019t prompted nearly the same level of criticism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In his opening statement, Feinberg offered a similar assessment of the military\u2019s top priorities to the Biden administration, which argued that China was its greatest challenge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThey are fully dedicated to becoming the strongest nation in the world and having dominance over the United States,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Still, Democratic senators repeatedly asked about the changes occurring at the Pentagon under the Trump administration, including a commitment to restructure the military\u2019s budget, cleave its workforce and replace many of its top uniformed leaders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On Friday, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/pentagon\/2025\/02\/22\/trump-fires-joint-chiefs-chairman-navy-head-in-dod-leadership-purge\/\" target=\"_blank\">the administration fired<\/a> the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. CQ Brown, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Lisa Franchetti and Vice Chairman of the Air Force Gen. Jim Slife, while <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2025\/02\/25\/hegseth-top-military-lawyers-fired-because-they-werent-well-suited\/\" target=\"_blank\">pledging to also remove the top military lawyers<\/a> for the Air Force, Army and Navy. These removals come amid the firing of 5,400 civilian employees, the start of a wider government purge now reaching the military.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Acting Deputy Defense Secretary Robert Salesses has also said the Pentagon will restructure its coming budget, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2025\/02\/21\/cuts-to-staff-budget-will-boost-military-strength-hegseth-says\/\" target=\"_blank\">shifting some $50 billion toward new priorities<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Feinberg, who said he didn\u2019t have enough detail while awaiting confirmation, didn\u2019t answer many questions about the reach of those cuts and how they could harm the military\u2019s fitness to fight wars or remain politically independent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If confirmed, he would take responsibility for implementing many of these efforts. The deputy secretary acts as a manager inside the Pentagon, the primary role overseeing its vast budget and workforce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThere is a real opportunity to make the right cuts,\u201d he said. \u201cIt has to be done thoughtfully.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Democrats on the Senate Armed Services Committee were skeptical the Trump administration is taking that approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cYou can\u2019t just take a meat axe. You have to use a scalpel in determining who is necessary,\u201d said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Feinberg often<b> <\/b>cited his experience managing the investment firm Cerberus Capital to argue he would handle any cuts carefully. From that perch, he also discussed one of his top priorities if he were to be confirmed: reforming the Pentagon\u2019s business practices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIt\u2019s very rigid, gold-plated, [and with] endless rules,\u201d Feinberg said of the current system, which he argued rewards large defense firms rather than those that are most innovative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Part of the promised $50 billion restructuring could include moving money away from such legacy systems and toward higher tech weapons, such as hypersonics and autonomy \u2014 both of which should be among the military\u2019s top goals, Feinberg said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Still, not all of the senators on the committee were impressed by Feinberg\u2019s credentials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The harshest criticism of his record came from Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., <a href=\"https:\/\/www.warren.senate.gov\/newsroom\/press-releases\/ahead-of-confirmation-hearing-warren-lays-out-concerns-with-deputy-defense-secretary-nominee-stephen-feinberg\">who accused his firm of gutting hospitals in her home state and questioned his potential conflicts of interest<\/a> since Cerberus holds a bevy of defense investments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Feinberg disputed her characterizations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Trump administration has moved slowly to confirm many of the top positions in the Pentagon, a list that has since expanded with the recent top military firings. The nominee to run policy, former defense official Elbridge Colby, will have his confirmation hearing on March 4. Colby is facing questions about his less hawkish defense views than many Republicans in the Senate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><i>Editor\u2019s note: This story has been updated with the date of Elbridge Colby\u2019s confirmation hearing for undersecretary of defense for policy.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Stephen Feinberg, a billionaire investor, sought to reassure Democratic senators that the Pentagon wouldn&#8217;t sacrifice its fitness amid massive 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By:"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.0 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Trump\u2019s Pentagon deputy pick faces scrutiny over budget, staffing cuts - Defense News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Stephen Feinberg, a billionaire investor, sought to reassure Democratic senators that the Pentagon wouldn&#039;t sacrifice its fitness amid massive cuts.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Trump\u2019s Pentagon deputy pick faces scrutiny over budget, staffing cuts\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Stephen Feinberg, a billionaire investor, sought to reassure Democratic senators that the Pentagon wouldn&#039;t sacrifice its fitness 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