The Pentagon is barring almost all Defense Department personnel, together with military commanders, from speaking to Congress or state lawmakers except they’ve obtained prior approval from the company’s workplace of legislative affairs, based on a memo signed this month by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and obtained by NCS.
“Unauthorized engagements with Congress by [Defense Department] personnel acting in their official capacity, no matter how well-intentioned, may undermine Department-wide priorities critical to achieving our legislative objectives,” says the memo, which was obtained by NCS.
The directive applies to the civilian leaders of every military department, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, all combatant commanders and Defense Intelligence places of work. The memo, dated October 15, does carve out an exception for the Pentagon Inspector General workplace, the company’s inner watch canine.
Breaking Defense first reported the main points of the coverage.
Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell advised NCS that the memo is “a pragmatic step to internally review the Department’s processes for communicating with Congress.”
“The Department intends to improve accuracy and responsiveness in communicating with the Congress to facilitate increased transparency,” Parnell mentioned. “This review is for processes internal to the Department and does not change how or from whom Congress receives information.”
The memo is the newest in a sequence of steps by Hegseth to manage info on the Pentagon and how the Pentagon communicates with these exterior the company. Hegseth, whose tenure has been beleaguered by leaks, has additionally moved to limit engagement by Defense Department personnel with assume tanks or different exterior occasions and conferences. The memo was signed the identical day that dozens of reporters turned in their badges somewhat than signal a doc the Pentagon had produced that included restrictions on their work.
A senior Pentagon official advised NCS that the memo is according to longstanding Defense Department coverage that has not been enforced previously. A 2006-era directive states that every one legislative actions “shall be centrally directed and carefully coordinated with the [assistant secretary of defense for legislative affairs] prior to execution,” and that the assistant secretary would have “overall supervision” of legislative affairs for the division.
And whereas the memo says explicitly that engagements have to be coordinated or permitted with the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Legislative Affairs), the senior official mentioned some engagements will also be permitted by the military companies’ legislative places of work as a substitute of pushing all of them the best way as much as the Pentagon’s legislative affairs workplace.
A protection official additionally mentioned they understood the memo to be primarily geared in the direction of senior officials who go to the Hill to talk with lawmakers and might not have beforehand coordinated with legislative affairs employees, not lower-level legislative affairs employees who will nonetheless be approved to talk with their congressional counterparts.
The memo says the Pentagon “relies on a collaborative and close partnership with Congress to achieve our legislative goals,” which requires “coordination of alignment of Department messaging.”
NCS beforehand reported that Congress has had restricted engagement with Hegseth to the frustration of lawmakers and staffers; a Senate aide advised NCS there was “significantly less” communication than what lawmakers anticipate.
In some methods the memo is harking back to efforts by different administrations to manage engagement with Congress, the Senate aide advised NCS. For previous administrations that has been within the type of a brief pause in interactions or evaluation.
The aide mentioned, the memo matches “a disturbing pattern of attempting to stifle communication with Congress and the public that is unique and characteristic to Pete Hegseth,” however that in follow it might be much less restrictive than the language initially seems.
“There is so much required and frankly beneficial interaction between Congress and the Department … There are very responsible and professional people who are doing their jobs and liaising with Congress, and 99% of it is business as usual,” the aide mentioned. “I think this is a bad misunderstanding and frankly just another example of their paranoia to try to clamp down in this way.”
The senior Pentagon official mentioned the memo isn’t meant to be restrictive, however an effort to coordinate the Pentagon’s messaging to Congress to keep away from errors like officials contradicting themselves to Congress.
“When we go and we don’t coordinate our messaging, we run the risk of being in direct conflict with our budget request and our proposals on behalf of the Department,” the official mentioned.
There has additionally been frustration with officials who aren’t in legislative affairs responding to questions from lawmakers or staffers on Capitol Hill, who’re “answering on behalf of the Department and they’re not coordinating their messaging,” the senior official mentioned.
A former senior Pentagon official pointed to the logistical challenges of doing what the memo says is required, telling NCS that the Defense Department does hundreds of engagements with Congress and state officials a month, speaking with staffers repeatedly on the whole lot from personnel and military set up points to operational particulars. It can be logistically difficult to get prior approval and coordination for each a kind of engagements.
The memo says that the assistant secretary of protection for legislative affairs, Dane Hughes, will conduct a evaluation of all congressional affairs actions and submit a report back to Hegseth detailing tips on how to streamline actions, present points with the congressional engagement course of and extra.
Hughes mentioned in a memo signed October 17 that he can be convening a working group as a part of his evaluation and directed senior leaders and combatant commanders to supply a senior official from their workplace who oversees legislative capabilities to take part.