PROVIDING FOR AN EXCEPTION TO A LIMITATION AGAINST APPOINTMENT OF PERSONS AS SECRETARY OF DEFENSE WITHIN SEVEN YEARS OF RELIEF FROM ACTIVE DUTY AS A REGULAR COMMISSIONED OFFICER OF THE ARMED FORCES
Kirsten E. Gillibrand (Democrat, NY) \u2014 2017-1-12

I rise to strongly oppose this legislation concerning a waiver for General Mattis. prgtoken I know that all of my colleagues on the Armed Services Committee who just left the hearing on this very topic with General Mattis and this entire body take the oversight role of our committee very seriously. We take civilian control of the military as a fundamental constitutional principle of the Founding Fathers. Even George Washington put aside his commission 5 years before he became our Commander in Chief and became the President of the United States. When Congress in 1947 debated the National Security Act to create the Department of Defense and create the Secretary of Defense, they decided to imbue this idea of civilian control into the Secretary of Defense by law, by mandating that he had to be separated from the military at least 10 years before taking on the role of Secretary of Defense, enshrining again this notion that civilian control is so important to our democracy and our American values. prgtoken On Tuesday, the Armed Services Committee had a very compelling hearing. We had two experts testify about the reasons for civilian control and why they are still so important today. The importance of having a Secretary of Defense who brings a civilian perspective to this position and brings with him or her a breadth of views and experience-- those views coming from a civilian are very important. prgtoken Second, they said it is very important not to politicize our officer ranks, meaning our senior, top military advisers jockeying for the next job as a political appointee. That undermines the functioning of the military, and they testified about countries where it has had such deleterious effects. prgtoken The third reason is concern about bias toward one service or another. Arguably, if one comes from a particular service, one may have preferences innately for that branch of service, which could undermine the strength of our military. prgtoken The fourth reason, which is really important in today's world, is the desire to model civilian control for other countries around the world that are struggling to become more democratic, less autocratic, and less militarily run. prgtoken Those are the four reasons given as to why civilian control of the military is so important. Dr. Cohen and Dr. Hicks both agreed--despite those four reasons--that from their perspective, it should be abrogated. Dr. Cohen said it was because the characteristics of the incoming administration gave him such concern that he needed to have someone like General Mattis and thought the qualities of General Mattis were important. Even Dr. Hicks said it was the qualities of General Mattis that were so unique and important, but she very importantly said: Never, though, should we say that it is time for a general to be the Secretary of Defense. In her perspective, it should never be that you need a general. So for her it was not the exigen