Webb scores a hearing on JFCOM closure
Defense Secretary Robert Gates‘s plan to close Joint Forces Command in southern Virginia faces its first test when Congress comes back to town next month; the Senate Armed Services Committee will hold a hearing on the move due to the work of Virginia Senator Jim Webb. On Aug. 9, Gates announced a whole series of ...
Defense Secretary Robert Gates's plan to close Joint Forces Command in southern Virginia faces its first test when Congress comes back to town next month; the Senate Armed Services Committee will hold a hearing on the move due to the work of Virginia Senator Jim Webb.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates‘s plan to close Joint Forces Command in southern Virginia faces its first test when Congress comes back to town next month; the Senate Armed Services Committee will hold a hearing on the move due to the work of Virginia Senator Jim Webb.
On Aug. 9, Gates announced a whole series of efficiency measures meant to trim waste from the Defense Department, including closing the Pentagon’s Business Transformation Agency, closing the Office of Networks and Information Integration, cutting contractors, general officers, and the size of the Pentagon’s administrative staff. Informed observers saw the move as a preemptive defense of what Gates sees as the need for sustained high budget levels in the face of growing concern of the size of the U.S. federal deficit.
The proposed shuttering of JFCOM, which employees thousands of Virginians, was the most controversial of the decisions because the command, among other things, was a driving force of "jointness," the need to have all the military services combine and integrate their efforts, which experts note is an ongoing struggle.
Webb, along with several other members of the Virginia congressional delegation, is pushing for a review on the base that doesn’t presume closing it before Gates’s orders are carried out. He is also irritated at the lack of consultation Gates afforded him and other lawmakers before announcing his decision.
Senate Armed Services Committee chairman Carl Levin, D-MI, acceded to Webb’s request for a hearing on that basis.
"The White House and the secretary’s lack of prior consultation with Congress on his entire set of recommendations is deeply troubling," Webb said in a statement Tuesday. "The Department of Defense has declined for two weeks to provide any additional details regarding the decision to close JFCOM. The committee’s hearing will afford us the opportunity to receive answers to the many questions that, for whatever reason, Secretary Gates has declined to provide since he announced his initiatives."
Levin said he shared Gates’s vision but still believed Congress should have its say.
"I share the secretary’s objectives of reducing duplication, overhead, and excess in the defense enterprise, and instilling ‘a culture of savings and restraint’ across the Department of Defense. At the same time, I agree that the far-reaching initiatives announced by the secretary deserve close scrutiny from our committee," Levin said.
The date of the hearing has not been announced other than that it will be held in September.
The Virginia delegation’s letter to Gates can be found here. Levin’s letter to Webb agreeing to the hearing can be found here.
Josh Rogin covers national security and foreign policy and writes the daily Web column The Cable. His column appears bi-weekly in the print edition of The Washington Post. He can be reached for comments or tips at josh.rogin@foreignpolicy.com.
Previously, Josh covered defense and foreign policy as a staff writer for Congressional Quarterly, writing extensively on Iraq, Afghanistan, Guantánamo Bay, U.S.-Asia relations, defense budgeting and appropriations, and the defense lobbying and contracting industries. Prior to that, he covered military modernization, cyber warfare, space, and missile defense for Federal Computer Week Magazine. He has also served as Pentagon Staff Reporter for the Asahi Shimbun, Japan's leading daily newspaper, in its Washington, D.C., bureau, where he reported on U.S.-Japan relations, Chinese military modernization, the North Korean nuclear crisis, and more.
A graduate of George Washington University's Elliott School of International Affairs, Josh lived in Yokohama, Japan, and studied at Tokyo's Sophia University. He speaks conversational Japanese and has reported from the region. He has also worked at the House International Relations Committee, the Embassy of Japan, and the Brookings Institution.
Josh's reporting has been featured on CNN, MSNBC, C-Span, CBS, ABC, NPR, WTOP, and several other outlets. He was a 2008-2009 National Press Foundation's Paul Miller Washington Reporting Fellow, 2009 military reporting fellow with the Knight Center for Specialized Journalism and the 2011 recipient of the InterAction Award for Excellence in International Reporting. He hails from Philadelphia and lives in Washington, D.C. Twitter: @joshrogin
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