Austin Dahmer, the acting deputy undersecretary of defense for policy, testifies during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Nov. 4, 2025. (Eric Kayne/Stars and Stripes)
WASHINGTON — Republican defense hawks on Tuesday lashed out at the Pentagon for failing to engage with Congress on major policy decisions, accusing officials of acting unilaterally and stonewalling lawmakers.
“We’re not getting anything,” said Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska. “Trust me, I’ve been trying.”
“It just seems like there’s this pigpen-like mess coming out of the policy shop that you don’t see” from other offices, said Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark.
The admonishments came after the Pentagon last week announced it would withdraw a brigade from Romania, catching lawmakers by surprise. The move followed other decisions that have blindsided Congress, including reviews of a nuclear submarine agreement with Australia and the stationing of U.S. troops abroad.
Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi, the Republican chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said the panel has struggled to receive information on the policy changes and has learned of many of them through news reports.
“At times, Pentagon officials have pursued policies that are not in accord with President Trump’s orders or seem uncoordinated within the administration,” he said. “The situation needs to improve if we are to craft the best defense policy.”
The latest frustration came Sunday night, when the Pentagon informed the committee it had changed the title of the assistant secretary of defense for strategy, plans and capabilities, senators said. The change, which replaced the word “capabilities” with “forces,” had been made nearly a month prior, according to senators.
On Tuesday, the nominee for the position, Austin Dahmer, appeared before the panel for his confirmation hearing and defended the Pentagon’s decision-making process for pulling troops from Romania, saying the country and other allies had been consulted.
Dahmer, who is currently the acting deputy undersecretary of defense for policy, said the Defense Department’s legislative affairs office had briefed Congress “no less than four times on this issue,” including three times before the drawdown was made public and a briefing on Monday.
But Wicker and other senators said they had no knowledge of any briefing taking place Monday.
“I wasn’t invited,” said Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla.
Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., said the Romanian ambassador to the U.S. and other senior Romanian officials had told lawmakers that they found out about the U.S. withdrawal from Romania from the press.
Senators from both parties also repeatedly questioned Dahmer, a former adviser to Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., on a reported decision this year to briefly halt weapons shipments to Ukraine.
Dahmer said he was not aware of any pause in military aid to Ukraine, citing “inaccurate reporting.” He blamed “fake news” for the string of controversies that have involved the Pentagon’s policy office.
If confirmed, Dahmer would report to Elbridge Colby, the undersecretary of defense for policy. Sullivan on Tuesday singled out Colby for failing to respond to lawmakers, describing him as the “hardest guy to get ahold of” in the Trump administration.
“He came to this committee and said, ‘Hey, I’m going to work with the Congress’ — he hasn’t, on big issues,” Sullivan said.
The frustration from Republican lawmakers comes amid a bipartisan push for more information from the Pentagon on a range of issues.
The leaders of the Senate Armed Services Committee on Friday released two letters sent to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth demanding copies of orders issued for the strikes on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean and Pacific, along with the legal justification behind them.
The requests, sent in September and October, have gone unanswered.
