On Tuesday’s broadcast of NewsNation’s “The Hill,” House Armed Services Committee Ranking Member Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA) reacted to a report that President-Elect Donald Trump is considering financiers for top positions within the Department of Defense by stating that the Pentagon does need work on its finances and having a finance person could be helpful in fixing those issues.
Smith said, “I think it could absolutely be a positive. … [W]e’ve been pushing the Pentagon to get to the point where they can have a full audit, and they are making progress. It was a nightmare the way the Pentagon was set up. So, yeah, putting a finance person in there to get us to the point where we can get that clean audit and also do a better job on procurement and acquisition. This is something that Rep. Mike Rogers (R-AL), who’s the Chair of the Armed Services Committee — he and I work very closely together. We are hell-bent to improve the ability of the Pentagon to rapidly acquire the new technologies and, particularly, the software they need to get us in the best possible position to defend this country. Technology has become so important on drones, counter drones, a bunch of different things. So, yeah, if a finance person can make us spend money more wisely. I think there’s — there are strong positives to that.”
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