Another Congressional Embarrassment
Another Congressional Embarrassment
The Failing National Commission on the Future of the Navy
Four-and-a-half-months ago, right here in this Substack, I wrote of my appointment to something called the National Commission on the Future of the Navy, something I had learned of earlier. The Commission was brought into existence by Congressional action and signed into law by the President in December of 2022. It was to begin its fifteen months of work within 90 days of that date, or March 22, 2023. By law, the Commission’s report is due to the Congress on July 1, 2024.
Six months and one week of the fifteen months allotted have expired and the Commission has yet to begin its work. This is because only five of eight members have been appointed:
By the Senate Majority Leader (D): Thomas Ross (February 16th 2023)
By the HASC Chairman (R): Bryan McGrath (March 20, 2023) (by letter to the Secretary of Defense)
By the Senate Minority Leader (R): Mackenzie Eaglen (April 25th, 2023)
By the SASC Ranking Member (R): Mitchell Waldman (April 25th, 2023)
By the Speaker of the House of Representatives (R): Scott O’Neil (June 8, 2023)
By the Minority Leader of the House of Representatives (D): NO NOMINATION
By the HASC Ranking Member (D): NO NOMINATION
By the SASC Chairman (D): NO NOMINATION
There is no question but that Congress is busy, and that there are far greater national priorities than the membership of this Commission. That said, nine months have passed since the legislation creating the Commission was signed, and that is surely enough.
Of interest, the first nomination—that of Mr. Ross by Senator Schumer (D-NY) was submitted into the Congressional Record but without any accompanying press release or other notification. Since that time, no other nominations from Democratic Members of Congress have been made.
I have reached the point where I no longer believe that simple bureaucratic churn and workload are to blame for the delay. Ordinarily, when faced with what appears to be either malevolence or incompetence in a bureaucracy, one should choose incompetence. But Washington is different, and the Congress, even more so. There is not a world in which a Commission of this nature could reach a conclusion other than that the Navy is not sufficiently resourced for what is asked of it. It would have been so in the last Administration, and it is very much so in this Administration. Given that 2024 is also a Presidential election year, the prospect of a steaming pile of…criticism…about the size of the fleet and the political commitment required to address it dropping four months before the election, is one that it appears the Biden Administration does not wish to face. It is not difficult to conceive of a tacit agreement among the White House, the Office of the Secretary of Defense, and those who have not made their nominations to delay as long as possible so that the Commission is deprived of the time necessary for a thorough look. It may never even begin its work.
I have done a good bit of thinking on how this project would be undertaken, and it is a considerable lift. Essentially two separate studies (one on Navy fleet design and one on Navy shipbuilding) are required by the legislation with little overlap in what the Congress directed in the inquiry. The allotted fifteen months would have required an aggressive effort, including extensive site visits to Navy Component Commanders (NCC), numbered fleets and type commanders, major commercial shipyards and shipbuilding locations, and each of the four public shipyards. Several hearings with witnesses from OSD, the Navy, and industry would be required. Staff—both seconded from the government and hired specifically for the task—is required. Just getting the eight members set up in administrative space with proper Pentagon access and required security clearances (for those without) will take thirty days alone. Nine months to complete the job would be grueling.
Perhaps I am too close to the problem. My JOB is to think about the Navy; how it fights, how it operates, how it is composed, how it is organized, and how it communicates. I have worked in and around the Navy for my entire adult life, and I have never been more nervous about its condition. The threat posed to the United Sates by China and its ever-expanding Navy is real, and the gap between our Navy and China is uncomfortably thin and growing thinner.
I hear reasonable people talk all the time about how a larger, more powerful Navy is unaffordable, and these people are very smart and very good at thinking about how best to spend the insufficient resources we are applying to naval power. I am utterly uninterested in this pursuit, as it has the whiff of deck chairs and the Titanic to it. As a country we have underspent on defense for a long, long time, and we will either have to make peace with a steady decline or do something about it. I am for doing something about it. I just wish the Congress took it as seriously as the Constitution requires it to.
Fall Reverie
The Kittens went to boarding school about a little over an hour from here, and they were both active in sports. In fall, it was Field Hockey, in spring, Lacrosse. One of the great joys I had during that time in my life was sitting down—well, right where I am now at this computer—and matching up their game schedules with my emerging ghoul-show of a calendar to see when I could make it up to see them play. I tried to make as many games as I could, often meeting Catherine as I was driving from some work meeting and she from home.
The girls went to St. Andrews School in Delaware, the place where “Dead Poets Society” was filmed. I loved motoring up the driveway (18 MPH limit) in the fall, with all the beautiful colors and the hullaballoo of teenaged activity. I really loved to watch the girls play, to see their determination and growing skill and how they interacted with their teammates and opponents. I usually kept to myself and smiled a lot with father-like pride. Now and then, one or more of the various boys teams would break off from practice and take a lap around the field that the girls were playing on, in a display not unlike a collective peacock fan.
Every now and then, I would be offered the opportunity to take a group of girls out to dinner. Truth be told, it was a disappointment not being asked to do so, but sometimes their other activities got in the way. These dinners were massive giggle and laugh fests, and upon dropping them off at the dorm the silence left in the car was deafening. Sometimes it lasted the whole hour home.
I’ve missed those times, and so when my god-daughter started her new middle school this fall, I bird-dogged her soccer team’s schedule and have a handful of games added to the my calendar, the first of which is this coming week. I haven’t been to her school yet, but from what I’ve seen on the website, I think I’m going to really like it. I know I will love being there.
Creating a commission to address an important issue pretty much solves the problem. They are "doing something". Piecemeal appointment of commission members maintains an illusion of progress. Whatever the commission produces by July 2024 will suffice for saying that the issue has been addressed. /sigh/ I was excited when I first heard about this commission. Now I need an Advil and a Famotidine.
In disgust, I wrote my senator, Mark Warner, to invite a question to the SASC Chair on when to expect a nom. I wrote in plain English... The response quoted me Article II, Section 2, on _ Executive Branch_ appointments, and how much he respected blah blah blah. Confirmed for me the Commission is DIW. And that staffers are just that vacuous.