Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth announced in a memo issued October 15 that Pentagon staff must now communicate with the building’s central legislative affairs office in order to contact Congress.
This measure is being taken presumably to prevent “unauthorized engagements” from undermining the DoD’s legislative objectives.
Hegseth stated in the memo that the DoD “relies on a collaborative and close partnership with Congress to achieve our legislative goals. This requires coordination and alignment of Department messaging when engaging with Congress to ensure consistency and support for the Department’s priorities to re-establish deterrence, rebuild our military, and revive the warrior ethos.”
A congressional aide told Breaking Defense that the decision could be detrimental to Congress, limiting access and increasing the time taken to procure information for bills.
“Sometimes, the staff writing those bills need information from the Pentagon, military services or combatant commands ‘within minutes,’” the aide said. “If those details need to be cleared by the Pentagon’s main legislative affairs office, they may not arrive in time to impact pending legislation and may result in language that adversely impacts the military.”
On the other hand, Chief Pentagon Spokesperson Sean Parnell welcomes the change as a “pragmatic step” for internal review of departmental communications with Capitol Hill.
“The Department intends to improve accuracy and responsiveness in communicating with the Congress to facilitate increased transparency,” Parnell stated. This review is for processes internal to the Department and does not change how or from whom Congress receives information.”
