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WASHINGTON — Congressional leaders are running over a month late in putting together a congressionally-mandated panel examining the future of the US Navy.
Lawmakers in the Fiscal Year 2023 National Defense Authorization Act established an independent commission charged with definitively telling Congress, the White House and the Pentagon how large the Navy’s future fleet needs to be, among other questions. The legislation granted specific lawmakers the ability to name one nominee each by the end of March.
However, to date, only three of the eight members have been officially appointed.
According to the congressional record, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell appointed Mackenzie Eaglen, currently a senior fellow at the American Enterprise who has worked on defense issues in the House, Senate and various Pentagon offices. Sen. Roger Wicker, the ranking member on the Senate Armed Services Committee, appointed Mitchell Waldman, a defense and aerospace industry executive whose held positions in HII and Northrop Grumman, staffer positions to various lawmakers and senior civilian roles in the Navy.
Both Eaglen and Waldman declined to comment when reached by Breaking Defense.
“The window is closing for the Navy to address the dire and near-term military threat from China,” Wicker said in a May 9 statement to Breaking Defense. “The Commission on the Future of the Navy will provide a crucial independent assessment of the Navy’s failures and suggest steps to strengthen our naval power in the future. The Commission’s work must begin as soon as possible.”
Meanwhile, House Armed Services Committee chairman Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Ala., appears to have tapped naval expert Bryan McGrath as his choice for the commission — as McGrath himself announced on Twitter Tuesday.
I received this notification letter from HASC Chairman Rep. Rogers (R-AL) office today. Serving on the National Commission on the Future of The Navy is an honor beyond comprehension, and I am eager to get to work. pic.twitter.com/GcV0lOvCai
— Bryan McGrath (@ConsWahoo) May 9, 2023
The other five lawmakers responsible for naming individuals to the “National Commission on the Future of the Navy” are made up of the top Democrats and Republicans on both sides of Congress as well as the the Armed Services Committees.
Spokespeople for Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., and Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., the top Democrats on the House and Senate Armed Services Committees, respectively, declined to comment for this story. Spokespeople for Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., and Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., did not respond to requests for comment.
Rep. Rob Wittman, R-Va., a Navy hawk and a senior Republican on the House Armed Services Committee, told Breaking Defense that while the appointments are “delayed,” the “challenges the commissioners will with are enduring.”
“I had hoped that commissioners would be appointed by this March, in line with the law, I also recognize that the congressional cycle drives priorities,” he said in a May 5 statement. “I think highly of the appointed commissioners. The report they deliver next July will only gain importance as the Navy proposes disappointing 30-year shipbuilding plans lacking clear direction, undermining amphibious capabilities, and allowing further deterioration of public shipyard infrastructure.”
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