During a House Armed Services Committee hearing prior to the congressional recess, Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-WI) questioned Colby Jenkins, performing the duties of Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations and Low Intensity Conflict at the Department of Defense, about his involvement in military budget talks.
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00:00Mr. Chairman, I noticed that my colleague from Texas abandoned his post knowing that I have the microphone next.
00:07I just want to emphasize something, Mr. Jenkins, that you mentioned.
00:11And we've had this discussion.
00:13You've had this discussion.
00:14Mr. Cincenero has brought it up.
00:17The Army Special Forces Green Berets are named after a hat.
00:21And the SEALs are named after how we go to work, right?
00:24Sea, air, and land.
00:25Those are the methods of infiltration for us to accomplish a mission.
00:28And when general purpose forces cut these platforms, we simply can't go to work.
00:35And it would be interesting to know, what is your coordination process with general purpose forces when they're speaking about cutting these platforms?
00:44I mean, is there a formalized processor?
00:47There are.
00:48And thank you for calling that out because that is very much right in our bailout where we need to defend our equities.
00:53There are different processes, DMags, RMags, where we are able to sit with our services with other representatives from Comptroller and the deputy's office where proposals can be put forward and we can battle back.
01:06We can defend or help.
01:07In the spirit of bipartisanship, bring up Mr. Cincenero's point.
01:09When you sit at the table, I mean, are you at the kid table at Thanksgiving or are you, like, sitting with everybody and you're pulling your weight?
01:18Meaning, does your assessment have value in these scenarios?
01:24And we're speaking about cutting, you know, multibillion-dollar, multi-year platforms.
01:28We certainly have to.
01:29It's a constant struggle to make sure that our elbows stay sharp.
01:32But we are at, for example, just last week I was sitting two chairs down from the deputy briefing our budget, our SOF budget, and had the full room to our attention and support.
01:43But to your point, it's a constant struggle.
01:46It's a different culture to think of SOF as a service.
01:51So that's why we appreciate Congress's support so that we are there.
01:54Very well, thank you.
01:55And I'm sorry, I'm remiss for not recognizing the Mass Chief and CSM here.
01:59Thanks for coming here, boys.
02:00It's good to see you.
02:01So less than 2% of the DOD budget is spent on SOF operations, correct?
02:07Everyone here, I think everyone at least over here, has done joint combined exercise for training.
02:14Sometimes we would call that training tomorrow's enemies today, and we have a proven track record of training people that we should not.
02:22Everything from the School of America in the 70s, and, you know, we trained the Taliban, armed them, equipped them, did all this stuff.
02:28We've created our own enemies.
02:29And so I'm wondering what percentage of the SOF budget is used for the JSET programs.
02:38Well, I don't know that specific number off the top of my head, but we can get back to that.
02:41I would appreciate that tremendously.
02:43And then along with that, so I have two tasks for you, two bits of homework, because you're not going to know the answer to this one either.
02:49So I'm not impugning your knowledge, I'm just saying this is kind of a detailed question.
02:56So I'd like to know what percentage of the SOF budget is used for JSETs.
03:00I also would like to know what percentage of the SOF budget is used for the SOF skills that are on Smoke Bomb Hill when we're talking about nation-building stuff.
03:08I understand you're going to cut some of your PSYOPs, guys.
03:10I agree with that completely.
03:12So if you could get it, you know, on a piece of paper and tell us how much of our budget is, soft budget is being expended for the soft skills for nation-building, which we have done horribly across the world since Vietnam, honestly.
03:27And then what percentage specifically for JSETs?
03:31That would be awesome.
03:32Will do.
03:33Thank you, sir.
03:34General Fenton, you understand that your component commanders start with the operational and O&M deficit every year, right?
03:42I do, sir.
03:43And so our guys are filling out UFR's unfunded requests on the regular just to be able to do their job.
03:48Yep.
03:49Correct?
03:49Yes, sir.
03:50Okay.
03:50So here's what I'd like from you, sir.
03:52What I would like is, by component commander, what is the delta between what they're given every year and then the total of the UFR's on average, let's say a five-year average, so that we, under this chairman's leadership, can hopefully plus up all the O&M budgets for our Special Operations Forces Component Commands.
04:17Will do.
04:18Give us real numbers.
04:19You'll get real numbers.
04:20Representative, if I might.
04:22So take infraction.
04:24Just on JSETs, just I think on one side of the coin.
04:27Yeah.
04:27You know those also, there's many of our teammates, and not building nations, but those JSETs go against building high-end tier one forces in a lot of those countries that have stayed with us for quite some time.
04:38General Fenton, I'm the longest serving enlisted member of the United States military to ever be elected to Congress, and I also have the most years as a Special Operations Forces operative of any member of Congress in the history of the country.
04:47I know exactly what the hell I'm talking about, sir.
04:48We're on to that, Representative.
04:49I just add that many of those of them become security exporters.
04:52Oh, yeah.
04:53So I think if we pegged out a track record, and I probably owe you that, on where those have not just been nation-building and somehow turned enemy, but have gone on to burden share, to burden on, to lead.
05:06And I think those are great stories, and I could talk about them in close that we ought not to forget about.
05:10Thank you, General.
05:11I appreciate it.
05:11I yield back, sir.
05:12Thanks, Representative.
05:13Mr. Harrigan, you're recognized for five minutes.
05:16Thank you, Mr. Chair.
05:16I yield back, sir.
05:17I yield back, sir.
05:17I yield back, sir.