Second Hearing for DoD Strategy Nominee Canceled

The second Senate Armed Services Committee hearing for a handful of Pentagon nominees, including Robert Scher, the Obama Administration’s nominee for Assistant Secretary of Defense for Strategy, Plans and Capabilities, has been canceled. SASC made the announcement yesterday, six days after Scher’s SASC hearing, during which committee Chair Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) and Sen. Mark Udall (D-Colo.) peppered Scher with questions relating to the challenges of the position and disarmament in a tense U.S.-Russia relationship, among other topics. “[W]e have spent a lot of time working to ensure we understand the needs of the defense nuclear enterprise and actually are funding it at a rate that is that we think will make sure that we can preserve the modernization of it and fix some of the problems that were found in the multiple reviews,” Scher said during the hearing, responding to a question posed by Levin. The nominated position was created as part of a reorganization of DoD’s Office of Policy. It’s unclear whether Scher and other pending DoD nominees will be cleared by the panel before the Senate is expected to adjourn later this week.