Feinberg proposes opening defence manufacturing opportunities such as Ford and General Motors to enhance the entire industrial base of national defense.
The US Senate confirmed Stephen Feinberg as Secretary of Defense on March 14, moving him to the Pentagon number two behind Defense Secretary Pete Hegses.
Feinberg was confirmed with 59-40 pm on Friday, more than two weeks after a confirmation hearing with the Senate Armed Services Committee.
As a co-founder of Cerberus Capital Management, Feinberg will be coming to the Department of Defense in a background in private investment. For many years, Cerberus has managed a variety of defense, aerospace and civil security business ventures.
During the confirmation process, Feinberg highlighted his interest in expanding the US defense industry, including using major mass market manufacturers such as Ford and General Motors to help the military produce weapons systems. He said current models for producing military vehicles and weapons rely too much on just a few defense industry manufacturers.
Feinberg said he would propose reforming the process for setting requirements for the new weapons system.
“I think the requirements for our program should be much less rigid, much less gold plated, much easier to achieve, more expensive, and much faster to meet,” he wrote in the survey. “Also, once you have set up your requirements, you need to stop changing your requirements. This is essential to not only satisfying the program’s requirements, but also being able to meet on time.”
He said current models for acquiring new defense systems lacked in shipbuilding, nuclear modernization, aircraft development, cyber defense, hypersonics, space defense and drone countermeasures.
During the confirmation hearing, Feinberg asked about the repeated failure of the Department of Defense to pass a full financial audit. If confirmed, Feinberg said that he would pass the initial audit, “along with all programs, all costs, line by line, with the army of people,” to find financial issues within the department.
Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) encouraged fellow senators to check out Feinberg on Friday, saying, “the one who will rebuild our troops, reform the way the Pentagon does business and turn this unauthored Pentagon bureaucracy.”
The vote was passed primarily in line with party lines, but six Democrat senators joined the Republican majority to confirm Feinberg.
At the Feinberg confirmation hearing, Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) expressed concern about how he would handle the Department of Defense’s cuts.
“We cannot expand our power endlessly,” Feinberg said during one exchange. “We have to make changes from time to time.”
Blumenthal replied. “From all of my experience in the private sector, I know that I can’t take the meat shaft. I need to use a scalpel when determining who is needed, not necessary.”
At other times in his confirmation hearing, Democrats pressed Feinberg to characterize the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine as an invasion by the Russian side. Feinberg said he wanted to avoid describing the conflict as a Russian invasion and be cautious about talking about the topic of President Donald Trump and his administration as a member of the administration.
“Do you know the fact that Russia invaded Ukraine and launched a three-year war?” Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) asked in one exchange.
“I don’t know the details of what is happening in negotiations between Russia and Ukraine, what the sense is, what the president is trying to achieve,” Feinberg replied. “So I’m afraid to talk from the turn and weaken it.”
Recently, the Trump administration has supported the proposal for a 30-day ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine, hoping to fill that gap in a lasting peace deal.
Tom Ozimek contributed to this article.
