Senate Armed Services Committee member Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., questions Secretary of the Army and Secretary of Defense nominee Mark Esper during his confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, July 16, 2019.

Senate Armed Services Committee member Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., questions Secretary of the Army and Secretary of Defense nominee Mark Esper during his confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, July 16, 2019. AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta

Sen. Warren Spars with Defense Secretary Nominee Over His Lobbyist Work

The Democratic presidential candidate said that Mark Esper, who has declined to recuse himself from Raytheon-related decisions, should not lead the Pentagon.

The Senate should reject President Trump’s defense secretary nominee because of his history of lobbying for defense contractor Raytheon, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., said Tuesday.

Warren, who is running for her party’s presidential nomination, said Mark Esper should be denied the job because he refused to pledge to recuse himself from Raytheon-related decisions once his mandatory two-year recusal expires in November.

During a fiery exchange at his Senate Armed Services Committee confirmation hearing on Tuesday morning, Esper said his work at America’s third-largest defense firm, far from being disqualifying, was in fact valuable experience that uniquely qualifies him to be defense secretary. 

“I think the presumption is that, for some reason, anybody comes from the business or the corporate world is corrupt,” Esper said.

Related: Organizational Resilience Can Help Prevent the Next Ransomware Attack

Related: All the Ways the US Military’s Infrastructure Crisis Is Getting Worse

Related: Mike Pence’s Cybersecurity Speech, Annotated

Warren fired back: “He is not willing to make a commitment that he will not engage in conflicts of interest for the company for which he was a lobbyist. This is outrageous.”

The Republican-controlled Senate is expected to approve Esper’s nomination. But Warren could place a hold on the nomination, delaying that vote indefinitely.

Esper spent six and a half years as Raytheon’s vice president of government relations — essentially, the company’s top lobbyist — before becoming Army secretary on Nov. 20, 2017. Ethics laws prohibit him from weighing in on Pentagon decisions involving Raytheon for two years after joining the government.

Earlier this year, Warren proposed legislation that would prohibit senior defense officials from working for large defense contractors until they were out of government for four years.

During Tuesday’s exchange with Warren, Esper refused to recuse himself from Pentagon matters involving Raytheon. 

“On the advice of my ethics folks at the Pentagon…no. Their recommendation is not to,” Esper said. 

As Army secretary, Esper said he “never got into the business … of picking programs.” Instead, he handled “broad policy matters, strategy, things like that.”

Esper is due more than $1 million in deferred compensation from his time working for Raytheon.

“Let me get this straight,” Warren said to him. “You’re still due to get at least a $1 million payout from when you lobbied for Raytheon. You won’t commit to recuse yourself from Raytheon’s decision. You insist on being free to seek a waiver that would let you make decisions affecting Raytheon’s bottom line and your remaining financial interests, and you won’t rule out taking a trip right back though the revolving door on your way out of government service or even just delaying that trip for four years after you leave government.

“The American people deserve to know that you’re making decisions in our country’s best security interest, not in your own financial interests. You can’t make those commitments to this committee, that means you should not be confirmed as secretary of defense.”

Esper, a West Point graduate, cited his combined 21 years of uniformed service as an active-duty, National Guard, and Reserve soldier, service that included a deployment during the 1991 Iraq War.

“I’ve lived an ethical life,” Esper said. “I’m going to continue to live by those ethics, those principles whether it involves Raytheon or any other company for that matter. It’s my commitment to the nation’s security. It’s my commitment to the men and women in uniform that drives me, not anything else.”

Esper noted – without mentioning the name — that Bill Lynn, who served more than two and a half years as deputy defense secretary during President Obama’s first term, had worked as Raytheon’s top lobbyist before taking a senior position in government.

“He was a good man, an ethical man,” Esper said of Lynn.

Former Deputy Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan, who spent more than six months this year as acting defense secretary, recused himself from dealing with all matters related to Boeing, his former employer, for the duration of his tenure in government after ethics questions were raised earlier this year.

“I can’t explain why [Shanahan] made that commitment,” Esper said. “He was fulfilling a different role than I am. He has a different professional background.”

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.