Ernst criticizes Hegseth for general's firing

Senator Ernst.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And thank you, gentlemen, for being here today. I really do appreciate your time to be with us. Before I begin some of my questions, I do want to start with something personal. And both to you, Secretary Hegseth and to the chairman, I want to thank you both for the time that you take to recognize our fallen and those that have given, of course, during this administration, given their all. You've traveled to Dover and have been there to greet those families and to welcome home the fallen. I've been there with you. And Iowa has been hit, in particular, very hard. We lost two of our Iowa National Guardsmen from the Second Brigade Combat Team, 34th Infantry Division. Secretary Hegseth, full well, the 34th, but we also lost six members from the 103rd Sustainment Command, Expeditionary, based out of Des Moines, Iowa, during this current conflict. And again, your presence there meant a lot to the families. It also meant a lot to me, so thank you very much for taking the time to do that. Secretary Hegseth, you and I have had many discussions over the course of many months now regarding general officer positions. And I believe that we were operating in good faith as we talked through a couple of those in particular-- two Iowans, General Mingus, and General Randy George. I was disappointed to see that their retirements were hastened over what I believed had been set out by you and the administration. So I just want to take the time to list out some of General Randy George's accomplishments as army chief of staff. He pulled the Army out of its worst recruiting crisis since the Vietnam era, exceeding fiscal year 2024 recruiting goals, and welcoming more than 61,000 new soldiers. Recruitment numbers that both you and the president talk a lot about, and rightfully so. He cut 5% of general officer positions, 12 positions that were deemed as nonessential in the Army, and he reduced the Army Headquarters by 1,000 personnel. He co-authored the Army Transformation Initiative, which is a comprehensive response aligned with your directives. And he testified here in front of Congress and took a lot of heat, defending that Army Transformation. He was suddenly let go at the beginning of April 2026. General George's merits, which I firmly believe in, he enlisted at the age of 17. He is a West Point graduate. He had four combat deployments. He served in Desert Storm, Iraq, and Afghanistan. He had 38 years of honorable service. He achieved the greatest army recruitment and modernization effort in a generation. So I want to thank him for his service, and I would like to enter into the record, Mr. Chair, the speeches I did honoring General Randy George on his retirement and General James J. Mingus on his retirement.

Without objection. They'll be admitted. Thank you very much. I'd like to talk a little bit about the audit, Mr. Secretary. I saw the video that you posted this week calling on the Department to pass a clean audit, and thank you for doing that. It's something that we talked about during your confirmation hearing. Fiscal responsibility at the Department has been a priority of mine for a very long time. And I think it's time that we build on that momentum. It's extremely important. And that's why I'm pushing for my RECEIPTS Act in this year's NDAA. It's focused on improving financial traceability and accountability across the Department. And if you could talk a little bit more about the efforts in making sure that we are being much more accountable to our taxpayers. What is that effort going to entail? When will we see a clean audit? Well, as I said, Senator, thank you for your work on the audit. That has been a priority of our Department from day one. And we put in place goals and benchmarks to get to FY28, get to 28 for a clean audit. The Joint Task Force Audit, which we announced, was a reflection of even more capabilities we want to push forward and centralize authority to make sure it happens. Jay's been involved from the beginning. We also have a new IG, who the new IG's focus, one of his focus points, is precisely this, and he's prepared to work with us to ensure we reach it. So I think at every level and through this budget, it's a focus.

OK. Thank you. We look forward to seeing a clean audit. Thank you.