Members of the Senate Armed Services Committee from both parties voiced concerns with Elbridge Colby, under secretary of defense for policy, and his office at the Pentagon, at a committee hearing — for the second time this week.

While Thursday’s proceedings, a confirmation hearing for Alex Velez-Green, nominated to be Colby’s top deputy and who has been a senior advisor to him in an interim capacity, were generally less heated than a Tuesday hearing with nominee Austin Dahmer, lawmakers reiterated concerns with a lack of consultation by Colby’s team and alleged rogue decision-making on a range of issues by the office.

“Many of this committee have serious concerns about the Pentagon’s policy office and how it is serving the president of the United States and the Congress,” Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS), the chairman of the committee, said in his opening statement. “In many of these conversations, we hear that the Pentagon policy office seems to be doing what it pleases without coordinating, even inside the U.S. executive branch.” 

Wicker, pushing back on a defense offered earlier this week by Dahmer — who dismissed many concerns as fallacious and based on inaccurate media reporting — said that the issues raised by committee members were based on their own conversations with other administration officials and United States allies.

“Either all of these other administration officials and senior foreign officials are deliberately misleading us or we have a problem coming from this office,” he continued.

He said that the policy office can begin to rectify those issues by meeting “its statutory requirement to consult with this committee … rather than simply informing us of a decision after the fact.”

“We need a process that works for the president and the [Congress]. Unfortunately, we do not have such a process at this moment,” Wicker said, adding that progress will require a “change in a mindset” from the policy office.

Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) added that, “the perception is that there’s some disagreement between what has been put out [by the policy office] and what the president wants. And I think it’s pretty important that you guys figure out how to stop that.”

Velez-Green generally took a conciliatory posture, pledging to communicate and consult with lawmakers whenever possible and appropriate. He also insisted that the policy office and the entire Department of Defense have been diligent in ensuring they are fully aligned with the president’s policy.

But Velez-Green also insisted that the policy office had not directed a pause in U.S. arms transfers to Ukraine, which was later publicly overridden by President Donald Trump, who said he had not been aware of or instructed any such moves. Multiple Senate Republicans pointed to a news release from the Pentagon that specifically stated that such a pause had been implemented.

Velez-Green also denied media reports that Colby had opposed the deployment of additional U.S. forces to the Middle East during the war between Israel and Iran.

Lawmakers again raised concerns that they and U.S. allies in Romania had been notified only days ahead of time that the U.S. would be withdrawing troops from Romania, and that lawmakers were only provided a notification after the decision had been made rather than consulted ahead of time.

“Congress was not consulted about this. I think I can say with certainty about that,” Wicker said.

Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-MO) was the only lawmaker to offer an unequivocal defense of Colby and his office, accusing those criticizing Colby over both policy decisions and communication issues of attempting to block his policy preferences.

“I think much of the criticism, which is cloaked in terms of transparency and communication, really is just an effort to undermine a shift in our foreign policy orientation, which I support, which is to realism, as opposed to some of the failed points of view that have dominated permanent Washington over the last 30 years,” Schmitt said, adding that criticisms of Colby and his team reflect “resistance from those invested in maintaining the foreign policy status quo that has repeatedly failed the American people.”

Elbridge Colby, the Trump administration’s under secretary of defense for policy, announced on Tuesday the nominations of Alex Velez-Green and Austin Dahmer to be, respectively, deputy under secretary of defense for policy and assistant secretary of defense for strategy, plans and capabilities, both senior policy roles under Colby in the Department of Defense.

Velez-Green and Dahmer, both former advisors to Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO), are aligned with the faction of the Republican Party that advocates for more selective U.S. engagement abroad, particularly limiting involvement in Europe, though both have been generally supportive of the U.S.-Israel relationship.

Both nominees are already serving in roles in the Defense Department that do not require Senate confirmation — Velez-Green filled Colby’s role during his confirmation process and subsequently served as his senior advisor, and Dahmer has been working in Colby’s office since the start of the Trump administration. The nominations were both submitted to Congress in June.

Defense News previously characterized both Velez-Green and Dahmer as “proteges” of Colby and highlighted that both have pushed for reducing U.S. support to Ukraine in the interest of prioritizing the defense of Taiwan.

Hawley, despite his occasional skepticism of U.S. engagement abroad and opposition for aid to Ukraine, is a vocal supporter of Israel and backed the U.S. strikes on Iran, telling Jewish Insider that he trusted the administration not to allow such an operation to turn into a protracted war.

Velez-Green has said he began his time in Washington focused on Middle East issues, and he worked for Colby at the Center for a New American Security. He’s been critical of the hawkish wing of the GOP.

“We can’t wish away scarcity. The reality is our military doesn’t have many of the things it needs to fight & win against our greatest threat [China],” Velez-Green said on X in 2023. “And our industrial base isn’t in a position to produce those things quickly. Our nation’s defense depends on our ability to prioritize.”

He was more recently a senior policy advisor at the Heritage Foundation, where he co-wrote a report calling for the U.S. to continue strongly supporting Israel and to work to increase cooperation between Israel and the Gulf States against Iran. The report states that supporting Israel’s defense “should be a top priority given America’s unique and long-standing relationship with Israel, but it also directly aids U.S. efforts to counter Iran.”

But it also argues that the U.S.’ interests in the Middle East must be pursued “without detracting from U.S. force posture in the Indo-Pacific.” The report argues that the U.S.’ defense of and support for Israel should “rely primarily if not exclusively on weapons that are not required for Taiwan’s defense.”

Colby, behind the scenes, reportedly argued against the relocation of missile defense resources from the Indo-Pacific to the Middle East and other moves he said would detract from a focus on Asia.

In the Heritage report, Velez-Green and his co-author described Iran as a “formidable adversary” but not one positioned to dominate the Middle East. He said the U.S.’ most critical role to play in the region would be to “retain — or, as needed, develop — its ability to destroy Iran’s nuclear facilities. U.S. forces must also be able to act decisively in the rare cases where a focused, limited intervention is needed — for example, if Israel’s survival was in doubt. Finally, the United States must always be able to impose severe costs on Iran’s leaders.”

Velez-Green has also described Israel as a “higher priorit[y]” than Ukraine.

Last month, the Heritage Foundation — after Velez-Green’s time at the think tank — offered a cautious response to the U.S. strikes on Iran, warning that they must not turn into a broader conflict.

A former Marine officer, Dahmer has, like Velez-Green, argued that the U.S. lacks the capabilities to fight wars in multiple theaters at the same time, though he has also argued that defending Israel requires fewer tradeoffs than assisting Ukraine in regards to the defense of Taiwan. He expressed support for supplemental aid for Israel last year, while arguing against aid to Ukraine.

“Israel is a close & capable ally which will require very minimal security assistance above the status quo, which we should provide,” Dahmer wrote on X. “When the same request contains ‘humanitarian aid’ to Gaza which will be commandeered by Hamas, this ‘support’ to Israel looks performative.”

He also criticized the Biden administration for “shameful[ly]” encouraging Israel to delay its own military operations in October 2023 while the U.S. worked to protect its own forces, and described U.S. forces deployed in Syria and Iraq as “counterproductive to US interests.”

Colby also announced Tuesday that John Noh had been nominated to be assistant secretary of defense for Indo-Pacific security affairs, after serving as deputy assistant secretary of defense for Asia. Noh is a former staffer for the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, federal prosecutor and Army officer who served in Afghanistan.