WATCH: Kelly Secures Commitment from Joint Chiefs Nominee to Uphold the Constitution, Defense Innovation

“If necessary, will you choose the right thing to do—even if it’s hard—over the easier, wrong option?”

Today, during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing to consider the nomination of Lieutenant General John Dan “Razin” Caine to be the next Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Arizona Senator and Navy combat veteran Mark Kelly secured the nominee’s commitment to uphold the Constitution in the face of political pressure and accelerate innovation within the Department of Defense. 

During the hearing, Kelly emphasized the importance of principled leadership at the highest levels of the military, referencing the ongoing investigation of former Chairman General Mark Milley and asking Caine whether he would uphold the Constitution—even if doing so could cost him the job: “Are you willing to get fired from this job for doing the right thing and following the Constitution?” 

Kelly, who serves as the co-chair of the Senate Defense Modernization Caucus—which aims to strengthen national security through innovation by integrating emerging technologies and ensuring U.S. forces stay ahead of evolving threats—also emphasized the urgency of modernizing the Department of Defense’s acquisition process. He called for reforms that better support small, innovative businesses and allow the military to adopt cutting-edge technologies at the speed of relevance. 

“Our system is too slow, and it can’t modernize at the pace of China,” said Kelly. “We need to foster an ecosystem change that encourages some risk from small businesses so they can innovate faster and ensures that if a technology meets a current demand signal, we have an effective mechanism to bridge the testing and evaluation gap that often exists to get that stuff over to production.” 

Click here to download a video of Kelly’s remarks. Click here to watch the full hearing.   

See the transcript below:         

 
Sen. Kelly: Mr. Chairman, I’m going to follow up on Senator Schmitt ‘s question in my second part if I have time because I think that is a, you know, the big question of the day is how do we handle the challenges we’ll face in the Western Pacific?  

General Caine, first of all, congratulations on your nomination. It’s a very important role. First, I want to talk a little bit about General Milley. So, as a career military officer, lifelong public servant, who served in this role as Chairman under President Trump and President Biden, he’s now facing an investigation by this administration and possible demotion.  

This is allegedly because he, in coordination with the then Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, made phone calls to Chinese military officials to reassure them that the United States was not going to launch an attack, preventing unnecessary conflict.  

General Milley did this out of a deep respect and commitment to the Constitution of the United States, in my view. I asked about this in my office when we met privately, but I want to ask in this public setting: if you are confirmed and sworn into this position, to whom or what do you swear an oath to? 

General Caine: Senator, as I have for thirty-four years, it’s to the Constitution. 

Sen. Kelly: Thank you. And setting aside the specifics of this scenario, if necessary, will you choose the right thing to do—even if it’s hard—over the easier, wrong option? 

General Caine: Senator, I’ve always strived to do the right thing, and that’s not going to change now. 

Sen. Kelly: Thank you, General. And are you willing to get fired from this job for doing the right thing and following the Constitution? 

General Caine: I am. 

Sen. Kelly: Thank you, General. So back to what Senator Schmitt was getting at—part of what he wanted to discuss—so I want to switch gears here and go back to INDOPACOM force projection, repositioning of forces and resource requirements. 

I think you mentioned TRANSCOM. They play a pivotal role in projecting forces from the United States into INDOPACOM, and that’s why I’m reintroducing the Ships for America Act, which is a bipartisan bill aimed at strengthening our commercial shipping base, which would have the added benefit of giving our combatant commanders additional sealift capability, so we can rapidly respond in crisis and in conflict.  

If confirmed, what will you recommend to the Secretary of Defense and the President to ensure our industrial ship building base—from forging supply chains and production—are ready for competition in crisis? 

General Caine: Well, Senator, I’m not in the job yet, and I’m not back in the service yet, but if confirmed, I’d like to take that one for study and come back to you. 

Sen. Kelly:  As you know, it’s a logistical problem. Five thousand miles of ocean. The Chinese, if we wind up in a conflict in the Western Pacific, they’ve got to go just hundreds of miles to resupply their forces. So, I appreciate you being willing to take a look at it.  

One last topic. I want to talk about efforts across the department to modernize our acquisition process. This is a topic that I’m focused on as the Co-Chair of the Defense Modernization Caucus. Our system is too slow. It’s too unwieldy. And it can’t modernize currently at the pace of China. We currently cannot match them on how fast we can innovate.  

So, we need to foster an ecosystem change that encourages some risk from small businesses so they can innovate faster and ensures that if a technology meets a current demand signal, we have an effective mechanism to bridge the testing and evaluation gap that often exists to get that stuff over to production. So, General, if confirmed, what changes will you recommend to the Secretary and the President to ensure that we take advantage of smaller innovative companies and acquire at the speed that technology is moving forward? 

General Caine: Well, Senator, we’ve got to have everyone weighing in—small businesses, new entrants and even the primes. The ability to bring advanced technologies from new companies, startups, into the Joint Force and make it easier for them to bring their products and services into the military is something that I’m passionate about, given my background and experience. If confirmed, I think that that’ll be an area where I spend some time on. I know I’m out of time. 

Sen. Kelly: All right. Thank you. Thank you, General. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.