Chairman Wicker Leads SASC Hearing to Consider Two Senior Pentagon Nominations

February 26, 2026

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WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Roger Wicker, R-Miss., Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, today led a hearing to consider nominations for senior pentagon positions overseeing homeland defense and force sustainment.

Mr. Mark R. Ditlevson, nominated to be Assistant Secretary of Defense for Homeland Defense and Americas Security Affairs, and Honorable Brian D. Birdwell, nominated to be Assistant Secretary of Defense for Sustainment, both appeared before the committee.

In his opening remarks, Chairman Wicker underscored the urgency of the current threat environment and emphasized the significance of these two roles in protecting the homeland, strengthening border and counter-drone efforts, modernizing the industrial base, and ensuring the readiness and resilience of U.S. forces.

Read Chairman Wicker’s hearing opening statement as delivered.

I welcome our nominees and their families and thank them for being here today.

We are living through a period of profound strategic uncertainty. You have heard me say this numerous times, but it bears saying. Today is an era marked by great power competition, ongoing conflicts abroad, and growing demands on our Armed Forces.  I say this again because it bears repeating: We face the most dangerous threat environment since World War II. Now more than ever, we need patriots willing to step up and serve our nation, and in that spirit, I welcome the two who are appearing before this committee today.

Mr. Roosevelt Ditlevson has been nominated to serve as the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Homeland Defense and Americas Security Affairs.  If confirmed, he will be responsible for developing the strategies and policies the Department of Defense uses when it works with federal, state, and local officials on a variety of issues in our hemisphere.

These include natural disaster recovery, pandemic preparedness, critical infrastructure protection, and efforts to counter the influence operations of our adversaries. In particular, I think he will be able to help us develop creative, low-cost options to push back against China, Russia, and the cartels in our own neighborhood.

Mr. Ditlevson’s prospective portfolio also includes border security. As we are fond of saying, border security is an essential part of national security.  I commend the president for the significant progress he has made in securing our borders. Crossings are down 95 percent, and our communities are safer as a result.

Last year, Congress provided $10 billion dollars to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), funds specifically meant to reimburse DOD for its support in border operations. This money appropriated to Homeland Security Department. I am disappointed to hear that DHS has significantly delayed implementing this agreement. I look forward to hearing how Mr. Ditlevson plans to coordinate with DHS to ensure this funding is appropriately allocated.

If confirmed, Mr. Ditlevson would also serve as the department’s civilian head for countering small drones over the homeland. Congress has been aggressive in this area and for good reason. We want to see dramatic improvement in the way executive branch agencies coordinate on counter-drone efforts.

Mr. Brian Birdwell has been nominated to serve as the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Sustainment. If confirmed, he will be responsible for ensuring that our ships sail, our aircraft fly, our vehicles move, and our forces remain supplied in both peacetime and conflict.

Our warfighters depend on these capabilities. They rely on Congress and the department to give them what they need to deter our adversaries and defend their fellow Americans. However, our ability to do so is under massive strain. Fragile supply chains, skyrocketing global demand for munitions and equipment, and increasingly contested logistics all threaten the readiness of our military.

This committee is very aware of the challenges involved in maintaining our forces. We must modernize our industrial base, restore depleted stockpiles, improve installation resilience, and ensure accountability across the enterprise.

I look forward to hearing how Mr. Birdwell intends to approach these challenges—in particular, how he intends to work with Congress, as I’m sure he will, to ensure the department remains prepared to sustain the force in any theater.