Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Strategic Forces
Senate Subcommittee on Strategic Forces
2025-04-29
Source: Congress.gov
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This hearing will come to order. I welcome our witnesses and their families. I thank them for being here this morning. The United States is up against the most dangerous threat environment we've faced since World War II. I say it frequently, but it needs to be said even more frequently. I'm grateful that these two individuals have stepped up to help
These help us in these challenging times. Mr. Scott Papano has been nominated to be principal deputy administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration. In this position, Mr. Papano will help lead an organization tasked with rebuilding and modernizing our long-neglected nuclear weapons stockpile. He must be up to the task because our nuclear dangers are more complex than ever. Over the past several years, we've watched as Russia, China, and North Korea have rapidly expanded their nuclear arsenals and developed new types of weapons, weapons for which we are not prepared. In his previous position, Mr. Papano saw firsthand that the U.S. is far behind in shipbuilding. I hope he'll bring important lessons from that experience and apply them to this role. Modernizing our nuclear deterrent is a national imperative, and this committee expects to see results. I look forward to hearing how Mr. Papano intends to drive NNSA to achieve this objective. Mr. Michael Catanese has been nominated to be the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Industrial-Based Policy at the Department of Defense.
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Mr. Catanese served 10 years in the U.S. Navy as a cryptologic officer and then took his talents to private industry. He spent 20 years addressing strategic and operational defense and aerospace challenges. He has launched or participated in startups working on analytics, technical service, and artificial intelligence. He has been nominated to a position that is relatively new, but it must not be overlooked. As a matter of fact, it should be given very serious attention. The Office of Industrial-Based Policy is one of the most important posts in the Pentagon. We need a large and capable cohort of defense industrial policy analysts who can bring serious options to the Secretary of Defense and the Congress. And we need those analysts to be guided by a capable leader.
I look forward to hearing Mr. Kadnazi's opinions on how we can improve and simplify the department's analytic capacity and investment authorities to build a more resilient industrial base. I look forward to their testimony, and I now turn to my dear friend and ranking member, Senator Reid. Well, thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Let me welcome Mr. Karanasi and Mr. Admiral Papano.
Thank you, gentlemen. Welcome. Congratulations on your nomination. Also, this is a special moment because we have a reunion of Rogers High School in Newport, Rhode Island here, and I want to recognize all the Rhode Islanders. Mr. Karanasi. We're pressed for time. Why not? Well, I can name them one by one if you'd like, but all right, I will move on. Mr. Catanasi, the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Industrial-Based Policy serves as the principal advisor to the Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment for all industrial-based policies and related matters. The position has a wide scope of responsibilities, from ensuring supply chain security to guiding department-wide investments into critical defense technology sectors, to coordinating small business programs. If you are confirmed, you would be the second person to hold this office. As such, there are a number of important challenges you will need to address, in particular, The Defense Department needs a coordinated strategy for working with the defense industry to expand production capacity of weapons systems, munitions, and key technologies such as microelectronics, hypersonics, and biomanufacturing. These technologies will be crucial for maintaining America's global competitiveness and will require working with industry across the board, from prime contractors to sub-tier suppliers and producers of raw materials. I would ask for your plans for addressing this significant challenge as we go forward. Further, as we've seen with greater clarity over the past several years, ensuring supply chain security and access to strategic minerals such as rare earth elements is critical for the Department and the Defense Industrial Base. The Defense Department must take a proactive approach to identifying threats and vulnerabilities for its supply chains and develop plans and tools to mitigate those risks. I would note that doing so will require the Department to work across the interagency with multiple other federal agencies.
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