Montana Sen. Jon Tester named Chair of the Senate Defense Committee

Montana Sen. Jon Tester has been named as chairman of the Senate Defense Appropriations Subcommittee (SAC-D).

The powerful, 18-member panel controls nearly $700 billion in U.S. defense spending — about 14.8% of the entire federal budget; ranging from pay and benefits for millions of service members to the development of advanced technologies and next-generation weapons. It controls nearly 95% of spending appropriations for the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corp and just about every U.S. intelligence organization.

"We work closely with the military in two areas;" Tester said of SAC-D's oversight authority, "to find out where their priorities are, but also to hold them accountable to make sure the money is being spent appropriately."

Tester will also serve as Chairman of the Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs and is a member of Senate committees on Indian Affairs; Commerce, Science and Transportation; and Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs. His position as chair of the SAC-D ranks as the most influential committee assignment a Montanan has held since former Montana Senator Max Baucus was named as chair of the Senate Finance Committee in 2014.

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Home for a brief stay before returning to Washington, Tester spoke to the Tribune about military spending priorities in the immediate years ahead. Among his top priorities are end-strength (the total number of active duty troops), quality of life issues at U.S. military bases, military sexual assaults and the range and scope of U.S. troop deployments around the world.

However two issues stuck out; U.S. cyber security and medical research.

Cyber-Security

"I think it needs to be a very high priority, Tester said of the United State's efforts to oppose information technology attacks. "That's obvious by what has transpired over the last eight months or so.

According to an investigative report in the New York Times the federal government has pumped billions into stiffening cyber-security measures since 2016; however much of it was spent on elections security, diverting attention and resources away from potential intrusions into private computer networks.

In December 2020 a broad spectrum cyber attack on U.S. computer networks came to the public's attention. Security analysts now believe the "SolarWinds" attack was the work of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) and compromised the computer systems of around 250 federal agencies and private businesses, including several that manage the nation's electric grid and laboratories developing and transporting new generations of nuclear weapons.

"At a minimum it (SolarWinds) has set off alarms about the vulnerability of government and private sector networks in the United States to attack and raised questions about how and why the nation’s cyberdefenses failed so spectacularly," the Times report states.

"Those questions have taken on particular urgency given that the breach was not detected by any of the government agencies that share responsibility for cyberdefense — the military’s Cyber Command and the National Security Agency ... but by a private cybersecurity company, FireEye."

"I think we need to make adequate investments in cyber," Tester said. "We need to be sure we have, not only the dollars for equipment but the research that's going on to be able to deal with these cyber attacks .. that I believe will continue to be more and more prevalent.

"This is all cutting edge stuff that you can waste a lot of money on, but I do think if we hold people accountable and we make investments as necessary it will do good things for our national security."

Medical Research

Much of the military's budget for technological research is funneled through the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, better known as DARPA.

In addition to tactical and strategic military technological research, DARPA's $3.6 billion budget also includes a considerable pot of funds for medical research; everything from mental health and PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) studies, research into treatments for Gulf War illnesses, battlefield medicine, and the search for more effective treatments for breast cancer, lung cancer and other debilitating illnesses.

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Additionally, the department of defense does cutting edge medical research in order to safeguard the resilience of the U.S. military to biological hazards. These projects often have positive results for the public, and a good example is actually the technology that lead to the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine, which is based around research done through the DOD.

"A lot of cutting edge projects and medical research that may not have been possible otherwise in the private sector are jumpstarted by these investments," Tester said. "These investments in medical research have a strong bipartisan tradition in the Senate, and I'm committed to keeping them going."

Malmstrom and the Air National Guard

Following the break up of the Soviet Union in the late 1980s, Congress passed the Defense Base Realignment and Closure Act (BRAC), a cost-cutting initiative aimed at eliminating military infrastructure considered redundant following the end of the Cold War.

Over 17 years and five rounds of BRAC, more than 350 U.S. military bases and installations, both large and small were shuttered, often with devastating economic consequences for the communities in which the once operated, but with a savings to U.S. taxpayers of about $12 billion annually. The last round of BRAC concluded 15 years ago, but there have been repeated calls for additional base closures over the past decade.

Tester did not say that a new round of BRAC is impossible, nor did he say that Malmstrom Air Force Base and the Montana Air National Guard are immune to any discussion of closure. He did, however, say that the missions of both installations are "pretty damn secure."

"If there is a push in Congress to get rid of the ICBMs (Inter Continental Ballistic Missiles) - which I think would be a massive mistake - then things could change," Tester said, "but at this moment in time I don't see it changing. I think both those facilities - with the ICBM modernization that's going on ...  and the new helicopters coming in to help them do their job (MH-139 Grey Wolf's are scheduled to begin arriving in 2023)  - combine that with what's going on up at the Air Guard with their C-130 mission - I think they're pretty damn secure."

Sexual Assault in the Military

Frequent and recurring reports of sexual assault and harassment have plagued all branches of the military from more than two decades.

A 2013 study by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) concluded that at least 25% of women serving in the U.S. military have been sexually assaulted, and up to 80% have been sexually harassed. In 2011 the Daily Beast digital newspaper reported that women in the U.S. military were more likely to be raped by fellow soldiers than they were to be killed in combat.

The crisis has been compounded by allegations that military leadership has frequently ignored or suppressed complaints of sexual assault, and that active duty personnel who report sexual assault are often targeted for retaliation.

A 2015 Department of Defense survey conducted by RAND Corporation found that 62 percent of active service members who reported sexual assault to a military authority in the prior year had experienced retaliation as a result of reporting. The survey defined retaliation to include professional retaliation (such as adverse personnel action), social retaliation (ostracism or maltreatment by peers or others) and administrative action or punishments.

Newly confirmed Secretary of Defense, Lloyd J. Austin, has identified eliminating sexual assault and harassment within the military as a major priority. Tester echoed Austin's commitment to the issue.

"This is an issue that's really come into focus over the last few years," Tester said. "It varies from base to base. Secretary Austin is going to be working to make sure that there is zero on all bases. The same with the National Guard and Reserves. There's going to be continued assessment of what's going on. I've talked to many victims of military sexual assault over the last number of years, and can tell you the Secretary is taking it very seriously, and I think most in Congress are taking it very, very seriously."

David Murray is Natural Resources/Agriculture reporter for the Great Falls Tribune. To contact him with comments or story ideas; email dmurray@greatfallstribune.com or call (406) 403-3257. To preserve quality, in-depth journalism in northcentral Montana subscribe to the Great Falls Tribune.

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