Click image above for full remarks
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Senator Jim Banks (R-Ind.) introduced Elbridge Colby, President Donald Trump’s nominee for Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, the lead policy official at the Department of Defense. Below are his remarks:
“I’ve known Elbridge Colby, or Bridge, for a very long time. I got to know him in the first Trump term. He became an advisor to me when I served on the House Armed Services Committee. And even more importantly, he became deeply involved in the Republican Study Committee that I chaired. The largest caucus on Capitol Hill, in the House. Helping us to understand the world. How to talk about it. What to do about the complex issues around the world.
“The threats we face around the world are increasingly sophisticated, but I’m confident that with Bridge in charge of developing and implementing our defense strategy, America will be wholly prepared.
“Bridge already knows his way around the Pentagon from his time as a senior official in OSD Policy, the very office we’re considering his nomination for today. He’s eminently qualified for this role.
“While in OSD, he co-led and was the key architect of the development of President Trump’s 2018 National Defense Strategy.
“After two decades of prioritizing wars in the Middle East, the National Defense Strategy in the first Trump administration under Bridge rightly refocused the US military on great power competition with China and maintaining American superiority in the Pacific.
“Bridge has been a leader in courageously stating this truth: America’s focus must be on the military threat from Communist China, and the U.S. and our allies are running out of time to act on it.
“Bridge has written numerous reports and articles on foreign policy and defense as well as his widely studied book, The Strategy of Denial, which I will admit is dry but incredibly substantive and I recommend that every member of this committee read his book.
“I believe his answers to your questions today will underline his expertise, his unique qualifications for this role and this position.
“He will make an excellent Under Secretary of Defense for Policy.
“I look forward to working with all of you as fellow members of this committee to swiftly confirm his nomination and to get him on the job. You won’t be disappointed.
“Mr. Chairman, thank you, it’s an honor to be with all of you today.”
Senator Banks op-ed on Elbridge Colby’s nomination can be read here.