Panel seeks quick confirmation of Pentagon nominees

Members of the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday questioned six Defense Department nominees with an eye to sending their nominations to the floor for quick confirmation, perhaps this week.

The nominees include two high-level Air Force positions.

If confirmed, Ronald Sega, the Pentagon's director of research and engineering, would become Air Force undersecretary and William Anderson, a General Electric executive, would serve as assistant secretary for installations, environment and logistics.

Referring to a series of recent Air Force procurement and personnel scandals, Armed Services Chairman John Warner, R-Va., told Sega "this is a critical time for the Air Force." The panel, Warner said, "wants to give you every possible support ... to bring the Air Force directly in line with the other two military services."

Armed Services ranking member Carl Levin, D-Mich., and Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., asked Lt. Gen. Norton Schwartz, director of the Joint Staff, when the Pentagon would complete its long-awaited Mobility Capabilities Study, which was expected by Congress this spring. Schwartz is nominated to head U.S. Transportation Command.

"It is critical to get that done," Inhofe said, noting that the Pentagon in April told Congress the study would "shortly" be completed. "Well, shortly's come and gone," Inhofe said.

Schwartz said officials have completed the analysis and sent it to top Pentagon officials for review. It will go to Capitol Hill by this fall, Schwartz said.

"There is a time when fall ends, so we'll have a chance to talk about that," Inhofe said.

In addition, senators considered the nominations of Phillip Bell to be deputy undersecretary for logistics and materiel readiness and Keith Eastin to be assistant secretary of the Army. Bell, the deputy undersecretary of the Army, has served as chief of staff of the State Department's Afghanistan Reconstruction Group. Eastin is senior consultant to the Iraq Ministry of Environment. The committee also considered Raytheon executive John Grimes to be assistant secretary of defense for networks and information integration.