Pentagon policy chief Elbridge Colby is on a peace mission to Capitol Hill.
Following a series of scathing criticisms from Republican senators who said Colby never responds to their questions and is overseeing a “Pigpen-like mess,” the Pentagon’s No. 3 is quietly trying to tamp down the tensions.
It appears to be working — for now.
“[Colby] came to see me. We had a very good, frank discussion, and I encouraged him to do something similar with the other senators on the Armed Services Committee, and he has,” Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) told us. “It’s gotten a lot better.”
The comments represent a turnaround for Sullivan, who called Colby “the hardest guy to get ahold of” in the Trump administration, during an early November Armed Services hearing.
Sullivan wasn’t the only one to take shots at Colby.
“It just seems like there’s this Pigpen-like mess coming out of the policy shop that you don’t see from, say, intel and security and acquisition and sustainment,” Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) complained to the Pentagon nominees at the hearing. Cotton declined to comment this week on whether the situation has improved.
To show the Pentagon they were going to do more than just vent, Armed Services members punted votes on two key policy nominees last month: Alexander Velez-Green, who, if confirmed, would serve as Colby’s deputy, and Austin Dahmer, tapped to be the assistant secretary for strategy, plans and capabilities.
The decision to delay action on the duo kept them out of a package of 97 of President Donald Trump’s nominees that Senate Majority Leader John Thune teed up last week. That’ll be the last bloc of nominees to be approved by the chamber this year, though Thune could bring up others individually.
Making nice. Since the hearing, Sullivan said he’s been pre-briefed by Colby’s team on proposed acquisition changes, as well as the looming rollout of the administration’s new National Defense Strategy.
Colby has also briefed various offices on the results of a review into the trilateral Australia, United Kingdom and U.S. defense pact, known as AUKUS. And he made an appearance at the Reagan National Defense Forum, a favorite for national security-minded lawmakers. (Colby’s review of AUKUS previously caused tensions with senators.)
“Policy is fully committed to engaging regularly and collaboratively with Congress and the Armed Services committees,” DOD spokesman Sean Parnell told us.
A mixed reaction. Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), said Thursday that Colby and his staff “have been working very hard at maintaining better communications than what we had before.”
But not everyone gave Colby a full-throated endorsement.
Asked whether the relationship between Colby and Armed Services Committee Republicans has improved, Chair Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) replied: “I haven’t surveyed the committee on that, so I can’t comment.”
Wicker was among the lawmakers to raise concerns about information-sharing from the Pentagon’s policy shop, including U.S. troop drawdowns in Romania.
A Hill aide who regularly deals with the Office of the Secretary of Defense told us communications with Colby have improved slightly. But the aide said that difficulties persist when it comes to obtaining basic information.
