The Office of Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has disseminated a broad list of topics that Defense Department personnel are now required to seek prior approval on before engaging with Congress, which includes any and all “sensitive military operations” and US military strikes on suspected drug boats around Latin America, according to people familiar with the latest guidance.
The guidance was handed down following confusion over an initial memo issued by Hegseth that barred all Defense Department personnel, including military commanders, from talking to Congress or state lawmakers unless they have received prior approval from the agency’s office of legislative affairs.
The list of topics that now “require prior coordination” with Hegseth’s office before engaging with Congress includes:
- DoW [Department of War] sensitive military operations
- DoW Maritime activities in the SOUTHCOM [Southern Command] AoR [area of responsibility] (to include enhanced counternarcotics operations)
- Golden Dome/Homeland Missile Defense
- Acquisition Reform
- Critical Munitions
- National Defense Strategy
Other topics include budget and reconciliation spending plans; critical minerals; Foreign Military Sales reform; AUKUS, a trilateral security partnership between Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States; anomalous health incidents also known as “Havana Syndrome”; and Spectrum, which refers to the electromagnetic spectrum that underpins military operations and other key US government functions.
A Pentagon spokesman told CNN in a statement that the memo is a “pragmatic step to internally review the Department’s processes for communicating with Congress.”
“The Department intends to improve accuracy and responsiveness in communicating with the Congress to facilitate increased transparency. This review is for processes internal to the Department and does not change how or from whom Congress receives information,” said Sean Parnell, chief Pentagon spokesman.
Republican Rep. Don Bacon said on Saturday the policy amounted to “another amateur move” by the secretary that was resulting in military members being “afraid to communicate” with lawmakers.
“I was a five-time commander & our leadership WANTED us to engage members of Congress,” he posted on X. “We wanted to share what our great airmen were doing. We were proud of our service. The new rules have put a large barrier between the military & Congress. Pentagon says the change is very small. But I already see the impact with military members being afraid to communicate. This is another amateur move.”
The latest guidance also comes as Congress has become increasingly frustrated with the lack of answers from the Pentagon on the US military’s operations in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific.
On Friday, the chairman and ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Republican Sen. Roger Wicker and Democratic Sen. Jack Reed, publicly released two letters they’d written to Hegseth over the last month seeking clarity on the operations, both of which have gone unanswered, the lawmakers said. Democrats left a briefing on Thursday furious that Defense Department lawyers hadn’t been present to answer basic questions about the legal justification for the strikes.
Hegseth, whose tenure has been beleaguered by leaks, has taken a number of steps to more tighly control information since earlier this year, including barring most engagements between DoD personnel and think tanks, reporters, or other outside events and conferences. Dozens of reporters turned in their badges last month rather than sign a document the Pentagon had produced that included restrictions on their work.
