Senate Republicans grill Air Force under secretary nominee on border, Chinese spy balloon

WASHINGTON — Republicans on the Senate Armed Services Committee today were not happy with President Joe Biden’s pick to serve as the next under secretary of the Air Force, grilling the nominee over her responsiveness to senators’ inquiries about border policies and her role in the Pentagon’s handling of the Chinese spy balloon incident. 

During a confirmation hearing, Melissa Dalton, the incumbent assistant secretary of defense for homeland defense and hemispheric affairs, was flanked by two other Pentagon nominees who were respectively tapped to oversee weapons testing and a new post in Pentagon R&D. But Republicans trained much of their attention on Dalton due to her current role as a key official in homeland defense. 

When Dalton’s current post was still pending nomination, it passed the Senate Armed Services Committee by voice vote, noted Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D. “Since that time, two items have happened that now call into question that confidence,” he said. 

In March 2023, Republican senators on the Armed Services committee sent Dalton a letter requesting information on unused border materials that were acquired under the Trump administration but warehoused by Biden. Dalton did not respond until Aug. 1, the committee’s ranking member, Sen. Roger Wicker, said today, by which time the DoD had moved to auction off the materials. 

Dalton told the committee today that though the border wall issue was not in her portfolio, she embarked on a “fact-finding mission across the [Defense] Department” to muster a response since senators originally directed the questions to her. The fate of the materials, she said, was ultimately handled by the Defense Logistics Agency. 

Elsewhere in the hearing conservative lawmakers criticized Dalton for the Biden administration’s decision to allow what it said was a Chinese spy balloon last year to traverse North America before shooting it down off the coast of South Carolina. Dalton was an advisor to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin in the process, though she said advice to not to shoot down the balloon over US territory was offered by “senior military officials.” 

“This is an area which you will be challenged, on this particular one, because it’s a question of judgment and recommendations being made,” Rounds told Dalton. “Between now and the time that a vote is held on your nomination, I think you’ve got some work to do to regain the confidence of a lot of the members on this committee.”

Some Democrats, on the other hand, appeared far more warm to Dalton. For example, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., congratulated Dalton on her nomination and thanked her for her support in reviews of anomalous health incidents otherwise known as “Havana Syndrome.”

Dalton was originally nominated by Biden to the Air Force post last year. If confirmed, she would take over as the Air Force’s No. 2 civilian after the previous under secretary, Gina Ortiz Jones, exited in March 2023. 

It’s unclear how significant Republican opposition might impact Dalton’s nomination in the closely-divided Senate, where Democrats hold a slim majority. And, despite widespread disapproval from Republican senators, others like Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., appeared to strike a more conciliatory tone.

“It’s okay to have been wrong then,” Cramer said of the balloon incident. “Correction is what we’re looking for.”

It’s not clear when the Senate Armed Services Committee might vote on Dalton’s nomination, or when a full Senate vote would be scheduled, assuming her nomination clears the committee.