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OAN Staff James Meyers
3:35 PM – Tuesday, March 25, 2025
The United States Senate has officially elected a new official to run the U.S. Navy, John Phelan, who has pledged to review the Navy’s existing contracts while simultaneously focusing on a clean audit.
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In a 62-30 vote, the Senate voted on Monday to confirm businessman John Phelan as the Trump administration’s 79th secretary of the Navy.
During his hearing on February 27th, Phelan expressed that the Navy desperately needed more innovation and reform. He also discussed a number of other issues plaguing the nation’s maritime force, such as the Navy’s shipbuilding struggles — which have led the Navy’s fleet size to plummet significantly.
“The U.S. Navy is at [a] crossroads, with extended deployments, inadequate maintenance, huge cost overruns, delayed ship building, failed audits, subpar housing and, sadly, record high suicide rates,” he stated to members of the Senate Armed Services Committee. “These are systemic failures that have gone unaddressed for far too long. Frankly, this is unacceptable.”
Phelan, a businessman and co-founder of MSD Capital, was nominated for the position by President Trump.
“The U.S. Navy and Marine Corps remain the most formidable expeditionary force in the world. But the U.S. Navy is at a crossroads,” Phelan continued in his opening statement. “Extended deployments, inadequate maintenance, huge cost overruns, delayed shipbuilding, failed audits, subpar housing, and sadly, record-high suicide rates, are systemic failures that have gone unaddressed for far too long. And frankly, this is unacceptable.”
Additionally, Phelan spoke about the declining recruiting numbers that took place under the Biden administration.
While addressing the prior Democrat administration’s decision to lower military eligibility standards to help compensate for the problem, the former private investor told lawmakers that the Navy must make sure its standards “are high” and that recruits they are bringing in “can meet those standards.”
“The business is warfighting, and there’s no margin for error in that. So, you need the most capable and best people, and we need to have high standards to meet that,” Phelan said. “What happens to a lot of organizations is you hire for that immediate need, and then that person can’t grow [into] that job. … In this business, we … need to be hiring the ‘Mr. and Mrs. Tomorrows’ to make sure they can compete and do.”
Meanwhile, the Navy is currently without an official in its highest uniformed role, the Navy Times outlet reported. Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Lisa Franchetti was dismissed by Trump last month as part of the administration’s Pentagon leadership takeover.
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