House Armed Services Committee Ranking Member Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Texas) inquired during a Wednesday hearing why the Pentagon is not using more contractors in its southern border operations, The Hill reported.
Thornberry told Acting Defense Secretary for Homeland Defense and Global Security Kenneth Rapuano during a hearing that Border Patrol agents are overwhelmed.
“Why can we not use contractors for these support activities that we are now asking the military to do?” Thornberry asked. “Any time any of us visit Afghanistan, other places around the world, a lot of the people doing the cooking, the cleaning, the driving, monitoring sensors, are often contractors.”
Rapuano said there is “a practical limit” to using contractors “in terms of availability.”
Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan told lawmakers Wednesday that DOD doesn’t know when its border deployments will end, Military Times reported.
“We’re driving buses, we’re serving food, we’re doing medical support and logistics support,” Shanahan said. “For now, we haven’t degraded any readiness. But we really need to get back to our primary missions.”
Navy Photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class William Carlisle
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