Kathleen Hicks, deputy secretary of the Department of Defense (DOD) and a 2021 Wash100 Award recipient, is directing the Pentagon to reassess the Trump administration's budget proposal for fiscal year 2022, USNI News reported Wednesday.
Hicks is calling on the DOD’s director of Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation (CAPE) to study line items in the FY 2022 budget including U.S. Navy shipbuilding efforts and aircraft modernization programs. Other items up for assessment include long-range fires and nuclear weapons.
During her confirmation hearing, Hicks told the Senate Armed Services Committee that the Trump administration's FY22 blueprint includes items that “require further analysis to validate the numbers."
There were also items in the blueprint such as autonomy, force dispersal and small surface combatant fleet expansion that caught her interest, she noted. “I think the biggest challenge that I will face, if confirmed, because of this is around budget transparency,” said Hicks.
CAPE’s assessment will revolve around the identified programs’ potential involvement in deterrence efforts in the Pacific region, as well as the acceleration of autonomous systems development and the transition away from legacy systems, Defense News reported Wednesday.
The group will also evaluate potential funding for the Biden administration's climate programs and other Build Back Better initiatives for FY 2023 through 2027, according to USNI News.