The U.S. Senate voted to confirm John Phelan as the next Secretary of the Navy. Phelan, a Florida businessman and founder of a private investment firm, is also a major donor to former President Trump’s campaign.
He was confirmed by a 62-30 vote in the full Senate. Despite having no prior military experience, Phelan secured bipartisan support for the role, The Hill reported.
While Phelan did not face direct opposition during his February 27 nomination hearing, some lawmakers voiced concerns over his lack of military service or experience managing any civilian branch of the Pentagon.
Phelan, however, contended that his private-sector background uniquely positions him to address the Navy’s persistent challenges, including failed audits, workforce issues, cost overruns, and delays in shipbuilding.
He is the founder and chair of Rugger Management LLC, a Florida-based private investment firm, and previously served as managing partner of MSD Capital, a private equity firm.
During his confirmation hearing, Phelan stated that his outside business experience would aid the Navy in urgent need of reform.
“The U.S. Navy is at a crossroads, 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,” he told the Senate Armed Services Committee last month, USNI News reported.
Phelan told the panel the Trump administration’s top priority for the Department of the Navy was shipbuilding, which is years behind schedule and experiencing major cost overruns, especially for submarines and large capital warships like aircraft carriers.
“I don’t think I could say shipbuilding enough times,” he told the panel during his confirmation hearing when asked about President Donald Trump’s priorities, USNI noted.
He committed to reviewing the Navy’s current contracts and ensuring a clean audit for the Department of the Navy.
“I intend to sit down day one, and we are going to go through every contract that we have and understand what exactly they say and what flexibility they do or do not give us, what contract needs to change or not change, and why,” he told the panel.
“I intend to do the same thing as it relates to an audit. I need to understand why the Navy cannot pass an audit,” he added.
He also told the committee that while he respects and appreciates “stability and tradition,” when it “suffocates adaptability, innovation, collaboration and trust, it erodes an organization’s ability to win.”
Phelan went on to argue that he understands “that some may question why a businessman who did not wear the uniform should lead the Navy,” and he respected that concern.
“The Navy and the Marine Corps already possess extraordinary operational expertise within their ranks. My role is to utilize that expertise and strengthen it to step outside the status quo and take decisive action with a results-oriented approach,” he said, The Hill noted.
During his confirmation hearing, Phelan honed in on the much-delayed Constellation-class frigate program, vowing to quickly evaluate the program’s problems.
“This program is a mess from what it looks like,” Phelan told the panel. “If confirmed, I plan to dig into this very quickly and understand the issues. And we’ll come back to this committee very fast with the knowledge that we have as soon as we get to the root cause of the problem.”
During the hearing, retiring Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.), whose home state borders the Wisconsin shipyard building the frigate, pressed John Phelan on the ongoing program at Fincantieri Marinette Marine. Peters asked whether Phelan would support the initiative as a “long-term cornerstone of the fleet.”
“As I’ve said, I will look at this and work with the secretary of defense and the deputy secretary of defense to understand all of the programs we have and how they all fit and how this important program fits in,” Phelan replied. “And so once I’ve had an opportunity to do that, I look forward to coming back to you to discuss it.”
The contract with Fincantieri was signed in 2020, right before the end of the first Trump administration. The ship is meant to fulfill a vitally important anti-submarine warfare mission in the surface fleet.
“But difficulties hiring and maintaining a workforce at the yard, which sits on the Menominee River and faces harsh winters in northern Wisconsin, and ongoing challenges altering the parent design have delayed the lead ship by potentially three years as of a spring 2024 Navy study,” USNI News reported.
