Senate Confirms John Phelan As America’s New Navy Secretary

In a 62-30 vote, the U.S. Senate voted on Monday to confirm businessman John Phelan as the Trump administration’s secretary of the Navy.

Phelan’s nomination was advanced to the full Senate for consideration by the Senate Armed Services Committee on March 11. The committee did not specify what the final vote breakdown was, only saying Phelan’s nomination was reported “favorably” in a roll call vote.

During his Feb. 27 confirmation hearing, Phelan tackled numerous hot-button issues plaguing the nation’s maritime force. This included remarks about America’s shipbuilding woes, which have led the Navy’s fleet size to diminish significantly since the end of the Cold War.

“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 said 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.”

[READ: How Years Of Decay And Neglect Crippled America’s Navy]

Phelan also discussed the military’s recruiting crisis that came to fruition under the Biden administration. While addressing the prior administration’s decision to lower military eligibility standards to compensate for the problem, the former private investor told lawmakers that the Navy must ensure its standards “are high” and that the individuals it’s bringing into its ranks “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.”

[READ: If The United States Doesn’t Build More Ships, China Will Rule The Waves]

Phelan is expected to be joined at the Department of the Navy by Hung Cao, a Navy veteran and former Virginia Senate candidate whom President Trump recently nominated to serve as the next under secretary of the Navy. A date for Cao’s confirmation hearing has not been announced by the Senate Armed Services Committee as of publication.