The Defense Department is significantly changing its policy of interacting with Congress, according to a new, five-page memo obtained by NBC News.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The memo, whose authenticity was confirmed by a Defense Department official, instructs all Pentagon personnel, except for the inspector general\u2019s office, to seek approval before they communicate with lawmakers and staff members on Capitol Hill and other elected officials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dated Oct. 15, the memo, which is signed by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Deputy Defense Secretary Steve Feinberg, appears to order Pentagon officials \u2014 including the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff \u2014 to obtain permission from the department\u2019s legislative affairs office for any communication with Capitol Hill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The memo says that \u201ceffective immediately,\u201d personnel \u201cmust coordinate all legislative affairs activities\u201d through the office of legislative affairs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It’s a departure from current practice; previously, Defense Department agencies were free to manage their own interactions with Capitol Hill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But under Hegseth, the department has sought stricter control over messaging coming out of the Pentagon. Dozens of reporters turned in their badges and left the building last week, when most news agencies refused to sign unprecedented restrictions Hegseth imposed that threatened consequences for journalists who reported information he had not approved for release, even if it was unclassified.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The new directive, which would further curb information flow from the Pentagon to Congress, is designed \u201cto achieve our legislative goals,\u201d Hegseth and his deputy wrote in the memo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cUnauthorized engagements with Congress by DoW personnel acting in their official capacity, no matter how well-intentioned, may undermine Department-wide priorities critical to achieving our legislative objectives,\u201d the memo says, using the initialism for the “Department of War,” the Defense Department’s secondary but unofficial name used by the Trump administration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Breaking Defense first reported news of the memo. The Defense Department did not immediately respond to questions about it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The highest-ranking Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, Jack Reed of Rhode Island, accused Hegseth and his team of being \u201cafraid of the truth.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Reed called the memo “symptomatic” of “the paranoia that is emanating from the Defense Department.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“We don\u2019t want any lawyers, we don\u2019t want any press, we don\u2019t want anybody from Congress,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd you know, and as a result, I think they\u2019re, they\u2019re positioning themselves\u2014 we do what we want, no one checks us. The press doesn\u2019t, Congress doesn\u2019t, the courts, well, that\u2019ll be a few years from now. So it\u2019s a disparaging development.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Meanwhile, the committee\u2019s chairman, Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., said he \u201cwouldn\u2019t be able to comment about\u201d the memo. In recent weeks, Wicker has repeatedly told reporters he would not answer questions in the hallways of the Capitol.<\/p>\n\n\n\n