Sulmeyer has held positions at the National Security Council, U.S. Cyber Command, and the National Security Agency.
President Joe Biden’s choice to take over as the Pentagon’s first-ever chief of cyber policy was advanced by the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday.
By voice voting, the panel appointed Army Digital Advisor Chief Michael Sulmeyer as the first assistant secretary of defense for cyber policy.
Sulmeyer was vying for the position. Legislators designed it so that cybersecurity would receive more attention from the Defense Department and that a single civilian person would be in charge of it.
The Senate floor will now vote on Sulmeyer’s candidacy, which was publicly announced in March.
Sulmeyer breezed through his confirmation hearing earlier this month. Sulmeyer has held positions at the National Security Council, U.S. Cyber Command, and the National Security Agency.
“Many of the pressing challenges that confront the United States today have a nexus to cyber policy; from China’s brazen efforts to target our critical infrastructure to Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine, we see our adversaries using cyber operations to threaten our security,” he told lawmakers, adding that advances in artificial intelligence “could dramatically expand” America’s digital advantages and weaknesses.
Building “combat power” and “sustained readiness” inside the nation’s digital troops, according to Sulmeyer, would be his primary objective. These deficiencies have plagued U.S. Cyber Command and its “action arm,” the Cyber Mission Force.
He said the Pentagon must “recruit from a broad audience that has that propensity to serve, to put the interests of the team and the nation ahead of themselves and have that technical interest and aptitude.”
The department must also “retain them and show them that there is a career and a pipeline to stay in federal service and national security,” Sulmeyer told the committee, later noting that retention is the “bigger challenge.”
He said that, if confirmed for the job, it would be a “big opportunity to harmonize how that combat power is generated” by the military services.
Sulmeyer also pledged to fortify the department’s “Defend Forward” tactic, which aims to stop hostile activity as near to the source as feasible.
Before Congress adjourns for August break, Sulmeyer could receive complete Senate confirmation by the end of this week.
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