Senate confirms Feinberg as deputy defense secretary

The Senate voted 59-40 today to confirm billionaire financier Stephen Feinberg as deputy defense secretary.

Feinberg, the co-founder, co-CEO and chief investment officer for global investment and private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management, has promised to establish a "war room" to review Pentagon spending in detail to ensure it is aligned to compete with China.

“I don't believe in the Department of Defense any of our leaders fully understands our cost structure,” he said during his confirmation hearing last month. “We're going to go over every program, every cost, line by line with an army of people until it's done, 24/7. We're going to understand where our costs are, why we don't have an audit, where the financial problems are and then we're going to come up with a plan to fix it. It's a big task, it's a big war room. But I think the Pentagon will support it and I think the people will be excited to see it as well.”

Feinberg also said during his Feb. 25 hearing that he believes large defense companies have become too consolidated via mergers and acquisitions.

“I think we need to bring in new companies,” he said.

Feinberg has said he wants to “sponsor” companies like General Motors and Ford so they could win Pentagon contracts and bring their large manufacturing capacity to the defense industrial base.

“We’ve got to make it easier for them,” he said. “I would go to our big manufacturing companies, give them a shot on new programs if we think their capabilities can meet it, and let them figure out a way under FAR to give them a shot without a widescale competition with all our big defense companies, which, by the way, are too consolidated."