Houlahan Presses Pentagon on Service Academy Tenure Policy

WASHINGTON — Rep. Chrissy Houlahan has joined the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee in demanding answers from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth about the Pentagon’s decision to end tenured appointments for civilian faculty at the nation’s military service academies.

Houlahan, a Democrat who represents Pennsylvania’s 6th District, and Rep. Adam Smith of Washington sent a letter to Hegseth on Oct. 6 questioning the legal basis for the policy and asking whether it would alter the status of faculty who already hold tenure. They asked for a response by Oct. 16.

“Congress has long recognized that the service academies have a dual mission,” the lawmakers wrote, adding that civilian faculty play an important role in providing cadets and midshipmen a rigorous academic education.

The letter follows a Sept. 30 Pentagon memo in which Hegseth ordered the military departments to stop granting tenure to civilian faculty at West Point, the Naval Academy and the Air Force Academy. The memo said tenure had diluted the academies’ focus on producing combat-ready officers but did not call for removing tenure from current faculty.

Houlahan is the ranking member of the House Military Personnel Subcommittee, and Smith is the ranking member of the full Armed Services Committee. Houlahan faces Republican Marty Young, a West Point graduate and Army veteran, in the Nov. 3 general election, a race the Cook Political Report rates Solid Democrat.