POLITICO Pro Q&A: Rep. Jimmy Panetta

Rep. Jimmy Panetta (D-Calif.) has a familiar last name, but the first-term California congressman is learning the ropes in his own way.

The son of Leon Panetta — the former congressman who went on to be White House budget director, chief of staff, CIA director and Defense secretary — Jimmy Panetta joined the House Armed Services Committee late last year. And since then, the freshman Democrat has studied up on the Trump administration's new National Defense Strategy and concluded the military needs to adapt to meet a new emphasis on competition with Russia and China.

"We need to start thinking beyond the binary warfare that no longer is it just peace or in war, there's sort of this gray area where this ... guerrilla geopolitics are being played," he said. "How do we counter that?"

To that end, Panetta cited innovation and professional military education as top priorities.

Panetta's Monterey Bay area district is home to a slew of military installations. And the Pentagon's Defense Innovation Unit Experimental — DIUx — program is headquartered to the north in Silicon Valley.

Also high on Panetta's agenda is pressing for action on climate change, the effects of which are seen as threats to military installations.

Prior to entering politics, Panetta, 48, was a prosecutor in Monterey County. A former Navy Reserve intelligence officer, Panetta served in Afghanistan in 2007.

He easily won the House seat representing California's Central Coast in 2016, succeeding Democrat Sam Farr, who replaced the elder Panetta when he joined Bill Clinton's White House.

Panetta isn't the only Armed Services member with deep congressional and Pentagon family ties. Wyoming Republican Liz Cheney's father, Dick, also served in the House and as White House chief of staff and later Defense secretary before being elected vice president.

Asked about his family ties, the younger Panetta said he won't hesitate to ask his father for advice, but emphasized he's setting his own course in the House.

"I am not afraid to pick up the phone and reach out to him when necessary. But he also understands that ... this is my role, and I'm the one who has to make the decision," Panetta explained.

POLITICO interviewed Panetta by phone about his first year in Congress and his defense priorities, including innovation, installations in Monterey Country and mitigating the impacts of climate change on the military.

This transcript has been edited for length and clarity.

How has your first term been so far?

It's been a whirlwind. ... It is a constant deluge of information, of activity, of distraction that has been coming at us ever since our first week in office. ... But at the same time it's been an amazing experience. ... There's no doubt that I've learned a lot, but I sure as hell know that I have a lot more to learn.

You came to the Armed Services Committee late last year. Were you previously looking to get on the committee? What made you want to join?

I did. I actually put in for that in the first round. My first choice was Agriculture, based on the makeup of the 20th Congressional District ... far and away the number one industry, and second choice was Armed Services.

That did not work out. ... So we put on a full court press [when a vacancy came up], talking to the leadership here in the Democratic caucus, and fortunately that worked out and it appeared that I was unopposed.

But, I gotta tell you, ever since then, it's been just like my first term in Congress. I've been drinking from a fire hose. ... Look, I grew up [in a place] that is pretty much imbued with military installations and with veterans. I served in the military, I served in Afghanistan, yet I still have so much more to learn. ... I can't think of a more amazing experience than being on the Armed Services as a freshman member. It's overwhelming ... but at the same time I'm here to learn.

What are some of your big priorities on HASC so far?

Definitely learning about all of our capabilities that we have and how we can continue to improve those capabilities in light of the threats that we face. I do believe that the National Defense Strategy that was set out earlier this year did a decent job in addressing that in the sense that we have to look at these revisionist powers, China and Russia, and what they're doing. ...

Obviously, looking at the way that China and Russia are acting, they are sort of in this hybrid warfare mentality. They understand that they are not going to go to war with the United States, but at the same time they're going to challenge our global dominance. ... We need to start thinking beyond the binary warfare — that no longer is it just peace or in war — there's sort of this gray area where this geopolitical, this guerrilla geopolitics are being played. And how do we counter that? ... How do we do that and what type of investments are necessary?

So ... that's obviously updating our hardware, but also updating our hybrid warfare, cyber, focusing on our alliances, focusing on our special forces, focusing on our soft and diplomacy capabilities.

It's a number of things we have to consider in regards to the burgeoning threats that we're facing. ... And it always comes down to how the hell are we going to pay for it, as well. ... So do we look at ... other ways to do that?

Do we have to have a change in our attitude, and in our testing? Do we have [a] more, sort of, ready-to-fail type of attitude? And then, ideally, can we lessen the bureaucratic process in dealing with these technology companies?

That's why it's so important to have an entity like DIUx there in Silicon Valley to sort of bridge that gap. ... That's why I want to continue to make sure the installations in my area that focus on professional military education are right there on the forefront of this type of technological development. I think that's very important.

At the same time, even though it wasn't mentioned in our National Defense Strategy, nor was it mentioned in the National Security Strategy, I do believe that we have leaders there at the Pentagon that are focused on something that I think everybody should be focused on, and that's climate change and how that affects our national security strategy too.

There seems to be more concern from Congress that military installations are facing the impact of climate change. Do you think the Pentagon is taking the appropriate steps to mitigate that?

For as big a ship as the DoD [is], I do believe that the steering wheel has started to turn. That doesn't necessarily mean the ship turns with it, as we know, but I do believe it's going to catch up, and it has to. You do have the DoD putting forward reports, as it did in 2016 that said, you know, we have 3,500 sites affected by climate change.

Obviously, that's things such as droughts that affect the water capacity of certain installations, heat waves that affect live fire exercises, winds that basically prevent our air sortie exercises. ... There's no doubt that climate change is a driver of instability when it comes to our defense strategy, and I think that's something that [Defense Secretary Jim] Mattis, [joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Joe] Dunford have both acknowledged.

It's very unfortunate that the NDS and the National Security Strategy did not mention climate change, but the fact is it doesn't mean that that thinking is void.

We're fortunate that we have people in the Pentagon that understand how climate change affects our defense strategy and that they will continue to take that into account just like Congress did in the 2018 NDAA when we put it in a report ... about the threats to our Department of Defense when it comes to climate change. So even though the strategies may not say that, fortunately we have leaders in the military and here on Capitol Hill that are willing to acknowledge that and act on that.

The NDAA report you mentioned had bipartisan support. Are you confident there's bipartisan support on climate change, at least as a military readiness issue?

It's getting there. ... I'm a part of the Climate Solutions Caucus, a purely bipartisan caucus, and let me tell you, it was hard to get on. ... I went to one member from Florida, and his staff said he wasn't able to do it.

I then thought about ... Norfolk and how they're experiencing dry-day flooding and that's affecting the Navy base down there. And so who do I think of? [Rep.] Scott Taylor [(R-Va.)]. Had a few discussions with Scott, and now he's my partner on ... the Climate Solutions Caucus.

It's these types of preliminary discussions [that] ... are very important to starting to change the conversation when it comes to our Department of Defense and how it's being affected by climate change.

Fort Ord in your district is the biggest base closure to date. Has that affected your view about bases and the Base Realignment and Closure process?

Absolutely, it's affected the way I look at my installations and the BRAC process. There's no doubt about that. I accept the process, but at the same time, we are taking steps to work within that process.

One, I've been honored to cosponsor with ranking member [Rep. Adam] Smith [(D-Wash.)] a bill that basically makes sure that if there is a BRAC process, we take into account and we prioritize professional military education in determining what facilities to cut and not to. ... That's something that's very important not just to our strategy, it's very important to our military installations there in Monterey.

We have the Navy Postgraduate School. We have the Defense Language Institute. And we have a number of research facilities as well. ... We're about a dozen military installations there just in Monterey County. And so, obviously, we want to make what they do there in Monterey County a priority for our military, but at the same time let the military understand how important these installations are.

We learned not only the lesson from the '91 BRAC and the closing of Fort Ord in '94, but in 2005, the most recent round of BRAC where we had to deal with issues of other installations around the country gunning for installations. ... So, we've taken steps, I believe, and are going to continue to take steps to prevent that. ...

One thing that I'm proud of, ... we're making sure our gates are open to the community. ... I grew up with these installations. I grew up listening to bombing exercises over at Fort Ord. ... Nowadays on the Monterey Peninsula, you couldn't even imagine that.

I grew up studying at the Navy Postgraduate library. I grew up having proms and going to weddings at the Navy Postgraduate School. It was a part of my life, and I think that's very important as to how I turned out. It's very important as to my attitude toward the installations and toward our national defense.

You're also a co-chairman of the House Democrats' National Security Task Force. Can you tell us a little more about what you're trying to accomplish there?

It's making sure the Democratic Caucus is kept up on ... national security issues and, at the same time, ... giving them a platform to talk about them and how we talk about these issues. ... I feel that now more than ever there is sort of an opening for that by the Democratic Party to continue to make sure that we are able to talk about our defense strategy, our national security strategy, just like the Republicans.

We need to make sure that this is not a Republican issue. It's not just a Democrat issue. This is an American issue. And that's something that we're going to continue to stress in the meetings that we have by bringing in experts who talk about counterterrorism, who talk about North Korea strategy ... so that, one, we're knowledgeable about and, two, we know how to talk about it.

Given your father's experience in the House as well as at the CIA and the Pentagon, has he given you any advice on the job?

Yeah, I'd be remiss if I did not go to him when I had certain questions, no doubt about that. But the fact is the way we were raised and the way we were taught to look at life is that it's not about the last name, it's about the first name.

I feel very fortunate, blessed, to have Leon Panetta as my father ... not just as a father, but as a mentor. ... And, yes ... I am not afraid to pick up the phone and reach out to him when necessary. But he also understands that, you know, this is my job, this is my role, and I'm the one who has to make the decision despite what he may advise.

And there are now two HASC members that have a former Defense secretary on speed dial.

That is kind of funny, because if you look at the committee, you have the lowest ranking member on the Democratic side is a Panetta and the lowest ranking member on the Republican side is a Cheney. So definitely something to take into account.