Navy Secretary Declares Support for Legislation to Guarantee the Military’s Right to Repair Its Own Equipment
Secretary Phelan: “I am a huge supporter of right to repair.”
Chairman Wicker: “I look forward to working with my two colleagues on a workable solution.”
Washington, D.C. – At a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Navy Secretary John Phelan told U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) that he is a “huge supporter of right to repair” and expressed support for a bill guaranteeing the military can repair its own equipment and requiring contractors to offer repair materials for a fair and reasonable price.
Defense contractors have a history of sneaking fine print into contracts that limits troops’ ability to repair equipment at crucial moments. These restrictions also mean that the U.S. government often has to cover the cost of sending a contractor to the field to perform even minor fixes or has to ship equipment back to the U.S. for repairs. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that flying a contractor out for maintenance can add up to as much as $1.2 million in travel costs. In Okinawa, Japan, Marines were forced to send engines in need of repair back to contractors in the U.S., turning the repair into a lengthy process that could have been completed more quickly on-site by Marines.
Secretary Phelan stated that the Navy’s current repair rules “make no sense” and agreed the money wasted on travel costs for contractors could be better spent training service members on how to fix equipment themselves. Secretary Phelan highlighted additional examples of instances in which contractor-imposed repair restrictions have hurt readiness: in one instance, six out of eight ovens on a 5,300-person aircraft carrier were not working, and instead of having a service member fix them, they had to wait for a contractor to fly out. Secretary Phelan also noted that, because of repair restrictions, an elevator outage requires five contractors to fly out just to diagnose the issue.
“It is crazy. We should be able to fix this,” said Secretary Phelan.
Asked by Senator Warren, Secretary Phelan said he supports a bill to help the services better negotiate for repair rights at a fair and reasonable price. Chairman Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) expressed interest in the bill, stating, “I look forward to working with my two colleagues on a workable solution, particularly since the Secretary is so supportive of that concept.”
“This is an opportunity to stand up for our sailors and Marines as well as for the taxpayers, and I look forward to working with [Secretary Phelan]...[t]o make sure that our service members have the tools they need to be able to repair their own equipment,” concluded Senator Warren.
In a recent Fox News op-ed, Senators Warren and Tim Sheehy (R-Mont.) underscored how right to repair restrictions imposed by defense contractors hurt the military’s ability to respond to threats and called for every service of the military to follow Army Secretary Dan Driscoll’s lead and ensure the military has the right to repair the equipment it owns. The senators also announced an upcoming new bipartisan bill to make securing the right to repair at a fair and reasonable price the policy across all of the military services. During the hearing, Secretary Phelan expressed support for this legislation.
Transcript: Hearings to examine the posture of the Department of the Navy in review of the Defense Authorization Request for Fiscal Year 2026 and the Future Years Defense Program
Senate Armed Services Committee
June 10, 2025
Senator Elizabeth Warren: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. So, for years, giant defense contractors have been sneaking fine print into contracts that prevent sailors and Marines from maintaining their own equipment. These restrictions increase costs, they hurt readiness, and they make a lot of money for the contractors.
During your confirmation process, Secretary Phelan, you committed to explore how to “best leverage right to repair and technical data rights within acquisition contracts to enable organic repair capacity.” I wrote it down. So, I want to make sure that that maintains as a priority.
Marines in Okinawa, Japan, had to send back engines to contractors in the U.S. for repairs, a process that took months, when the Marines could have done it themselves onsite, but they had to do that because that is what the contract said, and when it's a ship, the United States government actually foots the bill to send the contractor out to sea. GAO found that travel costs to have a contractor complete repairs for one order on the USS Montgomery in Singapore would cost about $1.2 million. That's just for the travel costs.
So, Secretary Phelan, would you agree that the Navy could be using those millions of dollars to train service members on the skills they need so they can fix their own equipment, rather than spending that money to fly contractors to provide tech support?
Secretary John C. Phelan: Senator, thank you for the question. I know it's very important to you. What we do makes no sense to me. Okay, and so I am a huge supporter of right to repair. I went on the Ford carrier. They had eight ovens. This is a ship that serves 15,300 meals a day. Only two were working. Six were out. And I said, “You've got 5300 people on the ship. You're telling me someone can't fix an oven. We got a lot of engineers.” We can, but we need to wait for the contractor to get out. I asked the question about our elevators. If an elevator goes out, what happens? We've got to call Huntington. They've got to call the four other people. They have to come out and diagnose the problem, and then they'll fix it. It is crazy. We should be able to fix this. And my other hot button, which I know is another one of yours and this committee's, is IP and our intellectual property rights. We end up paying for a lot of things that we don't control, and we need to change that. And so contracting in general is something we're looking at very hard, and we need to really try to ensure going forward we control our IP and we have the ability to fix things, because if we're in a fight, how do we not? How do we fix it then?
Senator Warren: You have this so right. The importance, not only of doing it on a day-by-day basis, but you need all of that muscle memory of how to fix things in case you're under much more adverse circumstances and don't have time to let something lie there unused while you try to fly in somebody from halfway around the world.
So, let me just make sure I've got you on the record here. Do you agree that the Navy needs to negotiate for comprehensive repair rights so that contractors cannot find shady ways both to insist on their ability to do the repairs, but also to keep the data that you need away from you so that you can't do it yourself?
Secretary Phelan: Senator, I agree, we need to repair the right to repair our ships. How we specifically go about that, I need to look at and understand better. But trust me, you and I are simpatico on this.
Senator Warren: Okay, and then I will ask you, while we're being so simpatico here, let me ask you one more: Do you support Congress passing a law that will help you negotiate repair rights at a fair and reasonable price?
Secretary Phelan: Yes, I do.
Senator Warren: Okay. I really do appreciate this, you know, and so do 70% of voters, according to recent polling. And this is why Senator Sheehy and I are introducing the Warrior Right to Repair Act to make sure that every service follows the Army's lead of securing repair rights and requiring contractors to offer those rights at fair and reasonable prices. This is an opportunity to stand up for our sailors and Marines as well as for the taxpayers, and I look forward to working with you. I know that Senator Sheehy does as well. And we want to work with all of our colleagues to make sure that our service members have the tools they need to be able to repair their own equipment. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Chairman Roger Wicker: Thank you, Senator Warren. Secretary Phelan, have you had a chance, or has your team had a chance, to look at the specifics of the language of the Warren-Sheehy bill that has been referred to?
Secretary Phelan: I have not, Senator.
Chairman Wicker: Okay, will you please do that, and comment about the specifics on the record? It would be very helpful to us.
Secretary Phelan: Absolutely.
Chairman Wicker: Thank you. And I look forward to working with my two colleagues on a workable solution, particularly since the Secretary is so supportive of that concept.
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