Republican and Democratic lawmakers on Friday assailed the Pentagon’s decision to cancel the deployment of an armored brigade to Poland , saying the move caught them and U.S. allies by surprise.
Mike Rogers , the Alabama Republican who chairs the House Armed Services Committee, complained that lawmakers had not been consulted before the nine-month rotation to Poland was canceled.
“We didn’t get that, so we don’t know what’s going on here,” Rogers said at a contentious committee hearing with top Army leaders.
Rep. Don Bacon , a Nebraska Republican called the decision an “embarrassment,” saying a Polish official had told him that the government in Warsaw had no warning of the move.
“These are some of our best allies, and they had no idea,” said Bacon, who is a retired Air Force brigadier general. “We owe Poland and our Baltic friends, who are very vulnerable from this decision, a better explanation.”
Bacon also said that the top U.S. commander in Europe, Gen. Alexus Grynkewich, had advised that canceling the deployment of the 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team of the 1st Cavalry Division wasn’t a “low-risk decision,” and that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had brushed aside the military’s advice.
A Pentagon spokesman insisted that the decision to cancel the deployment of the 4,000-strong brigade had been carefully considered and that military commanders had been consulted.
“The decision to withdraw troops follows a comprehensive, multilayered process that incorporates perspectives from key leaders in EUCOM and across the chain of command,” said acting Pentagon press secretary Joel Valdez, referring to the U.S. European Command. “This wasn’t an unexpected, last-minute decision.”
But Army Secretary Dan Driscoll and acting Army Chief of Staff Christopher LaNeve acknowledged during their testimony on Friday that they were only told the deployment had been canceled a couple of days ago.
The Trump administration has long signaled that it wants European nations to take the lead for conventional defense and that the U.S. will reduce its military presence on the continent.
The timing of Hegseth’s decision, which halted the brigade’s deployment after much of its equipment and some of its troops were already en route, caught many allied officials and even some U.S. military officials off guard, however.
Rep. Austin Scott , a Republican from Georgia, questioned the Pentagon’s statement that the decision was the product of careful deliberation. “The advance were already there. The equipment was already on the way before the decision to cancel was made, correct?” Scott asked Driscoll and LaNeve. “These are major decisions that appear to many of the members of this committee to be last-minute.”
Rep. Adam Smith , the ranking Democrat on the committee, said the committee had not been informed as to the reason for the cancellation.
“We had a great combat team ready to go to Poland and decided not to, and the only answer I’ve got is ‘Well, that’s what they told us to do,’ ” Smith said, “OK, why?”
Nikodem Rachon, an adviser to Poland president, Karol Nawrocki , said that his government wasn’t alarmed by the move because it expected the U.S. military presence in Poland to remain stable in future years, an understanding he says that was cemented when Nawrocki met with President Trump in September. Poland, Rachon added, might even receive some U.S. forces if they are relocated from Germany.
Such a step would give Trump another way to punish German Chancellor Friedrich Merz for his criticism of the White House’s handling of its war with Iran while maintaining close ties with Warsaw.
Trump told reporters earlier this month that shifting some troops to Poland from Germany was a possibility. Though Trump didn’t provide details, one option that has been discussed at the Pentagon has been to move the 2nd Cavalry Regiment, which is stationed at Vilsek, Germany, to Poland, U.S. officials said.
The move could take years and would be costly since new infrastructure would likely be needed for the regiment. But it might win broader support in Washington if Poland underwrites the costs.
Lawmakers may have an opportunity to legislate new constraints on the Trump administration’s options for removing U.S. forces from Europe when they take up the Pentagon’s $1.5 trillion spending requests for fiscal year 2027 and an anticipated separate request to cover the cost of the war with Iran.
The Congress has already enacted provisions stipulating as part of last year’s National Defense Authorization Act that U.S. force levels in Europe cannot be reduced below 76,000 troops unless a comprehensive series of assessments are provided to lawmakers on the effects on U.S. security.
The cancellation of the armored brigade’s deployment to Poland isn’t expected to take U.S. forces below that level, but future Pentagon decisions might.
“We are going to mandate that the department follows the statutory minimums that are set in statute by force posture,” Rogers said later in the hearing, “If there are attempted deviations we will remedy them and impose a pain if they aren’t complied with.”
Write to Michael R. Gordon at michael.gordon@wsj.com and Dan Lyon at dan.lyon@wsj.com
