Mike Rogers

Republican lawmakers on the House Armed Services Committee on Friday confronted Army leaders over the Pentagon's abrupt cancellation of a 4,000-troop rotation to Poland, with Chairman Mike Rogers, R-Ala., saying the committee was given no statutory consultation before the decision and warning that allies and Congress alike were blindsided.

The cancellation pulls a heavy armored brigade from a long-planned mission on NATO's eastern flank just as some of its soldiers and equipment had already reached Europe.

The unit at the center of the dispute is the 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, based at Fort Hood, Texas.

It had been preparing for a monthslong rotation, with an advance element and gear already in Poland, when War Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered the deployment scrapped this week.

The brigade is one of the Army's premier armored formations, fielding M1 Abrams tanks, Bradley Fighting Vehicles, and howitzer artillery systems.

At Friday's hearing, Army Secretary Dan Driscoll and acting Army Chief of Staff Gen. Christopher LaNeve struggled to give the panel a clear timeline or rationale.

Pressed by Rep. Austin Scott, R-Ga., Driscoll said the rotation was canceled "just a couple days ago," while LaNeve said the decision came together over the "last two weeks."

Neither could explain why.

"These are major decisions that appear to many of the members of this committee to be last-minute decisions," Scott said.

Rogers told the witnesses, "We don't know what's going on here, but I just tell you we're not happy with what's being talked about, particularly since there's been no statutory consultation with us."

Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., said a Polish official called him Thursday about the cancellation.

"They called me yesterday. They did not know. They were blindsided," Bacon said, calling the handling "reprehensible."

LaNeve told the committee the head of U.S. European Command "received the instructions on the force reduction" and that it "made the most sense for that brigade to not do its deployment in theater."

The cancellation lands two weeks after the Pentagon announced the withdrawal of 5,000 U.S. troops from Germany over the next six to 12 months, a decision Rogers and Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss., criticized.

In a joint statement, the two said "prematurely reducing" U.S. forward presence in Europe risks "sending the wrong signal to [Russian President] Vladimir Putin."

The moves follow an October 2025 decision to pull the 2nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team of the 101st Airborne Division out of Romania without replacement, another step the two chairmen opposed.

Democrats also pressed for answers.

Ranking member Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., said the witnesses offered no strategic explanation: "We had a brigade combat team ready to go to Poland, decided not to, and the only answer I've got is, 'Well, that's what they told us to do.'"

Rep. Marilyn Strickland, D-Wash., said the cuts signal "that we are not a reliable ally."