Ted Cruz thunders about what he calls a “fundamentally unserious” U.S. defense policy, but when he had a chance to weigh in during Senate Armed Services Committee hearings, he rarely showed up.

Cruz, who announced last week he’s running for president, has the committee’s worst attendance record — by far.


The Texas Republican attended just three of the panel’s 16 public hearings so far this year, according to a POLITICO review of transcripts from full committee hearings. The average committee member attended 13 of the 16 hearings, and Cruz is the only one of the panel’s 26 members with an attendance rate below 50 percent.

Cruz missed opportunities to cross-examine the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan and was absent from a session on the U.S. military prison at Guantánamo Bay — despite being a leading opponent of President Barack Obama’s decision to swap five Taliban commanders at Guantánamo for Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl. The freshman senator also missed opportunities to cross-examine officials about the effects of across-the-board spending cuts on military readiness and the appropriate levels of compensation for the troops.

The three sessions Cruz did attend were Defense Secretary Ash Carter’s confirmation hearing; a discussion on global security challenges, featuring testimony from Henry Kissinger and other former secretaries of state; and a budget briefing with the leaders of the Army and Air Force. His aides list him as attending a fourth hearing, a March 3 session on the Pentagon’s budget request for next fiscal year, but Cruz does not appear on the official transcript.

By contrast, Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who is weighing his own bid for the Republican presidential nomination, attended 11 of the panel’s 16 hearings this year, according to the public record. And Sen. Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire, often mentioned as a possible vice presidential pick on the GOP ticket, attended 14 of the 16 hearings.

Four committee members have perfect attendance records: Sens. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), Jack Reed (D-R.I.) and Joe Donnelly (D-Ind.). The panel’s chairman, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), missed just one hearing — because he was part of the president’s January delegation to Saudi Arabia to pay tribute to the late King Abdullah.

Oversight hearings are Congress’ main vehicle for forcing administration officials to defend their policies and address questions of strategy.

“It is a crucial and essential part of the role of the committee and its committee leadership to hold those hearings and bring up witnesses and subject them to cross-examination,” said former Sen. John Warner (R-Va.), who was chairman of the committee. “It is absolutely essential. I spent 30 years there and attended as many as I could possibly attend.”

Asked about the absences, former Rep. Buck McKeon (R-Calif.), a past chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said public hearings are a crucial part of a lawmaker’s job, especially on the Armed Services panels.

“For many members it is the only opportunity to learn what is going on, because they are not in as many briefings” as the committee leaders, he said in an interview. “It is hard to get to everything, but these committee hearings — especially with top Pentagon officials — these are just very important.”

New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte has attended 14 of 16 Senate Armed Services Committee hearings. | AP photo

Cruz’s aides insisted the lack of attendance is not an accurate measure of his participation in defense and foreign policy issues before the panel.

“Sen. Cruz is deeply engaged in defense and national security issues,” said his communications director, Amanda Carpenter. “He never hesitates to defend American sovereignty and has established a remarkable track record leading on these matters.”

He has introduced legislation, she noted, “to stop Americans who join ISIS from returning to the United States to wage jihad, impose sanctions on Iran to safeguard America and our ally Israel, and grant combat status for the troops who were sent overseas to fight Ebola.”

In 16 pages of background material, Cruz’s aides also emphasized that the senator’s staff monitors all hearings and provides him with summaries, noting that as a junior member, he’s often last in line to speak, and any questions he may have for witnesses might have already been asked. His aides also said that as chairman of a Senate Judiciary subcommittee, Cruz had some scheduling conflicts with his Armed Services duties.

And Cruz has gone on several trips abroad, his aides said, including a 2013 trip to Afghanistan and Israel.

POLITICO’s review looked at the 16 full committee hearings in the 114th Congress, from Jan. 6 to March 19. Not included were subcommittee hearings and classified briefings, at least six of which were held during that period. The Armed Services panel has held two full committee hearings since March 19, but official transcripts have not yet been released.

Members were counted present if they showed up at any point during the hearings, which can sometimes stretch for three hours.

Cruz’s poor attendance record could be a liability on the 2016 campaign trail, especially since national security is shaping up as a key issue — one he has often highlighted.

He told CNN last month that now is a “time of growing national security threats across the world,” and on Fox News recently, he called the president’s strategy to confront the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant “fundamentally unserious.”

The senator has also insisted that Congress must be more actively involved in national security decision-making, saying in a statement last year that it would be “unacceptable” for Obama not to seek a congressional authorization for the U.S. military campaign against the Islamic State.

Poor attendance at congressional hearings has dogged candidates in the past.

At least two Democratic Senate candidates last year had to answer for their poor Armed Services attendance: Kay Hagan of North Carolina and Mark Udall of Colorado. Both lost bids for reelection.

Hagan was accused in a campaign ad by Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) of missing “half the Armed Services Committee hearings” in 2014 — a claim the fact-checking website PolitiFact rated “mostly true.” The ad should have clarified that Hagan missed half the panel’s “public” hearings, PolitiFact said, since the committee often holds classified briefings for which there are no attendance records available online.

Tillis, who now sits on the Armed Services panel, is listed as having attended 15 of the 16 public hearings so far this year.

“If you look at what the Armed Services Committee has done so far this year in terms of hearings, it’s very important stuff,” said Richard Fontaine, a former Senate Armed Services aide and adviser to McCain who is now the president of the Center for a New American Security. “Like so much else in the Senate and life in general, there’s a relationship-building aspect to it as well.”

At times, Cruz has had strained relations with McCain, who in 2013 apologized for referring to Cruz and Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) as “wacko birds.” But the relationship appears to have improved a bit since then.

Cruz, for instance, took part in a congressional delegation last month led by McCain to the Munich Security Conference in Germany, where the Texas senator urged the president to step up the fight against the Islamic State but said he wasn’t ready to support the use of U.S. ground combat troops.

And McCain last week told The Arizona Republic that he and Cruz “get along fine,” calling him “a valued member of the Senate Armed Services Committee.”

The committee spokesman for McCain declined to comment on Cruz’s attendance.