A U.S. senator wants a Raytheon executive who was nominated to serve as a top Air Force space acquisition official to commit to impartial and ethical business dealings if confirmed to the post, according to a new letter reviewed by Defense One.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., is seeking an ethics pledge from Erich Hernandez-Baquero, Raytheon’s vice president for space intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance, according to the letter sent from her office on Tuesday. He was nominated by the White House to serve as the Air Force’s assistant secretary for space acquisition and integration in April. In her letter, Warren asked the former Air Force officer and current defense executive to recuse himself from all matters involving his former employer for four years and not to seek money from a firm tied to the Defense Department for four years after he leaves the role.
“Your relationship with a defense contractor that you served for five years as a senior executive
will raise concerns about the appearance of impartiality if you are confirmed in your new role,” she wrote. “In order to address the concerns about your conflicts, I urge you to voluntarily commit to mitigate your conflicts of interest and assure Americans that you will serve in their best interest.”
Hernandez-Baquero could not be reached at multiple numbers listed for him in public records.
Raytheon spokespeople did not return a request for comment.
Warren’s letter is part of her continued crusade against the government-defense revolving door, which ethics watchdogs have warned can lead to self-dealing and conflicts of interest within the Pentagon. She has asked for similar commitments from Lloyd Austin, who became defense secretary after serving on Raytheon’s board, and former Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Charles Q. Brown, who joined the Trump-backed drone firm Powerus shortly after being booted from the administration.
A 2023 report from Warren’s office listed roughly 700 former high-ranking defense and government officials who were later hired by the top 20 defense contractors. Federal ethics laws prohibit government employees from being involved in matters that concern their former employers for one year; the laws also prohibit being involved in deals that an employee would financially benefit from.
Warren is seeking a more substantial pledge including “committing not to work for or accept compensation for at least four years from any company that you engage with while serving” after exiting the role.
“While these laws create important guardrails, they fall short of fully addressing conflict of interest concerns: they may still allow government officials to work on matters that could affect their employers once a one-year period and full divestiture have passed, and they can be undermined by exemptions,” she wrote. “And they still allow officials to move through the revolving door by accepting senior advisory roles within the defense industry or lobbying DoD.”
