WASHINGTON - Today, Chairman Rob Wittman (R-VA), of the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Readiness, made the following opening remarks about the Subcommittee Markup...
Opening Remarks of Chairman Wittman
Subcommittee on Readiness
Today, Chairman Rob Wittman (R-VA), of the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Readiness, made the following opening remarks about the Subcommittee Markup.
"I want to welcome everyone to our Readiness Subcommittee markup of H.R. 1735, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2016.
I would like to express my appreciation to the members of the subcommittee who worked in a bipartisan manner under a compressed timeline to put this mark together. I want to especially thank my distinguished ranking member, Madeleine Bordallo, for her determination, cooperation, and significant effort to ensure we make meaningful progress in restoring and enhancing military readiness.
As many of you know, since the last National Defense Authorization Act, the Readiness subcommittee has traveled to bases and military installations all over the world, meeting with our men and women in uniform, seeing firsthand the hard choices they have had to make to cope with decreasing defense budgets. And I know I speak for both of us when I say that we are deeply concerned about the tradeoffs we are forcing our men and women in uniform to make.
I would also be remiss if I didn't remind everyone that the threat of sequestration is still out there; and while we found a short-term solution this year, Budget Control Act spending caps continue to limit the Defense Department's ability to fulfill the missions and requirements we have placed on them.
General Dempsey, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, reminded members of this committee earlier this year, that even at the President's budget-requested level of funding – which is all our short-term budget topline solution provides – still leaves us on the 'ragged edge' of being able to execute the current defense strategy.
Even the President's budget request stated that additional resources will not alleviate the stress to the force of 'severe deployment demands,' that 'recovering full spectrum readiness remains a challenge,' and that 'the Department will continue to experience gaps in training and maintenance over the near term and will have a reduced margin of error in dealing with risks of uncertainty in a dynamic and shifting security environment over the long term.'
I am pleased that this mark tries to address some of the factors that most directly impact readiness and address shortfalls and gaps, but more work remains to be done. And I know that I can count on the members of this subcommittee who share my passion to support those who serve moving forward.
Specifically, we have as a subcommittee prohibited the Department from pursuing an additional BRAC round or any other effort aimed at locking in unwise force structure reductions during a time of accelerated transition and uncertainty over future troop presence in the Middle East.
However, we do include a provision that tasks the Department to conduct an assessment of where we may be over-capitalized in facilities so Congress can make informed decisions going forward.
As you will see in our mark, and reflected in the funding tables as part of the full committee chairman's mark, we have addressed several prior shortfalls and unfunded requirements cited by the Department.
For example, we fully fund the Operation and Maintenance accounts for an 11th carrier and 10th air wing, aircraft carrier maintenance reset, and ship operations.
For the Army we also fully fund collective training exercises resulting in 19 Combat Training Center rotations for Brigade Combat Teams, fully fund Initial Entry Rotary Wing (IERW) training, and restore funding to meet 100 percent of the flying hour program requirement.
We provide the Marine Corps with additional resources to meet unfunded aviation readiness requirements to ensure adequate numbers of mission-capable aircraft and the Air Force with additional training resources for high-demand areas such as unmanned systems pilots and joint terminal controllers.
As I close, I wish to reiterate my concern that we here in Washington need to better understand how the choices we make impact those who serve and sacrifice on our behalf and for our Nation.
While I am pleased with the work we have done in this mark, we must continue to focus on restoring and protecting the fragile readiness gains made in the recovery from sequestration and senseless budget decisions."
