Opening Statements

Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-TX), Ranking Member of the House Armed Services Committee, made the follwing remarks at a hearing of the full committee, titled "Fiscal 2020 Defense Authorization:"

"Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Secretary Shanahan, welcome to the House Armed Services Committee. You have met with the committee in other places and in other capacities, but this is the first time you have testified in this way so welcome. General Dunford and Mr. Norquist welcome back. General Dunford, I am not quite ready to let you go yet, so just be warned that you may be back in some way or another.;given what the Chairman said the complex nature of the threats and the security environment in which we all operate.

"Mr. Secretary, you may find yourself the target of a lot of criticism for decisions that you had nothing to do with today. I hope that's not the case. I, for example, share the Chairman's view that we should not take the Department of Defense resources and use it for other purposes. I know that that was not a decision you made.

"I hope that most of what we can talk about today are of those things within the purview of the Department of Defense because I agree with much of the Chairman's comments that budget uncertainty, largely because of Congress and the previous administration, has caused enormous problems for the Department of Defense and the men and women who serve. And yet we have started to make some real progress. We have had a good start in improving readiness of our forces. And all of us who have been on the committee previously have been concerned about the number of casualties and other things because of accidents which were unfortunately increasing at an alarming rate. It wasn't just because of the pace of operations. That certainly contributed - but it was also because of about a 20 percent cut in defense funding starting in 2010.

"We have started to make progress on improving our position versus peer competitors. Now we hadn't caught up where we need to be yet but- in key areas they are still ahead of us- but we have started to make progress. And we've even started to make progress in treating our people right. I think you are going to--for example, this committee is going to focus on housing issue. There are some spouse employment issues. There are still a lot of things we need to do, but when you look back the last few years on pay, healthcare, retirement, etc., we have started to make progress.

"My bottom line is we need to keep making progress. We can't slide backwards. And I am very conscious of the fact that repeatedly Secretary Mattis and you General Dunford have testified that a minimum of 3 percent to 5 percent real growth in the defense budget is necessary to continue to make progress; both on readiness and holding our own at least with peer competitors. I also note that the National Strategy Commission, which was composed of an equal number of Republicans and Democrats, looked at this for some time and they endorsed that 3 percent to 5 percent real growth.

"That's exactly what the President's budget -or just about - where the President's budget comes in at. I share the concerns about other parts of the budget and I completely agree we are not ever going to pass a $174 billion OCO, but that goes back to decisions that were made somewhere else other than the Department of Defense.

"I appreciate all three of you, and they work that you put it in. We need to be your partners to continue to make progress- on readiness, on treating our people right, on the peer competitor issues that concern us all. So we'll get into a lot of those today. Thank you all again for being here. I yield back."