United States Representative Michael Waltz (R-FL), Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Readiness, delivered the following opening statement a hearing on energy, installations, and environment programs.
Rep. Waltz's remarks as prepared for delivery:
Thank you, Chairman Garamendi. I'd like to welcome our witnesses for today's hearing to discuss military construction (MILCON), environmental and energy programs, as well as base and facility accounts.
I wish we could have this important conversation after reviewing the President's budget request for FY23, but I look forward to following-up after it is released.
Even without a budget request, I appreciate the opportunity to address perennial challenges.
For too long, the services have kicked the can down the road, failing to prioritize important investments in aging and failing infrastructure.
Years of deferred maintenance have made facilities inefficient or uncapable of supporting their intended mission, which has negatively impacted readiness and retention. The very real consequences of this are on display with the recent fuel leak at the Red Hill Bulk Storage Facility that has now led to the decision to close the facility. While I support the defueling of Red Hill, I am particularly concerned that the Department's long-term plan to remediate Red Hill weakens our national security. We cannot allow our national security to atrophy because of a deficient and expedient planning process.
Failure to modernize and maintain our facilities will make them less sustainable for the future because they will either be less resilient or potentially more vulnerable to risks like extreme weather events.
I am also particularly concerned about the lack of emphasis on our soldiers and sailors. It is imperative that we provide safe barracks, free from mold and mildew. I also look forward to better understanding options for Navy and Air Force to adopt Army's privatization of lodging initiative that has been demonstrated to save at least 20%.
Being from Florida I am acutely aware of the challenges sea level rise and extreme weather pose to our installations, people, and mission.
We can prepare our military installations at home and abroad for future challenges with better planning that focuses on resilient infrastructure investments. We have made progress to this end by requiring master plans considering these risks, but we must do more
Our installations also remain largely dependent on commercial electric grids and are vulnerable to any disruptions they suffer. To protect our mission capability, I hope we continue to pursue solutions like islanding capabilities and generation from micro-reactors.
I also wanted to express my dismay at our European force structure's failure to dissuade Russian aggression. It is obvious that our Army forces in Germany should be relocated further East to Romania, Poland, and the Baltic States. Additionally, such forward basing should be done on a permanent, not temporal basis. Finally, we need to ensure our European force structure is not reliant on Russian fuels. It is time to restructure our European force posture to our new reality.
On the operational side, I am very concerned the Department is not as far along as we should be given the threats on the horizon.
We must be able to supply energy forward and sustain operations in contested environments – and to be clear, contested and challenged environments are the new normal. This will require us to shed old approaches.
The Chinese Communist Party is prioritizing supply chain disruption. We can no longer afford to admire the problem without meaningful action.
Energy demand also requires attention and better coordination within the department. As we develop future systems, the Services must work with acquisitions teams to drive efficiency at all levels.
I understand that President Biden has made climate change a national priority, but we cannot sacrifice capability. DOD published their Climate Action Plan last year, and the Services are beginning to roll out their own. As these initiatives turn to action, we must maintain a mission first mindset with solutions that are cost effective, efficient, and realistic.
As recent global events like Russian hostilities against Ukraine and the growing threat of China have made clear - we must make smart investments, and the warfighter must come first.
Finally, the FY22 NDAA authorized a historic level of spending for cleanup of PFAS contaminated military installations and surrounding areas. We all hope to see that momentum continued and sites move forward in the cleanup process. I'd appreciate an update on the efforts underway to replace AFFF and their efforts to reduce accidental releases.
I want to thank our witnesses again for appearing today and I look forward to our discussion. I yield back.
