U.S. Representative Vicky Hartzler (R-MO), Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Tactical Air and Land Forces, delivered the following opening remarks at a hearing on ongoing efforts to modernize conventional ammunition production across the industrial base.
Rep. Hartzler's remarks as prepared for delivery:
Mr. Chairman, I would like to thank you for your continued partnership in keeping this critical topic as a key focus of this subcommittee's oversight efforts.
I am pleased for this opportunity to be here with our witnesses again to receive an update on the Army's plans and on-going efforts to modernize the production of conventional ammunition.
As the leadership of this subcommittee, the Chairman and I have given this topic our personal attention over the past few years. In addition to the funding increases and reporting requirements this committee has sponsored in the last two NDAAs, we have personally conducting site visits to the five government-owned, contractor-operated ammunition production facilities to get a better idea firsthand of the modernization, safety, and operational challenges and needs these facilities are dealing with.
These ammunition plants are vital to nearly all munition programs for the U.S. military and the long-term defense of this nation. Many of these plants have been around since World War II and all need improvements of some kind.
Modernization to facilities and machinery, safety upgrades, and the increased reliability of ammunition production are essential for establishing and sustaining a resilient defense industrial base capable of meeting future combat requirements, while better supporting both the warfighter and our industrial base partners and workers.
As the Chairman already mentioned, in addition to increasing the ammunition procurement funding in the past 2 NDAAs, we also included a provision in the FY22 NDAA requiring the Army to provide Congress, on a five-year reoccurring basis, the Army's Master Plans and investment strategy for implementing upgrades and improvements for the 5 government-owned, contractor-operated ammunition plants.
With the first submission of the Army's plans due today, I expect our witnesses to provide an overview of these plans and their implementation status during their testimony here today.
While I commend our witnesses for your efforts in taking on and addressing the matter of modernizing these facilities, I share the Chairman's concerns that the Army continues to insufficiently fund these efforts in the base budget.
Unfortunately, the President's proposed budget for FY 2023, publicly released this past Monday, appears to be much of the same, continuing the trend of using ammunition procurement and production base support accounts as bill payers for other Army priorities.
I expect our witnesses today to address this concern, specifically providing how the Army is prioritizing modernization funding to ensure that the necessary upgrades for manufacturing, safety, and infrastructure improvements will be accomplished for this critical industrial base.
I thank the witnesses for their dedicated service and I look forward to hearing from you.
