"The subcommittee’s Fiscal Year 2027 mark is the product of bipartisan cooperation, and continues many of our longstanding efforts, such as advancing nuclear modernization, reforming the national security space enterprise, and enhancing missile defense."
Chairman DesJarlais' Statement as Prepared for Delivery:
I want to start by thanking all the members of the Strategic Forces Subcommittee for their work this year. I would also like to thank Ranking Member Moulton for his contributions and for helping to steer the subcommittee through another season of very engaging hearings and classified briefings. The issues that fall within the jurisdiction of our subcommittee are some of the most consequential to our national security, and the dialogue we’ve had on these important topics over the past six months has been some of the best I can remember as a member of this committee.
I would also like to thank the subcommittee’s professional staff for their hard work to prepare the bill before us – Whitney Verett, Peter Schirtzinger, Maria Vastola, and Austin Richards. Finally, thank you to Lindsey Keller on my personal staff.
The subcommittee’s Fiscal Year 2027 mark is the product of bipartisan cooperation and continues many of our longstanding efforts, such as advancing nuclear modernization, reforming the national security space enterprise, and enhancing missile defense.
The broader bill authorizes full funding to keep modernizing the nation’s nuclear forces and, in particular, it supports the budget’s significant increase in funding to invest in the Department of Energy’s scientific and production capabilities upon which our nuclear deterrent depends. It also includes legislative proposals developed with the executive branch to improve acquisition flexibility for the Air Force’s ICBM programs and the National Nuclear Security Administration. And it refocuses statutory requirements related to plutonium pit production on the long-term needs for the nation to continue to field a modern and effective nuclear deterrent.
While the funding for the President’s Golden Dome initiative falls within the Department’s request for mandatory funds, this bill authorizes significant increases in FY27 for many programs across the services that will contribute to the architecture and broader missile defense efforts, including space-based sensing, development of the Next-Generation Interceptor, and Standard Missile 3 – Block II-B procurement. The committee also added additional resources to accelerate the Glide Phase Interceptor program, which is critical to addressing hypersonic threats both to the homeland and to our forward-deployed forces.
In space, we require the department to designate a single official to provide oversight of the vital Positioning, Navigation, and Timing Enterprise. Additionally, the mark removes duplicative bureaucracy that has only served to slow down the development of technology and implementation of a new PNT strategy. We also allow the Space Force to streamline redundant space acquisition organizations to build on the progress made last year to reform acquisition processes and remove bureaucracy.
Finally, I’m happy to support the historic increase in funding for the Space Force specifically. This much-needed increase allows them to bring online the next generation of systems necessary to fight and win in space and supports the new missions we as a nation are asking of them.
