OPENING REMARKS OF CHAIRMAN WILSON

WASHINGTON, DC - Today, Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC), Chairman of the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Readiness, made the following remarks, as prepared for delivery, on the Subcommittee's hearing titled “Fiscal Year 2019 Energy, Installations and Environment Budget Request.” For testimony and to watch the hearing click here.  

"Good afternoon. The Readiness Subcommittee of the House Armed Services Committee will come to order.  I welcome each of you to this hearing the Department of Defense’s fiscal year 2019 budget request for military construction, facilities investment, environmental restoration and compliance, installation energy resilience and other infrastructure issue pertinent to the warfighter and our national security.

Today the subcommittee will hear from our witness about how the Department and the military services are posturing to meet the military infrastructure needs of this nation both today and in the future.  

Over the past several years, House Armed Services Committee leadership has led the call to provide the military with the resources needed to counter advances by our adversaries. Regrettably, years of underfunding and substantial budgetary instability have, up until now, hampered those efforts.  

I am pleased that the Congress and the Administration have worked together to provide the military what they need to begin to reverse the erosion of our military strength.  There is agreement on funding levels for defense for fiscal year ‘19.  We have a top line from which to work with, but as General Dunford said late last week in testimony before our full committee, 'we cannot reverse a decade-plus of erosion in one fiscal year.'  

Today the readiness subcommittee meets to hear how this year’s President’s Budget intends to address installation and infrastructure readiness writ large.

Across the spectrum of operations, our military installations are essential to the readiness of the warfighter, their families, and the wholeness of the various missions and support provided by our selfless DOD civilian workforce.  

While clear progress is being made in many budgetary fronts, funding across the installations portfolio remains somewhat flat, if not headed in the wrong direction in some cases, which is a cause for concern. 

Aggravating the underfunding problem, the cost and complexity of infrastructure required to support modern weapon systems such as 5th generation aircraft is consuming a growing and I believe unsustainable portion of the overall construction top line. 

I am committed to working with the Department to achieve reforms that further improve the lethality of our installations to enable our military to be more agile and more efficient.  The challenges are great, but working together, we can ensure that the military has the most relevant and effective infrastructure 'backbone' to prepare for what will meet them in the field."