WASHINGTON - Today, Rep. Michael Turner (R-OH), Chairman of the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Tactical Air and Land Forces, made the following remarks, as prepared for delivery, on the Subcommittee's hearing titled "The Effect of Sequestration and Continuing Resolutions on Marine Corps Modernization and Readiness." For testimony and to watch the hearing click here.
"The Subcommittee meets today to continue informing our members and the public about the ongoing readiness crisis that all of our military services find themselves in.
Readiness includes many things such as end-strength, training, and modernization.
Today, we will focus on how sequestration and years of continuing resolutions have impacted the Marine Corps’ ability to modernize the current force to be “ready and capable” against current and emerging threats.
We will have a similar hearing planned with the Army next week.
I’d like to welcome our witness:
Lieutenant General Gary L. Thomas, the Deputy Commandant for Programs and Resources, United States Marine Corps
General Thomas, we thank you for your service and look forward to receiving your important testimony.
Today’s hearing will allow for a much deeper review of the modernization and readiness challenges identified by the Assistant Commandant of the Marine Corps during last month’s full committee hearing on the State of Military.
Based on his testimony we know the Marine Corps is not only out of balance, but also lacks the necessary resources needed to rebalance itself.
This is a dangerous trend that we must reverse for the “Nation’s expeditionary force in readiness.”
As such General Thomas has been asked to address and identify:
the near and long-term impacts that continuing resolutions and sequestration are having on the Marine Corps’ ability to modernize and ready its forces;
- the processes the Marine Corps is utilizing to prioritize modernization requirements in order to address immediate and near-term capability gaps in a budget constrained environment;
- where the Marine Corps should be focusing its modernization strategies across the future years defense program to address the anticipated security environment; and,
- the potential resources that would be required to support these strategies.
To be clear about resources—the top line is the issue.
I support the President’s commitment to rebuilding the military, as well as his early directive to Secretary Mattis that, 'To pursue peace through strength, it shall be the policy of the United States to rebuild the U.S. Armed Forces.'
However, early reports indicate that the Administration plans to offer a budget of $603 billion for defense in fiscal year 2018.
I agree with Chairman Thornberry that a 3 percent increase above President Obama’s budget request from last year is not enough.
While we cannot repair all of the damage done as a result of sequestration in a single year, we can and should do more than this level of funding will provide.
For National Security reasons, we cannot afford to wait until 2019 to begin to rebuild our military.
I look forward to working with the Administration in order to increase the fiscal year 2018 budget to get as close as possible to the $640 billion number referenced in Chairman Thornberry’s Views and Estimate letter to the Budget Committee."