Contact: Josh Holly (HASC), 202-226-3988
February 27, 2008 Lisa Wright (Bartlett), 202-225-2721
Opening Statement of Ranking Member Roscoe Bartlett
Hearing on Fiscal Year 2009 Budget Request for the U.S. Marine Corps
Washington, D.C. – Rep. Roscoe Bartlett (R-MD), the senior Republican on the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Seapower and Expeditionary Forces, released the following opening statement for the hearing on the Fiscal Year 2009 budget request for the United States Marine Corps:
“Mr. Chairman, I also want to thank our panel for being with us. We are very fortunate to have each of you serving our country.
“As the chairman said, today we are receiving testimony on major Marine Corps defense acquisition programs such as: the Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicle, the Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle (EFV), the LPD-17 and the V-22 Tilt-rotor program. And while all of these programs are critical, and we look forward to learning more about them, it is the MRAP that is once again in news.
“The most recent articles refer to an internal case study dated January 2008 which was highly critical over the Marine Corp’s failure to rapidly approve and field a universal urgent need statement for MRAP vehicles in February 2005. Of course, we take such allegations very seriously and have met with the Marine Corps to discuss our concerns. It is my understanding that the Marine Corps is also taking these concerns seriously and has requested the Inspector General’s office to look into these allegations, as well.
“I would like to highlight that the full committee and this subcommittee have been at the forefront of noting deficiencies with the wartime acquisition process in rapidly addressing critical warfighting needs from theater. And it was this committee, under the leadership of our chairman, that has held multiple hearings on MRAP alone. I think one thing we can all agree on is that the process was too slow and is still too slow.
“However, what I am most interested in is first, are we meeting current demands in regards to MRAP requirements, and second, has the Department of Defense captured the proper lessons learned so that improvements are made to the process that we all agree has room for improvement. How do we prevent this from happening in the future?
“I am also interested in hearing more about the Marine Corps’ number one unfunded requirement, a tenth San Antonio Class LPD. Last year, this LPD was the Navy’s number one unfunded requirement and it has only shifted to number two on the Navy’s list due to emerging repairs required for the P-3 fleet. Again, I’ll note that this committee, under the Chairman’s leadership, provided full funding for a tenth LPD in the FY 2008 national defense authorization act. Unfortunately, the funding could not be sustained through conference with the Senate. I was further dismayed to see that in FY 2009, the Navy only requested funding for shutting down the production line. With all the talk of controlling the costs of shipbuilding, I am dismayed that the Navy would request to take specific steps which can only have the effect of increasing the eventual cost of a tenth LPD and potentially increasing the cost of future platforms. It is time to put action to words. I would ask our witnesses to provide detailed rationale supporting the requirement for eleven LPDs to aid this committee in justifying additional funding for a tenth ship in the near-term.
“Again, I want to thank all of you for your service to our country. You are performing an incredibly important job for our warfighters. Thank you for being here and I look forward to your testimony.”
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