Contact: Josh Holly; 202.226.3988
Saxton Opening Statement on the Fiscal Year 2009 Budget Request for Army National Guard and Army Reserve Equipment
Washington D.C. --- Rep. Jim Saxton (R-NJ), senior Republican on the Air and Land Forces Subcommittee, today released the following opening statement for the subcommittee’s hearing on the Fiscal Year 2009 budget request for Army National Guard and Army Reserve equipment:
“General George Casey, the 36th Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army, has testified in public hearings and spoken privately with many Members of Congress about the Army being out of balance. According to General Casey, ‘Balance is a state of continual readiness that provides strategic flexibility and depth, while sustaining the all-volunteer force and simultaneously meeting the current and future demands of the National Security Strategy in an era of persistent conflict.’ Obviously a critical piece of the readiness equation that General Casey talks about is the availability of equipment. And while I have often said, that all of the Services are out of balance, no where is that more evident than in the equipment status of our Army National Guard and Army Reserve.
“The Reserve Component has faced many additional challenges because it started this long war postured as a strategic reserve. For decades we postured the National Guard and Reserves with a Cold War mindset. We believed we could accept risk in equipping and training the Reserve Component, because we thought there would be a clear, unambiguous signal to get them ready. We also believed there would be sufficient time to field the equipment and get them trained before they would be needed on the battlefield.
“The need for a ready, well-equipped and integrated reserve component is clear. However, the shortfalls in equipment—the ‘holes in the yard’—prior to 2001 make the Reserve Component’s transition to a modernized, operational reserve particularly challenging. Although substantial progress has been made, there is much more to be done. In 2001, the Army had a $56 billion shortfall in major weapons systems and modernization funding. The Army is now on a path to reduce that to $17.4 billion by 2013. The reserve component was a large part of that number and will benefit greatly from investments being made to modernizing and equip the forces.
“I believe that if Congress is really serious about properly equipping our Reserve Components then the prudent path forward is to increase the Army’s budget. Strong national security doesn't come without a price tag. The president's Fiscal Year 2009 budget requests $515.4 billion for defense spending. The relative cost is not as overwhelming as one would think. National spending on defense as a percentage of our gross domestic product (GDP) is relatively low. This year's base budget request equals about 3.4 percent of GDP. To put this in perspective, the National Retail Federation estimated holiday sales for 2007 to also equal 3.4 percent of GDP.
“Let’s not recreate the conditions of the 1990’s which are partly responsible for putting the Army and our Reserve Components out of balance in the first place.
“I look forward to hearing from each of our witnesses today on the equipment challenges and the tools they need to get the job done for our nation. Thank you for being here with us today.”
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