House Armed Services Committee
Subcommittee Chairman Ortiz' opening statement--January 31, 2007
"This hearing will come to order. I thank our distinguished witnesses for appearing before these subcommittees today. We appreciate all the Army is doing to try to keep our soldiers equipped for combat.
"Today the Readiness and Air Land Forces Subcommittees will hear about the Army's reset program. Reset means, for the civilians among us, what will it take to fix and re-supply the Army so they are ready to fight.
"Since November 2001, operations in Afghanistan - then in Iraq - have taken a significant toll on the Army's equipment. A significant portion of the Army's armored vehicles, trucks and aircraft deployed to combat are operating at a high operational tempo under difficult environment conditions.
"These factors, along with battle losses, are reducing the overall equipment readiness of the Army.
"To fix this the Army has implemented the reset strategy or repair, recapitalize and replace damaged and destroyed equipment. The Army must accomplish this program efficiently in order to quickly restore the full equipment readiness of the Army.
"This committee understands the need for a successful reset. To that end, we authorized the full $17.1 billion requested by the Army to fund reset in fiscal year 2007 and also to catch up from previous year shortfalls.
"Last week, General Schoomaker testified that the Army has obligated $10 billion of those funds. While I am pleased to hear that $10 billion has been obligated, my concerns remain. Obligating money will pay for the work to be done but it will not immediately fix the equipment.
"It is vital that the Army move as quickly as possible not just to obligate the funds for reset but to also quickly re-equip units with new and repaired equipment for combat.
"In yesterday's Washington Post, General Speakes voiced concerns about the challenges the Army faces equipping units needed to support the five brigade sure proposed by the President. We recognize that it will be difficult to fully out fit surging units and we are also very concerned about the effect this additional equipment will have on reset and ultimately the Army's readiness.
"It is obvious that increasing from 15 to 20 brigades of combat equipment will put more equipment into the repair pipeline and reduce equipment in non-deployed units and propositioned stocks. I hope our witnesses will discuss how the troop escalation in Iraq will affect the reset in both dollars and time and what measures are being taken to mitigate these effects.
"We all understand that how quickly you execute reset - actual repair and replacement, not how just quickly you pay for it - will determine how quickly the Army will be whole again and fully prepared for any challenge.
"I look forward to hearing your testimony."
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