House Armed Services Committee
Chairman Skelton's opening statement--March 01, 2007
"Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to today's hearing on the 2008 budget request for the Department of the Navy. We welcome before us today the Secretary of the Navy, Dr. Donald Winter, the Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Michael Mullen, and the Commandant of the Marine Corps, General James Conway. Gentlemen, we appreciate your appearance before the committee today and look forward to your testimony. At this hearing we are considering the Department of the Navy's portion of three separate requests: the fiscal year 2007 supplemental, the fiscal year 2008 main budget request, and the 2008 war request. The request for this Department in the FY2008 base budget is $139.8 B dollars. When we add in funding for the wars in the two additional requests, the full request becomes $159.8 B dollars.
"In size and in content, these budgets are all serious business. This is a military at war. Our Marines are on the front line and many sailors and naval officers are serving in front line roles, as well as providing critical support. Before delving too deeply into the budget before us, let me first mention a personal note. I represent the great state in the middle of the country, Missouri, near the major body of water known as the Missouri River, which is not quite navigable for the capital ships of the United States Navy. Yet I have always been proud that my father served aboard the cruiser USS Missouri, a ship of the Great White Fleet that pre-dated the battleship made famous in World War II. I still have the hat he wore with his Navy uniform.
"My personal experience and my study of history underscore for me the importance of a strong and vibrant Navy. U.S. interests are deeply tied to maritime intercourse, especially international trade, and I believe deeply that the United States can only remain a great power if we maintain a strong Navy. We must be able to project power and to maintain presence globally in order to deter potential adversaries and reassure our friends. It is without question that certain of Admiral Mahan's key insights remain equally valid today as they did at the turn of the 19th century.
"These beliefs about the need for a Navy able to help achieve our range of national security goals drive my concerns about the shrinking size of our ship force structure. I feel like a bit of a broken record making this point every year at this hearing when every year it seems that the aggregate force size does not improve. We need to understand, Mr. Secretary and Admiral Mullen, what the plan is to accelerate the effort to increase the size of our Navy and to ensure the effort then stays on schedule. This month the Navy will get down to a low of 274 ships. For members such as myself who, not too long ago, participated in a build-up to almost 600 ships, 274 is a shocking number. Frankly gentlemen, I am not persuaded it is the right number.
"I am encouraged that in 2008, the Navy will commission 7 more ships than it decommissions and will budget for 7 more new construction ships in 2008. I appreciate the fact that this year's budget request is consistent with the CNO's long range shipbuilding plan, but I remain very concerned that cost growth in ship construction could cripple the plan as early as this year. I note that 3 of the ships in this year's request are Littoral Combat Ships from a ship class which recently experienced cost growth so severe that the Navy issued a stop work order to the contractor. Despite a cap of $220 million per sea frame that this committee imposed beginning on the 5th LCS in an effort to control costs, the budget request appears to ask for about $300 million per LCS for ships number 7 through 9. If this is right, simply put the budget plan doesn't comply with the law. Given that 55 of the ships in the long range shipbuilding plan are Littoral Combat Ships, it is critical that we get back in control of cost in that program.
"Turning to the Marine Corps, our Marines remain deeply embroiled in combat in several locations around the world, while still providing a significant portion of the nation's 9 1 1 capability to respond to unexpected events around the world. This committee is deeply committed to ensuring that the United States Marine Corps receives all of the resources it needs to succeed in its missions, and we stand ready to hear about the Marine Corps' budget and especially its unfunded priorities, which total over $3 billion in fiscal year 2008.
"On a happier note, I am very pleased to see an increase in the size of the Marine Corps funded in the 2008 budget request. I have been calling for an increase in the size of our ground forces for a number of years. I believe this increase is the right response to the security challenges currently facing this nation, and I commend the Secretary and the Commandant for this step.
"On the other hand, I remain concerned about the impact of current operations, especially the troop increase in Iraq, on Marine Corps readiness. This committee remains deeply committed to meeting the needs of our marines deployed to combat. We are especially interested in your needs for reset of equipment. This committee, in a bi-partisan effort, added almost $6 billion to last year's budget for Marine Corps equipment reset. We look forward to hearing about what your reset needs are for the coming year.
"Lastly let me mention the desire of this committee to do whatever we can to improve force protection. We have focused, among other things, on the Mine Resistant Ambush Protected Vehicle (MRAP), a program which we believe can be accelerated significantly. I hope you will address that in your testimony today.
"With that, let me recognize my friend and colleague Duncan Hunter, our Ranking Member, for any comments he would like to make."
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