House Armed Services Committe
Subcommittee Chairman Ortiz' Opening Statement --May 08, 2007
"The subcommittee will come to order. This morning the Readiness Subcommittee meets to mark up H.R. 1585, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008. I would like to thank my ranking member, Ms. Davis from Virginia, for her and her staff's help in preparing this mark. I also would like to express my appreciation to the Readiness Subcommittee staff for all their work on this bill.
"Before you is a summary of the bill and report language related to areas of subcommittee jurisdiction within Titles 3, 10 and 11, 21 through 28, and Titles 33 and 34.
"Our proposed legislation for H.R. 1585 includes provisions to address readiness, depot maintenance, civilian personnel, military facilities construction and sustainment - including the upkeep of facilities at Walter Reed Army Medical Center - and environmental issues that affect the Department of Defense.
"Most significant in this mark are provisions on readiness. Readiness is the cornerstone of our nation's military. Personnel can't fight and win in combat without the funds to train, sustain, deploy and maintain equipment. As I have said on many occasions over the past year, the readiness of our forces is declining and it has fallen to dangerous levels.
"I am disappointed that the budget request failed to address all of the training and readiness requirements that our forces require. We are aware that tank miles and flying hours have been reduced and also that overall combat capability is being lost as units focus solely on the current conflict.
"We also have followed closely the declining equipment readiness posture of our services. I believe that allowing these problems to continue is short-sighted and strategically dangerous. We must have forces trained and equipped for other possible contingencies.
"To this end, we have proposed several actions. We have added funding for readiness - including $250 million for unfunded training requirements and $165 million to restore depot maintenance shortfalls. I have included a provision that will require the Department of Defense to report on the readiness of the National Guard to support the governors for homeland security and following natural disasters - such as the terrible tornado in Kansas this past weekend. Other provisions will require plans and reports to Congress on reconstituting our readiness and our prepositioned war stocks.
"The chairman's mark covers three key issues affecting DOD civilian employees. One provision modifies the National Security Personnel System (NSPS). Our language would restore employee collective bargaining rights and access to an appeals process. And it would improve the performance appraisal system and continue the exemption from NSPS for the defense laboratories.
"Two other provisions address DOD civilians working in a combat zone. We would ensure that the survivors of DOD civilians who died as a result of working in a combat zone receive the same $100,000 death benefit which is given to their military colleagues. In addition, we are asking the Department to provide us with a report on the various special pay and benefits given to federal civilian employees who deploy and to tell us what more may need to be done for these brave men and women.
"After seeing limited progress by the Department of Defense toward implementing a corrosion prevention strategy and applying policy across the Services, we have included a new provision that establishes a permanent Director of the Office of Corrosion Policy and Oversight as an independent activity within the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics. The Director would report directly to the Under Secretary instead of being three layers removed as the office is now. Corrosion is a $10 billion problem for DOD, but this year's budget provides only $14 million for the corrosion office, despite its significant achievement of $3.6 billion in lifecycle cost avoidance and a 50-to-1 return on investment.
"The provision also would require the Secretary of Defense to submit an annual report detailing the long-term corrosion prevention and mitigation strategy, the return on investment achieved by implementing the strategy, and an explanation of funding versus the requirement.
"The mark authorizes more than $21 billion for military construction, base realignment and closure, and family housing in fiscal year 2008. Those funds include money to support "grow-the-force" initiatives for the Army and Marine Corps. The Army has proposed an end strength increase of 65,000 soldiers (from 482,400 to 547,400 personnel) that will require a significant near-term investment to ensure facilities are available to accommodate new recruits and missions. This initiative represents $2.3 billion in military construction (MILCON) in FY08.
"The Marine Corps initiative increases the authorized end strength to 202,000 (from 175,000) by FY11 with the goal of achieving a 1:2 deployment-to-dwell ratio. This initiative represents a $450 million military construction investment in FY08 and will assist in preparing the infrastructure to accommodate new recruits and missions.
"In addition to this new MILCON, the mark includes funding for base realignment and closure (BRAC). Although the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2007 authorized $5.6 billion for the FY 2007 activities ordered by the 2005 BRAC round, the FY07 continuing resolution appropriated $2.5 billion, leaving a deficit of $3.1 billion. The Appropriations Committee has inserted $3.1 billion into the FY 2007 Supplemental bill to eliminate the BRAC deficit. If enacted, this will fully fund the FY 2007 BRAC 2005 account. The FY 2008 request for $8.4 billion supports an overall funding profile to complete the BRAC 2005 process by September 2011. If a delay ensues on the BRAC 2005 initiative for the FY 2007 portion, a corresponding delay in completion of the BRAC 2005 activities will occur.
"In our efforts to continue to improve conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and other health facilities critical to the care of our injured and recovering service members, the subcommittee has provided an additional $50 million for the Defense Health Program sustainment, restoration and modernization account.
"The FY08 supplemental budget request included $738.9 million for military construction projects in Iraq and Afghanistan. The subcommittee cannot support requests for projects that are permanent in nature. Utility projects represent an investment beyond the current non-permanent nature of facilities, and the subcommittee accordingly has reduced $212 million from the budget submission for power plants and wastewater collection facilities.
"The proposed FY 2008 family housing budget of $2.9 billion completes the Department's effort to fund the elimination of all inadequate domestic family housing by 2007 and puts DOD on track to fund the elimination of all inadequate overseas family housing by 2009. The Department continues to use housing privatization authorities to transfer the responsibility for construction, improvement, maintenance, and operation of on-base housing units to private-sector companies. The privatization program plans to privatize 188,000 units by the end of FY 2010 with an overall privatization goal in the United States of over 87%.
"The chair now recognizes the ranking member, Ms. Davis, for any remarks she would like to make."
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