Department of Defense Appropriations for Fiscal Year 2015
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DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE APPROPRIATIONS FOR FISCAL YEAR 2015 WEDNESDAY, MARCH 26, 2014 U.S. SENATE, SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS, Washington, DC. The subcommittee met at 10 a.m., in room SD–106, Dirksen Sen- ate Office Building, Hon. Richard J. Durbin (chairman) presiding. Present: Senators Durbin, Mikulski, Cochran, Shelby, Collins, Graham, and Coats. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY STATEMENT OF THE HON. RAY MABUS, SECRETARY OF THE NAVY OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR RICHARD J. DURBIN Senator DURBIN. Good morning. The subcommittee meets this morning to receive testimony on the fiscal year 2015 budget re- quest for the United States Navy and Marine Corps. Pleased to welcome the Secretary of the Navy, the Honorable Ray Mabus; the Chief of Naval Operations (CNO), Admiral Jona- than Greenert; the Commander of the Marine Corps, General James Amos; the Chief of the Navy Reserve, Vice Admiral Robin Braun; and the Chief of the Marine Corps Reserve, Lieutenant General Richard Mills. Gentlemen, thank you for being with us today and providing your testimony. At the outset, I would like to speak, I am sure on behalf of the entire committee, and express our condolences to the entire Navy family for the death of a young sailor late Monday night at Naval Station Norfolk, responding to a security breach on a guided missile destroyer, the USS Mahan. During the struggle, the intruder wrestled a gun away from another guard and shot the sailor. Our condolences go out to his family. An investigation is underway. And we look forward to learning more about the incident as soon as possible. For fiscal year 2015, the President’s budget requests $148 billion in base funding for the Department of the Navy. However, the re- quest does not include the Overseas Contingency Operation re- quest, which is a big concern. (1) 2 Until we receive the President’s request for plans in Afghanistan after 2014, it is virtually impossible to understand what is required to support sailors and marines serving in war zones. The Navy is making significant changes to future programs, such as requesting reduction to the number of cruisers, not funding the overhaul of George Washington, and making significant reductions in aircraft ammunitions. This causes serious concern about the Navy and Marine Corps’ ability to execute the shift to the Pacific, along with other responsibilities. In addition, we are concerned as we look across the next 5 years of budgets, as the Department of Defense added $115 billion over the BCA (Budget Control Act) caps written in law. What happens if these funds don’t materialize? Similarly, if funding for education, healthcare, and other domes- tic programs remain at sequester levels, will the Navy and Marine Corps have more challenges in finding well-educated, fit, capable young men and women to recruit? Throughout this conversation, we cannot waver in protecting our most precious asset, our people, whether it is one of the 38,000 new sailors in boot camp at Naval Station Great Lakes in Illinois, which we are very proud of, or a Marine unit rotating through Darwin, Australia. Our men and women in uniform are the finest, most skilled fighting forces in the world, and we can’t allow budget pressures to squander those skills. As the department’s senior leadership, this committee needs your guidance on a number of crucial personnel questions. How can the Navy and Marine Corps recruit and retain the best talent to deal with the challenges of the 21st century? What more can be done to address suicide and PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder)? How do we keep faith with servicemembers and their families in this budget environment? What must we do differently to combat sexual assault? I look forward to working with our distinguished panel through- out the year so that our fiscal year 2015 appropriations bill can en- able the U.S. Navy and the Marine Corps to defend our national interests around the world. We sincerely do appreciate your service to our Nation, and the dedication and sacrifice made every single day by the men and women in our Navy and Marine Corps. I thank you for your testimony this morning. Your full state- ments will be part of the record. Senator DURBIN. I am going to turn to our vice chairman, Sen- ator Cochran, and then to the chairman of the full committee, Sen- ator Mikulski. STATEMENT OF SENATOR THAD COCHRAN Senator COCHRAN. Mr. Chairman, I am pleased to join you in welcoming our distinguished panel of witnesses today. We appre- ciate their leadership. The importance of the Navy and Marine Corps role is becoming even greater with increased presence in the Asia-Pacific region. The department has earned a high level of distinction for its ac- complishments over the years, the Marine Corps, as well. And we 3 are really fortunate to have the kind of leadership that we have now in these important positions. We look forward to hearing your testimony. Thank you. Senator DURBIN. Senator Mikulski. STATEMENT OF SENATOR BARBARA A. MIKULSKI Senator MIKULSKI. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, as you know, I am here as a member of the com- mittee, but as the chair of the full committee, I want the record to note that both Senator Shelby and I are here to support our sub- committee chairman and our vice chairman, Senator Cochran, to show that the Appropriations Committee is committed to keeping America strong, to supporting its United States military, not only with words and what is in the Federal law books, but what to put in the Federal checkbook. We are going to eagerly listen to the tes- timony presented today. And we also want to note that for one member of the panel, it will be his last appearance before Appropriations, with the retire- ment of General Amos. So we want to, in the warmest, most admi- rable way, thank him for his service. We in Maryland are really proud of the Navy and the Marine Corps. We are the home of one of the oldest ships in the Navy, the Constellation, one of the oldest warships, to one of its most modern fleets, the Tenth Fleet, in terms of the cyber-fleet. We are also the home to hallmark institutions within the Navy, from the Naval Academy to the Patuxent River Navy Base. So we are a Navy State, and we look forward to continuing to support you. We, too, want to express our condolences in terms of the terrible shooting at Norfolk. I want to express my condolences to the Navy family, and especially the Naval Academy family, for the death of Will McKamey, a 19-year-old freshman who died in shock trauma of a brain trauma. But as we express our condolences, those young men would want us to make sure we have the best Navy and Marine Corps that we can. We look forward to your testimony, in both what we need in terms of its physical infrastructure, but also building its human capital. So with that, Mr. Chairman, I am eager to hear the testimony. Senator DURBIN. Let’s see if Senator Shelby has any comments he’d like to make. STATEMENT OF SENATOR RICHARD C. SHELBY Senator SHELBY. Mr. Chairman, I would like for my whole state- ment to be made part of the record. And I just want to, again, welcome the Secretary of the Navy and his distinguished colleagues here today. This is a very important hearing. It is important for us to hear on the Appropriations Defense Subcommittee and the full Com- mittee of Appropriations, but it is important to the security of this country at a crucial time. I look forward to all of your testimony and the chance to ask questions. 4 Senator DURBIN. Anyone else wish to make opening comments? Senator Collins. STATEMENT OF SENATOR SUSAN COLLINS Senator COLLINS. Mr. Chairman, in light of the time constraints this morning, I will submit my opening statement for the record. But I just want to welcome all of our witnesses, and note that Vice Admiral Braun is from the great State of Maine. [The statement follows:] PREPARED STATEMENT OF SENATOR SUSAN M. COLLINS Thank you, Chairman Durbin, for holding this hearing to review the Department of Navy’s fiscal year 2015 budget submission. This subcommittee has a number of important decisions to make, but I am hopeful that we can again produce a bipar- tisan funding bill to support our military. Secretary Mabus, General Amos, Admiral Greenert, thank you for appearing here today and please accept my thanks for your decades of collective service to our coun- try. I am generally supportive of many of the provisions in the current budget. For example, I am pleased that the administration continues to fully fund the DDG–51 and DDG–1000 programs which are essential to the future of our surface fleet. That being said, I have some serious concerns about the proposed way forward from a strategic global force standpoint. Our renewed focus on the Asia-Pacific re- gion as an area of the highest strategic interest, as well as instability in other areas of the world, call for maintaining a strong and capable surface fleet. What troubles me, however, is that rather than growing the fleet to keep pace with the threat, we seem to be headed in the opposite direction. In its fiscal year 2014 30-year shipbuilding plan, the Navy laid out its need for 306 battle force ships, a reduction from their previous requirement of 313 battle force ships.