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COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE HEARING STATE CAPITOL MAIN BUILDING ROOM 140 HARRISBURG, PENNSYLVANIA THURSDAY, MARCH 3, 2016 PRESENTATION FROM DEPARTMENT OF MILITARY AND VETERANS AFFAIRS BEFORE: HONORABLE WILLIAM F. ADOLPH, JR., MAJORITY CHAIRMAN HONORABLE JOSEPH MARKOSEK, MINORITY CHAIRMAN HONORABLE KAREN BOBACK HONORABLE GARY DAY HONORABLE GEORGE DUNBAR HONORABLE KEITH GREINER HONORABLE SETH GROVE HONORABLE SUE HELM HONORABLE WARREN KAMPF HONORABLE FRED KELLER HONORABLE TOM KILLION HONORABLE JIM MARSHALL HONORABLE DAVID R. MILLARD HONORABLE MARK T. MUSTIO HONORABLE MICHAEL PEIFER HONORABLE JEFFREY P. PYLE HONORABLE MARGUERITE QUINN HONORABLE CURTIS G. SONNEY HONORABLE MIKE VEREB JEAN DAVIS REPORTING 285 EAST MANSION ROAD • HERSHEY, PA 17033 Phone (717)503-6568 1 BEFORE (cont.'d) 2 HONORABLE MATTHEW D. BRADFORD HONORABLE TIM BRIGGS 3 HONORABLE DONNA BULLOCK HONORABLE MARY JO DALEY 4 HONORABLE MARIA DONATUCCI HONORABLE JOHN GALLOWAY 5 HONORABLE STEPHEN KINSEY HONORABLE MICHAEL H. O'BRIEN 6 HONORABLE MARK ROZZI HONORABLE KEVIN SCHREIBER 7 HONORABLE PETER SCHWEYER 8 ALSO IN ATTENDANCE: 9 DAVID DONLEY, REPUBLICAN EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR 10 RITCHIE LaFAVER, REPUBLICAN EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR CURT SCHRODER, REPUBLICAN CHIEF COUNSEL 11 MIRIAM FOX, DEMOCRATIC EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR TARA TREES, DEMOCRATIC CHIEF COUNSEL 12 HONORABLE DOM COSTA HONORABLE CRIS DUSH 13 HONORABLE MARK GILLEN HONORABLE MAUREE GINGRICH 14 HONORABLE PAT HARKINS HONORABLE BARRY JOZWIAK 15 HONORABLE JOHN LAWRENCE HONORABLE DAVE MALONEY 16 HONORABLE JOE PETRARCA HONORABLE MIKE REGAN 17 HONORABLE RICK SACCONE HONORABLE CHRIS SAINATO 18 HONORABLE JUDY WARD 19 20 JEAN M. DAVIS, REPORTER NOTARY PUBLIC 21 22 23 24 25 2 1 I N D E X 2 TESTIFIERS 3 NAME PAGE 4 ANTHONY J. CARRELLI, BRIGADIER GENERAL, 4 5 ACTING DEPUTY ADJUTANT GENERAL 6 MARK AUSTIN, DEPUTY, 12 BUREAU OF FACILITIES & ENGINEERING 7 JERRY BECK, RETIRED, BRIGADIER GENERAL, 14 8 DEPUTY ADJUTANT GENERAL, VETERANS AFFAIRS 9 DEE McPHERSON, DEPUTY, 44 OFFICE OF ADMINISTRATION 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 3 1 P R O C E E D I N G S 2 * * * 3 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN ADOLPH: Thank you. 4 If I could have everyone's attention. Thank you 5 very much. 6 I'd like to reconvene the House Appropriations 7 Committee Budget Hearings for the Fiscal Year '16-'17. 8 The next testifiers are with the Department of 9 Military and Veterans Affairs. 10 Gentlemen, lady, I want to first thank all of 11 you, all the brave men and women, involved in your 12 Department that have served this country and State. We 13 certainly appreciate everything that you do. 14 Sorry for the delay. But these hearings 15 sometimes run a little longer than we expect. 16 I will first turn the mike over to you, sir. 17 And you can identify yourself and the lady and gentlemen 18 that are with you at the table. 19 BRIGADIER GENERAL CARRELLI: Thank you, Mr. 20 Chairman and Committee. 21 My name is Brigadier General Tony Carrelli. And 22 I'm the Acting Adjutant General of Pennsylvania. 23 The staff that I have here with me today, 24 starting on my far left, Brigadier General Tim Hilty. 25 He's the Assistant Adjutant General for the Pennsylvania ------------------------------------ 4 --------------------------------- 1 Army National Guard. To my immediate left, Ms. Dee 2 McPherson, she's our Deputy for the Office of 3 Administration; to my immediate right, Brigadier 4 General, retired, Jerry Beck, our Deputy for Veterans 5 Affairs; and to his right, Mr. Mark Austin, our Deputy 6 for Facilities and Engineering. 7 In the interest of time, I'll just abbreviate my 8 statement so that we can get to the questions. I'll 9 just read you the brief introduction. 10 The Department of Military and Veterans Affairs' 11 Fiscal Year '16-'17 budget will help build a stronger 12 Pennsylvania by providing vital State support for our 13 Pennsylvania National Guard and our Veterans' programs. 14 I believe our budget enables the Department to 15 advance on several fronts and continue to provide the 16 high level of services our veterans expect and deserve. 17 DMVA has two missions. With regard to Veterans 18 Affairs, DMVA oversees and manages the programs to 19 provide for benefits and assistance to an estimated 20 nearly 917,000 veterans in Pennsylvania. 21 The Pennsylvania National Guard trains and 22 conducts domestic operations under the command and 23 control of the Adjutant General and the Department when 24 it is not in active Federal service. 25 The Pennsylvania National Guard is the only ------------------------------------ 5 --------------------------------- 1 military force shared by the State and Federal 2 Governments. In both of these missions, the DMVA works 3 in close partnership with the Federal Government, 4 including the Department of Defense and the U.S. 5 Department of Veterans Affairs, to carry out its dual 6 mission for the Commonwealth and the nation. 7 DMVA is one of Pennsylvania's top ten employers 8 with approximately 2,700 Commonwealth employees and 9 20,000 National Guard members/Federal employees in more 10 than 90 communities statewide. 11 The Governor's executive budget proposes a state 12 budget of $443 million of which only $149 million are 13 state appropriated. 14 I'd like to thank the Committee for the 15 opportunity to present this written report on the fiscal 16 and operational issues affecting the DMVA. As a result 17 of the commitment of Governor Wolf and his 18 Administration, our Agency faces the challenges of the 19 future with the confidence that we can prevail. 20 We can help build a stronger Pennsylvania for 21 our veterans to prosper and the Pennsylvania National 22 Guard to maintain its force structure and capabilities. 23 Ultimately, we are humbled by the opportunity to 24 work with and serve heroes, including our veterans and 25 those who serve in our Pennsylvania National Guard. 6 1 We look forward to your questions. 2 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN ADOLPH: Thank you very much, 3 General, for your comments. 4 Chairman Markosek for some welcoming comments as 5 well. 6 MINORITY CHAIRMAN MARKOSEK: Thank you very 7 much, Chairman. 8 General, lady, and gentlemen, thank you for 9 attending today. 10 I want to echo the Chairman's thoughts, really 11 thanking you for your service and thanking all of the 12 veterans, about a million veterans, I guess, in 13 Pennsylvania that we have. We can't thank them enough. 14 Publicly, I want to say that and welcome you here today. 15 We look forward to your testimony. 16 BRIGADIER GENERAL CARRELLI: Thank you, sir. 17 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN ADOLPH: General, as is the 18 custom, Chairman Markosek and I, we invite the Chairmen 19 of the standing House Committees. And today we have the 20 Democratic Chair of the Military Affairs Committee, 21 Representative Chris Sainato. 22 Unfortunately, Representative Steve Barrar could 23 not make it. But well in advance, I received a letter 24 from Chairman Barrar on January 14th explaining to us 25 his disappointment that he could not be here and that ------------------------------------ 7 --------------------------------- 1 he's looking forward to working with you. 2 He also asked if it would be permissible for the 3 subcommittee of the standing committee to ask a couple 4 of questions that Representative Barrar wanted to ask. 5 Being a very nice person, I agreed to that. 6 And I thank Chairman Markosek as well. 7 So I'd like to introduce, for the first time at 8 an Appropriations hearing, as a questioner, Subcommittee 9 Chair Rick Saccone. 10 REPRESENTATIVE SACCONE: Thank you, Mr. 11 Chairman. 12 And thank you, General Carrelli, for all of your 13 testimony and for all of your service of you and your 14 staff here, both current and past. 15 BRIGADIER GENERAL CARRELLI: Thank you. 16 REPRESENTATIVE SACCONE: I'm really proud of our 17 Pennsylvania Guard. I think Pennsylvanians don't 18 realize how important you are and the services that you 19 provide for our State and our country. So thank you for 20 that. 21 BRIGADIER GENERAL CARRELLI: Thank you. 22 REPRESENTATIVE SACCONE: With that, I just want 23 to ask this one question. If you can give us an 24 assessment of the current status of our military 25 facilities and the infrastructure as it relates to BRAC. ------------------------------------ 8 --------------------------------- 1 That's always a concern almost every year for us. And 2 if you could also speak to the health of our veterans' 3 homes, which I think it's vital that we take care of our 4 veterans. There's many more veterans in need than we 5 can actually take care of. 6 But if you could give us an update on those 7 facilities, too, it would be appreciated. 8 BRIGADIER GENERAL CARRELLI: Yes, sir. 9 And I will tell you I just got back from a 10 meeting of all the Adjutant Generals within the country. 11 We also got to discuss with some of the senior leaders 12 of the Army and the Air Force a lot of the current 13 issues that we're dealing with. 14 Of course, force structure and the way ahead on 15 force structure and BRAC, we're part of the 16 conversations. And from what we were briefed, basically 17 there does not -- the Department of Defense is still 18 looking to BRAC. They're saying — the Department of 19 the Army themselves are saying that they have 20 to 30 20 percent excess facility structuring. So they, of 21 course, are looking forward to doing a BRAC. 22 And as you well know, it seems like every 23 defense budget time, they've proposed that as a proposal 24 to help them cut costs.