COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES HOUSE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE

THE MAIN CAPITOL ROOM 14 0 HARRISBURG, PENNSYLVANIA

TUESDAY, MARCH 22, 2011 10:00 A.M.

PUBLIC HEARING DEPARTMENT OF MILITARY AND VETERANS AFFAIRS

BEFORE:

HONORABLE WILLIAM F. ADOLPH, JR., CHAI^IAN HONORABLE JOSEPH F. MARKOSEK HONORABLE JOHN C. BEAR HONORABLE MARTIN T. CAUSER HONORABLE GORDON DENLINGER HONORABLE BRIAN L. ELLIS HONORABLE MAUREE GINGRICH HONORABLE GLEN R. GRELL HONORABLE TOM KILLION HONORABLE DAVID R. MILLARD HONORABLE T. MARK MUSTIO HONORABLE BERNIE O'NEILL HONORABLE HONORABLE SCOTT A. PETRI HONORABLE SCOTT PERRY HONORABLE CONTINUED:

HONORABLE JEFFREY P. PYLE HONORABLE THOMAS J. QUIGLEY HONORABLE DOUGLAS REICHLEY HONORABLE MARIO M. SCAVELLO HONORABLE CURTIS G. SONNEY HONORABLE MATTHEW D. BRADFORD HONORABLE H. SCOTT CONKLIN HONORABLE HONORABLE DEBERAH KULA HONORABLE TIM MAHONEY HONORABLE MICHAEL H. O'BRIEN HONORABLE CHERELLE L. PARKER HONORABLE JOHN P. SABATINA, JR. HONORABLE HONORABLE MATTHEW SMITH HONORABLE RONALD G. WATERS

ALSO PRESENT:

HONORABLE STEPHEN BARRAR HONORABLE KERRY A. BENNINGHOFF HONORABLE VANESSA LOWERY BROWN HONORABLE MICHELLE F. BROWNLEE HONORABLE HONORABLE PAUL I. CLYMER HONORABLE MARK B. COHEN HONORABLE TOM C. CREIGHTON HONORABLE MARGO L. DAVIDSON HONORABLE MARIA DONATUCCI HONORABLE JOHN R. EVANS HONORABLE HONORABLE RICHARD A. GEIST HONORABLE JOSEPH T. HACKETT HONORABLE C. HONORABLE MARCY TOEPEL HONORABLE MIKE VEREB

EDWARD NOLAN, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR (R) MIRIAM FOX, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR (D)

BRENDA S. HAMILTON, RPR REPORTER - NOTARY PUBLIC INDEX

NAME PAGE

OPENING REMARKS BY CHAIRMAN ADOLPH 4

OPENING REMARKS BY REP. MARKOSEK 5

MAJOR GENERAL WESLEY CRAIG 5

ACTING ADJUTANT GENERAL

TOM MINCHIN 47

NEIL APPLEBY 4 8

BRUCE FOSTER 4 9 JOHN BRENNER 51

JOHN B. GETZ, JR. 52

LARRY HOLMAN 53 P R O C E E D I N G S

CHAI^IAN ADOLPH: Good morning.

ADJ. GEN. CRAIG: Good morning.

CHAI^IAN ADOLPH: The hour of ten o'clock having arrived, I'd like to call to order the House

Appropriations Committee.

Today's budget hearing is on the Department of Military and Veterans Affairs. I would just remind everyone that if you have a BlackBerry or a cell phone on you, would you please put it on vibrate or silent.

And, General, the sound system is not the greatest there, so the closer the mike is to your mouth the better it is.

My name is . I'm the Republican

Chair of the Appropriations Committee. I -- I'm from

Delaware County, and I just want to thank you for your service to this country and this Commonwealth and everything that you do, as well as the department and all of the veterans here today.

ADJ. GEN. CRAIG: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

CHAIRMAN ADOLPH: Thank you very much. And we're very, very honored to have each and every one of you before us today.

We're going to take -- do a little housekeeping and there will be some introductions and then we'll turn the mike over to you, General.

Okay. Chairman Markosek.

REP. MARKOSEK: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

General, welcome, and I, you know, my thanks to you as well. Congratulations on your appointment.

ADJ. GEN. CRAIG: Thank you very much.

REP. MARKOSEK: And good luck to you.

We're here to help you.

Just a -- a brief moment here to introduce our staff and committee. To my right is Miriam Fox, who is the executive director of the House Democratic

Appropriations Committee.

We have Representative Scott Conklin from

Centre County, Representative Cherelle Parker from

Philadelphia County, Representative Mike O'Brien from

Philadelphia County, Representative Tim Mahoney from

Fayette County.

Also on their way is Representative Paul

Costa from Allegheny County, Representative Deb Kula from

Allegheny County.

And with that, Mr. Chairman, we're ready to go.

CHAI^IAN ADOLPH: Thank you. To my left is the House Republican Executive Director, Dr. Ed Nolan.

And I'll let the other members -- we have a special guest with us today, the Republican Chair of the Veterans and

Military Affairs Committee.

REP. BARRAR: Good morning, General.

Representative -¬

ADJ. GEN. CRAIG: Good morning.

REP. BARRAR: — Steve Barrar.

ADJ. GEN. CRAIG: Glad to meet you, sir.

REP. GINGRICH: Representative Mauree

Gingrich, Lebanon County. Welcome.

ADJ. GEN. CRAIG: Thank you.

REP. CAUSER: Representative Marty Causer,

McKean, Potter, and Cameron Counties.

REP. PERRY: Scott Perry, northern York and southern Cumberland Counties.

REP. PYLE: Representative Jeff Pyle,

Armstrong and Indiana Counties.

REP. O'NEILL: Good morning.

Representative Bernie O'Neill from Berks County.

REP. MUSTIO: Good morning. Mark Mustio from Allegheny County.

REP. SONNEY: Good morning. Representative

Curt Sonney from Erie County.

REP. PETRI: from Bucks County. REP. KILLION: Tom Killion, Chester and

Delaware Counties.

REP. PEIFER: Good morning. Mike Peifer,

Wayne, Pike, and Monroe Counties.

REP. PICKETT: Tina Pickett, Bradford,

Sullivan, and Susquehanna Counties.

REP. GRELL: Good morning. ,

87th District, Cumberland County.

REP. DENLINGER: Gordon Denlinger, 99th

District, eastern Lancaster County.

CHAI^IAN ADOLPH: Okay. Thank you.

Testifying before us today is Major General

Wesley Craig.

Major General Craig was nominated by

Governor Corbett on February 3rd, 2011. General Craig of

Oreland, Montgomery County retired in 2006 from the U.S.

Army as commanding general of the 28th Division, PA

National Guard, where he was responsible for 14,000 soldiers in 85 communities and three states and oversaw a combined budget of $635 million.

General Craig also oversaw the selection, organization, mobilization and deployment of more than

6,000 soldiers of the 28th Infantry Division to Iraq,

Afghanistan, Kosovo, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia.

It's our honor to have General Craig before us today, and without further ado, thank you for joining us.

ADJ. GEN. CRAIG: Thank you very much. If

I may, for -- we have currently 500,000 members of the

National Guard, or as of last week, overseas in Iraq and

Afghanistan. That changed on Friday with deployment of

140 additional Pennsylvania Air Guardsmen from the 193rd

Special Operations Wing here in Harrisburg and the 171st

Air Refueling Wing for which are in the western Mediterranean supporting the operations of the no fly zone in Libya. So our hearts and prayers go with those brave airmen as they're forward deployed.

And this is just a continuation of the thousands and upon thousands of Pennsylvania guardsmen who have deployed overseas ever since 9/11.

The Department of Military and Veterans

Affairs, as you know, has a dual mission both to oversee support to our veterans programs and also the manning and control of the -- the Pennsylvania National Guard and preparing them for combat operations.

We have had over 23,000 troops deployed since 9/11. 75 percent of our 19,000 personnel have been overseas at least once.

We are -- right now we are working with the

Department of the Army. We're expecting another mobilization of 3,000 soldiers of the 55th Heavy Brigade

Combat Team based in northeast Pennsylvania, with some units in Philadelphia. They will deploy early next year, and their mission is security force operations in the country of Kuwait.

I'm here to testify about the -- the state's budget which I -- I'm quite pleased with, especially the support we've gotten from our educational assistance program.

That is an extremely valuable program for us that allows us to out-compete the regular component, because we can offer a benefit that they don't have and it allows us to bring in really highly qualified, motivated young people who want to go to college and the state program pays their tuition at a state school for all four years in college.

And we have had -- we anticipate about

3,000 soldiers will take advantage of that this coming year. So it is a very important program, and I applaud the legislature for their -- their support of us in this -- this program.

We also oversee, as I mentioned, veterans facilities. We have six veteran homes, which we're quite proud of, and do an excellent job supporting veterans.

I'm sure my testimony will cover the veterans service organizations and our outreach to them.

So with that, I'll wait for your questions.

CHAI^IAN ADOLPH: Thank you. The first question would be asked by the House Republican Chairman of the Military and Veterans Affairs Committee,

Representative Steve Barrar.

REP. BARRAR: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

And, General Craig, congratulations on your appointment.

ADJ. GEN. CRAIG: Thank you.

REP. BARRAR: We truly look forward to working with you on the Veterans Affairs Committee. I know we've had a meeting and -- and things are going well.

So maybe could you give us an update on what's happening at Fort Indiantown Gap with regards to maintenance upgrades that we had discussed just very briefly in the -- in the meeting we had.

ADJ. GEN. CRAIG: Fort Indiantown Gap is, of course, our major training center. Primarily for the air -- for the Army Guard and we also have Air units there as well.

We've been working very hard. It was first with the Stryker Brigade, which brought several hundred million dollars' worth of improvements to training areas on that post. We're working real hard also upgrading the facilities, using some stimulus funding, using other funding that we've been able to get from the National

Guard Bureau upgrading the barracks, upgrading the -- the mess halls so the troops have a good place to stay.

We're quite proud of how the training post has grown and changed over the years. It has reached such a reputation that we now have regular Army units come to our post to train because we have better facilities than many of the regular Army posts themselves.

REP. BARRAR: We have several armories and -- and readiness centers. Are you planning upgrades to them?

ADJ. GEN. CRAIG: Yes, sir, we are. But -¬ but we have -- the Aviation Brigade is centered right there on the base, and that's a relatively new building.

We're looking to bring the division's aviation support battalion and build a new armory for them on that base as well.

And we have Air Guard facilities that we'd like to expand and improve. They're also on the base.

REP. BARRAR: When I first became the

Chairman of this Committee, one of the topics of discussion, a very important program, and we're not really sure where the funding stands for that, is the

Northeast Counterdrug Training Centers.

I know that's federally funded but, we haven't had an update on that. Could you give us an update on that program?

ADJ. GEN. CRAIG: Yes, sir, I can. We're fairly funded for that through the National Guard Bureau, and then in years past we -- since we found the value of that organi -- of that program, we've used earmarks to expand the reach of that program.

The earmarks are gone and, of course, we're dealing with a continuing resolution right now on the federal side, which has cut our funding in half.

We do many things with that counterdrug money, including outreach to communities, working with the local police, giving them free courses at the Gap dealing with counterdrugs. So it's had a devastating impact on our ability to continue to work on that. It's cut our funding for the program in half.

We've addressed that to the federal legislature and hope to have a better resolution here shortly. But I've talked to them myself, had my staff go down there, as well. And if any of you talk to our federal partners, that would be something we could use help on, that's for sure. REP. BARRAR: I know we were planning on coming out to the center to look at some of the programs that you provide there for this funding. Because I'm not that well up-to-date on what you're doing with it.

But I do see some of the results as being, you know, definitely worth trying to save, and we've all contacted the -- our federal legislative staffs for their help in keeping this funding.

One of the line items in the -- in the budget that kind of jumps out at you is the funding for the educational assistance program, which I -- I know is a valuable tool for the National Guard to recruit young people.

It's probably the best -- one of the best college tuition benefits out there. I know every time I get a young person that comes to my office I defend this.

The funding is increasing this year by about 125 percent which kind of jumps off the chart and everybody questions it.

ADJ. GEN. CRAIG: That's -¬

REP. BARRAR: It's a $7 million increase.

But maybe you can explain. If you have the history on that, maybe you could explain why this is receiving such a large increase. ADJ. GEN. CRAIG: Certainly. Over the last several -- the fund was set up to be self-generating and renewing every year in the tune of about $10 million, was the annual appropriation.

In the past several years, that fund -- the funding going into this has been -- has been reduced.

The use of it has continued to be at all time highs, somewhere between 2 and 3,000 soldiers and airmen every year.

So we're at a point right now where the fund is virtually down to zero. So we are faced with -¬ with -- the Department and the state is faced with the -¬ the obligation that we've already made to these soldiers and airmen.

So looking at what we think, the number of troops who are going to use, probably 3,000 this year.

The $13 million number is a right one.

And, again, I applaud the legislature and

Governor's office for -- for coming forward on this. It is a big increase, but it is a tremendous tool for us.

It gets us some really motivated young people that join our ranks.

And then, of course, there is a payback for the state because, unlike a tuition grant, this is -¬ we're paying these people to go to school, these young people, and they then are members of the National Guard for six years, which, of course, are available at the call of the Governor any time he needs us.

REP. BARRAR: I -- I know January 1, when I took this committee over, that was one of our biggest concerns, is because this is the same commitment that the

-- the state makes -- makes on any debt services, is that we promise these soldiers that -- that we would pay their tuition for them if they join the Guard, and I know I was quite alarmed and I did have a discussion with Chairman

Adolph about this program, what we could do if the funding was not reinstated.

So we're, believe me, we're all thrilled to death that that funding is there.

ADJ. GEN. CRAIG: Thank you very much for your support.

REP. BARRAR: Thank you for your testimony here today.

And thank you, Mr. Chairman, for the time.

CHAI^IAN ADOLPH: Thank you.

Chairman Markosek.

REP. MARKOSEK: Thank you, Mr. -¬

Mr. Chairman.

A couple of things first. I see we have -¬

Representative Vanessa Brown from Philadelphia has joined us as well as the staff of Representative from the Veterans Committee here. I see Jen Tyler, the executive director, and her staff are also present here as well.

I just wanted to ask a couple of basic questions about the educational funding, and it is a very substantial increase, which is good, which is a good thing.

What kind of follow-up do you have -- and if you don't have it with you here today, if you can provide it to the committee -- on the -- on how the folks who receive funding through these programs, through educational programs, how they -- how they do in terms of the number of graduates, percentage that graduates, certificates that they might earn, the accountability, if you will, of -- of having that money spent and, of course, again, this year with a substantial increase?

ADJ. GEN. CRAIG: Yes, sir. The -- it is a reimbursement to the student. So once the student verifies that they are actually a member of the university, they have to successfully complete that course and we reim -- we reimburse them.

I know in the 15 years of the program, it's about -- about a hundred million dollar expenditure that has touched about 30,000 individual grants, but I'm satisfied with what I've seen in the department already that we know they've actually taken the course and completed that course.

I do not have statistics of how many college graduates. We can look that up and get back to you on that.

REP. MARKOSEK: Okay. Were -- it wouldn't even matter if they were college, but if some people just go into programs where certificate is the goal.

ADJ. GEN. CRAIG: Yeah. They do make good use of them. As I say, it's a reimbursement program, so they actually have to successfully complete the program and also successfully stay in for six years in the Guard or they don't qualify.

REP. MARKOSEK: Okay.

ADJ. GEN. CRAIG: And if they don't, then we go back and recoup those monies.

REP. MARKOSEK: Okay. If you could provide that, we'd appreciate it.

ADJ. GEN. CRAIG: Certainly.

CHAI^IAN ADOLPH: Thank you.

Representative Bernie O'Neill.

REP. O'NEILL: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Welcome, General.

ADJ. GEN. CRAIG: Thank you. REP. O'NEILL: A couple questions. The one goes towards your veterans homes in the -- in the budget process.

In 2008 and 2009, in the previous administration, you were kind of flatlined and thrown back to the 2008 and 2009 budget status and it was -- the gap was filled in with federal funding.

Now, it's my understanding that the federal funding won't be coming anymore. So you've -- you've asked for an increase of 12.1 million, or 14.7 percent.

Is that to make your -- to make that budget line item for the homes and the work that you're doing whole?

ADJ. GEN. CRAIG: Generally speaking, yes.

Of course, we're also dealing, as you can imagine, with increased utility and maintenance costs on these homes as well.

So it is a lack of federal funding, plus the -- the utility costs and maintenance costs that I just mentioned.

REP. O'NEILL: And does that money that you're asking for, that increase, does that bring you up, back up to the 2008/2009 or does it bring you -¬

ADJ. GEN. CRAIG: It will certainly give us what we think we need to successfully operate the homes.

So we're happy with the top-end number, yes, sir. REP. O'NEILL: That what you're asking for. Okay. Great. Thank you.

And one other question. I was involved -¬ back in the '90s I was appointed by the Governor from my local community to close the naval -- the Johnsville

Naval War -- War Air Force center. So I'm very familiar with all that process, going through all that.

Butting against my district is the Willow

Grove Naval Air Station which, you know, they're very close to each other.

Can -- can you give us a quick status on that? And the reason why I ask is now there's a big issue about the runway. I'm still trying to figure out if that is going to be transferred to the Commonwealth or if that's going to be abandoned by the Commonwealth.

And it's -- it's a little different what we went through with the Johnsville War Center because you still have the Air Force there, because it was a combination of Air Force and Navy there.

So maybe you could just address that for us a little bit.

ADJ. GEN. CRAIG: Certainly can. The

Willow Grove Naval Air Station, as we know, exists with about 1,100 acres as it currently is organized.

The last naval aircraft and marine aircraft will leave the end of this month. They have a fly away ceremony, disestablishment ceremony. At that point the

Navy will continue. It has until the end of this -- yeah

-- their fiscal year, which will be the end of September to remove all their activities from the base.

So they will -- the Navy and Marines will leave by the end of September. That will leave the

Pennsylvania Air Guard as the main component, shrinking the base from 1,100 acres to 200 acres in the Air Guard area. So the 111th Wing will continue to run that area without aircraft.

Also the 56th Stryker Brigade headquarters have been built on the -- within the -- the confines of this Air Guard enclave and has already occupied their building. So they will be there.

And there is a brand new Army Reserve large readiness center being constructed as well.

So we will -- the attendant units in this

200-acre enclave will be the Pennsylvania Air Guard, the

Pennsylvania Army Guard and the U.S. Army Reserve.

The bulk, the rest of the base, the 900 acres which, includes a runway, has been -- has been -¬ if it hasn't already -- will been turned over to the

Horsham Redevelopment Authority, and then it's up to them what they want to do with it. REP. O'NEILL: That includes the runway?

ADJ. GEN. CRAIG: Yes, sir, it does.

REP. O'NEILL: So you won't be using the runway at all?

ADJ. GEN. CRAIG: No, we will not.

REP. O'NEILL: Okay. And is the Air Force leaving their area? Because down on the other -- I guess the opposite end of the base from where you're talking about is where the Air Force was. I don't -¬

ADJ. GEN. CRAIG: The Air Force Reserve has already departed, departed several years ago, but the -¬ it's on the north end of the runway where the Air Guard is. We will stay there. We're going to have some maintenance hangars still there.

REP. O'NEILL: Okay.

ADJ. GEN. CRAIG: There is a -- a parking apron which we could use for wheeled vehicles or even rotary wing aircraft.

But right now that's what it -- we are -¬ we are busy searching for additional missions for the

111th Fighter Wing. We're quite concerned with that.

What we've got initially, we -- we stood up -- what we call a red horse which is an Air Force engineering unit. They're already there. Which gives us additional capability for the stateside. We're also looking to have our Air Force's

Reserve augmentation unit for our Air Force headquarters. We'd like to change that mission, if we could. So we're looking at cyber defense, and we're looking for possibly remotely piloted aircraft. We wouldn't take off from that runway but we would control them overseas somewhere from that place. Potentially possibly even C.A.E.S.A.R. as search and rescue missions which could potentially involve several helicopters.

REP. O'NEILL: Great. Thank you. And so

I'm assuming the Commonwealth involvement is going -¬

ADJ. GEN. CRAIG: That is finished at this point.

REP. O'NEILL: Okay.

ADJ. GEN. CRAIG: It ended certainly approximately a year ago.

REP. O'NEILL: It's kind of a shame because

I was involved in that and I was asked to get involved in that and I thought it was a great idea to use that area as a hub for the entire northeast and the south from -¬ what was it -- from Washington, D.C. and all the way up to Maine? Especially in times of a tragedy and -- and being, you know -¬

ADJ. GEN. CRAIG: Right.

REP. O'NEILL: -- a hub for all the medical units and all that kind of stuff. It's a shame it didn't work out.

ADJ. GEN. CRAIG: I believe the financial pressure is what finally did it, but it certainly does have capabilities. It's a large runway.

REP. O'NEILL: Oh, absolutely.

ADJ. GEN. CRAIG: It will take anything that flies today.

REP. O'NEILL: Yes. Thank you very much.

ADJ. GEN.CRAIG: You're welcome.

CHAI^IAN ADOLPH: Thank you.

Representative Deb Kula.

REP. KULA: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

And welcome. Adjutant General. It's great to have you here. And we welcome all of the military,

I -- I assume past and present, that are here with us today. And we thank you for what you do.

Obviously as more -- as far as the National

Guard are -- are deployed, taking on more duties, can you tell us what services are provided to the families of these deployed National Guardsmen?

ADJ. GEN. CRAIG: Yes, ma'am. Our family support is very important to us, and we stand up throughout the state, what we call family action centers. And they're usually retired military contractors, and they are the one-stop shop for any family member who needs support of any kind, whether it medical -- medical support, whether it be problems with their domicile, problems with the soldier forward deployed, problems with the family left behind.

They're the family experts, and they work directly with the family readiness groups, which are our peer groups, to provide support and answer questions.

So we move these around, so when we -¬ standing up the 55th Heavy Brigade, which is primarily the eastern part of the state, we will probably surge the amount of family action centers throughout the eastern part of the state so the families have a place to go.

Because as you're quite aware, we have very small or very few active duty Army or Air Force bases in the state. So they really depend on our family action centers.

In addition, every unit that deploys will leave a rear detachment left behind and their sole -¬ they have two sole missions. One is to take care of the soldiers that didn't deploy, which are usually only handfuls, and the other is to directly take care of the families.

So we are prepared to answer any and all questions that the families have and do anything we possibly can to give them the support that they need.

REP. KULA: Well, that's -- that's great to hear. We all know that the families are -- are as involved, if not more, in providing the services that we all need.

Thank you so much.

ADJ. GEN. CRAIG: Yes, ma'am.

CHAI^IAN ADOLPH: Thank you.

Representative Gordon Denlinger.

REP. DENLINGER: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

And good morning, General.

ADJ. GEN. CRAIG: Good morning.

REP. DENLINGER: Good to have you with us.

I know as members of the -- the House we occasionally hear from veterans in our communities about the idea of a veteran's identification card, an ID card that would serve many purposes, but then we also occasionally hear the idea of putting some kind of a retired veterans indicia on the Pennsylvania state driver's license.

I'm wondering if you can share with us your thoughts on that kind of idea, the costs to your

Department of rolling out an ID card, and just what's your take on that.

ADJ. GEN. CRAIG: I know that is an item of interest of -- of a number of veterans groups. I don't have cost figures for you, but certainly it's -- it would be -- I think most veterans would view it as a recognition, as just a thank you that they did something special for the country, that they put their lives on the line when the country called.

So it's a -- it's a -- it's a good idea.

Something I would support. We could probably help support that through our -- our ID machine cards we have once we're considered and granted and told to do that.

So -- but I do not have any figures and we'll have to do some estimates and get back to you.

REP. DENLINGER: Yes. If you can give us a number and report through the chairman, that would be appreciated.

ADJ. GEN. CRAIG: We'll do that.

REP. DENLINGER: And then secondly, something that came to my attention, I understand that -¬ and I'm not sure; this may be a year ago roughly —

President Obama had initiated a meeting of leadership of the various states' National Guard departments to explore coordination, joint policies, and so forth. I understand that not all states are participating in that council.

I was wondering, I guess, as a first question, is Pennsylvania participating in that -- that effort?

ADJ. GEN. CRAIG: Sir, I believe you're referring to the Council of Governors, and the Council of

Governors is a group of ten governors nominated and actually appointed by the president, five Republicans, five Democrats.

And there's an attempt to make large -- to represent both large and small states, and their mission is to provide advice and counsel directly to the

Secretary of Defense and the Chief of Staff of the Army and the Chief of Staff of the Air Force on employment and support of the National Guard in their state.

So Governor Corbett, when he came down to the governors' conference, raised his hand and said I'd be glad to join, because there were two vacancies. He was not one of the ones selected but he continues to be interested.

I've advised him and his staff it would be great if he could get on -- on there because he is a veteran himself of the military service and understands the National Guard.

So that's a very -- they have several meetings already with Secretary Gates and he enjoyed the interplay so much he -- he's invited, in fact, ordered the Chief of Staff of the Army and the Chief of Staff of the Air Force to attend the next meeting.

They meet quarterly, and it's something we'll continue to track. It's a great program and allows us to share common ideas with our federal partners who provide most of our funding.

REP. DENLINGER: So it would be a governor who would sit in that council directly?

ADJ. GEN. CRAIG: Correct.

REP. DENLINGER: Ones who have been selected?

ADJ. GEN. CRAIG: Correct.

REP. DENLINGER: Do we have staff? In lieu of having the Governor sit there, do we have a -- a channel of information flow that connects to that?

ADJ. GEN. CRAIG: Yes, sir. That would be me, through the Adjutant Generals Association of the

United States and -- and the chief of the Guard Bureau, and that is one of my jobs, is to funnel that information directly to that body.

REP. DENLINGER: Very good. And then I guess in relation to that, we in the Assembly occasionally hear concerns about the balance under a constitutional propriety of, you know, it being

Pennsylvania's National Guard versus, you know, national interests. How do you balance that -- that tension?

ADJ. GEN. CRAIG: That's a good question.

The chief of the Guard Bureau has made the promise, which he's been able to live up to, that he will never take more of 50 percent of a National Guard from any one state on a federal mission.

Pennsylvania has had a lot of mobilizations. Most of our Army forces are members of the 20th Infantry Division. They're all combat units and they're in heavy demand.

But they've never gone over that 50 percent or really even come closer to a third. So that is the compact or the agreement that he has made with them.

And Pennsylvania, being a large state, even if we would deploy half our forces, we'd still have 9,000

Air and Army guardsmen left in the state to take care of emergencies.

So it balances out very well and even two years ago when we were at our max deployment with two brigades going, the 20th Aviation Brigade and the 56th

Stryker Brigade, my predecessor still had more than

10,000 troops in the state to take care of emergencies that may arise for the Governor.

REP. DENLINGER: In your — last question.

In your awareness, has there ever been a time when your predecessor, or anyone going back through, said to the federal government, we feel that's crossing over a line and we don't feel we can comply with the federal request?

ADJ. GEN. CRAIG: No, sir. There's never been an instance like that that I'm aware of.

REP. DENLINGER: Thank you.

ADJ. GEN. CRAIG: You're welcome.

REP. DENLINGER: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

CHAI^IAN ADOLPH: Thank you.

Representative Michael O'Brien.

REP. O'BRIEN: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Good morning, sir. Welcome.

ADJ. GEN. CRAIG: Good morning.

REP. O'BRIEN: Let -- let me follow with

Representative Denlinger's line of question if I may.

Certainly we're deeply appreciative of the foreign deployments that -- that your men and women go on.

But I think our earliest and fondest memories of the Guard are back here at home during times of natural disasters, you know, filling sand bags, preventing the -- you know, holding the flood waters back.

Could you -- could you talk for a moment, in the past year, any major emergencies that you have -- you have been deployed on?

ADJ. GEN. CRAIG: Yes, sir. There's been in the past several months two times where the Governor has done what I call a preemptive strike and about six weeks, or just as I came on board, there was some really nasty ice storms and snowstorms and we were spun up and had about several hundred soldiers on standby throughout the state where it looked like the weather would be the worst.

We did not have to deploy on any missions, but we were there ready, we had people at armories, vehicles ready to go.

And then with the storms of two weeks ago, we had the same thing. About 150 soldiers on standby and ready to go should the Governor need us.

In the past five years, I've been deployed

I guess five separate times in state active duty starting with the huge snowstorms in 1966, flooding in

Philadelphia in 1999, and a number of other times, even going back to the trucker strike of many, many years ago.

So we've been deployed frequently.

Governor Corbett has said he wants to be in front of any emergencies so he will not hesitate to give us warning orders and get us on board so we're ready to respond quicker. Because as you know, most of our force, 90 percent of our force have civil jobs and it takes awhile to assembly into the armory.

So that is greatly appreciated. Because as long as we get that lead time, we can provide much better support. And that's his cut -- his agreement and that's what he told me during my interview.

REP. O'BRIEN: Now, you responded that you have sufficient personnel -¬

ADJ. GEN. CRAIG: Correct.

REP. O'BRIEN: — to respond to this. Do you have -- do you have the -- the -- the equipment, the -- the -- the assets here at home that you would need?

ADJ. GEN. CRAIG: Yes, sir, we do. There was a time when I was division commander when a lot of our wheeled vehicles were forward deployed with our troops, stayed overseas, and we were at a point in 2004 and '05 where we were really getting critically short of many of our wheeled vehicles.

That's been fixed. We're probably of most classes of wheeled vehicles somewhere between 75 to 90 percent of what we need. Only one class, which is our smaller -- smaller dual axle truck called FMTV for family of medium tactical vehicles, yield two-and-a-half ton of years ago -- gone by.

We have about 45 percent of what we need of that. That's going to be fixed this summer with a large fielding.

So we're going to be -- I've never seen the

National Guard in my 36 years of service be this well equipped in dual use equipment that we need for emergencies here at home. So we're really in great shape.

REP. O'BRIEN: Thank you, sir, and God bless you and all of you for your service.

ADJ. GEN. CRAIG: Thank you.

REP. O'BRIEN: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

CHAI^IAN ADOLPH: Thank you.

The next gentleman who I'm going to introduce for questions we're -- we're very proud of, who is a colonel in the National Guard, Representative Scott

Perry.

REP. PERRY: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Sir -¬

ADJ. GEN. CRAIG: Representative Perry.

REP. PERRY: -- congratulations on your appointment and it is indeed a great day for the cavalry and armed branches.

That having been said, my only question is, can we find out what the status of the York or proposed

York readiness center is? Thank you.

ADJ. GEN. CRAIG: Yes, Mr. Perry. The York readiness center, as we both know, is really old and decrepit. It is on our list to get -- one of our top priority items to get redone, rebuilt completely.

Especially since the -- that was built for a unit that was much smaller many years ago. It has morphed into a much larger unit.

So I'll get you the actual time line. I don't have it right at my fingertips. But that is one of our top priorities to get done. It is probably one of our most oldest facilities now at this point and was not touched by the Stryker Brigade renovation.

So we'll get back to you with that.

CHAIRMAN ADOLPH: Representative Scott

Petri.

REP. PETRI: Good morning.

ADJ. GEN. CRAIG: Good morning.

REP. PETRI: Thank you for being here.

I wanted to ask you a question that I tend to bring up every year at this time, just to get a status. At one time I had received a lot of complaints in my district office about the veterans provisions which allow for real estate tax exemptions for disabled veterans.

And what we have found was that there was a backlog, and I was hoping you could address that today and tell us what the current status is.

Is there, in fact, a backlog and what is the average time period a veteran would wait for their forms to be processed? Assuming, of course, they complete them accurately and provide all the required information.

ADJ. GEN. CRAIG: Yes, sir, I can. That program has grown drastically in the past several years with the change in the Act which made it more -- easier and more -- allowed more people to qualify.

We currently have about 5,300 veterans who are receiving that benefit, and it's a great benefit for all their service.

We've been able to cut our backlog by a third, getting close to a half. I think we still have -¬ we're currently working on about 500 cases. So you're talking four to six months probably before we eliminate that.

I'm hopeful that within the next six to eight months we can eliminate -- almost eliminate the backlog, which is our goal.

REP. PETRI: That's fantastic news for veterans who have served faithfully to -- our country.

The other thing I wanted to talk a little bit about was at one time there was some concern or initiative to create local veteran offices or to exam the existing local veteran offices to see if they could have assistance.

And when that issue came up, a lot of representatives in -- in the House were very interested in offering their office staff and the like to supplement.

Now, in my county, in Bucks, they do a phenomenal job and don't appear at least to need assistance.

But do you have any thoughts on whether in perhaps some areas of the Commonwealth the state reps should step up to try and help process forms or at least offer their offices as services -- where other agencies can come in and service our reps on claims?

And if you could just comment on it. At one time I saw a study that showed that Pennsylvania's veterans were low as compared to other comparable states, like Virginia and the like, in receiving federal benefits.

Have we caught up in that regard? Thank you. ADJ. GEN. CRAIG: To answer the back log -¬ the second question first, yes, we have caught up a lot.

Primarily going through the funding through Act 66, employing veteran service officers, there's more than 30 of them throughout the state, members of the VFW, the

American Legion, and other fine organizations, and they work this really very hard and -- and have -- the program has been phenomenally successful.

For every dollar that the state puts in it we get $200-plus back in benefits. So it's recovered about $328 million in benefits due veterans, federal benefits due that they most of the time didn't know that they could get.

So that's a tremendously successful program. We have funding for that program again this year.

So, yes, we do have a concern in some of the more rural counties where it's hard for us to reach out and find the veterans that could be there due to distances involved. We do have help from every county.

Every county has a veterans officer, a veterans officer at their county organization. Sometimes it's dual-hatted.

But in some of the more rural counties we might be able to look and do something like that and partner with your offices. That's a generous officer -¬ offer and we'll take a look at that.

REP. PETRI: Thank you. And just a comment.

Mr. Chairman, in my experience I've found that some of my veterans actually didn't apply because they just didn't want to deal with the atrocities that they had faced, and even though they need it, benefits, we're aware, until they were encouraged to do so, they would have rather lived on the brink of poverty than receive the benefits they're due.

And for those veterans that are listening, don't feel ashamed and don't feel embarrassed. Your families and the Commonwealth love you. Thank you.

ADJ. GEN. CRAIG: And I think I'll follow up on that. Using veterans service organizations themselves, you've got veterans talking to veterans and I think they'd be much more forthcoming than with just the bureaucrats.

So I think it's a great program, and I appreciate that, and your funding of that very much.

REP. PETRI: Thank you.

CHAI^IAN ADOLPH: Thank you.

Representative Mauree Gingrich.

REP. GINGRICH: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Good morning -¬

ADJ. GEN. CRAIG: Good morning.

REP. GINGRICH: -- General Craig, your staff, and all the veterans that were kind enough to take their time out of the day to come and join us in this -¬ in this discussion.

We all pays -- place a very high priority on all the programs but certainly our -- our state veterans homes, and that becomes more challenging each day. I know that with new technologies and longevity and the number of -- of veterans we need to serve.

I have a couple questions related to that.

I, too, am pleased that your funding will be at least adequate. This budget wouldn't allow anything to be padded in any way, but functional you should be.

I was pleased to see some of your surveys, your quality service. They're wonderful.

ADJ. GEN. CRAIG: Thank you.

REP. GINGRICH: And I know one of the last times we were together that wasn't the case over the board, and it looks to me like you're doing more in a level of standardizing care to the patients.

So my concern, number one, is with staffing. I see that 27 positions will be eliminated, not just out of the veterans home service program, but overall.

Maybe you can tell me where they would be, because I surely don't want them to be medical providers of care.

And also talk to us a little bit about what -- I didn't know, but it looks like you're doing in standardizing care and therapies at least. It looks like you've made that effort there. And how that's going to be cost effective.

Because I assume that it -- it's definitely going to be efficient. Is it going to be cost effective? And will it standardize care so that the quality will be more stable throughout all of the care providers, General? I'd appreciate that.

ADJ. GEN. CRAIG: Yes, ma'am. The -- the credit goes to people who work in the homes for that highest customer satisfaction rate, led by Brigadier

General -- Adjutant General Mike Gould, who is here in the room. He's right over there.

The -- the staff that I met that works for him and the ones I'm going to get to see in the homes are very dedicated to veterans. Many of them are veterans themselves. Mike is.

So this is -- this is a very important thing to us, because we realize, being in the military service, we could be a resident of the veterans homes some day and we want it done right.

So it is -- we're quite happy with the customer service, and, yes, we are working hard to standardize care everywhere because we want the same results from every survey.

We've had an interesting -- with the reductions, the small reductions in the staff, we think we're going to be okay. We have been able to leverage a contractor to do primarily physical therapy and occupational therapy.

This allow us to basically provide those services to the members of our home at a reduced cost and gives us a surge capability, when we need to have more of this done, as opposed to having just a limited number of state employees.

So we did that. We were then able to move those people around and find them other jobs, almost all of them. This happened about six months ago, and we're quite happy with the level of care of the physical therapy and occupational therapy that has come forth.

So we'll continue to work that. That is a big issue for us. We get plenty of inspections, get plenty of people coming to inspect our homes. About 44 inspections last year in the -- in the six homes that we had, and we passed every one of them, and we're in full licensure at this point.

So we're -- Pennsylvania should be proud of the quality of care that are in our veterans homes.

REP. GINGRICH: We are, definitely. One last question. When you let those service contracts, are they bid or how do you make your decisions on, for instance, the therapy contract?

ADJ. GEN. CRAIG: Yes, they would be bid.

REP. GINGRICH: They were bid?

ADJ. GEN. CRAIG: They were bid, yes, ma'am.

REP. GINGRICH: Okay. Thank you very much for your good work.

ADJ. GEN. CRAIG: You're welcome.

CHAI^IAN ADOLPH: Thank you.

Chairman Markosek wants to acknowledge the presence of some other legislators.

REP. MARKOSEK: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Representative Maria Donatucci of

Philadelphia County is present. And also I just saw walk in, Representative Dom Costa from Allegheny County is present with us today.

Thank you.

CHAI^IAN ADOLPH: Okay. Thank you. The next question will be from

Representative John Bear.

REP. BEAR: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And thank you, General, for all you do.

The question that I had was around warrior transition centers and if the department has received any federal stimulus money or other support related to these centers to help soldiers with post-traumatic stress disorder or traumatic brain injury?

ADJ. GEN. CRAIG: We don't have any warrior transition units in this state. The nearest one, I guess, is at Fort Dix, New Jersey.

We have -- traumatic brain injury and PTS are an item of a big concern of the federal government and us as well.

They -- the VA, the federal VA has increased mental health care professionals by some 2,000 nationally because it is such an issue.

So we have soldiers that would be in long-term care that we would contact regularly, and they could be down at Walter Reed, they could be at Fort Dix,

New Jersey. They make an attempt to also get them nearest their home as they possibly can.

But that is a very important issue that has really come to light here the past several years; and seeing the level of care that was available in 2003 and what it is now, it's grown dramatically.

REP. BEAR: So basically this is strictly federally funded right now and the state does not put any funds towards those two areas?

ADJ. GEN. CRAIG: That's correct. Yes.

We -- if we identify someone like that, again we deal with long-term care as opposed to hospitals. That's primarily federal V.A. hospitals.

And they have -- I've talked to a number of my veterans when I was a division commander and many, many of them are happy with the care on those two types of injuries they get from the federal V.A.

REP. BEAR: Thank you.

ADJ. GEN. CRAIG: You're welcome.

CHAI^IAN ADOLPH: Chairman Markosek.

REP. MARKOSEK: Thank you.

Representative Matt Bradford from

Montgomery County has arrived. Sorry. I missed him in the last go-round.

But I do have another question, sir.

ADJ. GEN. CRAIG: Okay.

REP. MARKOSEK: We had the Department of

Environmental Protection in here in a prior hearing, and one of the things that they're cutting back on is some of their flood control money.

And there was a previous question here about the great work that -- that your organization does in these natural disasters, and oftentimes they are floods.

What -- have you had any conversations with

DEP? Is there any plan, additional plans on your behalf that -- that you could foresee or things that you need to plan for relative to the fact that they now have less money for flood control?

ADJ. GEN. CRAIG: No, sir. I have not talked to DEP. My conversation with other state agencies has been primarily the Pennsylvania State Police and, of course, Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency about how we can work together and so forth.

But something I'll be -- I'll engage DEP with and see what their concerns are so we can do some long-range planning.

REP. MARKOSEK: Okay. I would appreciate that. It was a great concern to many members of the committee here -¬

ADJ. GEN. CRAIG: Right.

REP. MARKOSEK: — when they were in front of us. Thank you.

CHAI^IAN ADOLPH: Thank you. General, I was surprised when I read that -- that your department has over 2,700 Commonwealth employees and 3,500 federal employees, which would make you one of the largest employers in the Commonwealth.

For the members of this committee, would you be kind enough to explain to us -- I asked all the cabinet members -- exactly where the Commonwealth employees are based and are they spread out throughout the state?

ADJ. GEN. CRAIG: Yes, sir. Most of our

Commonwealth employees are direct employees of the nurse

-- of the veterans homes. Some 1,800 of that number you gave are -- work there at the homes.

The rest of them, the next biggest concentration is Fort Indiantown Gap where they provide state -- preservation maintenance, provides maintenance and repair of the facilities there.

And then we do have a few that are scattered around the Commonwealth, primarily maintenance repairmen that work in our 85 armories and centers throughout the state.

So that's where most of the state

Commonwealth employees are. And, of course, in the

Department of Military and Veterans Affairs I have some

19,000 federally paid part-time guardsmen, which makes actually DMVA the largest state agency if you want to include all of those and most of which are paid by the federal government.

So we are indeed a bargain for the state -¬ the state of Pennsylvania.

CHAI^IAN ADOLPH: Thank you.

The Chairman of the Military and Veterans

Affairs Committee asked me, if we had some time, that we see that we have some veterans from -- from service organizations around the state, and we do have a couple of minutes before our next hearing.

I was wondering if the gentlemen behind you could come up next to you and just take a couple minutes to introduce themselves and what areas of the

Commonwealth they represent.

This time -- this way you have a little air time and say hello to your families and friends back home.

So if you would. I know you guys are -¬ you're never shy when you're here talking to us, so don't be shy in front of the cameras. Come on up and identify yourself and do this in an orderly way.

MR. TOM MINCHIN: Good morning and thank you for the opportunity. My name is Tom Minchin. I'm a representative of the Navy Club of the United States of America. I'm from the Lancaster Ship Number 166.

It is an honor and a pleasure to be here and to hear the great, wonderful things that this individual is doing for us, with us, and by us. So it's an opportunity for us to stand up and be counted.

And I applaud you for giving us the opportunity to be counted. Thank you, sir.

CHAI^IAN ADOLPH: Thank you. Thank you.

MR. NEIL APPLEBY: Am I next? Good morning, Mr. Chairman. Thank you. Neil Appleby. I wear many hats. The hat I have on this morning is my past national president cap of the Blinded Veterans

Association. And my ID badge this morning says that I am the vice chairman of the State Veterans Commission.

I have -- I'm a retired Navy Seaman, chief petty officer, retired in 1970, and retired again in

1989.

For the past 22 years, everything that I've done and continued to do to date is for love, and I'm glad to hear that -- all the good things that are said about our state veterans homes, because for 22 years I represented the Blinded Veterans Association on the advisory council at Hollidaysburg and I'm conversant with what goes on in all of the homes.

And, most recently, I was privileged to be part of the interview team when we selected some new commandants. So I guess you would just say I am a veterans advocate. Thank you, sir.

CHAI^IAN ADOLPH: Thank you. Any other gentlemen who would like to step forward and -¬

MR. BRUCE FOSTER: Good morning. My name is Bruce Foster. I represent the AAmerican Legion.

And, first, I'd like to apologize that our whole staff is down for legislative week in Washington this week.

But I want to say that we have a very positive interaction with the Department of Military and

Veterans Affairs. We are tasked with the responsibility of taking care of Pennsylvania's 988,000 veterans and -¬ and we share that responsibility with the department.

It's been a wonderful relationship.

My experience goes back -- I once worked for the department so -- about ten years. And I can tell you that over that ten-year period the department, the veteran service organizations have built a relationship where we work mutually in support of taking care of veterans.

And if I can take one single opportunity to thank you for Act 66. Act 66 is a program that is helping more veterans in Pennsylvania than anything we've ever done, and we were certainly happy, we've thanked the

Governor's budget team last week for keeping us as a line item.

The success of that program, we're working with our legislators to try to expand that program and -¬ and with the department's support, like I say, it's a mutual role to take care of veterans and -- and we certainly appreciate it.

And we're certainly -- have positive feeling about General Craig coming on board. We think that it's just going to expand our mutual relationship for helping veterans, because for a short while he was a veteran. Now he's back in uniform.

But -- you know, so I appreciate the opportunity to say a couple words, but the American

Legion is the largest veteran service organization in

Pennsylvania and we work day in and day out with the legislation and -- and Pennsylvania has -- I heard a question before about Pennsylvania's status in the United

States.

When I came to this business, we were 42nd in the United States. We're now 9th. So we're doing things right here in Pennsylvania, and it's because of the department that -- and -- and their mutual relationship with the veterans service organizations. Thank you.

CHAI^IAN ADOLPH: Thank you, sir.

MR. JOHN BRENNER: Good morning,

Mr. Chairman. Good morning, everybody. My name is John

Brenner. I'm the state adjutant for the Veterans of

Foreign Wars. I'm also the chairman of the State

Veterans Commission.

It's an honor to be here today and it's an honor to be sitting aside of General -- General Craig.

And we're so proud of the position he has now, and we're looking forward to working with him and you as we service our veterans.

Also, I'd like to just throw a couple kudos toward Michael Goll -- Michael Gould. He's done such a great job since he's taken over, and we're proud of the way he is working with our veterans, with our veterans homes, and with the veterans service organizations.

As Bruce said, Act 66, I wish you could just see the impact of what Act 66 has done to our veterans. We have two service officers sitting in our headquarters at Union Deposit, and I see the activity and the action and the -- the help that comes to our veterans as they come in on a daily basis.

And then we go to different places around the state of Pennsylvania and we service our veterans. And that's what it's all about. And we thank you for -¬ for your efforts and we look forward working you -- with you as we move forward to serve all of our veterans in the state of Pennsylvania.

Thank you.

CHAI^IAN ADOLPH: Thank you, sir.

MR. JOHN GETZ: Good morning. My name is

John Getz. I'm a past state commander of the Veterans of

Foreign Wars, and I'm currently the quartermaster of the

Veterans of Foreign Wars.

I'd like to thank you for all the help you've given us throughout the -- the years with this Act

66. Again, I need to stress that because the funding of that there is very important to our expansion of our veterans service program.

Many, many other issues that we do bring to you and when we do bring them, we'll bring them one on one. We do enjoy coming in and talking to everybody.

Looks like we have a -- a great team this year and I think everything is going to go very, very well with General Craig.

And the veterans homes and everything else that -- that we have talked about here this morning, I think a lot of us need to get down and go to them and visit them and see what we actually do down at the veterans homes.

Again, thank you. I appreciate it.

CHAI^IAN ADOLPH: Thank you, sir.

MR. LARRY HOLMAN: Good morning. I'm Larry

Holman, the executive vice president of the Pennsylvania

State Council of Vietnam Veterans of America. I'm the past president of the Pennsylvania War Veterans Council.

And I'm very pleased that we have a new administration here dedicated to the support of our veterans' issues, and I know during this whole budget process that we're going to go through, everybody is going to be considering a lot of priorities, and I want to tell you also that I'm the government affairs chairman for the Pennsylvania State Council, and so hopefully we can continue to communicate on what the priorities are from our perspective, and thank you very much for your thoughtful consideration of those.

CHAI^IAN ADOLPH: Thank you, sir.

Okay. Well, we want to thank the General for his testimony today, and we'd like to thank all our veterans, present and past, for their service to this country and to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

Chairman Markosek.

REP. MARKOSEK: I will just -- just echo the chairman's remarks. Thank you again on behalf of all you do for us, and please don't hesitate to call on us if you think there's something we can do for you.

ADJ. GEN. CRAIG: Okay. Thank you.

CHAIRMAN ADOLPH: Just remind the members that the next hearing starts promptly at eleven o'clock and we have the Pennsylvania State Police. Thank you.

(The proceedings were adjourned at

10:55 a.m.) I hereby certify that the proceedings and evidence are contained fully and accurately in the notes taken by me on the within proceedings and that this is a correct transcript of the same.

Brenda S. Hamilton, RPR Reporter - Notary Public