DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE APPROPRIATIONS FOR FISCAL YEAR 2008 WEDNESDAY, MARCH 14, 2007 U.S. SENATE, SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS, Washington, DC. The subcommittee met at 10:35 a.m., in room SD–192, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Hon. Daniel K. Inouye (chairman) pre- siding. Present: Senators Inouye, Dorgan, Mikulski, Murray, Stevens, Cochran, Domenici, Bond, and Shelby. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY STATEMENT OF HON. PETE GEREN, ACTING SECRETARY STATEMENT OF SENATOR DANIEL K. INOUYE Senator INOUYE. Today we welcome the Honorable Pete Geren, Acting Secretary of the Army along with the Army Chief of Staff, General Peter Schoomaker. Gentlemen, thank you for being here today to review the Army’s budget for fiscal year 2008. General Schoomaker, I presume that this is your last appearance before this subcommittee and you once again head off to retire- ment. On behalf of the subcommittee, I thank you for your service to our Nation over the past four decades and in particular for an- swering the call 4 years ago when your Nation needed you once more. We wish you well in your second retirement. The Army’s fiscal year 2008 base budget request is $130 billion, an increase of $20 billion over the last year’s budget. And to put this into perspective, when you consider the terror attacks of Sep- tember 11, 2001, at that time, the Army’s budget was approxi- mately $92 billion in today’s dollars. As we review this budget request, we are mindful that the Army remains a force at war, executing operations at a pace which places high stress on the soldiers and equipment while simultaneously continuing on its path to modernization. This creates an inherent tension between meeting demands for resources in support of cur- rent forces and funding future requirements. Finding the right bal- ance is extremely difficult and it is our hope that today’s hearing will amplify how the Army is addressing today’s needs while posi- tioning itself for the future. (1) 2 For instance, the Army is investing heavily in a future combat system (FCS), a very complex, integrated transformation initiative to equip the future force. However, once fielded, this capability will only equip a fraction of the Army’s combat brigades and so this raises the questions as to how the Army will transform its remain- ing combat brigades on which you rely so heavily. Many of these units are still utilizing systems that were first fielded over 20 years ago, such as the Abrams tank and the Bradley fighting vehicle and compounding this challenge is the Army’s plan to grow its force by almost 80,000 troops over the next 5 years. These troops will have to be recruited, trained, and equipped and this will add to the Army’s challenge but also presents opportunities. So we look for- ward to hearing how the Army plans to absorb and utilize these additional forces. One concern that comes to mind is the Army’s ability to recruit and retain additional soldiers required to maintain and expand this all-volunteer force and as bonuses have facilitated this effort over the past few years but there are questions as to whether the Army will be able to continue to attract the quality men and women it needs without the emergency supplemental funds which cover these significant bonus pays. The Army is facing further challenges, such as the global repo- sitioning of its forces, maintaining readiness, and equipping the Guard and Reserves. Addressing each of these fighting the global war on terror and simultaneously transforming the Army requires us all to be mindful of how you are allocating your resources. And gentlemen, we look forward to working with you to ensure that our Army is appropriately resourced to meet each of these tasks and I’m certain the subcommittee agrees with me because I sincerely appreciate your service to our Nation and the dedication and sac- rifice that is made daily by the men and women in our Army. We could not be more grateful for what they do. Your full statements will be made part of the record and if I may now turn to the co-chairman of this subcommittee, Senator Ste- vens, for his opening remarks. STATEMENT OF SENATOR TED STEVENS Senator STEVENS. Secretary Geren, General Schoomaker, it’s nice to see you. I think this is your first time before us, Mr. Secretary and we’re happy to have you here. I’ll just ask you to put my state- ment in the record in full, if you will. It’s a very short statement anyway. [The statement follows:] PREPARED STATEMENT OF SENATOR TED STEVENS Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Secretary Geren, we welcome you in your first appearance before this committee. You have a challenging assignment and we look forward to working with you in meeting the needs of the Department of the Army. General Schoomaker, we welcome you back to the committee. I understand this will be your last hearing with us as you plan to retire next month. We must con- gratulate you and commend you for your service to this committee and our Nation. We wish you well in your future endeavors. Again, welcome to the committee. We look forward to your testimony. Senator INOUYE. Mr. Secretary. 3 Mr. GEREN. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, Senator Stevens, mem- bers of the subcommittee. It’s truly an honor to be before you as Acting Secretary of the Army. I want to thank you all for the ex- traordinary support you give to the United States Army and I know I speak for every—— Senator STEVENS. Pull that microphone toward you, Mr. Sec- retary. Mr. GEREN. Yes, sir. Pardon me? Better now? Thank you for the support that this subcommittee and the Congress has given to the Army over the years, over the decades. I know I speak for every uniform and civilian member of the United States Army when I say thank you to what you do and the support you give us. WALTER REED ARMY MEDICAL CENTER Mr. Chairman, if I could just take a moment because of the con- cern the Congress has and members of the subcommittee have ex- pressed about the situation at Walter Reed. I would like to touch briefly on some of the steps we’ve taken there before I talk about the budget, if I may. We have been working very hard as an Army to meet the needs of our wounded warriors. What happened at Walter Reed recently, we did not live up to our obligation to them and we’ve been taking steps to correct the problems that we’ve identified there and I’d like to just touch briefly on some of the things that have happened so you’re aware of the steps we’ve taken and what our way ahead is. In thinking about Walter Reed, you really need to think of two different issues. One is the issue that came to light in the press re- port, having to do with the facilities and how those outpatients, medical hold, and medical holdovers were treated at Walter Reed and then look at the bigger issue, the rest of the medical care sys- tem in the United States Army and some of the steps we’re taking to address these issues across the force and do a better job of pre- paring for the needs of particularly the outpatients and the wound- ed warriors in the future. As far as the facility that was at issue, Building 18, there are no more soldiers in that building. We’ve moved every single soldier out of that building. We’ve moved them into appropriate quarters, to the Abrams Barracks on the Walter Reed campus. These bar- racks, I have personally inspected them. They’ve got computers, they’ve got Internet connection, they’ve got telephones, televisions. They are quarters that are appropriate and the kind of quarters that these soldiers deserve to be in. We have—the future of Building 18 is still up in the air. We’re going to put a new roof on it. We’re not sure what the future of Building 18 is. We’re going to look at it and decide whether or not it’s something we need to renovate in order to meet surge capacity in the future but that’s still undone, a decision unmade. As far as immediate improvements we’ve made at Walter Reed though, to address this long term—I think the most important thing we’ve done is leadership changes. Major General Eric Schoomaker was assigned as Commander at Walter Reed the Fri- day before last and within hours, he was on the job with his com- mand sergeant major. He had his command sergeant major walk through every single room we were putting those soldiers in. 4 We have created a new position there, a deputy commanding general, which we have not had before. It’s a one star. It’s combat veteran Brigadier General Tucker and he will be the bureaucracy buster. He will be there working on behalf of the soldiers. We have created a Wounded Warrior Brigade under the leader- ship of a colonel who is also a combat veteran and he has a com- mand sergeant major whose responsibility it is to take care of the needs of those soldiers. He is on the ground. He is working with them. He has already built trust and he is their advocate and I’m confident that he is going to do what it takes to make sure that those soldiers get what they need.