Opening Statement (As Prepared)

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Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and to the four witnesses for the critical work you do to serve our nation.

I am glad that we are having this hearing today. For years I have listened to you and your predecessors across administrations testify that you are taking risks in your infrastructure portfolios by under-investing in sustainment. Although we’ve increased the facilities’ sustainment restoration and modernization lines annually, we’ve seen the maintenance backlog grow and our infrastructure degrade. Maintaining quality of life infrastructure has been seen as a “nice to do,” not a “must do,” by the military departments, and this has been reflected in the President’s budget requests we’ve received, regardless of which party is occupying the oval office. Maintaining adequate unaccompanied housing, child development centers, and military family housing are not elective choices, they are mandatory and a critical element of retaining the best service members in our forces. If our people are the backbone of the military, the places in which they live and work should be treated as such.

Without safe and adequate housing, we will continue to have recruiting and retention issues within the military. Military housing has been an embarrassment for quite some time. The recent GAO report highlighted the conditions in which we expect our service members to live while serving our country. I suspect that many of the Readiness subcommittee members will ask about your efforts to remedy those issues, and I look forward to hearing about how the Department is implementing the many changes to housing standards that this subcommittee required in the FY24 NDAA.

However, I would be remiss if I allowed this hearing to be solely about the risks the services have taken in maintaining quality-of-life infrastructure. Sadly, many other categories of infrastructure have suffered similar fates. Without updated and adequate organic industrial base infrastructure, we will not be able to produce or adequately maintain and sustain the parts, equipment, and weapons systems that we authorize here. The organic industrial base allows the United States to respond to mobilizations, contingency situations, or emergencies in a way that the private sector cannot.

If we do not maintain our research, development, test, and evaluation infrastructure, we cannot hope to maintain an edge against our adversaries. Our national labs employ tens of thousands of scientists and engineers whose talent and hard work spur the innovation that is critical to our success. Without state-of-the-art facilities, we will not be able to attract and retain the best and brightest to develop these technologies for our warfighters. In many ways, these categories of infrastructure are national assets, yet they are owned and sustained by individual services. Too often that has resulted in choices that sacrifice our innovation infrastructure for higher service priorities. We owe the taxpayer and our service members a genuine plan on how we are going to lift the military into modern times.

I know you share my concerns and have traveled across the United States to see our housing and infrastructure needs. At a hearing later in the year, we will have the opportunity to discuss how the Department is investing in these categories of infrastructure in the FY25 budget request. I look forward to tackling these important issues with you. With that, I yield back.

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