Calvert Remarks at FY25 Budget Hearing for the Department of Defense

Apr 17, 2024

Statements

The Defense Subcommittee will come to order.

Today, the Subcommittee will receive testimony from: Lloyd Austin, the Secretary of Defense; General C.Q. Brown, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; and Mike McCord, the Undersecretary of Defense for Comptroller.

The Department of Defense is requesting $833 billion within this Subcommittee's jurisdiction for fiscal year 2025. This is one percent higher than the fiscal year 2024 enacted level, and would keep Defense spending within the cap imposed by the Fiscal Responsibility Act.

Which is interesting considering the non-defense discretionary request is about $23 billion over the same cap.

President Biden frequently repeats a quote from his father, "don't tell me what you value. Show me your budget, and I'll tell you what you value."

It seems this Administration will continue to value its domestic agenda over national security.

I, on the other hand, agree with former Secretary Jim Mattis, who advocated for annual three to five percent real growth in the Defense topline to both "fight tonight" and adequately invest in capabilities to deter and win tomorrow's wars.

That said, this Subcommittee will closely scrutinize the request to ensure we provide for a strong military as we develop the fiscal year 2025 defense appropriations bill.

Our job is made more difficult when our enemies are emboldened to act with impunity. Secretary Austin, with the deteriorating global security environment as a scorecard, I assess that your emphasis on integrated deterrence is failing.

China is positioning itself to realize Xi's vision of building a force capable of taking Taiwan by 2027, producing capabilities at scale and bullying our allies and partners across the Indo-Pacific. Xi is not deterred.

Russia is in the third year of its unjust war of aggression against Ukraine, with no signs of stopping its ongoing invasion attempt. Putin is not deterred.

China is waging asymmetric warfare against the American people by providing base fentanyl components to Mexican drug cartels. The fentanyl products flowing across our porous southern border killed 112,000 Americans last year and are devastating communities across the nation. The Chinese suppliers and Mexican drug cartels are not deterred.

And over the weekend, Iran, for the first time, launched a direct attack on the state of Israel. The Iranian barrage included more than 100 ballistic missiles, 30 cruise missiles, and 150 attack drones launched from Lebanon, Yemen, and for the first time, Iran itself. 99 percent of their missiles and drones were intercepted - but make no mistake, Iran is not deterred.

Unfortunately, the Department is plagued by bureaucracy that impedes the actions necessary to restore deterrence.

This is most notable in over-cost and significantly delayed weapon system acquisitions. Pick a Service and I can point you to systems that fit this mold: The Navy's Columbia and Virginia submarines are both delayed, despite being dubbed the service's number one priority; The Air Force's Sentinel experienced a Nunn-McCurdy breach; The Army spent over $2 billion developing FARA only to cancel the program;

The Space Force's GPS ground system is more than $3 billion over budget, more than seven years late and is still not delivered;

and, of course, there's the Department's entire hypersonics program, which has cost over $10.5 billion and not produced a single fielded system.

Our warfighters need modern technology now. A part of the solution must be a true commitment by the Department to embrace and adopt an agile and innovative approach to acquisition.

In the fiscal year 2024 Defense Appropriations Act, I invested in this solution by ensuring that the Defense Innovation Unit received nearly $1 billion dollars along with the flexible authorities necessary to rapidly identify, contract, and deliver innovative technologies to the warfighter.

Included in this funding is $220 million for combatant commanders to procure and rapidly field the capabilities they need most urgently. This Hedge portfolio investment is critical to addressing the emerging, dynamic, and materializing threats I discussed earlier.

This funding is separate and distinct from the Replicator effort. Fiscal year 2024 appropriations reinforced this fact by providing nearly $1 billion for DIU and more than $200 million for Replicator tranche one.

Additionally, to achieve an effective and efficient military, the Department must also reoptimize its workforce. I am pleased to see the fiscal year 2025 request includes a net reduction in civilian full-time equivalents, and I am encouraged by progress the Department is making to incorporate artificial intelligence and process automation to eliminate manual business processes. More must be done here.

Finally, our people are an asymmetric advantage that our adversaries could never replicate. They deserve the best, from barracks to business systems, and from livable wages to robust family support. I have long championed a significant boost in pay for our junior enlisted servicemembers, and I am happy to note that this seems to be a popular initiative in Congress this year.

Together with their families, our servicemembers are the foundation upon which our nation's strength is derived. Supporting and investing in them is a priority I know we can all agree on.