WALTZ OPENING STATEMENT AT HEARING ON FY25 BUDGET REQUEST FOR DOD’S ENERGY, INSTALLATIONS, AND ENVIRONMENT PROGRAMS

Apr 16, 2024

Press Release

Washington, D.C.- U.S. Representative Mike Waltz (R-FL), Chairman of the Subcommittee on Readiness, delivered the following opening statement at a hearing on the military construction program and infrastructure, including barracks, housing, and range infrastructure. The hearing also covers environment and energy programs, as well as facility sustainment, restoration and modernization accounts.

Rep. Waltz's remarks as prepared for delivery:

Thank you to our witnesses for their time and participation in today's hearing to discuss military construction, housing, infrastructure, environmental and energy programs, as well as base and facility accounts. It's a vast hearing, but these issues are important. Getting it right is critical to our overall readiness.

The FY25 budget request included $17.5 billion and authorizations for more than 120 new construction projects. I look forward to discussing how these new construction efforts help meet our force posture goals and support our operational efforts. However, building the new facilities is only half of the battle. Modernizing and maintaining our existing facilities to meet future requirements must also be prioritized.

I remain concerned about funding for facilities sustainment, restoration, and modernization. Maintenance of existing facilities is chronically neglected to pay for other priorities. Disrepair of military facilities has significant impacts on everything from quality-of-life for our servicemembers to sustainment and innovation.

I won't rehash my previous comments about the unacceptable state of our barracks, but I look forward to further discussion during questions about how the FY25 budget request addresses this critical issue. I'm also interested in the witnesses' perspective on privatized barracks and whether it's a possible solution to some of the barracks issues.

On the operational side, I am very concerned the Department is not as far along as we should be given the threats on the horizon. Contested and challenged environments are the new normal; we must posture accordingly.

We must ensure our installations are not reliant on energy supplied by our adversaries. Recent NDAAs have highlighted the threat posed by our reliance on Russian energy at our EUCOM installations. Yet, the Department has dragged its feet on adhering to Congressional mandates.

I remain concerned with this Administration's focus on climate change as a national security priority. I support efforts to increase resiliency, but climate change policies cannot be an end in itself that ignore operational realities. We must remove adversaries, like China, from the supply chain of energy resilience efforts.