Budget Hearing – National Guard and Reserve Forces

Good morning. Uh, subcommittee on defense will come to order. Uh, we have a number of members are gonna be straggling in there's various mark-ups up so I apologize for that. But uh to keep everybody uh on time we'll go ahead and begin the subcommittee hearing. Uh, today the subcommittee will convene for an open budget hearing to receive testimony on the national guard and reserve forces we're pleased to be joined by our witnesses general stephen nordhaus chief of the national guard bureau lieutenant general robert harter chief of the army reserve and commanding general us army reserve command rear admiral uh uh i mean uh lower half richard s loughran acting chief of the navy reserve lieutenant general Leonard Anderson, Commander of the US Marine Corps Reserve and Lieutenant General John Healy, Chief of the Air Force Reserve. A warm welcome to you all and thank you for your years of distinguished service. I want to congratulate Lieutenant General Healy on his upcoming retirement this summer. The men and women of the National Guard and Reserves play a critical role in supporting our national security efforts at home and abroad. They sustain peace and respond to crisis whether managing California wildfires or strengthening the international relationships through the state partnership program. The department's counter-drug program remains a key priority of mine and the work done through the National Guard Counter-Drug Program and National Guard, uh, Counter-Drug Schools program continues to have an incredible impact on our communities. Our military force structure depends on ability of guard and reserves to surge when called. We ask a lot of them, particularly this past year, as demonstrated by their role in Operation Epic Fury. I would like to take a moment to acknowledge the Guardsmen and Reservists, as well as all service members who have made the ultimate sacrifice serving our country in this uh in this conflict. With heightened requirements, they're tasked with balancing both the civilian career and their military service. It's important our Guard and Reserves are properly resourced, and that we continue to support them and their families. In fiscal year two thousand twenty-seven, for the first time, the President's budget request includes funding for the National Guard and reserve equipment account. The committee has long supported the Guard and Reserves here, and we look forward to hearing more about how this change will impact your modernization efforts. I'd also like to hear from all of you on how your c- the components are you're thinking about on uh modernization. current capability gaps, areas where Congress can be helpful and additionally the Guard and Reserves uh require proper uh facilities to address uh growing mission requirements. I look forward to hearing more about the the conditions of your facilities and the resource uh needs uh for your services. I now recognize the distinguished ranking member Miss McCollum for her opening remarks.

Thank you, Mister Chair. Good morning. Thank you all for appearing before the subcommittee. And I'd like to um reflect the statements made by my my chair and some of the things that he has said about the work that you do. I wanna also expend uh a special thanks to Lieutenant General Uh Healy. Thirty six years of service, greatly appreciated, and we know your family served alongside of you. Thank you, sir. Wanna begin by acknowledging as the chair did the loss of our thirteen service members in the Middle East, several who were reservist and National Guard personnel. But I'll take a moment to just reflect on on the on the service of Master Sergeant Nicole Amor of uh White Bear Lake, Minnesota. Um I appreciate the way the army and the reserve managed to get a very special person home for the funeral. It was so important for the family. Thank you very much for your work in making sure that it happened. And um I know the reserve and and the guard back in Minnesota are working together to support the family as well the VFW and American Legion. Know that we're all deeply grateful for your service. Our National Guard and Reserve components are called upon to support a variety of critical missions, including humanitarian missions, overseas operations,

Mm-hmm.

and the increase to support the Southwest border mission and the Guard in particular, the state partnership programs through through many activities. Each reserve unit is truly an operational partner with their active conduit active component. This is the first time in the administration's fiscal twenty twenty seven budget includes funding for the National Guard and Reserve equipment account, an account that Congress normally provided the funding for. So I think we're making some progress, Mr. Chair. Thank you for all your work on that. Unfortunately, we do not yet have the supporting documents um from the administration to understand the details of the request. So I'm concerned that the division of funds in this account may leave some of the reserve components lacking the equipment they so desperately need to properly execute their missions. In the past, this account was dynamic look at each of the components and their needs, especially for their future missions. So I would appreciate each of you sharing with the subcommittee what these funds will be used for and whether your modernization priorities are being met by the budget request. I'm also concerned about the status of readiness for some of the forces, and I'll tell you why. Um each of you has described the work the reserve components that were can and glove with your active duty uh counterparts.

Mm-hmm.

We know that firsthand and we see it when we're in theater. However, picking up waste in the District of Columbia does not prepare anyone for conflicts that could arise in Europe Asia and the Middle East. Given the Supreme Court's decision of December twenty third which left in place a lower court decision to prevent the administration the National Guard to Illinois. I'm hopeful that we will not see any additional unnecessary deployments of our military personnel in US city streets. I was curious about the two hundred and sixteen million dollars in the budget for the National Guard reaction reports. This is supposed to respond to incidents requiring defense support for civil authorities. General Nordes, I'd like to better understand the use of this funding and how it will be chosen and why it's necessary after the Supreme Court's November decision. Given the announcement of the number of troops still deployed on the southern border mission, I would also like to better understand how it will continue to impact the readiness of these units and how their missions may be impacting morale and retention. And finally, I'd like to understand the impact of the civilian workforce reductions in last year. What is now being done by the Guard and Reserve components to compensate for the civilian personnel cuts. And what does it do to impact their ability to train? Serving your country on top of managing a civilian job, in many cases, supporting a family, is one of the highest forms of service. You are truly putting country above faith itself with the people that you are representing today with your seats at the table. Thank you all for your efforts and I look forward to a productive dialogue.

Thank you. Um, I think uh we're gonna have a Button zero. Several more members uh coming in uh shortly. Uh but we're going to now uh begin with our witness testimony. Without objection, your full written testimony will be placed in the record. Uh General Nordhaus, we begin with you for a brief summary of your remarks. You're recognized.

Thank you. Before I provide my opening remarks, I ask that we remember too our fallen service members from across the joint force. who have made the ultimate sacrifice for our country, uh they will always be remembered. Chairman Calvert, Ranking Member McCollum, and esteemed members of the subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to testify today on the strength of your locally based, globally engaged National Guard. I thank the fifty-four Adjutants General and Senior Enlisted Leader, John Raines, here with me today for their counsel. Moreover, I want to thank you, Congress, for your support that underpins everything we do. ensuring a stronger and more secure tomorrow. It's an honor to represent four hundred and thirty-five soldiers and airmen of the National Guard. Today, over forty-one thousand guardsmen are engaged worldwide, securing our homeland and supporting every combatant commander around the globe. Your National Guard has had a remarkable year defined by scale and simultaneity of operations. We are powered by our core advantage, the citizen, soldier and airman. they combine the warrior ethos with civilian acquired skills creating an organization that is as innovative as it is lethal a force that is community-based and engaged worldwide. Defending the homeland is the department of war's number one priority. This is the national guard's foundational mission our dual mission serving the primary combat reserve of the army and the air force while also serving as the military first responders and domestic crisis. This is a challenge that we proudly accept. Without hesitation, during Operation Midnight Hammer and Epic Fury, the National Guard crews delivered decisive blows to Iran in lockstep with their joint force partners. In Operation Absolute Resolve, the National Guard fought against narco-terrorism. And daily we responded in the homeland to only two point four million hours of direct support to our fellow citizens. Your National Guard is an indispensable return on investment for America. We represent twenty percent of the joint force, yet we operate on less than four percent of the department's budget. Our decisive capabilities are only possible in our citizen soldiers and airmen when we are trained on modernized equipment and fully interoperable with our joint force. To sustain strategic dominance, we must modernize concurrently with our services to aggressively outpace and overmatch tomorrow's threats with robust investments today. This year I remain laser focused on sharpening our fighting edge to increase our Guardsmen readiness and bolster our capabilities for our core missions for homeland, warfighting and partnerships. We must train and modernize in lockstep with the active components. This requires sufficient and predictable resources in flying hours, weapon system sustainment, facility sustainment, base operations support and in GRIA. When we use these resources to serve our citizens in state active duty current policy sends these force these funds back to the treasury we ask your support in restoring that readiness directly back to our formations our war fighters are our most critical asset and to support their service we must enact duty status reform and compensate equal work with equal pay and benefits and it is imperative that our war fighters are supported by a modernized and properly resourced full-time force The strength of our citizens, soldiers and airmen is amplified through a network of partnerships, which begins in hometowns and reaches across the globe. The jewel of this effort is the state partnership program, which connects the department with nearly sixty percent of the world's country at merely one percent of the theater security cooperation budget. Your help with flexible multi-year budget authority will allow us to sustain the pace of these highly effective engagements. While threats are unpredictable, our readiness is not. We are an indispensable part of the joint force, built to respond with speed, power and precision. We are stronger together because we are integrated at every level. In closing, I want to again thank this committee for your unwavering support that ensures a secure tomorrow for all Americans. Let us continue to support and pray for our warfighters in harm's way. We stand by them and their families and are thankful for their service. We will always keep our promise to the nation and to our citizens to be always ready and always there. Thank you and I look forward to your questions.

Thank you. Thank you, General. Uh, General Harder, you're now recognized for your remarks.

Chairman Calvert, Ranking Member McCollum, and distinguished members of this committee. Thank you for the opportunity to be here today. On behalf of Command Sergeant Major Greg Betty and the more than one hundred and eighty thousand soldiers and civilians of your army reserve, Thank you for the support of our warrior citizens and their families. For just six percent of the total army budget, the army reserve provides over half of the army's maneuver support forces, including the majority of theater level medical engineer and systemic units and more than ninety-five percent of the bulk distribution field capacity in support of the joint force. You go, we go. That's my message to my active duty teammates. Right now nearly nine thousand army reserve soldiers are deployed supporting army and joint force requirements both at home and around the globe, to include support of Operation Epic Fury and operations on our southern border. Our soldiers are in the fight. To keep pace with emerging threats and to prepare for large-scale combat operations or LISCO, we are transforming. The foundation of this transformation is our shift to Geographic Mission Command. a model that replaces a C two structure built for predictable G watt deployments with a geographic alignment that better supports readiness for large scale combat operations. Additional transformation efforts include aligning army reserve units with active formations to drive integration and placing key equipment forward in Europe and the Pacific training and operating as we will fight. To ensure our soldiers and units remain ready I ask for your help in three key areas. First, predictable funding. Continuing resolutions and government shutdowns have huge readiness impacts, and the and the part-time nature of our force makes missed training days nearly impossible to recover. Second, your continued support of our OMAR and RPA funding. In a major conflict, more than thirty-five thousand Army Reserve soldiers are required within the first sixty days. We must be ready. Third, continued support of the much appreciated National Guard and Reserve Equipping Account, or NEGRIA, which allows for flexible procurement of critical equipment. And seven, March of this year, my Command Sergeant Major and I were on the tarmac in Dover, Delaware, greeting our six fallen Army Reserve heroes as they returned home from the CENTCOM AOR. And Congressman McCollum, thank you for being there, your support of Nicole and her family and our and our our whole Army Reserve enterprise. More than thirty Army Reserve soldiers were injured in that or wounded in that same attack. We honor their sacrifice. And it affirms our resolve to ensure every Army Reserve soldier receives counter drone equipment and training at pace with the Army in joint force. To that end, we've dedicated nearly a third of our negrita appropriation to counter UAS systems and will continue to invest in these lifesaving technologies. In closing, while we are your Army Reserve, We are not a force in reserve. We are in the fight. The resources you provide are critical to ensuring the young men and women of your Army Reserve stay combat ready. Thank you for your time today and I look forward to your questions.

Thank you, General. Uh, Admiral Lofgren, you're now recognized for your remarks.

Good morning, Chair Calvert, Ranking Member McCollum, and distinguished members of this committee. For a hundred and eleven years, the Navy Reserve has provided a critical strategic depth to the fleet and the joint force. When our nation calls, we answer. ready, lethal and all in to fight and win today. We are building the Navy of the future and defining the next era of American sea power. Today we are resilient, agile, globally present in a combat credible force that is fully integrated into the Navy's mission. With me today is our Force Master Chief Nikki Rios, a tireless advocate for our sailors and their families. Forrest and I thank you for the opportunity to address this committee on behalf of our incredible Navy Reserve sailors. Over the past couple months in support of Operation Epic Fury, our Logistics Support Wing, flying the C-forty and C-one-thirty aircraft have evacuated over twenty eight hundred personnel including families out of harm's way and demonstrated critical aerial refueling capabilities for our Navy while supporting carrier strike group logistics. These same squadrons have delivered thousands of pounds of critical cargo and tactical airlift support to South Com protecting our homeland and safely relocating our teams out of the path of Hurricane Melissa. When our nation and our fleet calls, the Navy Reserve answers, delivering logistics when and where they're needed. Your support for the K one C one thirty Juliet's and the President's budget will ensure we can continue to answer that call with the capability and capacity our nation requires. Our North Star is clear. We are unambiguously focused on warfighting readiness. Today, fourteen thousand of our fifty-nine thousand Navy Reserve sailors are on active duty orders. serving in every area of responsibility. Our sailors are deployed twenty four seven three sixty five, restoring peace through strength while advancing the foundry, the fleet, and how we fight. We continue to modernize our force and align our resources to war fighting priorities, ensuring that we are ready to fight and win today, tomorrow, and well into the future. Our most significant contribution in the nation's defense and the very foundation of our deterrence posture is our people. A lethal, ready and resilient force is not built of steel and circuits alone. It's forged from the talent, the training and the motivation of our sailors. Therefore, I ask for your full support in funding the RP N, the OMNR and the career appropriations at the president's budget levels. These accounts enable our force to recruit and retain the very best that America has to offer through pay bonuses and benefits and like you, our talent lives in your communities. To ensure they are always prepared, RPN provides the travel budget to get our people to where the fighting forces train. Negria affords the Navy Reserve agility in rapidly procuring and implementing equipment solutions that provide parity with active duty equipment and fill critical mission capabilities. Our investment in our sailors is critical to enabling a mobilization and combat ready force. Every dual weekend, every exercise, every mobilization must sharpen our edge. and must be mashed by investment in modern equipment. To this end, we are posturing our force to deliver advanced combat-focused capabilities that the fleet demands. Replacing our aging C-one-thirty Tango fleet with a modern KC-one-thirty Juliet Super Hercules aircraft meets the fleet's demand to enable contested logistics and sustain maritime power. As I've shared with many of you, our C-one-thirty fleet, operated exclusively in the Navy Reserve, is the Navy's only long-range intra-theater airlift of oversized cargo. Last year, the fleet logistics support wing moved over seventy-two thousand passengers and twenty-two million pounds of cargo, delivering critical munitions, repair parts, personnel and fuel, sustaining carrier strike groups in every theater around the globe. RC one thirty squadrons are in the fight from the first minute of the first hour of the first day. However, this fleet is aging and lacks modern survivability and communications equipment needed for contested logistics environments. We are grateful for the strong bipartisan alignment on this priority. Chairman Calvert, Ranking Member McCollum, and the members of the committee, thank you for your continued support of the Navy Reserve and the sailors, civilians, and families who make our mission possible. Our commitment is clear, to enhance the fleet's lethality and war-fighting readiness by delivering decisive capabilities at the point of need. I look forward to your questions.

Thank you, Admiral. General Anderson, you're now recognized for your remarks.

Good morning, Chairman Calvert, Ranking Member McCollum, distinguished members of the subcommittee. Uh, thank you for the opportunity to testify on behalf of the Commodata Marine Corps about your Marine Corps reserve. I am joined here today by my incoming command senior enlisted leader, Sergeant Major Patrick Fey. The Marine Corps reserve is a critical component of our nation's defense. We are not a strategic reserve held for distant crises. We are a globally engaged operational force that provides the Marine Corps with strategic depth and the ability to augment and reinforce the active component on a moment's notice. Our relevance is defined by our readiness. Providing combat ready units to global operations, the reserve seamlessly integrated into the total force. In fiscal year twenty twenty five, we activated reserve marines for requirements across five combatant commands. Today, we have marines activated in every geographic combatant command, to include combat operations in CENTCOM. These deployments are not just a measure of our readiness, but it is how we build it. We are growing a more capable, combat-seasoned reserve force prepared for high-end conflict. This level of readiness and modernization is directly enabled by your support. We thank this subcommittee for your continued support, especially through the National Guard and Reserve equipment account. For the Marine Corps Reserve, Negria is not just a funding line, it is a war-fighting requirement and a primary tool that enables our modernization. These funds allow us to field the modern platforms and systems our Marines to, that need they train as they fight. With a ninety-nine percent execution rate across recent fiscal years, the Marine Corps Reserve has proven its ability to execute with discipline and speed while maintaining our services clean audit for the last three years. Reserve readiness requires modern infrastructure. The Marine Corps Reserve occupies a hundred and forty-eight reserve training centers, across forty-seven states, and the average condition of our portfolio is rated as poor. While we aggressively pursue efficiencies through programs like facility sustainment restoration and modernization and military construction, navy reserve, to slow this decline, the disparity between our requirements and resources is growing. Continued support for our military construction and sustainment accounts is essential to provide safe, secure, and modern facilities where our marines train. Because at the heart of our success are the individual Marines, sailors, and families who serve with unwavering dedication. They are the foundation of our readiness. With your continued support, I am confident that the Marine Corps Reserve will remain what our nation expects us to be, an elite, combat-ready force, prepared to answer the call, any climb, and place. Thank you for the opportunity to testify today, and I look forward to your questions.

Thank you, General. Uh, General Healy, you're now recognized for your remarks.

Chairman Calvert, Ranking Member McCullum, distinguished members of the subcommittee, it's an honor to be here today, one last time with my senior enlisted advisor, Chief Master Sergeant Israel Nunes, representing sixty seven thousand Air Force Reserve airmen. We are a strategic advantage and a cost in- effective investment. Not a backup force by any shape or or means. Our airmen's unmatched experience provided the strategic depth to deter our adversaries. Our partnership builds interoperability with our allies and partners, and our recent surge proves we are always ready and accessible to respond to any crisis in less than seventy-two hours. This is the reserve advantage. When properly resourced, we're a cost-effective solution for the Department of the Air Force in all mission areas. We operate our installations twenty-eight days a month on just twenty-five percent of our force delivering mission-ready airmen for only thirty cents on the dollar. FISC year twenty-five's closeout was our best on record. Your support and our data-driven tools enable precise resource management and risk-informed decisions. The Air Force Reserve is efficient, it's experienced, it's accessible, and most of all, it's lethal. We need your support to maintain this advantage. Seventy-seven percent of our fleet is over thirty-nine years old. Supply chain shortages, threatened aircraft availability, and a one point five billion dollar backlog means requirements are rapidly outpacing resources. And GRIA is critical and to the modernization agility and maximization of our force and our purchasing power. I look forward to the discussion on the change from dedicated congressional appropriation to inclusion into the President's budget. We're currently hollowing out our nation's future combat capability through disproportionate divestment. Yeah, yeah. Over the FIDEP, the Air Force Reserve is projected to lose twenty point one percent of our inventory, a significant imbalance compared to the other components. Our number one priority has always been and will remain concurrent and proportional fielding of advanced aircraft. As our crews prove their value right now in Operation Epic Fury, disproportionate divestment is an unnecessary risk to national security. That security hinges upon our seamless interoperability, With our allies and partners, recent operations have proven this is an urgent necessity, not a choice. Now in its second year, our Reserve and Allies Partner program continues to build interoperability. While operating on a near zero budget, we've conducted seventy-one strategic engagements last year, including formal partnership agreements with the United Kingdom and France, while establishing new security cooperation pathways with the Netherlands and the Philippines. prioritizing this program is a cost-effective investment that enables our allies to share the burden of strategic deterrence. Finally, I'd like to say thank you, this last opportunity to the c- for your continued support of the Air Force Reserve and our war fighters. I'd also like to thank my wife, Cathy, with me today, who's unwavering support for the men and women and the families of the Air Force Reserve, and to me, deserves a note in this record. Thank you again. Look forward to your questions.

thank you general and thank you this your last uh last hearing i'm sure you're you're gonna miss them a whole lot so

still mark it on the calendar for next year

there you go that i'd like to recognize the chairman of the full committee uh chairman kohl

thank you very much uh mr. chairman i wanna apologize to you and our guests uh for being a little late uh the ranking member and i were elsewhere discharging our duties and uh we got here as quick as we could uh but again we apologize for any inconvenience. Again, I wanna thank you uh Chairman Calvert and Ranking Member McCollum. Uh, I wanna welcome our distinguished witnesses and thank you all for your dedicated service with the National Guard and Reserve components of our force. Let me begin by expressing gratitude to the men and women of the National Guard and the Reserve. You have the difficult task of balancing both civilian and military life. This unique structure gives us an adaptable force, ready to respond. excuse me whether it's deployments abroad uh or disaster response or helping secure our borders you're vital to our national defense and our communities i can't thank the units of the of uh the oklahoma national guard enough for their swift response and assistance every time a tornado strikes uh our communities from the deadly f five uh tornadoes that struck my own hometown more twice many years ago to the most recent tornadoes struck uh the town of sulfur in my district the search and rescue operations and hands-on assistance uh provided by these men and women the national guard uh provide truly encompassed uh what it means to serve i'm proud to say that uh we're continuing to advance regular order further insuring a large omnibus bills are a thing of the past importantly we will also have the opportunity to evaluate your funding priorities alongside the budget request today's hearing is an important forum for you to discuss current readiness, resource constraints and priorities for our guard and reserve components. In just this past year, we've seen clear examples of both the guard and reserve components serving as essential force multipliers, across a range of missions. Uh, we owe it to you to ensure that federal funding reflects your operational demands and the critical dual roles that you serve. I also look forward to hearing about uh the ongoing challenges with recruitment and retention along with efforts to modernize equipment and facilities we require a candid dialogue about your requirements and how congress uh can be a true partner in strengthening our guard and reserve forces quote always ready always there it's not just a motto but a promise you have proven time and time again that you take seriously and fulfill to the letter whether you're in oklahoma or serving abroad uh our guardsmen and reservists deserve to know we have your back again mr. chairman i wanna thank you and i wanna thank uh particularly our witnesses for their service and uh their distinguished uh uh you know uh efforts to uh to help our country and keep it safe and secure without a yield back

thank you mr. chairman now i'd like to recognize the chairman uh the ranking member of the folk of may

thank you very much mr. chairman and ranking member mccollum an Really big thank you to our witnesses uh for testifying here. Today's a lot of brass here, huh Jeff? You know, it's not intimidated though, you know, so Uh, let me just address a few topics this morning. The first is the manner in which our National Guard troops are being treated. I have to extend my thoughts to the entire Guard community, and especially the families of National Guardsman Sarah Beckstrom, who was killed in a senseless act of gun violence. and National Guardsman Andrew Wolf, who was seriously injured. This should never have happened, and the individual responsible must be punished according to the law. Since August of last year, the National Guard has been deployed to Washington DC at the direction of the president in what I view as a political stunt that has gone on for far too long. The president has the National Guard patrolling around the nation's capital, directing tourists, picking up trash. To be clear, these guardsmen have been nothing but professional since they were sent here. My problem is that they should not have been, not have to do this. It is not a responsible use of resources. The National Guard are crucial to supporting military operations around the world and assisting s assisting with emergency response at home. When a severe storm devastates a community, it is the National Guard who respond with tents, blankets, medical equipment, food and water. They are often the first sign of hope for many who have just endured, perhaps, the worst ordeal of their lives. Guard forces are also routinely deployed to support combat operations overseas. Roughly five hundred members of the Connecticut National Guard are deployed in the Middle East. And I am so grateful for their service to our country. And I want to make sure that they have what they need and that they are safe. In his budget, President Trump requests an additional six hundred and five million dollars for continued National Guard deployments in Washington DC. And news reports indicate that he intends to keep the National Guard in the capital until he leaves office. Every day and every dollar spent keeping the National Guard here takes away from where they are needed elsewhere. We should not be fabricating crises just to keep the Guard busy. In addition to the National Guard, please let me take a moment to express my appreciation for our Reserve Forces as well. The Reserves play a crucial role in our armed forces. They provide critical logistical mobility and nuclear mission support. Nine Reserve service members have lost their lives during the war with Iran. Thirteen servicemen have been killed. Nine of them were reservists. I offer my deepest condolences to their families and express a profound sadness at what is a tragic loss. It is critical that we in the Congress provide the resources necessary to support the men and women of our National Guard and Reserve Forces. i look forward to hearing your answers to our questions today thank you and i yield back

thank the ranking remember um i now will go to uh to questions uh we'll hopefully get around to everybody so we'll limit it to five minutes i'll start with myself uh first make a comment uh we all uh as i've heard the the comments about predictable funding uh and i know that's important to all of you and uh i can i think say with a with support on on both sides here that we none of us like continuing resolutions and so uh we're gonna work hard to with the full committee chairman here and the and the ranking members who have worked very hard together to make sure that we have that predictable funding and that we hopefully can avoid uh continuing resolutions um one of the issues that uh that's been important uh i live on a border state state of california that's been extremely important is uh is the counter drug program and and I appreciate the impact it's had uh in our communities. Uh Congress provided three hundred and five million for the National Guard counter drug program in fiscal year twenty-six and provided critical funding for training and operations. And we've also provided an additional thirty million for the National Guard counter drug school program, provided necessary education support combating uh drug trafficking efforts. As you know Hundreds of thousands of Americans have died of fentanyl poisoning over the last number of years. Uh, it's a horrible poison as I call it. And uh, this unfortunately has been inflicted upon uh the American population. So I I appreciate what you're all doing and General Nordhaus, how is the National Guard utilizing these resources to disrupt and de- and degrade illicit drug production to make our community safer?

chairman uh thank you for the question and thank congress uh holistically for the additional funds in this um counter drug program last year the national guard counter drug program took off fifteen billion dollars of illicit drugs uh supporting our law enforcement can't imagine how many lives that it's saved and families that has been uh kept together because uh those drugs have been taken off the street sixty nine thousand other law enforcement agencies and uh agents have been trained uh through the counter drug school program which are funded through uh congress so we cannot thank you enough uh each of the states have a counter drug program and each year it's taken a look at of how they can better it to increase what they're getting after what's in the local area whether it's fentanyl or other drugs and how they can work with their local uh law enforcement agency so each year we tune it up we get better and stronger the previous year uh we took off thirteen billion dollars and last year at fifteen billion dollars so every dollar you give the national guard you're getting huge bang for your buck because our guardsmen are professional they're experienced they use their civilian skill sets uh and come into those programs and make us stronger

well thank you and i i it's a lot of important missions that you do but i i think this is right on top of the list so i appreciate anything you can do to to do this um what uh what uh general again uh what priorities do you have in the coming years we write this budget this year uh if you had to pick uh your top two or three priorities what would that be

uh chairman uh certainly as we look at foundational readiness accounts to be an always ready always there force and as you heard from the other reserve component chiefs here we're operational and when you look at what the national guard is doing in support of the joint force over in uh operation epic fury uh we have to be ready um and trained and the foundational readiness accounts really add to that so that deals with flying hours weapon system sustainment and ops tempo um also as we look at modernization we have to be in modernized equipment whether it's helicopters or whether it's fighters tankers uh bombers or mobility aircraft we have to have those capabilities uh and gria once again does a amazing amount that allows us to make sure that we're interoperable um across the board with our uh services and uh i know how important you heard all the comments from andria so that would be uh my initial comments there chairman

thank you miss mccullough

thank you mr. chair i've got uh two two kind of topic questions and you can get back to me with more information uh should you choose to but i wanna finish up a little more about what I said in my opening statements about the deployment of the National Guard. So, um, the information that we have is that six hundred and five million dollars, uh, for the extended deployment of the National Guard troops for non-military activities for the beautification of Washington DC. Uh, and I assume those activities will support America, uh, as we celebrate two hundred and fifty years. And so they're here now, we'll have a lot of people visiting, i could see that being of of of comfort and and and and joy for everyone uh having the interaction with with our um men and women in uniform however that celebration is gonna end in july and it's been reported that the pentagon wants to keep the national guard troops in through as a as a uh ranking member of the full committee said through january twenty twenty nine that's the end of the president's second term that's well beyond the scope of this budget request so and the budget request for two hundred and sixteen million dollars for the national guard reactionary force is also something that that this committee has been reading about in the paper to respond to incidents so general nordis i have uh just a few questions for you and if you have to get back with more information at the committee truly uh understand we look forward to it how long do you see the deployments for the national guard law enforcement support role in d. c. uh is sustainable because that six hundred and five million dollars in the request is all coming at the expense of something else that the national guard will not be doing um and uh then regarding the national uh guard reactionary force i'd like some more information in detail and we had a little bit of a a discussion in the office

mmm

well where is the funding coming from and contained in this budget um so we we had a brief discussion in the office i think you know where i'm going at and but i'm gonna ask the admiral a question first and then you can both respond i'll kinda pack it together um so the guard usually deploys as a as a as a group i've been to many deployments we have guard in kuwait and jibouti right now they go the reserves tend to i've been to i've been during the the height of iraq and afghanistan i would watch marines deploy as one uh so you don't usually have you know you deploy one and then when you come home sometimes you come home alone you're not even being deployed in the big group um so i just wanna acknowledge that and this leads me to my question to you admiral um you know what is the length of time it takes for a naval reserve sailor to replace a sailor on another platform during a time of crisis you're unique in in what you do with the reserve that way i know i have a cyber security unit in minnesota and there's there's different units that go on the pilots tend to because of keeping hours in that they're they're all going but when you uh have to uh take um one of our your sailors and put them physically on on a on a ship um what is uh how does that integrate how long does it take for that unit's activity to to fully be cohesive so my concern is if we need to provide more proper resources in order for the navy to be successful especially as we look at what they're doing with this blockade right now the long deployment of the ford um you know we wanna make sure that it's seamless for this uh sailors on board the ship the one coming in the one going off the one serving i need to learn more about this

uh rank and member colin thank you for the uh for the question when you look at the uh the mobilizations for uh for your navy reserve uh really they fit in uh into two different pieces you've got the operational support and those units that mobilize together as a unit of action Those can come examples like our SEAL teams that are currently uh getting deployed, our aviation squadrons, our our VR squadrons, our C one thirty and C forty squadrons that are mobilizing as well.

Yeah.

They're constantly refining and training and the criticality is uh around the both the RP N and the uh OMNR budgets, to be able to fund those at the levels requested for them to continue to to hone and refine that edge. So we feel very comfortable that uh the those units of action and those members are ready to go uh right in the first hour of the first minute.

my question on the guard

oh uh ranking member mccollum uh thank you for your question uh as we look at the d. c. safe and beautiful certainly our primary focus is on the safety of our citizens um and as we look at america two fifty coming and uh uh fifa our national guard will be ready to support um in any of those locations uh through their governors and then here in d. c. uh through the secretary uh from that um as we look at our national guard we continue to uh see her service men and women do amazing things uh in support of uh the local law enforcement

i'd i'd i'd excuse me sir i'd in pains me to interrupt you but my time is limited and so i asked about uh the funding contained in the budget for the national guard reactionary force and the request of the six hundred and five million dollars um that uh for for the what we are doing in d. c. that does come at the expense of something else in the line so what are we not doing

uh ranking member mccullum uh we are working with the department and uh reimbursements from um the department from doj and dhs uh we will continue to work with this committee and we look forward to making sure that we can do all the mission sets that we've been directed to do and then also make sure that we can provide all the statutory training to the national guard cause we know how critical it is

i'd like a detailed breakout of the money and what training is not being done thank you mister chair

yes ma'am

thank you mister kohl

uh thank you very much mr. chairman and again uh to our witnesses thank all of you i too have uh budget concerns and requests and you might not be in a position to give me a full answer i certainly understand that but uh i'm just gonna kinda move down the the list here and ask each of you could you give us a quick overview of the role your component is playing in your respective area in uh the current uh military actions in iran uh and uh uh give us some view cause some point i would expect uh a supplemental request to come from uh the administration in this regard and you certainly need to be part of that supplemental uh so uh in so far as you can give us some estimate of what sort of impact this has had on your budget to bait uh it it's impossible to know the exact ending of something like this so uh i wouldn't expect you to give us anywhere near a complete estimate but some sense of how much uh this has impacted you and you know what you might be what would you night uh what we might uh need to uh extend to you to make sure that you can continue your operations uh uninterrupted in the other areas that you're you're responsible for so i'll start general nordhaus if i may with you and uh then just kinda move down the line if that's ok

uh chairman thank you for the question uh as we look at the national guard certainly on the air national guard were thirty percent of the operational force the air force and to not get into specifics were were at least that or above uh in support of the mission sets over in epic fury uh whether it's in tankers fighters uh bombers or uh mobility aircraft and then logistics planning is our platforms across the board uh our guardsmen are doing amazing work and uh making sure that we can take uh um the fight to the adversary and uh but as we look at the budgets we'll continue to work with you and to bring those forward to make sure that we can continue to do all the mission sets and i will say also on the army national guard side they're doing uh amazing work as well on artillery and uh other things to take the fight to the adversary