Budget Hearing - The Department of Defense

Defense uh subcommittee will come to order. Good morning. Today the subcommittee will convene for open hearing to receive testimony from the honorable Pete Hexoff Secretary of War General Dan Kaine Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Mister J. Hurst, performing the duties of Under Secretary of War, Comptroller. Mister Secretary, General Kane and Mister Hurst, a well warm welcome to you. Thank you for your service to our great nation and I thank you for appearing before the subcommittee today. I want to first acknowledge the extraordinary demands we place on all our volunteer force and the military families who bear the weight of service alongside their loved ones. Quality of life and care for our service members and their families are central to our mission to continue to ensure the finest fighting force in human history. We owe everything to their sacrifice and send our thanks that they have answered the call to serve. This hearing addresses issues that are deeply interconnected and collectively define the national security challenge of our time. Let me begin with the budget. We want to be good partners with the department to ensure that our men and women in uniform have every resource they need. But I have serious concerns about how this bifurcated budget splits discretionary and mandatory funding and some of the uh on some of our highest priority programs. We have significant gaps in needs for our war fighters that we had to address in the FY twenty-six appropriations process because of the way mandatory was requested and enacted. The subcommittee needs to understand how the resources this budget translates into real, measurable improvements in war fighting capability. We also need to understand the consequences of this funding approach. We owe that level of accountability to the American taxpayers. Next on readiness. The picture demands our honest attention. Across the multiple domains, including munitions, shipbuilding, innovation and aviation, questions persist about whether we are building the depth and reliance required for a high-end conflict. We have made progress in some areas. I want to acknowledge the department's efforts to address these questions. However, progress is not the same as capability and delivering and capability delivery is what we need, uh, at this moment demands. Finally, that, uh, brings me to the threat environment we currently face. The world has grown more dangerous, more complex, and more interconnected in its risks. China is modernizing its military at a pace and scale that is alarming. Russia continues to wage a brutal war of aggression, and while Iran and their proxies have been dealt a severe blow, they remain a threat. Threats to Taiwan, Ukraine, NATO, Israel, our partners in the Gulf, and our allies across the globe are not abstract concerns. They are tests of America's credibility and resolve. This subcommittee believes deeply in the power of deterrence, but deterrence must be credible and credibility must be funded. Finally, Mister Secretary, both you and your deputy must be commended for your commitment to reforming, modernizing and prioritizing innovation at the department. I've been here a long time. I've watched administrations come and go. And I promise you that there are bureaucrats who are trying to wait you out. You must demand accountability at every level of your organization to ensure that the change you have demanded is taking place. Your call to move more quickly, inject competition, allow new entrants in to to participate requires rigorous and persistent oversight. Otherwise, the forces in the Pentagon will simply snap back to the status quo, which does not serve our warfighters or the United States taxpayer. Again, thank you for being here. the members of this subcommittee take our oversight responsibilities seriously, and we believe the American people deserve straight answers on these consequential questions. I look forward to an honest conversation on how we are matching resources to priorities and honoring our commitments to meet the moment. Now I recognize the distinguished ranking member, Mrs. McCollum, for her opening remarks.

Thank you, Mister Chairman, uh thank you for your courtesy of extending this and thank you for your statement. We have a lot to discuss. historical high budget requests, the cost of the war in Iran. Mister Secretary, I appreciate this year that you opened up a dialogue with Chairman Calvert, myself and with our authorizing Senate colleagues. When we last met, we asked for information to help us determine what the department needs to ensure our national security. We are still waiting for the information. We've asked several times for a complete update on munition levels, and it has not been provided. This lacking of delivery timely information for the committee is appearing to become a pattern. We've requested briefings on the status of the funds appropriated for Ukraine. That took six months for us to be adequately briefed. The reconciliation bill, which was enacted on July fourth of last year, we still need the details of how the funds were allocated and that were not provided to us until a ten month wait. Ten months we waited for that. Details have been provided uh on Golden Dome. but only one hundred and eighty-five billion dollars of the program. That's the initial research and development. We still have no idea what the costs are following on for procurement or maintenance of the program. The department must do a better job of sharing the information with us. With respect to the war in Iran. Mister Secretary, I saw your comments in the armed services committee. It was disappointing that you referred to members of both parties as defeatists. I know you won't bring personalities into this. This at this hearing and I will not question your patriotism, nor will you question uh mine. But the cost of this war continues to rise as forces remain in the region. The Appropriations Committee has a fiduciary responsibility to the American people, so we will ask serious questions that need to be answered. And that's our constitutional duty. Chairman Calvert and I have asked for a breakout of funding needs for Operation Epic Fury. We know need to know the impact of what it's having on the services, executing missions beyond the war. The department notified us that the standard fuel price for the services has increased from one hundred and fifty-four dollars to one hundred and ninety-five dollars a barrel. That's more, we have to pay for fuel, then there's less money available for training and exercise that the services need to perform. And the department does not have enough general transport authority to cover these activities without a supplemental. we must understand the department what it will do if a supplemental is not sent to the Hill or enacted. Now for the twenty-five uh, excuse me, the twenty twenty-seven requests. The baseline budget of the department defense requests over two hundred million dollars over last year's enacted level. When combined with the mandatory funding for defense requests throughout reconciliation, that's an increase of four hundred billion dollars, and that includes military construction. Together, That's nearly forty-four percent increase in defense spending over last year. And the president proposes a domestic investment cut of seventy-five billion dollars, or ten percent. These cuts will will have an impact on our national security in many ways, particularly cuts to education. The primary concern of the defense budget is that the administration split between discretionary uh funding and the appropriations control, mandatory funding that we do not control. Mister Secretary, the administration is taking an enormous risk by asking for three hundred and fifty billion dollars in priorities to reconciliation. As we told you in our last meeting, reconciliation is not the best way to fund the department. Last year, reconciliation created broken glass, funding holes for vital programs that the appropriators had to fix. And that's why we need the information in a timely fashion. Most of your mandatory uh funding requests for for are for what you call presidential priorities, Golden Dome. drone dominance, munitions, the defense inter- industrial base. What the administration submitted to us for these programs was a twenty eight page document and that's not enough to properly explain three hundred and fifty billion dollars in funding these programs will not be completed in one fiscal year and they will have tails that will put our department and our committee in a very difficult uh situation next congress finally as the chair did i want to take this opportunity to thank all of our service members

Thank you, Miss McCollum. Before we hear from our witness, I'd like to recognize the distinguished chairman of the full committee,

Mm. Mm.

my good friend,

Mm.

chairman tom cole for any opening comments

thank you chairman calvert ranking member of a column my good friend uh ranking member rosa delor and all the members here and welcome uh mr secretary and general kane to the committee and uh we appreciate all of you and certainly you as well under secretary hearst i didn't mean to mean to leave you out there um i joined chairman calvert and members of the subcommittee by saying at the outset of this hearing the men and women of our armed forces are the finest in the world They deserve our full support and our commitment to giving them the resources they need that will keep them ready for the fights of today and tomorrow. Without hesitation, I recognize that a strong, agile and effectively funded defense is not a mere priority, it is a necessity. The current threat environment facing the United States is as serious and as layered as anything I have witnessed during my time in Congress. The convergence of challenges from China, Russia, North Korea and Iran demands that we all work together with a level of seriousness and urgency that frankly has not always characterized our defense debates in recent years on the budget i firmly believe that adequate and stable defense funding is a national imperative and yet funding alone is not enough every dollar must reflect clear priorities operational effectiveness and strategic urgency the subcommittee has a responsibility to ask hard questions about priorities program performances and whether department's acquisition process uh processes are keeping pace with the speed uh at which our adversaries are moving to that end uh i certainly associate myself with chairman calvert's concerns about a bifurcated funding of the department of defense uh we have questions on the assumption of mandatory funding in the department's request uh we need you to be a partner with us on this front transparency and communication are critical to ensuring that we are aligned as closely as we can be with your needs uh and frankly i do worry in the future i hope you address this in your remarks uh this is the second reconciliation package for defense uh and that creates clips for this committee in the future at some point that funding disappears and we would have a massive uh increase in discretionary funding to sustain it so how we do that going forward when we do that is a major concern for this committee certainly for me personally. I also wanna speak directly about the issue of our allies and partners. American power is most effective when it's exercised in concert with like-minded nations who share our interests and our values. As we look back on two hundred and fifty years of our exceptional history, uh, the uh truth of that statement is apparent over and over. From those who stood by us in our fight for independence, to the shared mission against evil during world war two, tyranny falls when free nations stand together america first has never meant america alone american strength is not diminished when allies shoulder their share it's multiplied and we must continue to sharpen our strategic uh advantages and i commend you for working to make sure that our partners are beginning to uh step forward nado remains a critical pillar of collective defense while our alliances across the indo-pacific are indispensable to building a creditable deterrent against rising aggression in that region. I'm interested today in hearing how this budget strengthens those partnerships and how the department's working to ensure that our allies are investing at levels commensurate with the threats that they as well as we face together. The bottom line is simple, we always hope for peace while maintaining the strength to defend it. We're committed to ensuring our military remains unmatched, our adversaries deterred, and the american people protected secretary hagsip and general klein we look forward to your candid dialogue the american people are counting on us to get this right i look forward to being a partner with you in that effort again i thank you for being here today and i thank you all for your distinguished service to our country with that mr. chairman i yield back

thank you mr. chairman i would like to turn now to the ranking member of the full committee mr. larolle for any opening comments

Thank you very much uh Chairman Calvert and Ranking Member McCollum and uh good to be with you Chairman Cole and Secretary Hexeth and General Kane, and Under Secretary Hearst, welcome to the committee. Um the the President is requesting one and a half trillion dollars in defense funding for the coming fiscal year. One point five trillion dollars is an extraordinary sum of money. Congress and the American people have concerns about what you plan to do with this money. in fact we have concerns about what you are doing with the more than one trillion dollars you already have from last year's appropriations and reconciliation's uh bills how much will the president's quote skirmish in sent come cost i know at a recent hearing twenty five billion dollars was cited but we don't know uh what that includes or for what time period this was only supposed to last six weeks we have thus far been unable to get any reliable information as to the true cost of this war. The current cease-fire is tenuous at best, with attacks on Gulf nations happening just over the weekend. The president tweeted he will not support the latest communication uh from Iran, uh which we might agree with if we knew what was in it. But there has been a consistent lack of transparency since this war began. Media reports suggest there is intelligence that indicates Iran can survive for months at the current uh standoff, which means the cost of deployment of fifty thousand service personnel with their equipment will only increase, as every additional day this war goes on brings with it additional costs. This administration has not presented Congress with any kind of clear or coherent strategy. Week to week, day to day, hour to hour, the rationale shifts, the objectives change. The end game is ill-defined when it is defined at all. If the administration intends to ask Congress for supplemental funding for the Iran war, then you need to come back to Congress and testify on that request specifically. So, that we and the American people can fully understand what this administration has gotten us into and how it plans to get us out of it. Uh, the question must be answered at the end of this crisis. What have we accomplished and at what cost? And before you come to the Congress for additional emergency funding, we need information. Has the department or any of the services utilized mandatory funding for operational activities? uh in CENTCOM if so how much and from what account uh if you can provide us with that breakout it would be enormously helpful and again what is the department's estimate of the full cost of the operation against Iran uh to date um uh the one trillion dollars allocated for fiscal year twenty twenty six one and a half trillion dollar requested uh for fiscal year twenty twenty seven and possibly twenty five billion dollars for an upcoming supplemental all as the total debt in the United States has reached one hundred percent of gross domestic product. In other words, the national debt is now larger than the US economy and about twice the historic average, according to the committee for a responsible federal budget. The defense budget includes requested funding for the expanded Golden Dome for America at one hundred eighty-five billion dollars. Though those budget numbers are tenuous, a new golden fleet in which three ships are estimated to cost forty-three billion dollars and billions for private equity ventures which do not have well-defined processes or sufficient transparency. With gas prices and inflation numbers increasing, the American people just want to afford the basic necessities for everyday life. But this administration is not doing anything to help them with the cost of living crisis. In fact, the administration is making the problem worse by proposing dramatic cuts across the board to domestic programs that support American families. We have the most powerful military in the history of humankind. I am extraordinarily grateful, as my other colleagues have pointed out, to the men and women of our armed services who sacrifice everything to keep us safe. Their devotion to duty is exemplary, and it must be matched by the seriousness and the sobriety of those at the very top of the chain of command. And right now, I worry if that standard is being met. Look forward to your testimonies today and hearing the answers to this committee's questions shortly. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and I yield back.

Thank the ranking. Remember, we'll now begin witness testimony. Gentlemen, without objection, your full written testimony will be placed in the record. Secretary Hexuff, we begin with you for a brief summary of your remarks.

Well, thank you, Mr. Chairman, um, ranking member. Distinguished members of the committee, uh, thank you for the opportunity to testify in full support of President Trump's historic one point five trillion fiscal year twenty twenty seven budget for the Department of War. The President's budget requests reflects the urgency of the moment, as was mentioned by many, addressing both the deferment of long-standing problems as well as positioning our forces for the current and future fight. I'm honored to appear alongside General Dan Kane, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Jay Hurst, our Chief Financial Officer. And I'd like to start by thanking this committee and Congress for your partnership in securing the investments needed for a stronger and more secure america a nation's ability to build to innovate and to support the critical needs of its warfighters at speed and at scale is the foundation upon which its survival rests however upon taking office on january twentieth of twenty twenty five president trump inherited a defense industrial base that had been hollowed out by years of america last policies resulting in a diminished capability and capacity to project strength. Offshoring, outsourcing, cost overruns, degraded capabilities. Under the leadership of President Trump, our Builder-in-Chief, we are reversing this systemic decay and putting our defense industrial base back on a wartime footing. Urgency informs everything we do at this department. We are rebuilding a military that the American people can be proud of. one that instills nothing less than the unrelenting fear in our adversaries and confidence in our allies. We fight to win in every scenario. The one point five trillion dollar budget request put forward by the president will build upon the historic one trillion dollar FY twenty-six top line and will continue to reverse the four years of underinvestment and mismanagement of the Biden administration. The one point five trillion dollar budget will insure the United States continues to maintain the world's most powerful and capable military as we grapple with a complex threat environment across multiple theaters. Not to mention the budget also includes a historic troop pay increase, a building on the pay increases this committee has given, and the budget eliminates all poor or failing barracks. Quality of life for our troops is front and center in this budget. By supercharging our industrial capacity in transforming how the department does business we are restoring american commercial dominance at a pace unseen in generations transforming the defense industrial base from the broken slow moving systems of the past we have flipped the pentagon acquisition process from a bureaucratic model to a business model decisively moving from an acquisition environment paralyzed by bureaucratic red tape into an outcomes driven organization focused on delivering the most for taxpayer dollars. And Mister Chairman, you're right. It's a war of attrition against the Pentagon bureaucracy every single day, and we intend to win it. Over the past year, through historic multi-year procurement agreements, smart business deals, we have sent ambiguous demand signals to our industry partners to build more and build faster. The result has been a surge, a revitalization of our great American factories. and massive reinvestment in the skilled American workers who serve as the industrial muscle behind our warriors. Let me briefly provide you with some concrete high-level metrics of what we've accomplished over the last few months. These are announced new facilities and investments to support American warfighters. The department has helped stimulate more than two hundred and fifty private investment deals in thirty-nine states in a hundred and eighty cities, in a hundred and fifty different companies worth more than fifty billion dollars. This has resulted in two hundred and eighty new and expanded facilities, more than eighteen million new square feet of American manufacturing, and more than seventy thousand new American jobs. These fifty billion dollars in defense investments, in new plants, assembly lines, and factories are private investments, not taxpayer dollars. By completely transforming our department's business model, American companies are investing in America with their own capital. a historic demonstration of American manufacturing and defense revitalization, all with their money, not Uncle Sam's. This has never been done before and is long overdue from a bureaucratic model to a business model. These investments equal great things for America, American families and American workers, and help us ensure our war fighters can defend this great country. Together with the help of the policy updates and appropriations passed by Congress, President Trump's War Department has begun to turn the lights back on, in manufacturing towns across this country, to forge a lethal arsenal of freedom. Where our critical supply chains are threatened, the Department of War has acted decisively to inject capital, stimulate production, and prevent adversarial exploitation. We are firing up the American economic engine at every level of the defense industrial base. Every policy we pursue Every budgetary item we request serves to ensure that this department remains laser focused on increasing lethality and survivability of our fighting force from the front lines to the factory floors. This is, admittedly, a historic budget. It is a fiscally responsible budget. And it is a war-fighting budget. Under President Trump, we are restoring the unbreakable might of American manufacturing that we will need for generations. We are providing for our war fighters and we are putting the people and interests of this country first. May almighty God continue to watch over all of our troops, and may we honor the legacy of those brave Americans that we've lost. That is our sacred mission that we will continue to execute on. Thank you again to this committee for your partnership, and we look forward to answering your questions. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Secretary. General K, you're not recognized for your remarks.

Chairman uh, Calvert ranking member McCollum, Chairman, Ranking Member DeLauro, thank you for having me and all the members of the committee, thank you for having me. I'm honored here today uh to testify alongside the Honorable Pete Hegseth and the Honorable Jay Hurst on the President's fiscal year twenty twenty seven budget. And I'm grateful for the opportunity to speak about the foundations of America's strength, the two point eight million members of our joint force. I am continually inspired by the soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines, guardians, coast guardman guardsmen and civilians standing the watch for our nation, supported each and every day by their families. They could have chosen anything in their path of service, but they chose to serve our great country and meet our nation's challenge, what challenge is with courage, tenacity and grit that's keeping our nation strong and safe. I would also like to express my deep gratitude for the forty members of the joint force who we've lost in operations. combat and training during my time as chairman, including fourteen who passed during operation epic fury and our most recent loss, first lieutenant key who valiantly gave his life trying to save a teammate uh while deployed on a temporary duty assignment in africa and we continue to hold hope for his teammate. The secretary and I are deeply grateful for each of them and their families and their names will never be forgotten. As chairman my duty is to ensure our civilian leadership comprehensive range of options, military options, alongside the associated risk to make the nation's hardest and most complex decisions. I owe the President, the Secretary, and the Congress the truth at every turn and my blueprint for this approach has always been General George C. Marshall. His firm commitment to civilian control and a nonpartisan military remains my constant standard and I strive to follow his example by working with each of you uh to and providing clear and candid non-partisan military advice and to present this committee with the clearest possible assessment of operational risk and readiness and executability within the unclassified environment that we find ourselves in today. As the chairman said, we're operating in a delicate and dangerous time, global risk is scaling and the complexities of the modern field demand america's constant adaptation and innovation. america's joint force's operational at its core purpose built for the realities of a complex world were organized trained and equipped to execute the most demanding missions across the globe with unrivaled precision. and over the last year our war fighters have consistently demonstrated exactly what it means to be the most capable adaptable, and professional military on earth. We are able to accomplish this highly complicated work because we draw from a deep, enduring reservoir of training, professionalism, and commitment. Our ops tempo is high, but we're designed to sustain it, rebuilding our strength continuously. We rebuild readiness every day, we train every day, we learn and sharpen our edge every day. And driving this pace and of change and maintaining our superiority requires timely, predictable and sustained investment and a partnership with this committee and the broader Congress. And I appreciate that. And the resources that we'll discuss today are critical to modernizing the joint force and ensuring that if whatever threats emerge or when called upon, our nation can win. The president's budget supports the department's goals of recharging the defense industrial base, and the national industrial base, while enhancing our military readiness. We will continue to ensure our war fighters are properly armed, globally integrated, and ready, while always taking care of our most precious thing, and that is our people. And while advancing the hardware and technology essential to fight, it's the character and competence of our people particularly the one point eight million members of our enlisted force who make us proud every day and they're represented today by the senior enlisted advisor to the chairman United States Navy SEAL Dave Isom sitting behind me. While we face dynamic and dangerous times, I have absolute trust and confidence in our people who every day execute the most challenging missions with quiet professionalism. and coupled with the American spirit to out-think, out-compete, and relentlessly innovate, we will maintain our decisive edge. But doing so requires your continued partnership. It is also graduation season where we welcome a whole bunch of new members to the joint force to include members like second lieutenant Archie Dennis, United States Army, who along with his Citadel classmates in South Carolina joined the joint force this weekend. And I welcome he and all the other new graduates to the joint force. As I close, I humbly ask that we remember right now our deployed teammates out there doing our nation's work, going out into the darkness to do the things that we ask them to do. And I ask as always, that we remember not just the forty fallen that I mentioned earlier, but all of our nation's fallen and their families who soldier on. Thank you, and I also look forward to your questions.

thank you i want to ensure each member has a chance to ask questions so everyone will have five minutes for their remarks i'll begin by recognizing myself for five minutes uh secretary hexof for decades congress and the department have sought acquisition reform and innovative technologies it's only since fy twenty-four that the level of investment started to catch up with the rhetoric the fy twenty-seven budget request includes over nine hundred and fifty million for the defense innovation unit fifty four point six billion for the defense autonomous warfare group five hundred and eighty million for the joint interagency task force four O one and for the for uh the counter small UAS and i believe these investments will deliver uh overdue capability and this subcommittee will continue to work with you to ensure success i also note there is only one hundred million for the accelerate uh the procurement and fielding of innovative technologies that surprisingly low Given Appfit's success, the subcommittee will continue to support Appfit, as we have in the past. I invite you to join me at the Appfit day on the Hill, July twenty first, to see firsthand how Appfit is delivering capabilities to the warfighter. Consistent with the desire for injecting innovation at scale, for decades there's been increasing demand for increasing uh uh resilience in the industrial base and more specifically the supply chain. The FY twenty-seven budget request includes over twenty point two billion for the Office of Strategic Capital and thirty point four billion for the Defense Production Act. As you're aware, we're working closely with the Industrial-Based Policy Team on the Civil Reserve Manufacturing Network to ensure the department can qualify and certify second and alt- alternate sources to maximize American manufacturing. With exception of DIU and the Joint Inter-Agency Task Force four O one, most the investments listed are in mandatory funding. What was the strategy to heavily rely on the mandatory funding sector in this uh budget?

Well, thank you for the question, Mister Chairman, and and I would um first I would thank you and this committee for your efforts on acquisition reform, many of which were had not been embraced by the department before, and uh a lot of templates on the table that were there for us to fall in and run fast with. And so speed, scale, cut and red tape, uh, reducing requirements where we can, looking at things like DIU, uh, replicator, now the dog, um, yeah, the defense autonomous working, uh, warfare group, uh, all of those are were born of collaboration with the committee and efforts of now, reformers we have in the department who are ready to run with it. Um, as it pertains to the, to the budget, I think there's a reality in this town of how what can get done and how it gets done and in a perfect world everything would get done in regular order uh it and with the one point five trillion dollar top line but there are lot of challenges and dynamics um some of which i don't control and ultimately we look forward to working with the committee to ensuring however it shakes out um that it's with full transparency with you and maximizing options for the department and i think uh the reconciliation last year was a was a new vehicle so it took some time especially cause we're doing new things office of strategic capital different avenues so figuring out how to deploy that

mmm

uh took longer than we'd like uh but we're committed to insuring this year uh with that as a vehicle part of it that we do it in concert with you to insure the most important things whether they're in that or or in regular order are included in the budget

understand a desire for flexibility. I, you know, I uh understand why you're we're breaking this up in order to in some chunks, uh to, I guess, more digestible to some degree politically. But um, I would hope we can get a supplemental bill here soon. Uh, obviously that we know that of the munitions issue and we know of the cost of this conflict and we know the cost of other conflicts. And so, we need to repay those O and M accounts that are going to be used, I suspect, in order to pay for this ongoing operation. So, uh, any idea when we're going to get this supplemental?

Uh, we're well aware of all those dynamics. I think, first of all, uh, the munitions issue issue has been foolishly, uh, and unhelpfully overstated. We're we we know exactly what we have. We have plenty of what we need. And the reason we're um accelerating a lot of this is because the department's been static in how it does this kind of business not to mention the amount that's was given to ukraine for years and years so we are getting after changing that dynamics so that we're not getting a hundred more of something but the companies are investing so there's new plants so you're getting two x three x four x of those munition in future years because that's what we need that's what the our allies and partners through fms require and we just haven't been delivering it So we're we're in we're in good shape on that front. Whatever we think we need, uh, we will submit. But I'll say even in the conduct of the conflict, working with the Chairman and Admiral Cooper, uh, ensuring that any munitions we're using, we're we know what we're trading off of to preserve capabilities so we have maximum optionality across the globe, which we do.

Again, though, uh, it would be helpful to get the supplemental sooner rather than later for we can get to work on it. Uh, and now recognize Miss McCollum for her question.

Thank you, Mister Chair. Um, Mister Secretary, the House Armed Services Oversight hearing, Mister Hearst uh stated that the cost for the war for ep- ep- Operation Epic Fury are at twenty-five billion. Am I correct with with that number that used to the hearing, Mister Hearst?

Yes, ma'am, that was the cost at that time.

At that time. Um, I would request that you provide the committee uh in writing the specifics of what the department will be requesting in the supplemental and the breakouts for the following costs. we talked munitions and mister secretary i think we'd have a more robust discussion on that if we were in a classified setting but i respect what what what you shared with us but this is what i'd like uh a breakout for military personnel operational activities additional maintenance for deployed ships munitions used equipment lost and updated fuel costs Now we need to know the funding required to cover the damage to the US facilities and if there are any agreements from our regional allies, we hear things in the press that would be helping for any new facilities or improvements in CENTCOM. Now, Mr. Hurst, here here's here's the rub. We need that by June eleventh. We mark up our bill. And some of these are not new asks, but I thought I'd I'd drill down and be just a little more specific for you. um so i know you gonna do your best uh it will take the homework assignment in pieces anything you can provide would be great now under the war powers resolution the administration has sixty days to conclude activities unless congress has declared war or provided authorization congress has not done that and i know there's different opinions and it changes from day to day whether or not the war powers clock is paused but this law states beyond may second The administration needs congressional authorization to continue military operations. And the president just recently said yesterday that epic fury is not over. Military operations have continued. We have a naval blockade and both sides are exchanging fire. They did so over the weekend. Speaker Johnson, in my opinion, should put an authorization on the floor this week. But, Mister Secretary, if Congress does not authorize, if we don't authorize this, to continue military operations against Iran you're gonna have to have a plan put in place to draw down our troops to reset the region to protect our assets um and um i'm wondering and that might be in a classified uh situation but could you provide this committee with plan b because if we go there we're gonna have to re reset our budget after june eleventh if the war powers act in my opinion should be invoked and um it comes to congress but we don't know what the outcome would be do you have a plan b

uh ranking member i would say we have a plan for all of that we have a plan to escalate if necessary we have a plan to uh retrograde if necessary we have a plan to shift assets certainly in this setting we wouldn't reveal what the next step may be considering the gravity of of the mission that the president is undertaking to insure that iran never has a nuclear bomb

well mister secretary as you know we can be in receipt of that in a different situation. And we would also like that by June eleventh, with that a yield back.

Thank you, gentlelady. Uh, Mister Chairman, you're next.

Uh, thank you very much, Mister Chairman. Uh, Mister Secretary, as I said in my opening remarks, I have concerns about the use of reconciliation. I don't have any concerns about the amount and uh the effort to restore the industrial base, you're to be commended for that. and frankly i think we've underinvested for a long time so i'm i'm happy to see a robust number i am worried about the ability to sustain that number through the reconciliation process at some point that money disappears uh and will be uh you know so give me some sense of how much of this reconciliation money is one time expense that you expect to either use for procurement that may not you may not need to do again for a long time or inject in the industrial base how much is for day-to-day operations that we would need frankly to think of as a long-term recurring expense

it's a good question mr. chairman and i'll i'll defer to jay on on details but i would say a big take for example the deals that are being cut that will be funded here that ultimately look at companies that make exquisite weapon systems for us and they say in exchange for a five to seven year contract which committees like this have authorized for us the authorizing committees not the appropriate in case the authorizing committees. And now because they have that clear demand signal, they're able to invest in a new plant and they're paying for it. And that's what I talked about in my open remarks. So they're building two or three new facilities, but we're committed to paying for those munitions for five to seven years from this budget. And ultimately, but the nice part is we're saving money because there's no inflation. It's at the cost of it today, even when we buy it seven years from now. And that's why you're seeing a three hundred and thirty-one billion dollars in munitions. as part of this budget there is a there's a rocket fuel component to this given the underinvestment that exist inside this budget there will be some tail obviously and and as i acknowledged up front a higher top-line from this department's perspective is always a welcome thing uh but the intention is not to get anyone stuck in a certain place but to address the needs of the moment cut different deals create new dynamics where companies actually invest so we have you know this committee knows the exquisite munitions that we're gonna be using five to seven years from now no matter what it's about time we look into the future the way we are with this budget but you have to fund that and so i think that's that's a big chunk of of an increase that you see i mean if you're investing in the ship building industrial base the defense industrial base um housing and barracks all of that increase uh troop pay and we're looking at increasing the top line of the entire force by fifty thousand troops that's a that's an investment into the future so i would acknowledge that a lot of this does have follow-on cost uh but some of it is something we're gonna pay for now and benefit from in the future but jay i would defer to you

yeah mr. chairman in this there's a hundred and thirteen billion dollars uh for investments in the defense industrial base i would characterize that as a one time plus up for catch up uh thirty five billion dollars for fsrm to fix all of our poor and failing barracks and other facilities of the department and also some catch up investments in ai and autonomy and so if you look at what we're doing with

well that's reassuring and again i don't have any disagreement with the what you're trying to accomplish at all i would remind you that uh frankly the use of reconciliation depends on political support in congress it can be very transitory uh so it's a high risk uh strategy as opposed to building things into the baseline uh but again i'm supportive of what you're trying to do in terms of recharging the industrial base i think it's long overdue let me ask you a specific question um uh and you may wanna get back to me on this i don't know but we've had some discussion over uh you know we lost one e three uh on the ground thank goodness uh uh looks like no crew loss this committee has been interested in investing in the e seven uh pentagon signed a a contract for five additional planes not in the air force budget is there gonna be a fix to that or we where we add on thinking about the e seven

i well aware of that dynamic i know our department had taken the position that it was um airborne or other satellite isr that was probably gonna be capable of a lot of that in the future but i think that mindset was indicative of of um of a mindset that we've shed which is the divest invest mindset which was an austerity mindset that we're gonna get in continuing resolution after continuing resolution so we gotta get rid of these platforms in order to invest in these platforms and there are gaps that need to still be filled and there are systems that still need to be funded that are used on the battlefield right now say mq-nines a tens you name it um i think this and the e seven is one of those so i i we've actually sent it uh a budget amendment to omb to add that i think it has a future it has a it has a place on the battlefield and uh we'll get more information for you on that as well

well i appreciate that and i particularly though appreciate the mindset i think you're hundred percent right i've seen this over and over again about eliminating platforms on the idea we would immediately use that money for new things and quite often it just simply didn't happen we lost the capability but we did not move forward with the investment that we needed so uh again thank you for uh rethinking that got lot more question but so does the entire committee Mister Chairman so with that I'll yield back

I just wanna make one quick comment when you're talking about the fixing barracks and facilities I hope we also fix the property management systems throughout the department uh which is willfully needs uh attention with that I recognize the ranking member colorado

thank you very much mister chairman uh uh mister secretary the national security strategy says american national power depends on a strong industrial sector capable of meeting both peacetime and wartime production demands and the national defense strategy directs dod to quote supercharge the defense industrial base uh dod's uh a twenty twenty seven budget overview appears to use that same framing yet uh your department's budget request over five billion dollars from the industrial base in the aviation sector alone, effectively shutting down all current army aviation platforms. Uh, these are uh current production platforms the force relies on for lift, for sustainability, disaster response, homeland missions, et cetera. Uh, how did the department arrive at the conclusion that reducing procurement for these army avi- aviation platforms strengthens rather than weakens the aviation industrial base