Energy, Installations, and Environment Hearing

responsible for the foundation of the Department of Defense. Uh the installations that support operations, housing, and for our service members and their families. The energy that powers our bases, and the land that allows our forces to train and fight. For too long this foundation has been overlooked and underfunded. This subcommittee m- made it a priority to shi- to shi- light on aging infrastructure, dilapidated barracks, leaking ceilings, and our premier laboratories, and World War Two facilities. They're still out there, where the main, where we maintain some of our most exquisite assets. I'm proud that we have worked in a bipartisan way to increase the funding for these accounts and create new authorities to streamline military construction and hold the department accountable. However, as you heard from the chairman, not great success yet. But there are always more work to be done. This fiscal year, the Department of Navy is in the process of executing the SIOP program. It's essential for maintaining our aircraft carriers, submarines, uh, today and into the future. However, the SIOPs must not become another example of overruns, construction, delays and shifting timelines. Unfortunately, it's well on the road to accomplishing that rather nefarious goal. As the ranking member strongly said, the oversight of the PSI ops will remain a top priority for me and for this subcommittee for the next few years. This year the subcommittee will also address how emerging technologies are integrated into our installations. The administration has directed the department to accelerate the use of our physical. intelligence on DOD installations. AI may offer real benefits in logistics and sustainment but we must proceed thoughtfully. Data centers cannot be placed on installations without ensuring that there is sufficient energy capacity. We also cannot allow AI to sustain and strain the base operations or the resources of the surrounding communities. And that brings us to energy, energy resilience. including the advanced nuclear technology that the chairman was talking about a moment ago. I'm encouraged by the department's efforts to invest in unique fuels and technologies that are safe efficient and can protect the department from risks presented by the electrical grid system. Energy security is national security, but I have concerns about consolidating nuclear development under a single service rather than maintaining strong oversight at the Office of the Secretary of Defense. Each installation is likely to be with unique needs, and we must ensure these efforts strengthen, not distract from the service core missions, and that we must execute responsibly on the nuclear authorities provided in the twenty twenty-six NDAA. Energy resilience has been a bipartisan focus of this subcommittee for years, And we've worked to diversify the installations' energy sources, whether through batteries, microgrid, or nuclear technologies, all the while protecting operational readiness. And I would add to that conservation. A little bit of installation here or there may be the fastest way to get a lot of, lot more energy out of a system. The DOD siding clearinghouse, created by this committee in two thousand eleven, is a great example of how the DOD has balanced the use of alternate energies with DOD operations. It has successfully protected military testing, training and radar systems while working constructively with energy developers to mitigate conflicts. That process has proven predictably predictability for both the department and the industries. That's why I was disappointed. To see the Office of the Secretary of Defense halt the construction of numerous offshore wind projects all projects that had previously been approved by the DOD siting clearinghouse. In some cases, they were over ninety percent complete. While I understand there's an ongoing litigation regarding these projects, we must ensure that long-standing, transparent process of the DOD siting clearinghouse are not undermined. The department should be working collaborative with industry to protect readiness while supporting responsible development that can benefit, instead and energy security. In the year ahead, this subcommittee, under the leadership of Mister Bergman, will continue its oversight of infrastructure modernization, quality of life improvements, and energy resiliency. I look forward to working with my colleagues here on the panel, as well as with those that are before us today, as all of us seek to strengthen the foundation that supports our war fighters and their families. With that, Mister Chairman, I yield back.

Uh, thank you, Mr. Garamendi. Uh, uh, for our witnesses, I'm gonna recognize you all at once for your remarks and, uh, honorable marks. You start the ball rollin' and we'll just move down as you finish.

Thank you, Chairman Bergman, Ranking Member Garamendi, and distinguished members of this subcommittee. As we begin today, I do want as a first stop to acknowledge the brave sacrifice of our service members especially those who pay the ultimate price for our freedom, and I wanna offer my deepest condolences to their families, friends and units that they're lost, they will not be forgotten. For decades our enterprise accepted cumulative risk in our facilities to prioritize near-term operational readiness, that bill is now due. Today the degraded state of our installations is no longer a future problem, it is a direct and present threat to our ability to project power, defend the homeland, and properly care for our service members. Our installations are the platforms from which we deploy our forces in the communities where our warriors and their families live. Their readiness is mission readiness. And the department is moving with a unified purpose to address this challenge head-on focusing on several critical lines of effort. First, we're confronting systemic crisis in our infrastructure. The department's portfolio, as you said, is aging, burdened by a massive and unsustainable backlog of deferred maintenance. This is not just a matter of crumbling buildings, it is a direct impediment to our war-fighting capability. Compounding this issue is military construction process that is fundamentally outmatched by the challenges we face. It is too slow, too bureaucratic, and way too expensive. Under the current paradigm, a critical project can take nine years or more to move from validated requirement to a completed facility, and we cannot win a race against our adversaries with a construction process that moves at a glacial pace. In response, the department has launched a comprehensive top-to-bottom review of MilKom and facilities' sustainment restoration portfolio, We're overhauling the unified facilities criteria to slash discretionary rules and align our standards with proven efficient industry best practices. Our goal is simple, to build and sustain the facilities we need at the speed of relevance. Second, we're aggressively securing our installations against strategic vulnerabilities our dependence on a fragile commercial grid is a critical weakness. To defend the homeland, our installations must be able to function to sustain critical missions even when the grid goes down. And so the department is executing a unified strategy for mission assurance through energy and water assurance. We're hardening our infrastructure through enterprise-wide investments in microgrids redundant power generation and advanced energy storage. We're also driving investment in next-gen energy technology. Third, we recognize that our warrior's readiness starts at home. We cannot expect our service members to be fit to fight if they live in conditions that are unsafe or unsanitary. We acknowledge that decades of underfunding and lack of sufficient oversight created unacceptable living conditions and we're taking decisive enterprise-wide actions to fix fix this. The secretary's barracks task force is driving a focused effort backed by significant new funding to restore modernized failing unaccompanied housing. Simultaneously as today we are establishing a new housing task force and deal team to reinforce standards and restore financial viability across the privatized housing portfolio. Our message is clear. Providing safe quality housing is a non-negotiable requirement. Finally, we recognize that the government cannot solve these immense challenges alone. To accelerate change, we're embracing innovation and strategic partnerships as essential force multipliers. Through the work of the Office of the Local Defense Community Cooperation, we're partnering with local communities to build resilient infrastructures beyond our fence line. Through enhanced use leases, we are unlocking the value of underutilized land to fund critical These partnerships, combined with alternative authorities that can deliver solutions faster and more cost-effectively than traditional methods allow, are vital to extending our resources and achieving our modernization goals. The challenges facing our military infrastructure are significant, but our resolve is stronger. The Department of War is committed to rebuilding our foundation, securing our energy future, honoring our commitment to our people, and innovating for the challenges ahead. Thank you and I look forward to your questions.

Chairman Bergman, Ranking Member Garimendi, distinguished members of the subcommittee, thank you for this opportunity to discuss the Army's installation energy and environment portfolio. Our installations are the bedrock of the Army's war fighting platform. From our installations, our war fighters train and deploy to fight and win our nation's wars. Critical to their success is having resilient and reliable energy and water. As we develop additional capabilities to further our advantage, we're incorporating technologies with increased energy demand, which the Army is working quickly to address. Beyond enabling Army modernization, the Army is fully committed to delivering high quality, safe environments for our soldiers and their families to live and work. We appreciate the committee's ongoing attention to critical structure issues on our installations, and we look forward to continuing to work together to deliver on President Trump and Secretary Hegseth's commitment to achieve peace through strength. Critical to our soldiers' readiness is having sufficient facilities at which to live, work, and train. One of these critical training ranges is Pakaloa training area in Hawaii. The Army is currently working with the state of Hawaii and local communities to achieve a mutually beneficial outcome. We look forward to working with committee to include the necessary language in this year's NDAA. The Army's been working to deliver real change that our warfighters deserve, from eliminating unnecessary bureaucracy that drives up military construction costs to making critical investments in barracks, under Secretary Hegseth's barracks task force. The Army has taken concrete action to invest in our lethality. We look forward to working with this committee to identify additional authorities that can further enhance Army's ability to invest in our warfighter readiness. As we've discussed with this committee before, the Army Corps of Engineers recently estimated that military construction cost is much greater than private sector construction. While the estimated costs varies by building type and component, like the chairman cited, the Army estimates that we are paying as much as sixty percent or more than private sector construction for barracks buildings. This cost premium has a direct negative impact on soldier quality of life. For our part, the Army is looking for every opportunity to drive down costs and stretch each dollar to have the largest impact on war fighting readiness we appreciate the committee's leadership on this issue and last year's NDAA providing the department more flexibility and fewer requirements for construction we will look for additional opportunities to work with this committee to continue to make improvements outside of appropriated dollars army is looking for every opportunity to work with the private sector to support and invest in our installations the army's revitalized effort to lease underutilized land on military installations will generate benefit to the Army, such as increased investment in our barracks and increased energy resilience. In addition to these efforts, the Army continues to work with private sector partners to increase investments in our privatized family housing and infrastructure. To address the Army's growing energy needs and ensure mission continuity at our most critical installation, the Army has launched the Janus program to acquire safe, secure, reliable, on-site energy generation, using advanced nuclear technology. This year we anticipate executing agreements with several companies to develop prototype reactors with the aggressive goal of breaking ground on a number of army installations by twenty twenty eight. Our installations are much more than where our soldiers and families live. They are where we train for war and sometimes even where we fight from. The historic investments we are making in installation housing, operational facilities, and energy capabilities will increase our war fighters' lethality for years to come. Thank you. Look forward to your questions.

Chairman Bergman, ranking member Garemendi, and distinguished members of the subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today. It's an honor to represent the sailors, marines, civilians, and families of the Department of the Navy. I also want to begin by recognizing the extraordinary professionalism of our service members operating around the world today. We are immensely proud of them and deeply grateful for their service. Those in harm's way deserve the very best. Our responsibility is straightforward. The mission support the mission, support the warfighter, and support their families. The Secretary of the War and the Secretary of Navy have been clear and unequivocal. We must cut through bureaucracy, operate on a wartime footing, and move with urgency. The Department of the Navy is changing how it operates to meet that expectation. A central point I want to emphasize today is that our installations are weapon systems. Training for combat begins on our installations. Naval aviators launch from the hundred and seventy-two runways across our enterprise. Our surface combatants and submarines, deployed from four hundred and sixty-one piers and wharfs. Our sailors and marines train for combat, build lethality, and certify their deployment across thirty-five critical ranges. Our installations, our weapon systems, require redundancy to eliminate single points of failure in the face of a rapidly evolving threat vectors. Without sustained investment in infrastructure, we shrink the war fighters' decision space in a contested environment. The infrastructure structure challenge is real. We will not milk on our way out of this problem. We appreciate the additional flexibility that Congress has provided, and we intend to pursue new commercial-facing solutions. We have a fiduciary responsibility to the American taxpayer to find more efficient pathways. At the center of all of these efforts are our people. Our most important responsibility is ensuring our unaccompanied sailors and marines, and those with families, have clean, safe, and comfortable places to live and thrive. I appreciate the strong focus across the department and Congress on improving the quality of our barracks, and we will continue to invest there. In privatized housing, the Department of the Navy has six partners across fifteen partnerships managing over sixty-one thousand homes. Under the leadership of OSW, we will fix troubled privatized housing contracts, honor our commitment to those families, and drive long-term accountability. Looking ahead, several initiatives are critical to our future. The Shipyard Infrastructure Optimization Program, or SIOP, represents a generational investment in our four public shipyards, and it is foundational to restoring capacity and efficiency in our nuclear fleet maintenance. Our energy and water demands are also growing rapidly. Today's installations require more of both. To reliably deliver power, we need to re-capitalize our electrical grid. To have redundant power generation, we need to optimize to a full portfolio, of firm, twenty-four seven power options. We're also driving investment in next generation energy technology, as mentioned before, including advanced nuclear, that will strengthen installation resilience and benefit our surrounding communities. The unique communities around our installations are important. The Department of the Navy operates ninety-five installations around the globe. Our sailors, marines, and families live and work in these communities, and our mission readiness depends on those enduring partnerships. So let me close where I began. Operating on a wartime footing means unleashing the creativity and urgency of our people. Uniformed, civilian, public, private, with a relentless focus on outcomes. The Department of the Navy's combat power originates from our installations around the world. These installations are weapon systems and we must treat them as such. Our sailors and marines trust us to get this right. Thank you for your continued support and I look forward to your questions.

Chairman Bergman, Ranking Member Gierimendi, and distinguished members of the House Armed Services Readiness Subcommittee, on behalf of the Department of the Air Force and the nearly six hundred and forty-five thousand active and reserve component airmen and guardians, including those engaged in combat operations today and in the future around the globe, I want to thank you for the opportunity to testify before you today. I welcome the opportunity to discuss the department's energy installations and environment programs. as our partnership with this subcommittee has been foundational to ensuring that we maximize the lethality and war-fighting capability of our one hundred and seventy-seven Department of the Air Force installations around the world. We must ensure the readiness of the force. Readiness is the cornerstone of credible deterrence and effective war-fighting. For the Department of the Air Force, this begins with our installations, which serve as platforms for projecting air and space power. We must modernize and sustain physical infrastructure and energy systems that enable missions, deliver increased capability through strategic operational energy use, and ensure the well-being of our airmen and guardians who execute the mission, the families that support them, and make a commitment to the readiness that is essential for the health and safety of our communities and surrounding environments both on and off the installation. We are aggressively addressing the challenges of PFAS. by continuing to investigate, mitigate, and remediate on and off installation impacts from PFAS releases from Department of the Air Force activities. Second, we must align infrastructure with strategy. This means deliberately posturing the right capabilities in the right locations, co-locating where mission integration demands it, and dispersing where survivability, operational flexibility, and geographic reach require it. The Department of the Air Force is committed to executing the strategic basing process, in a manner that is sustainable, repeatable, deliberate, and most importantly, transparent. Simultaneously, we must be willing to demolish excess or obsolete infrastructure that no longer supports the needs of the world's greatest air and space force. The Department of the Air Force is increasing our demolition investments to remove obsolete facilities and exploring innovative and collaborative ventures with our communities through strategic real estate opportunities for the mutual benefit of both the community and the Department of the Air Force. Third, we must fundamentally transform how we deliver infrastructure to match the speed and adaptability required in today's strategic environment. Traditional military construction processes are too slow, too rigid, and too costly to support the dynamic demands of modern conflict and rapid force posture adjustments. To close this gap, we will aggressively leverage the use of recently expanded congressional authorities for nontraditional delivery models that enable us to align with the industry proven best practices and compressed timelines, reduce costs, and accelerate capability to the field. Additionally, in accordance with the President's nuclear energy agenda, we're leading the Department of War in the development and deployment of advanced nuclear energy. At Eielsen Air Force Base, we are pioneering the first commercial application of a micro-reactor on Department of War property. This project, along with our advanced nuclear power for installations initiative, in partnership with the Defense Innovation Unit, will accelerate the deployment of small, modular, and micro-reactors to provide even our most strategic and austere lo installations with safe, reliable, and grid-independent power. By investing in our installations, we invest in our ability to deter and win. By securing our energy, we ensure mission continuity under fire. By protecting our environment, we help maintain the trust and health of communities and the long-term viability of our training and operations. And by caring for our service members and families, we strengthen the very heart of the force. Thank you for your continued support of our Airmen and Guardians. And I look forward to taking your questions.

Thank you. Uh, now we're gonna begin our questioning, uh, in uh, in an effort to respect all of our members' time and the panel's time, I would ask the members to uh keep their questions and comments to the five minutes and if we need a second round we'll do a second round and to start it off i'm i'm going to defer my questions until the end and uh mr garamendi you're recognized for five minutes

uh mr. chairman you've placed a heavy burden on me to do the same but i think i'll forego that opportunity um there are couple of things that i wanna get to very quickly i did have the opportunity to talk to most of you before this hearing and thank you for that time Um, the siding clearinghouse at the Department of Defense has been in existence since two thousand eleven. And it's specifically to, there to deal with uh projects that could impact the base, a base. I'm specifically concerned about wind turbines. Uh, and this question goes to you, Mister Marks. We talked about it earlier. Uh, many of the agreements on wind turbines are waiting for your approval. Uh, I don't know how many, but that is a question, uh, how many are standing out there. This is a process that takes some time. Wind turbine wants to go up somewhere and it may or may not interfere with the, uh, base and its operations. And so the clearinghouse is supposed to look at that. There may be mitigation, that's necessary. So. I'd like your office to provide the number of agreements that are waiting for your approval. Uh, so if you have that number with you, or send it to us, for the record.

Thank you, member, I'd be happy to do that. Uh, there are roughly, uh, a dozen right now, uh, that are going through the process. I have none on my desk. I went back and checked after we spoke earlier today, sir, um, to make sure of that, and they are, uh, we are trying to move those forward.

Uh, that would be important. Some of these, uh, developers or all over me and perhaps my colleagues here. Uh, once you've improved a mitigation measure, what is the standard time line? Now, you haven't been there that long, but uh

Yes, sir. No, I I I appreciate that.

first of all

Um, the the way that that works is really is so dependent upon the mitigation measure that's required to do that. So, let let me go to one that I know you're familiar with, and again thank you for pointing me back to Travis. So, for example, in Travis an an L wave system that we could install means that we've already identified how to mitigate it. And then on the depart part of the department we can work with the Air Force to get something like that installed. In other areas where I don't quite have that kind of technology, or we are examining alternative technologies, it takes a little bit longer to insure that we can do the mitigation measures. Um but but cert- certainly I would say the negotiations are active, uh to make sure that we can do that.

Are you gonna change, are you going to change the process?

Sir, the intent is to change the process to speed it up. Um, and so we are looking at the process. I've actually asked our NorthKom partners. Uh, NORAD NorthKom has a s- significant role in this because of the homeland defense nature of the site and clearinghouse. And, and we've asked uh uh for inputs on how to make that better. And that's supposed to come back to me soon.

As all of us know, all politics are local. Travis Air Force Base, runway, November. Been looking at that for a long time. the lack of a, excuse me, of a taxiway has created a fifty percent reduction in the efficiency of that base. I want to uh to bring that to your attention and ask you to work on this with me and others to try to get this done quicker. It is the gateway to the Pacific, and right now I suspect almost, well, nearly all of their aerial tankers are deployed significantly, well, halfway around the world. So please take a look at that. We'd like to push that forward, uh, the base. And I'm sure that, uh, the Air Force would also. With that, I yield back, keeping it as short as possible, Mister Chairman.

Thank you, Mister Garamonde. Uh, Mister Manager, you're recognized for five minutes.

Thank you very much. And and I, while I respect the the ranking member very much, I have zero interest in windmills and, uh, and solar power. uh for two reasons if there's no wind there's no power if there's no sun there's no power and what you need in a in a base is reliable energy plus second reason both of those infrastructures are outdoors really hard to uh to defend uh against adversaries and so i'd i'd rather go the nuclear route ok and um a question for for anybody there are you aware of technology that by utilizing uh nuclear power uh in very high temperature nuclear power you could actually generate and create uh jet fuel out of the out of nuclear uh reactors anybody aware of that

sir uh uh i i will speak at least and i'll defer to my partners but uh we just came from two weeks ago working with uh valer atomic we were part of the delivering of the reactor from california to hill air force base uh and as part of that we did have a conversation about that possibility yes sir

which would make the the the bases more self-sufficient also will reduce cost for for fuel also you have uh fuel when you you can't be refueled or or restocked you could actually make your own so i think it's a it's an interest a very interesting proposition so like for you all to uh to look at that i'm just gonna switch uh bases now i'm gonna go to the uh things that are happening in in in my neck of the woods in uh in key west n a s key west uh we have some uh substandard housing there that uh is uh is managed by be Beatty communities and I'm gonna show you a couple of uh photographs um this this is the the the housing that we have in Key West this is the stuff that's happening uh the the ceilings are falling down we have we have mold and mildew all over the place but this is for the enlisted people over there that's the housing uh for officers in another place which is Balfour uh uh Balfour community uh and in Pensacola, okay, that's uh that's a house of an admiral I think and this is the house of of a captain. I doubt, sincerely, okay, that the same stuff that's happening there is happening there. Frankly, I'm astounded, okay. And part of the morale of the of the of the armed forces to me were be that, hey, you take care of your people first. And so I'm not sure that that the the enlisted people are being taken care of and so uh I'd like for somebody to look into this or what's happening I actually uh looked at those communities about three years ago and I was not impressed then and I'm even less impressed now, with what's going on there um what is preventing the Navy from developing the eighteen acres at Sigbee in partnership with the city of Key West for additional housing not only for our servicemen and women but for housing, much needed housing, that is needed in the in the Keys. Uh, so, Mister Rogers, I guess that's that's with you, I've been asking for this for about five years. Public par- par- private partnership, when I was Mayor of Miami Dade County, we built we built a heck of a lot of housing in a public-private partnership form because we had the dirt and in the Keys, dirt is gold. So what's what's happening with that? Is that ha- project gonna happen? Are you moving forward with it? Or is it just hey, you know, our bureaucracy?

Yeah, Congressman, thank you, and uh appreciate obviously what's been going on at Key West and as you pointed out, the mold um and some of the challenges have been there. We are actually actively um working with BBC on this. You mentioned SIGSBY. SIGSBY has been the kind of epicenter of the problem and we will continue to work there. You also asked about what are we gonna do in terms of future development. The critical component with BBC specifically in that Key West and that Southeast region is making sure that the overall business model works. This is one of the things that we'll be working with OSW. Honorable Marks and I had a meeting with BBC leadership just last week, and one of the things that we talked about was what is the future and what is the right size? So there is an interest in development. The end of the day, there's most of those six-by houses were built in the sixties. We need to recapitalize that project, as you know. And we need to create something that's safe, comfortable, um and clean for our sailors so there is a real interest in the development the key there is we need to make sure it works

my my house was built in the fifties I live in this you know I live in a in a hurricane prone area it doesn't look like that ok

there

uh ok so um I know don't don't give me the the age is the issue those houses that I showed you for the officers in Pensacola they were built in the thirties alright so it's it's it's a question of um will Uh, and so, you know, I, I, uh, my time is up and I'm gonna have to, you know, reel back, but, uh, there's a whole bunch of other questions that I w- would like to ask you. Thank you and I yield back.

Thank you, Mister Vasquez, you're recognized for five minutes.

Thank you, uh, Mister Chairman, thank you, ranking member. Thank you for all the witnesses for taking the time to be here today. I have the privilege of representing New Mexico's second district, home to Holloman Air Force Base and White Sands Missile Range. And I'm the only member of the New Mexico delegation to serve. on the Armed Services Committee. I have vested interest in all of New Mexico's installations. These installations are homes to our service members and their families, conduct critical mission and testing, and house our military stockpiles. Ensuring that we maintain their access to power is an optional, it's mission critical. I'd like to talk today about grid resilience. And as I'm sure you know, the second district of New Mexico experiences uh weather fluctuations, intense heat waves every summer that can cause increased demand overloading the grid and causing power outages as we have seen at White Sands missile range in years past. But other forms of severe weather such as snow storms, hurricanes, or high winds at other military installations can also impact the grid by damaging key components resulting in blackouts that require long man hours and equipment to fix. Man-made events including terrorism, cyber attacks, and sabotage also pose a risk to our military's energy resilience. In the face of these threats, uh, we can't find ourselves unprepared. Ensuring mission readiness whenever and wherever the fire is, uh, is going to rely on us having the power that we need to support it. And so, Assistant Secretary Marks, how is the department taking extreme weather conditions, sabotage, and cyber attacks into account when preparing for the future of energy resilience?

Sir, thank you for that question, and it begins with a very robust partnership with both the Department of Energy as well as with So I meet on a regular basis with energy CEOs uh to discuss how we collaboratively can invest because as you know ninety eight percent of our energy comes from off the installation not on. So so first and foremost is w- it's a shared concern and one in which we're working together to identify critical vulnerabilities across the entire grid system and how collaboratively we can get after that together. That is an ongoing uh process that we're working on uh about every couple of weeks where we meet together to make sure that we're chasing that. Part two of that from a department perspective is the investment in alternative energy sources across the board. We're an all-in, all technologies, whatever it takes to make sure right energy, right place. New Mexico, as you mentioned, has some very unique opportunities there that we can use that, again, don't relate to other parts of the country. So we wanna make sure that we tailor that and then work with, with the uh power provider to insure that we're getting after those things. Lastly, uh is investments in energy storage. Um what I would like to remind people is absent energy storage, Uh, if I put in a grid, I put in a system, but there's no backup power, there's no energy storage system, then then we're just dead in the water again. So the use of black-start exercises, backup systems is what helps us.

Thank you, Assistant Secretary, and I'm glad that uh that you mentioned your approach to the all of the above, uh energy resiliency strategy because we know energy security is national security especially on our installations. Uh and I'm glad that you mentioned that ninety-eight percent uh of the power generation on military installations comes uh from from the private sector. Um, Mister Secretary, Assistant Secretary, have you received any pushback from uh department leadership to plan, procure, or build closed-loop energy sources that include renewable energy like solar and wind?

We have all things again on the table right now, and we are working again. I think, I think the difference at this point is it's not an uh uh uh an across the board, but it is no kidding one in which we work with the installations and their energy plans to ensure we're getting after what makes the most sense in that community.

Thank you, Assistant Secretary, and just for the record, there hasn't been any official directives issued or um any of the other type of guidance issued related to renewable energy um installations at uh our military bases, as a degraded option or perhaps a non-option.

Uh I I haven't uh we have not issued nor have I given anything that would restrict us from taking the best opportunity to help our installations be energy resilient.

Thank you, Assistant Secretary. Uh and to your point about uh things like battery storage. Uh we know that modern battery storage technology keeps getting better and better, hopefully more affordable as well, uh and that technology could impact the overall reliability of things like close close grid solar systems. Um what is your progress in identifying that technology, installing that technology, and having that storage on hand?

So certainly we're working uh with my colleagues to my left and each of the services as they look at what is the opportunity. Part of the challenge sir, simply put, is I also look at critical minerals at the same time. And so alternative battery storage is also a thing. So everything from rocks that store power, salt that stores power, otherwise it's salt, so uh store power. So all alternative technologies that help us clean up the power, but have it readily available for our mission needs.

Thank you Assistant Secretary, I appreciate that. And I just wanna mention as well that uh because we're no longer investing in renewable energy infrastructure transmission uh through the use of subsidies as we have in years past I do fear that that technology will be less widely used. uh for more energy resiliency on our military installations and uh I'm very worried about that with that uh my time is back is up I yield back thank you Mister Chairman.

Thank you Mister Moylan you're recognized for five minutes.

Thank you Mister Chairman. Uh I've been hearing long-standing issues from all of you regarding our request for energy and the answer for Guam and this is a great concern for Guam as well is the investments into the Guam Power Authority um, managed grid. Guam Power Authority takes care of all of the transmission on the island, to include all our military bases right now, but most of the grid is leased from the War Department. And as the War Department increases requirements placed on Guam Power Authority, the support has not been matched by the Department of War. So that's, that's a critical concern for us, and in addition to that, the power, we also have a top concern of housing. Increased housing off-base threatens our local market. And uh joint regional Marianas is working with our business community to find more off-base housing. But uh this plan off-base must be met with uh supplemented with new construction. And we have the uh MHPI, private partnership, or housing military constructions are all options, but the department cannot rely entirely on existing housing to meet these needs. And another concern we have for Guam is something new and some massive qualit- uh, quantities of deldrin. Deldrin found in our Guam's drinking water and we'll be relying upon the water department's full cooperation to identify the source of this contamination. So, Secretary Borders, thanks for visiting the other day. Appreciate you coming into my office. I know we touched on the topics regarding our resilient power transmission to especially to Anderson Air Force Base and how critical it is, uh, to close the Northern Loop with underground transmission. And I commend the Guam Power Authority for ensuring that Anderson Air Force never lost power during Typhoon Mawar, despite only having one leg of the Northern Loop underground. But I'd like to know, uh, from you, sir, what efforts do you plan to undertake to work with Guam Power Authority and Department of Navy to further support underground transition lines in the north of Guam.

Congressman, thank you for your time yesterday. I found it uh very illuminating and thank you for bringing that important issue uh up. Luckily I was able to communicate with my shipmate to the right. We were both in violent agreement about power and the necessity for that. As we move forward, I I think getting eyes on, getting out there and taking a look And something that I'd like to bring is is kind of replicating a, uh, a system or a, a template that we had at, uh, AFSOC to where we stepped through this hand in hand with our community partners and, and grid owners. So, uh, thank you for allowing me to, to talk about that. Uh, but thank you for allowing us to visit in the future and really getting eyes on.

Thank you, uh, with you and also, uh, Rogers. Uh, this cooperation, of course, working with the power authority will help our public, will help our s- uh service members to prepare for the next typhoon, or in the time of conflict. So it's really important. Appreciate that. Ass- Assistant Secretary Rogers also, we spoke recently and what I felt was the extremely productive phone call, of course, and thank you for your proactive interest into Guam. Uh, and I know we've been exploring ways to support critical sections of the Guam power grid, which are leased by the Department of Navy to Guam Power Authority. And the department has articulated needs outpacing GPA uh com that could provided by the twenty thirties without a previous administration working to support the grid. So at this stage do you know if O and M finds MilKom funds or some mixture of funding streams would most enable the War Department to prepare Guam's power grid for the growing demands?

Thank you for the question and I appreciate the time in the discussion the other day. Um as we discussed the the critical component here is what are our requirements. And so we continue to know that Guam is strategically important and will be, and will continue to be important uh to the Indo-Pacom region going forward. And what we're focused on now is what does that posture look like, and what are all the requirements? Um, you talk about the the grid. The grid is critical in all of our installations, but certainly as as Guam and as we talked about on the phone, um, not only getting out there but really spending some time with GPA, understanding really the state of the world today, then measuring that capability versus our requirements. The gap is where we are gonna focus on the funding.

Uh, thank you, and what can we do to ensure more new housing construction is planned, so Guam can support sustainable growth?

Right now the housing in in the significant investment that's occurred uh so far, I mean from a housing standpoint, we're actually um not at full capacity. Again, this is gonna really be driven by what does the force look like, and what does that kind of employment of force look like in the going forward. That will ultimately drive where again requirements and then where are we relative to that uh but look forward to working with you and your staff on uh options.

thank you thank you panel thank you chairman

Mr. Cooter you're recognized for five minutes.

thank you Mister Chair ah Mister Gillis your assertion that you could somehow insert language into this year's NDAIA is quite frankly delusional and reckless you and I had this conversation Right now I think I don't need to remind any of you on that dais, or anyone here as well, that trust with the military in Hawaii is low. Whether it's because you poisoned our waters, whether it's because you took the land unilaterally after the illegal throw of the Hawaiian kingdom, whether it's you essentially squatted on it for the last sixty-five years, a dollar a year, for the bases and the facilities you sit on. That's like squatting. Essentially. And then last year, the whispering of condemnation. You can put the word friendly in front of it, there's no such thing as friendly condemnation. To the people where our land is everything, because we have a lot less of it than any other state in this country. We know how important it is, and it's personal, and we're connected to it. And so I'm sure you can imagine that even the threat, the whisper, the indication of any kind of taking, eminent domain or otherwise, this is like a huge red flag. For the people of my district, for the people of my state. And so you and I have had this this conversation on where I stand on this particular issue. No more land taking. That's happened already too often. We know how this story ends. What I wanna start to hear is how we are gonna actually sit down and talk and meaningfully negotiate about a lease renegotiation. Hawaii as the landowner, as we should be, and a lease that reflects the true value, not of the land, cuz you know that that land may not be worth a whole lot of money, but the value that it is to the military, that it presents to the military, to have that training. And not only that, but a lease that reflects the level of activity and sensitivity that should be required to be literally our neighbors and in our backyard. To do all that, by the way, requires significant community and public engagement. To date I have seen zero of that. I have people asking me when are they going to come to us and talk to us about real proposals. If we are going to be serious about moving forward as we hit the ending of those leases in twenty twenty nine to twenty twenty twenty thirty one then I wanna know that you are going to abandon this talk of condemnation and commit yourself to actually in good faith renegoti renegotiating the terms of the lease. Will you commit to that?

Congresswoman, first first of all I am grateful for your continued engagement and the transparent dialogue that we've had on this issue, Pakaloa is extremely important to the army, we are

Well, Pakaloa is extremely important to Hawaii as well.

Uh un- understood, and and we are willing to uh explore all options that are on the table, to uh allow us to have continued access to that training land.

Be clear with me because this is a a big fear and a justifiable fear and anger that my constituents have. Commit to taking that condemnation completely the table you can't negotiate in good faith about terms for a lease renegotiation if you've always got that dangling over people's head will you commit that you'll take it off the table and we can just talk about lease terms like for example we talked about the length of years Senator Noy himself when this first came about suggested twenty five sixty five is way too long can we talk about those things can we talk about reduced activity can we talk about real compensation not squatting for a dollar a year on our land Commit to that. That's what I wanna hear and that's what my constituents wanna hear too.

Uh, we'll we'll commit to having those conversations. Uh, one

Commit to taking condemnations off so we can have a real dialogue. Whenever you have a threat hold a knife literally above someone's head, that's not negotiating good faith.

Nope, don't intend for that to be a threat. Congresswoman, wanna leave all options on the table, however, I can assure you that all our negotiations have been in good faith, and with respect to community engagement, I'm heading out to Hawaii on uh the twenty third of March. to do that myself in person.

I have not seen yet any advertisements to the public that you're gonna be out there on the twenty third. Again, this is not about meeting with select people in a room or advisory group that's formed by the governor. It's getting out to real people who have real opinions, real thoughts, real connection to the I know. I would like to see that kind of engagement happen. And again, I'm gonna hold you. We are taking that condemnation off the table. We'll talk about lease renegotiations.

I will commit to continuing to engage.

Thank you.

Thank you, Congresswoman.

Mister Higgins, you're rec- recognized for five minutes.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Gentlemen, thank you for being here. I'd like to echo the sentiments that were shared by my colleague from Florida, Representative Jimenez, regarding nuclear power. Um Assistant Secretary Marks, the nuclear power capacity of small modular nuclear reactor seems to Americans that take a look at it is clearly the answer. I don't know if anybody on the panel or in the audience or even up here is seventy one years old, but it was it was seventy one years ago. Was the chairman seventy one? Uh I'm not sure. I'm s- I'll be sixty five in a few months, so I I'm not trying to hurt anybody's feeling, but it was seventy one years ago we we floated the first nuclear powered vessel. talking about three quarters of a century old technology and i- and here we are seventy one years later wondering how to power our bases? Like America doesn't understand why we're not moving forward. We built two hundred and nineteen nuclear powered vessels with for the for the United States military. We have sixty two hundred reactor years of incident free operation. Um Uh, I I I think when we discuss reliable, off the grid, independent, permanent energy for our military bases, we we have to, the Department of War, we have to be focused on small modular nuclear reactors. So, but I I digress, cuz like everyone else up here, I want what I want for my state. So, uh, Under Secretary Gillis, I said to Secretary Gillis, Fort Polk and the JRTC, the joint readiness training center are critical to army readiness. Do you concur?

I do.

Absolutely. So the Louisiana delegation has previously backed to seven hundred and eighty million in funding for military construction projects across the state, including more than three hundred million for Fort Polk, and yet we have a five thousand bed deficit and we're housing service members in temporary substandard facilities. At the same time, military construction projects in some cases are carrying cross print cost premiums of forty to seventy percent compared to the private sector. So, Mister Gillis, what is the Army's current timeline of an and funding plan to construct a rotational unit built in area at JRTC? and close the existing bed deficit. And how will you leverage contracting, progressive design, build, modern stuff and other authorities at your disposal, sir, to reduce costs and accelerate completion? And I yield the floor to the gentlemen. How can you help Louisiana and, by extension, the entire United States Army and the readiness of the United States military?

Uh, first I want to acknowledge your point about JRTC. one of one unique uh facility for for the army. Polk is actually a location where we are exploring uh alternative construction techniques. And at the RUBA in particular uh we're also exploring alternate design and construction agent authorities. And so rather than have a corps of engineers, barracks construction project in the traditional style uh for the RUBA, we have got army material command as the design construction agent uh and we'll be with an innovative three D printing uh company who will build those barracks with their printer machine uh out of out of concrete we've done a pilot at Fort Bliss, we've seen what these look like in real life and they are a uh good solution. For the rest of your questions, sir, on uh on the broader deficit I'll have to get back to you so that we can brief you and let you out on uh the bigger plan for construction but on the RUBA, we're we're ready to move out.

Yes sir, I li I like that answer and and the fact that that the Department of War is embracing modern twenty-first century construction methods and, and um, willing to deploy that as opposed to you know, in this town you launch another study or a d- a special subcommittee under the committee for the subcommittee, and, and you study something for a few years and eventually get around to it. So I'd like to see actual construction beginning and completed in the very near future. Can I look forward to a commitment like that, sir?

Uh, you can. When we lay the first rope on that construction, we'll invite you, we'll cut the ribbon.

There you go. That's a deal, Mr. Chairman. I yield. Thank you, gentlemen.

Thank you. Uh, Miss Elbreth, you're recognized for five minutes.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, gentlemen, thank you for being here. I'm gonna I'm gonna echo my my colleague from the South. We all want what we want for our states. I'm hoping my question, uh, though, will serve other installations in other though, it's around uh extreme weather and and storm water uh challenges. I represent the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis. Mister Rogers, by virtue of almost every one of your bases having to be near near water you experience storm water challenges more so than almost anybody

Mm-hmm.

at that dais you know we I think are experiencing you you said something very interesting and I'm gonna quote quote you back we cannot milk on our way out of this problem and and that really resonated with me because right now as we're addressing some of these very severe and very expensive tens of millions of dollars of of storm water projects that are only gonna get worse as seas rise. It we're struggling right now because it's competing with MilKon and O and M accounts, and pushing back some other critical infrastructure projects on base. And so I'm I'm just curious because the GAO has identified gaps in the department's tracking of the full cost and operational impacts of natural disasters. I'm curious, is there a different way we can look at this? Yes, private public partnerships are gonna be a part of this. But I think also the way that we're budgeting isn't necessarily keeping up with the new threats. So has the department formally evaluate evaluated establishing a dedicated line of funding specifically for storm water management and flood mitigation to proactively reduce long-term recovery costs and strengthen installation resilience?

Thank you very much for the question. Um, and as you talk about the the funding aspect of this is absolutely critical. So, um, it has not been done historically in the past. And so what has occurred is we have budgets, we've spent a lot of time staffing them,

Right.

we have great plans that we wanna execute, and then mother nature does what mother nature does. And that then impacts uh those budgets cuz uh funding goes away. So I I certainly would be excited to work on something like that because what we could do is come up with a kind of contingency fund, but it needs to be informed by a couple things. What does the data say in terms of what has actually impacted us, and what do we think that the resiliency plan will look like? Because we need to have a sense of when things happen, how do we react? We tend to uh historically wait for the event

Right.

and then react. And so I would certainly look forward to uh working with yourself and others on how can we better set aside in the funding contingency dollars that if not if hopefully nothing happens, that's great, uh but if something does happen that they're available so that we can actually move fast.

I appreciate that. I look forward to working with you and and Mr. Marks on that cuz I think it's a it's a department-wide issue. Um, I'm gonna move on to to Army, Mister Gillis. There are certain Army installations, you're probably gonna guess which I'm talking about by my question, that host combatant commands with responsibilities central to homeland defense under the National Defense Strategy. And these missions operate continuously that and and they don't always have to do with a surge when there's a crisis. At the same time, many of these installations face significant aging infrastructure that are stressing housing, working conditions, even roads, uh MilKom investments must be prioritized across the force under balanced portfolio approach. But I'm just curious if you have any thoughts here. How is the department prioritizing MilKom investments at installations whose operational ready responsibilities are foundational to homeland, daily homeland defense?

Uh, thanks for the question and and apologies that I missed you at Fort Meade. I was there just a few weeks before you uh looking at housing. But but agree, when we prioritize MilKom or FSRM construction we do look critical missions, prioritize those first, even if it's a mission that belongs to a tenant unit. Um, sometimes those missions are harder to get recognized, but we do work very hard to be sure that we do.

I I don't wanna sound ungrateful. We've made a tremendous investment on the NSA side, but the garrison side um has surged in terms of population and stressors and I don't, I think we can do a better job collectively at prioritizing some of those quality of life uh opportunities here. Um so I look forward again, Mister Marks thank you for shaking your head, I look forward to working with you on Fort Meade issues. Lastly Mister Marks you mentioned the ninety percent of energy coming from off installation that is is obviously a huge risk for many reasons. Can you can you uh choose your own adventure for me a year from now when you're sitting in front of this subcommittee Mister Chair thank you for having this where would you like that number to be and before you leave the Department of Defense where would you like that number to be, and how?

Mm.

So I'm not sure that I wanna um completely track to a number because here's why. As I talk to energy CEOs, the co-investment and the nature of what that demand would be and the amount of money that it would take for us to take it over completely i- is astronomical. And quite frankly, if I were to chase that I think it would slow us down and hurt readiness. I think the alternative is can I prove to you that we have through whether it's black sword exercises or other ways that we've actually advanced the cause where my installations can stand on their own, that they have the redundancy and the resiliency that they should have, to make sure they complete the mission, but beyond that, it has to be within the community. And and and the uh, and what I use by that is simply that seventy percent of our, our of our service members roughly live o- outside the fence line. If that's true, and it is, so then I need to make sure that it, uh, just because I can keep power on inside a fence line, but if my service members can't get to the installation to do their mission, that then we've still failed. So that's why the approach we're trying to take is as collaborative and and a co-investment strategy, uh, where we look at the most critical infrastructure that we can with our energy partners and then make those strategic investments together to get the most that we possibly can.

I'm excited to work with you on this. Thank you, Mr. Jerry Gill.

Thank you.

Mr. Schmidt, you're recognized for five minutes.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and I want to thank our witnesses for being here. Uh, no rest for the weary, Mr. Gillis. I have a couple of questions for you as well, and I wanna, uh, uh, thank you for the information. I represent uh, Fort Riley, Kansas, obviously home to the first infantry division and, uh, you know, one of America's great heavy combat divisions. Uh, the middle of the country, uh, which is actually a tremendous advantage, uh, geographically for us, cuz we can get, we can get to a boat on the Pacific coast, we can get to a boat on the Atlantic coast or on the Gulf course, or Gulf course, Gulf coast, um, in about the same amount of time, it, it, tremendous flexibility for moving very heavy equipment and, and soldiers. Uh, in order to do that, we obviously have to have the ability to quickly get equipment onto the rail. Uh, we have the advantage of a class one railroad with a main line that runs through post. I recall I was out here in the nineties and I recall uh this same debate, uh, discussion, and it resulted in the construction of a terrific railhead facility that allows us to get uh equipment onto onto a train very fast it's actually named the Dole uh, railhead and you can imagine why that might be and Senator Dole got that job done. Uh, on our watch now, the the next matter that's very important, um, we don't have, I call it in civilian terms, it's a paved parking lot with lights. There's of course a military, it's a DERF or a DRRF or whatever you wanna call it, but you know, you bring all the heavy tracked vehicles down the tank tracks, you get them right in the area where you're gonna stage them before you put them on the rail head. And right now it's dirt or gravel, uh, and it's dark. Uh, if you do it at night, And if you rain, it's muddy, uh, and it's somewhat dangerous for soldiers, and it can limit whether you can do twenty-four hours worth of loading promptly, depending on, on um, the weather. And even if you get everything down there and you get it on the rail quickly, um, sometimes it's just very muddy, and in fact, uh, the commanding general was telling me recently that, uh, one of the recent times they deployed armor to, to Europe, I think they wound up paying seven million dollars in penalties to the shippers. both the rail and the boats, and I think maybe to the Europeans when they got there, cuz they had Kansas mud on the tracks, even though everything was clean when they put it on the tank uh trail to get it down there. So uh getting getting that that dirf done matters a lot, uh not only for convenience but for cost, and not only for convenience and cost, but for safety, and not only for those things but for our ability to quickly uh get those units where they are. So it's my understanding that that project is in the pipeline, uh it's uh currently under design, Uh, I would love to get it done uh as quickly as we can. What can you tell us about uh where that stands and uh is there any chance we can get it in the President's budget uh for the twenty-seven submission?

Well, well first Fort Riley, historic uh installation, uh storied unit, great soldiers. Having been a young officer in an armored brigade combat team and loaded trains and unloaded trains more times than I like to remember, understand the importance of a workable, usable, efficient railhead. Um Specific to your question, I don't know where that project is at the moment, but I will take that uh and based on based on you bringing that to my attention, uh I'll pull the thread, we'll come back to you with an answer on where it is and where it stands.

Thank you, and obviously anything we can do to help hit the accelerator, we would like to do that uh within the bounds of what's proper, we'd like to get it done. Uh second and related question uh uh related in the sense it's also a Fort Riley issue uh I had a discussion out there recently with folks uh in the area in the in the region uh talking about the deployment of of uh nuclear generation uh on America's military posts around the country. There was some interest uh in uh whether Riley might be in line for that type of consideration and some some discussion that they had talked with folks I think in your shop and Mr. Erwin if I'm not mistaken and and had they at least interpreted the conversation to suggest we might be you know relatively close to the top of the list where this might happen. What can you tell me about uh where that all stands, particularly as to Fort Riley?

We're a little bit in the middle of source selection in our Janus program, talking to companies that submitted proposals, but I can tell you that the process is once we have narrowed down the companies that we wanna do business with, we will match them up with installations where it makes sense and where we have willing utility partners willing states um and then we'll have our list of companies and installations and so more more to follow and we can brief you on that as the project

Thank you. I'd be grateful for being kept posted and if we can be helpful in those discussions, we're happy to do it. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I yield back.

Mr. Tran, you're recognized for five minutes.

Thank you, Chairman, thank you, uh, ranking member for today's hearing, uh, all the witnesses, appreciate you all being here. My district is home to Joint Forces Training Base Los Alamitos as the primary base for the California Army National Guard. Los Alamitos is a critical strategic asset for both the US military and for Southern California. As the only military airfield in Los Angeles and Orange County, Los Al serves as a critical staging ground during disasters and was a lifeline for Californians during the uh during the disaster um excuse me during the LA uh fires last year. The base supports hundreds of jobs in my community and provides um essential training for our serve service members year round. On two separate occasions in the last several months, I was disappointed to learn that because of the Army transformation initiative, the Army has deactivated aircraft and units as at Los Al and plans to deactivate even more. In both instances, my office and this committee were not appropriately notified of the Army's intention to make these changes as required by law. Uh, Secretary Gillis, can you speak to the Army's decision-making process when choosing bases to move personnel and assets from? and what requirements as you understand to notify congress about these moves.

Uh I can take that to my colleagues that work those decisions and and get back to you. That is not uh typically a installations energy and environment decision, but with respect to Joint Forces Training Base Los Alamitos, that was an energy project that came to fruition when I was last in this seat, uh involving solar and battery storage that was an important uh resilience project in the guard infrastructure.

Yeah, I would appreciate that very much, if you can get your colleagues to get back to me on that. Uh, as a former enlisted service member, I know that one of the chief complaints among our soldiers, the quality of the barracks and dormitories, as heard by my colleague, Mister Jimenez, uh, particularly for our junior enlisted service members who can't move off base, they are dealing with leaks, mold, pests, and plumbing issues that can take weeks or months to be repaired. There is no doubt um that this has had a negative impact on our soldiers. Can one of you address uh what data does the department use to assess these impacts uh of the barracks conditions on retention, morale, and force readiness?

So let me start and then I'll pass to my colleagues, but broadly this was exactly what got our attention and why we launched the barracks task force. So wall-to-wall inspections by all all of my partners to my left, uh that data then goes into a service database where we understand by the services what what we're dealing with. um the types of problems that includes a twenty four hour we must have uh service work done uh most of that is through qr codes or other methodologies so that we can not only the soldiers can report it right away or or they can just scan report immediately um but also by the very nature of the fact that um they can uh we can track that information and beyond that that installation commanders are not required to be the ones who sign off on how that works but i'll let my partners uh fill back in the rest of it in their individual services.

I'll just tell you quickly that we have a work order uh app called ARMA, um which is the one that we work all of those requests through.

Across the Navy and the Marine Corps um did the same thing. We actually went and looked and inspected all of the rooms. We actually then tracked on a condition index basis what is the uh what are the rooms, if we have issues, we actually where we have capacity we move uh sailors or marines out of those rooms and into appropriate ones. In terms of uh repair, Also using the QR codes, having just traveled through several of our both Marine and Navy installations, I go to UH barracks and I ask them, what's the speed like? One thing I wanted to note on barracks twenty thirty that the commandant of the Marine Corps has been very focused on, we're actually hiring and getting civilian managers to help to speed up this process and talking to Marines I know that's had a very positive impact.

For the Air and Space Force we view this as a retention issue, uh we're looking at a number of different initiatives when it comes to dorms. I've already had several conversations with the Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force, uh, to develop new policy to really allow us to kind of open the aperture on what we can expect and what we should be expecting for our our airmen and guardians in the future.

Thank you.

Everything's on the table.

Really quickly, uh, can any one of you describe what steps, uh, your departments are taking to reduce reliance on Chinese manufactured components in the energy storage systems?

So well on behalf of the department, a couple of different things happened, one is through our CFIUS process and our ability to look at those, we look at every single component and we evaluate all of those, um so that is through the uh through my IBP side, uh and then we make sure that as those are going forward, uh those are examined and the databases maintained to report those appropriately.

Fantastic. Chairman, my time's up, I yield back.

Mr. Sorensen, you're recognized for five minutes.

Thank you, Chairman, uh thank you to the ranking member, and a Welcome to all of our witnesses here today. Uh, first I'd like to thank Assistant Secretary Gillis, uh, for taking the time to speak with me ahead of this meeting. I'm looking forward to continuing to work with you to support the Rock Island Arsenal as well as looking forward to expanding on the Janus program, so I hope we can be a part of that. Um, uh, my first question, when we talk about installations, we need to make sure that we're properly protecting the taxpayers' investment. Uh, right now, I don't think that we're doing enough. Um, the hiring freeze is making life difficult. And it's next to impossible to hire emergency service personnel. And this also comes as job slots are being cut. Uh, case example, back in twenty eighteen, uh, the Rock Island Arsenal Fire Department fought a fire that ended up causing, uh, tens of billion, uh, tens of millions of dollars in damage. Uh, but back then they had really great staffing levels. Um, and they had the firefighting equipment that they needed. Today we run the risk of not having the people power and the resources to respond with a successful outcome. Uh, and I believe that we need to make sure that the twenty, twenty-three NDAA requirements for firefighting minimum manning requirements are being followed without reducing any capability. And quite frankly, the firefighters that we do have are overworked and underpaid, But here's the thing, I've been out on the arsenal. I've been to the fire station. They love their jobs. And the arsenal that, that we have at one time was the nation's arsenal that Abraham Lincoln decided to put on a nine hundred acre parcel in the middle of the Mississippi River it is something that we cherish as Quad citizens. Um, we need to work to keep our firefighters safe, as well as every person who works on our installations. Can I work with all of you to make sure that we're addressing these staffing issues. Can we agree?

Yes, sir. Absolutely. Yes, Colin. Yes.

Thank you so much. I appreciate it, gentlemen. Um, I've been, uh, proud to support the pilot program that created a a Zillow-type online real estate tool for the United States Army. This has allowed the army to see, uh, which buildings that we have, deciding on where it makes sense for new military construction, Some of our installations, for instance, on the historic Rock Island Arsenal, we would be thrilled to welcome new tenants to even some of the historic and the newer buildings that are ready for tenants. This tool's already likely saved the Army millions of dollars by averting the need for new building costs. It's exactly the sort the sort of um smart, common sense uh things that we need to be doing. Um Assistant Secretary Gillis, could you speak to the importance of this online real estate tool uh for the Army?

Well, it, it primarily the purpose is a great tool to show us where we have underutilized space and to help us maximize or optimize our footprint. Um, cuz we have a lot, ma- we've mentioned excess space a minute ago. We, we have a lot of opportunities to consolidate and make better use of the space that we have, where it's excess to need or underutilized for our requirements, we've got an opportunity to engage in h in enhanced use leases. to obtain something of value for the department and deliver something of value to the communities.

Great. Thank you so much. And before I yield back, I'd like to say that, you know, I'm in the House Agriculture Committee, which is the reason why I'm wearing my corn tie, but also the Congresswoman next to me said that she would get up and leave if I said, you know, this could have been a day where we had a kernel in front of me, so I'm not going to say it. Instead, I'll say, " Mister Chairman, I yield back."

Was that an attempted humor?

It's life.

All right.

Best of luck to you.

All right. Um, thank you all for your for your patience. Uh, I got a couple of questions. Uh, Mr. Gillis. We're gonna get we had a little meeting in our office a few days ago. I'll get right to the point. The Army proposed a twenty million dollar investment to expand the PFAS barrier at Camp Grayling, Michigan, and that funding is no longer moving forward. Uh, I'd like to exac- know exactly who made the decision not to proceed, um, what specific data supported the decision, and thirdly, will that twenty million still be spent at Camp Grayling on remediation or has it been redirected? Let's start with that.

Well, first apologies for not having all the facts on Camp Grayling when we met last week. Moreover, we take our responsibilities to communities' by PFAS very seriously and I wanted to acknowledge that I understand that this is about meeting our obligations and and achieving results. At at Grayling, we have a very good working relationship with the city, with the township, with the state regulator, with the RAB. Look forward to continuing to build that relationship. With respect to the permeable barrier project, last summer we installed a pilot and we are testing its ability to impact the expansion of the plume We are expecting that report later this calendar year. In the meantime, we are committed to engage further with your office, with other stakeholders involved with remediation of PFAS at Camp Grayling. I can commit that the Army will continue to work with the RAB, the State Regulator.

So, hold on, hold on just a sec. What I thought I heard you say was you installed a barrier.

That's right, a pilot permeable barrier at Grayling.

OK, so we have a barrier installed that we're evaluating Right now.

That's correct.

OK. Uh, has Eagle from the state of Michigan stuck their nose into this at all?

Uh, I'm I'm not sure, I can pull the thread and get back to you with an answer on that.

Well, as we as w- when you and I had our meeting, we we had the discussion of uh, you know, PFAS, PFAS doesn't wait for the perfect barrier, but we through trial and error will figure out which barrier will give us the best results. well it'd be great if it was a hundred percent but if it's ninety or eighty that's how we move forward so i just wanted to make sure that we understood where we were in the timeline here and so next summer meaning this coming six months from now

uh by the end of this calendar year yes

by the end of this calendar year so we'll have data on that barrier that has been installed ok i'd

and sir if if i could add based on our last engagement I I commit to visit Grayling in conjunction with the next in-person rab meeting, uh, which is on May nineteenth.

OK. Well, and again as we talked about, it's it's about the clarification of the communication because a lot of times the the ball doesn't get dropped intentionally, it just gets dropped. So I I appreciate that. Uh, Mister Borders, you and I had a nice meeting, uh, Wordsmith Air Force Base in Oscoda, Michigan. That's been one of the most prominent PFAS sites in the country for for a long time, uh with impacts to the groundwater and to the surrounding community. Can you give us an update on the current status of the remediation efforts at Wurtsmith including what work is underway now and what timeline is for completing, uh, meaningful cleanup?

Chairman, currently the Air Force, the Department of the Air Force has ten different initiatives going on at Wurtsmith uh Air Force Base. Uh, we're pretty excited about the potential of those. We'll continue to monitor and keep an eye on it, and I do look forward to visiting there, being on the ground, uh, and taking advantage of some of the, some of the, um, points that you talked about. I did appreciate our meeting, and I do understand the passion you have behind this, and we're taking it extremely seriously.

Yep.

Well, I think, uh, f- for any, I don't care what the subject is, no matter whose district it is, the the citizens that live there as best as possible would like to know at least occasionally, uh, or on a routine basis, but, you know, timelines, but timelines change, but as soon as you know the timelines change, communicate the change. And people may not like it, but they will accept the fact that you communicated that, and I appreciate that across the department as a whole. Now, this is, uh, each one of you, um, can respond to this. Uh, Congress has expanded your authority in the one big beautiful bill to allow use of partial b a h uh basic allowance for housing for those who don't know the acronym uh to support privatized barracks projects what specific steps have been taken to implement that authority and what should when should we expect to see some actual projects awarded or under construction so anybody who wants to make a comment please do

So let me start simply by saying, Chairman, that uh we we wanna use every tool at our disposal and uh we are uh encouraging uh absolute investment right now, so it's not wait for a study, it's let's get it going, so I'll turn to my partners as they can give you examples of how we're trying to get after that uh especially through the task force.

Yep.

Chairman, I'll make the next comment, on the um on the barracks side we've actually have two places that were currently deployed that, it's uh als- in Virginia um in the Hampton Roads area and also in San Diego. We tried to tend to focus on the privatization of barracks using the VAH model, um where we have fleet concentration centers. So the current one, which I have actually toured through called Iowa Estates, is actually doing quite well in the Hampton Roads area. I've not been out to San Diego, but the reports are that it's positive. Um we've met with the uh the counterparties and in terms of new construction, we've taken the learnings from what we call phase one in the Hampton Roads area, and are currently in the process of negotiating and finalizing the deal for phase two. Phase two in the Hampton Road area would bring us on on board about eight thousand additional bedrooms uh in the UH area using this model, and so we're focused on making sure that we have the right counter party, the right deal, and we can go and execute uh the pieces to move that. We are moving out on that.

OK. And and I'll just add that I personally toured the Navy facility where they used partial BAH Hampton Roads and and am thrilled by the results uh we're that as well as any other authorities that we might be able to use to uh to deliver barracks in a different way.

Right.

Chairman, thank you for those authorities, those are um monumental uh and probably the most comprehensive reforms we've seen in decades. What the Air Force is doing is we're aligning our current and future MilKom proj projects, and we're also trying to make sure that we can have uh different projects through local developers done through EULs or IGSAs further make a decision, a smart financial decision. Do we need to keep this MilKom project on-line, or is this EUL IGSA more than sufficient for to meet the needs of our airmen and guardians?

Thank you. Any final comments? Anything from any of the members? Well, um, we know, as we said early on in the opening comments, in its simplest thing is we look to care for and make life quality of life for our our service members and their families as as as high a quality as possible that's always ongoing with everything from changes in technology in building to taking care of routine maintenance in a in a house or a an apartment complex or whatever it happens to be and we also know one of the challenges that we have is that basically roughly almost sixty percent increased cost to build aboard a military base as it does out on the other side of the fence line which makes absolutely no sense so as we continue to work forward here as the committee we appreciate your updates uh bad news doesn't get better with time those of you who have sat in our office know that's how we end every meeting so please when you see something say something reach out to us so we as a as a committee here uh can uh take appropriate action to support you to make things right. And with that, thank you for what you do for all of our uh serving uh military members and our families and this hearing is adjourned.