 Order. I ask unanimous consent that the chair be authorized to declare a recess at any time without objection. So ordered. Thank the witnesses for being here. Whether it is competition or outright conflict, our strategic interests will depend on our ability to move and sustain people and platforms around the globe. Force projection is only possible because of the sea, airlift, and refueling operations carried out by Transportation Command Transcom with support from the Marad, the Maritime Administration. Transcom and Marad support the full range of military operations, including everything from humanitarian aid to operation like those underway in the Red Sea. However, we cannot take our logistics capabilities for granted. We must be prepared to meet the logistic demands of a conflict against peer competitors halfway around the world. The tyranny of distance will strain our logistics capability and we must make decisions now to meet our operational requirements for the future. The committee has legislated several key efforts that bolster our lift capability and prevent potential backsliding. For example, Congress required a minimum of 275 inner theater aircraft to ensure we can meet our needs for long range aircraft. For heavier lift, we rely on commercial vehicles supported by the Maritime Security Program, as well as an increasing aging reserve fleet to move mountains of iron and material. Sea lift recapitalization is a priority, but we need to go about it the right way. General Van Ovos, in your prepared testimony, you state that the purchase of used sea lift vehicles is complementary to an effort to build new sea lift vessels. We have the congressional intent reversed. Used percentage authorities should be complement a new build effort. Unfortunately, years of collective feed dragging has brought us to where we are now. I agree we need to recapitalize the sea lift fleet, but there must be a dose of reality and the cost and availability of foreign-built 15-year-old ships that need hardened decks and retrofit after the fact. The results of the market assessment required in last year's NDA will hopefully be informative. I thank our witnesses for being here today and I look forward to your testimony. I'm joined by my colleagues, ranking member Joe Courtney, Chairman Walts, and ranking member Garamendi today. I want to thank them for their partnership and continued leadership on these important issues before our subcommittee. And with that, I recognize ranking member Courtney. Thank you, Chairman Kelly, and thank you to the witnesses. Again, time is going to be tight with votes coming up, so I'll try and just truncate my remarks. But I just want to really foot-stop what Trent said that, you know, sometimes our committee seems like our focus is on, you know, Big Navy and Air Force in terms of some of these programs, but I think I speak for both of us and really most of the committee that your departments we view as on par at least in terms of the, you know, times that we're living in right now in terms of the missions that you both have. And I am proud that our subcommittee has, over the last few years, working in a bipartisan manner, actually plus up capabilities in the capacity of our mobility enterprise. Again, we did not wait to sort of receive ideas or budgets. I mean, we took, I think, the initiative, which we should under the Constitution to really, you know, move these critical programs forward. So we established the Tanker Security Program, the National Security Multimission Vessel Program, and authorized, as Trent just said, a domestic new-build sea lift program for 10 vessels built here in the U.S. And in the FY24 budget that was just signed by the president a few weeks ago, again, our subcommittee led the way to secure $12 million from Mayrat to carry out design of a new-build sea lift program using the vessel construction manager contracting model, which I think we've actually finally reached some consensus that this is the way that we can efficiently and affordably, you know, really grow the fleet. Again, like Trent, I have lots of questions about, you know, whether we should be expanding the purchase of used vessels. I just had a meeting actually not too long ago today where, because of what's happening in the Gulf of Aden, the cost of buying in the used market has, if anything, gone up because the willingness to part with vessels is actually contracting, and that just, again, just is going to have an impact in terms of cost. So again, really, again, thank the witnesses to have the greatest respect for the great work that you're doing and all the different theaters that Trent said, and look forward to a good hearing. With that, I yield back. And I now recognize Chairman Walts. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and I echo both of your remarks. And I think, as we all know, and have discussed that with China as the greatest threat this country has ever faced, the tyranny of distance will strain everything. Platform, people, material, fuel, logistics, win or lose wars. And I pray that with a strong logistics footprint in place, a capable sea lift, capable airlift capability that the Chinese Communist Party, every time they see that, that will be a powerful, powerful deterrent. We know the closure of Red Hill is in Hawaii as well underway. Defueling is now complete. It's been a couple of years since Congress has designated TransCom as the executive agent for bulk fuel management in the FY22 NDAA. I'm interested in how TransCom has embraced that mission, this responsibility, and what you're doing to support strategic operations, especially in Indo-Paycom. We are in a race against time. And also, as you know, General Vanovo's keenly interested in oversight of the Global Household Goods contract. The least we can do after our service members come home is make sure their moves happen seamlessly and that their families are taken care of, particularly in the recruiting and retention crisis that we're now in. And I do expect, as you know, and I appreciate your engagement for you to work with the prime vendor to make sure that we avoid any missteps, but that we have a single point of failure now for a key element for military families. And then I agree with Chairman Kelly that recapitalization of our sea lift fleet that we absolutely rely on to move the Army all-ground platforms and material into theater is a pressing issue. Crewing these issues is a huge concern. We have a significant shortage of credentialed mariners that Admiral Phillips and I have talked about that combined with poor vessel states, poor maintenance. It's resulted in what I think we'd all agree is a less than impressive readiness rate during recent exercises. We rely on all of this small pool, the same pool of credentialed mariners to crew commercial vessels in the Maritime Security Program and the Taker Security Program. And we have a tough road ahead. In closing, our ability to execute logistics in a contested environment, which we have not done as a nation in a very long time, will define our ability to succeed or fail in this strategic competition. I look forward to hearing whether the FY25 budget request meets this task. I yield my remaining time, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Chairman, and I now recognize ranking member Garamendi. Thank you. Well, look who's here, General and Admiral. Thank you so very much for joining us today. Obviously, very, very important. I want to start by thanking both of you for your leadership. I'm proud to represent a district with some of our nation's most vital assets. It's the gateway to the Pacific. And we also have Mary Island and Matko and a few other key assets in our, in my district that are essential for our presence and activities in the Pacific. And General Van Oost, thank you for recognizing and providing in your testimony the critical importance of Matko. By the way, there's a hill overlooking Matko that's going to be developed. You may want to purchase an easement and prevent that development from going forward. Let's talk about air mobility. I remain concerned with the low readiness levels of the air refueling fleets. This combined with the sunsetting of the KC-10 and the unresolved issues of the KC-46 increased the concerns. Unfortunately, we continue to accept operational risk for the KC-46 program, notably deficiencies that threaten the already low readiness levels of the airframes. Transcom, you're going to have to ensure that given the unresolved issues of the KC-46, we're not divesting at a rate in which exposes the U.S. to unacceptable air refueling risks. Speaking of unacceptable risk, our mobility fleets have been operating without connectivity for decades. We've talked about this. I guess people that don't fly in these planes really don't care much about it. But if you're in one of these airplanes, you basically don't know what's going on around you, and you are at great risk. And so it's just unacceptable. A minimum investment, and I draw this to the attention of my colleagues here, a minimal investment in these transport platforms can significantly increase the ability of that platform to survive in a contested environment, and also be far more efficient in its operations. Maritime, thank Mr. Welts for raising it, as I have two of my other colleagues here. We've got to deal with this issue, and I know, Admiral Phillips, you've worked at this for some time. We're going to buy used ships, we're 25 years old, and spend a whole lot of money refurbishing them, perhaps sufficiently, and they're going to age out very, very quickly. We're going to need a different strategy here. Some of this has been talked. I know Mr. Welts and I have talked about a national maritime strategy in which we would use Jones Act vessels and other vessels that are in the American maritime trade that they would be available, made to be militarily useful, and then call them up when we need them, building a reserve fleet that's quite different than our current reserve fleets. I want to, I'm going to continue to look at how this might be done. It does not require that the military own all the ships. It simply requires that the military make those ships that are privately owned, militarily useful, with an additional investment and probably some stipend to keep them available if and when needed. General von Oost, I know you do this with airplanes. In fact, I think you took two of the planes I needed to fly back and forth, nonstop from Sacramento. So you put me on a route to Chicago. I blame it on you. So this is part of what we need to do. The ready reserve fleet, we've had this discussion about how we might be able to create a national maritime security program using the Jones Act fleet, using the other privately owned vessels that are on the water. My final point deals with Title 11 financing to support our shipyards. On the private side, big issues on the government owned shipyards. We can talk about that ad nauseam, but on the privately owned side, we need to, if we are building ships, we will, and the commercial or private side, we will invariably improve our shipyards and the capacity for those shipyards to repair government ships and other ships that are necessary in the face of a conflict. We've enacted legislation to reaffirm Merad's authority to determine cargo preference. We want that to be effectively put in place. We want to make sure that if there's cargo, cargo is king, I'm told. Military cargo is critically important. So let's support our maritime industry by making sure that what is in the new law is actually engaged. A lot of other things to talk about, the fact that both of you are here. I want to thank the chairman of the committees. You've done something unique, which I had, or I should have expected you would do it, but I hadn't. But you brought us, you brought together two of the key critical players in one hearing. Thank you for doing so. Without a yield back. Thank you. And before I start, we're going to put us on the clock so that we give everybody a chance because we've got votes. But General Van Obos, I would go, I need to make sure, hopefully this is not your last posture hearing, but I think that it may be. And if it is, thank you for your tremendous service to our nation. And thank you also, Admiral Phillips. My first question is General Van Obos. Oh, I'm so sorry. I'm getting a head. I still mean that though. So if you're okay, you're recognized. Great. Thank you, Chairman. Chairman Kelly, Chairman Walts, ranking member Courtney, ranking member Garimundi, distinguished members of the committees. Good afternoon. It's my honor to join you today with my senior enlisted leader, Chief Master Sergeant Brian Krozilnik to represent the men and women of United States Transportation Command as we defend the nation, take care of our people and succeed through teamwork. I'm extremely proud of our team of logistics professionals who lead the joint deployment and distribution enterprise, continually exceed expectations and ensure hope, deterrence, and victory are assured as we contribute to our nation's defense. From competition to crisis, the entire enterprise proudly delivers for our nation, allies, and partners. And we know our success around the globe would not be possible without the steadfast support of this committee and the whole of Congress. The fiscal year 25 budget request continues to make strides and closing gaps in our mobility areas as we prepare for global operations in a contested environment. A contested environment is the reality of today, whether it's in the homeland or abroad, we cannot presume freedom of maneuver to execute operations will full access to our lines of communication. Our organic fleets, coupled with the vital capacity provided by our commercial transportation partners, must continue to present credible capacity, meaning we must modernize our mobility capabilities to include cyber resiliency and digital modernization initiatives. A connected, aware, and survivable mobility fleet and network is needed to maintain our advantage against a capable and determined near peer adversary. My top readiness concerns remain sea lift and air refueling. Sea lift is the backbone of our ability to deliver a decisive joint force. However, the age of the fleet is dragging readiness rights to alarming levels. 17 of the 47 organic ready reserve force ships are 50 years or older. To address readiness and the decrease in capacity due to the planned retirements of 27 ships in the next eight years, we must add younger ships to the fleet. Transcom supports the Navy's strategy to acquire new sea lift vessels from the commercial market and further requests to provide the Secretary of Defense discretionary authority to purchase foreign built ships under favorable market conditions without restrictions. We acknowledge Congress's intent to include domestic new build sea lift ships to recapitalize the ready reserve force and we're working with the Navy and the maritime administration to create an acquisition strategy for new construction that will complement the by-use program. Admiral Phillips and I recently toured the Philadelphia shipyard and saw ship building capacity available there. I believe the vessel construction manager model is a viable option for future sea lift construction program. I greatly appreciate your support for timely, predictable, and stabilized funding to meet our sea lift recapitalization requirements. Similarly, air refueling is foundational to our nation's power projection advantage. It is our most stressed capability. We must ensure continuous modernization and recapitalization of the aging fleet to meet the operational requirements of the modern battle space. Transcom supports the Air Force strategy for uninterrupted tanker recapitalization and accelerated fielding of the next generation air refueling system. Over the past year, we have made great strides diversifying our bulk fuel distribution and delivery posture by having an increased forward presence with fuel afloat in contracted maritime tankers and increasing capacity and access to the U.S. flagged maritime tanker fleet through the tanker security program. In addition, we fully support the maritime security program, Jones Act, and cargo preference laws that all work to ensure we have the necessary U.S. flag capability and U.S. merchant mariners ready to move sensitive defense materials during a national emergency. Maritime stakeholders have been experiencing challenges with recruiting and retaining qualified mariners, and we support Marat and industry efforts to identify strategies that address the mariner shortage and ensure their readiness. To effectively sense adversary threats and activities in our logistics networks, both home and abroad, the nation must utilize all available resources. Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act provides me insights into adversaries' intense capabilities and activities to contest our logistics capabilities. The loss of this authority adds risk to my mission. Additionally, passing a national defense supplemental is vital for the health of the Transportation Working Capital Fund, which preserves essential readiness and ensures response options for the Secretary of Defense. I am honored to join Admiral Ann Phillips. The relationship between Transcom and Merit has never been stronger as we work together to strengthen our national security. Thanks you once again for your leadership and the support you've provided our workforce. I look forward to your questions. Admiral Administrator Phillips, you are now recognized for five minutes. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Good afternoon, Chairman Walts and Chairman Kelly, Ranking Member Garamendi, and Ranking Member Courtney, and members of the subcommittee. Thank you for your tremendous support for the Maritime Administration, the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, and the U.S. maritime industry. Before I go further, allow me to express our condolences on behalf of the Department of Transportation to the families of those who lost their lives earlier this month when the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed in Baltimore. Events like this highlight how important our maritime transportation system is to our nation's national and economic security. Marit's mission is to foster, promote, and develop the maritime industry of the United States to meet the nation's economic and security needs. In that context, the President's FY 2025 budget request of $859.7 million for Marad will enable the agency to continue to strengthen our sea lift enterprise by advancing recapitalization of the ready reserve force and vital commercial sea lift programs that support U.S. flag vessels operating in foreign trade. Let me begin by discussing our ready reserve, an area of focus today. Our 2025 budget request $974 million from DOD budgetary authority for Marad to acquire, upgrade, and maintain vessels in the NDRF and ready reserve force. These funds help Marad to keep the fleet in a ready, reliable, and responsive condition to ensure Marad can meet the nation's strategic sea lift needs. The RRF consists of 48 vessels today, averaging over 45 years in age, and they are maintained in reduced operating status. This fleet will expand to 51 vessels by the end of FY 2025 with the planned transfer of vessels from the military sea lift command. Marad is responsible for maintaining these aging ships as part of the Navy sea lift recapitalization plan. We are actively advancing urgent recapitalization of the RRF using congressional authority to purchase vessels through a contracted vessel acquisition manager. This approach successfully acquired two ships in FY 2022 and in FY 2023 purchased three more, one 10 years old and two 11 years old. The ongoing reflagging process following the stringent alternate compliance program will make all five vessels ready for use by the third quarter of 2024. We continue to collaborate with the vessel acquisition manager and how identified several potential ships per purchase with the goal of reaching the congressionally limited number of nine used vessels by the end of FY 25. In the FY 23, NDAA Marad was directed to develop a sea lift ship design for the construction of 10 new vessels for the NDRF. I offer my thanks to Congress for appropriating 12 million in FY 2024 funds to begin this vessel design. The 2025 budget also requests the full authorization level of 318 million for the Maritime Security Program to support 60 commercially viable, militarily useful vessels currently enrolled. We have also fully implemented the 10 vessel tanker security program and are requesting 60 million for the program. These ships will provide DOD with reliable access to product tankers supporting national economic security. One program participant withdrew after accepting a long-term U.S. government charter and Marad is actively working to fill the vacancy and we expect to do so later this summer. We continue to work with the Center for Naval Analysis on the body of analysis that will support the Maritime strategy and we understand congressional interest in this important effort. We continue to collaborate as well with stakeholders to address the Mariner shortage. We recently convened the FY 2024 directed Maritime Workforce Working Group to identify the number of licensed and unlicensed Mariners recommended improvements in recruiting and detention and evaluate how we can best recruit, train and retain and reduce barriers to retention to grow our pool of merchant Mariners. We also continue to expand Embark participation. Today there are 21 commercial operators enrolled which operate over 180 vessels. We are working to develop a proposed Embark rule pursuant to the 2023 NDAA. In addition the FY 2025 budget request includes 191 million to support U.S. Merchant Marine Academy operations and our Capital Asset Management Program for USMMA. It also requests 87 million to support the six state Maritime Academies including continuing to build out new training vessels. Four national security multi-mission vessels are under construction using the VCM process with one delivered last fall Empire State, the second Patriot State expected to be delivered later this summer and State of Maine just launched last Friday. The FY 2024 NDAA doubles the student incentive payments program amount from $32,000 to $64,000. This will offer more financial support for cadets in the strategic sea lift midshipment program at our SMAs. We thank Congress for this authorization. These programs reflect Mariners priorities supported by the President's budget. We plan to keep you updated of course on our progress in these areas. We are honored to testify here today before you again with General Vanovoz and we look forward to questions you may have. Thank you. I thank you and I'm going to be really strict on the clock today guys. I may give you 10 seconds but no more and I will cut off answers and with that if you'll put me on the clock. General Vanovoz, how do you communicate the results of the mobility capability requirement study to the military services to inform shipbuilding, air refueling and air lift procurements? Thank you Chairman. We use the mobility capability requirement study to provide our assessment of mobility sufficiency of the fleet. We work very carefully with the services, OSD and the joint staff. They're with us throughout the entire process and we out brief the recommendations and then that turns into the budget process where we go after the gaps to try to close them. And Admiral Phillips, what is your assessment of the interest in the tanker security program and ability to meet the authorized 20 ships, whether medium range tankers or otherwise? Thank you for that question Chairman Kelly. Sir, we find that there is interest in the program. As I've said we had 10 vessels enrolled. One had an option to leave for a long-term charter. We thank Congress for the 25 million to help us as we have discussed in the past prepare for additional training opportunities to ensure we are able to man these vessels. And of course it also depends on the ability of government carers to help assist and offset the cost of managing a tanker under the TSP program. Thank you. Thank you. In General Vanovoz our air refueling fleet is comprised of mostly second-generation aircraft who have to key to mic to receive threats. What is the way ahead on connecting the aircraft to information that makes them more survival in a contested environment? Thank you. I say logistic is foundational to any strategy and we have got to be able to move our air refueling is foundational to the ability to project and sustain the joint force. We must ensure that they're connected and they have battle space awareness. And so I'm working with the United States Air Force to define those requirements for all of those aircraft. It looks a lot like the types of capabilities we have in the KC-46 aircraft which is sort of the future of air refueling. And do you have an assessment of the cost of that? I do not have an assessment of the full cost however the Air Force does. Okay if you could if you can provide that just so that we have an assessment of that I think that is very helpful for us to understand. And then General Vanovoz how is the contested environment expected to affect Transcom's ability to use the ready reserve force as well as commercial contract and logistics partners more broadly? The contested environment is going to require us to be able to communicate securely with civilian and military assets of the fleets. And therefore we are working on installing secure communications on the ready reserve force ships as well as working with our commercial carriers and commercial shipping to try to understand how we're going to get them information. We have been learning a lot with respect to the Red Sea as we are doing escort operations for US flagged ships. And so we're taking those lessons learned while we'll be folding them into what we're doing in the Indo-Pacific for communications with them. And I'm going to see some of my time back but I want to thank both of you for being here today. I want to thank you for the visit in the office yesterday where we talked much more deeply. And with that being said I now recognize ranking member Courtney. Thank you Mr. Chairman. And this is a question I guess to both witnesses which is that I think you know from your meetings with members and you know past hearings that this subcommittee is very focused on the availability of used sea lift vessels on the global market. In fact in last year's NDA we directed Transcom and Mayred to conduct a market analysis to determine the availability of used sea lift vessels vessels that meet military requirements and can be purchased. So number one where does that report stand? When are we going to see that? You'll be seeing that here by June. And in the meantime obviously you have a request for another round of buying used vessels. The Admiral Phillips I mean in your testimony you indicated that the government was able to put around for about 90 million a boat is that correct? Yes sir. All right and does that but that doesn't represent the total cost because there's an additional cost to actually convert that used vessel to meet your specifications? There is yes sir. And can you give us sort of a you know round you know some kind of estimate in terms of what that number looks like? I think I would take that question for the record sir to be absolutely certain that I give you a good idea but it is certainly on the order of between 10 and 20 million for the Jolly class vessels and that that again I'll take it for the record so we give you an accurate. Well we do sort of need that number and I appreciate you know your willingness to to share that with us. I mean that we've heard 20 to 30 and from some other folks that have visited the office our offices because again just sort of going back to the to the math of last year's spending bill in FY 24 Congress appropriated the request of 142 million dollars for two vessels which again if you if you take 90 million and add the conversion class on top of that it just it it just seems like we're we're gonna have you know we're gonna run into some problems in terms of being able to afford all that and you know I guess that's sort of the the thing that we struggle with which is you know this this at some point just becomes a cost and a risk and a aging vessel that you just sort of wonder whether we're getting the best value. So again do you feel that you can use last year's spending appropriation to buy two vehicles and convert them? We do think that we will be able to buy two vessels with the appropriation that we have and start the conversion process and hopefully complete it as well using those funds but I would add that the key is newer vessels cost less money to convert and when we buy older vessels we find things that we didn't know were there the alternate compliance program is is quite strict and we find ourselves in a similar situation to where we find ourselves with the ready reserve sometimes chasing our tail trying to catch up with things that have been in existence for a very long time and that adds to the cost. No and I think that describes the dilemma well again the problem is that we just don't know what's in the market from one day to the next in terms of whether older or newer are actually available there. So we did provide money for design of new sea lifts as you point out and and as I mentioned you know it seems like the vessel contract manager vessel acquisition manager model seems to be something that people are embracing I think was in both of your testimonies that's there so if we were to give you the money for a new build sea lift program in this year's budget could you put that into on contract in FY 25? Sir I think it would be a stretch to put it into contract in FY 25 without having a hundred percent design at this point in time. We would have to have a hundred percent design and I would estimate roughly two years to be able to get it under contract because I don't want to over promise something that I that I can't deliver. Okay again that's helpful and you know it's a question that I think we're going to keep asking okay with that I yield back. I now recognize Chairman Walts. Thank you Mr. Chairman and forgive me trying to get a sign up here but I think this visual is is powerful we're all aware of Chinese Communist Party influence and how far the People's Republic of China has come and its influence over shipbuilding over shipping the industry maritime infrastructure it's to the point where I think the People's Republic of China could exact economic warfare economic coercion on the high seas even during peacetime and when we see the PRC with 50% of the civilian global shipbuilding capacity that is incredibly concerning and just by point of some numbers here 7000 Chinese flagged ocean-going vessels compared to less than 200 1700 orders last year that the Chinese are going to build less than five people the American people need to understand this 600,000 workers 1500 ships large ships they're gonna build we're gonna build Mr. Chairman we're gonna build 20 so I think you are both aware of the recent petition filed by the administration advocating for investigation and unfair and uncompetitive practices by the PRC and the maritime sector behavior I believe that the CCP is doing as part of a long-term strategy to basically make it nearly impossible for the US to build or operate ships that we need not only for economic vitality but for to support our warfighter Admiral Phillips I'm gonna give you the floor on this what policy decisions and resources does Marad need from Congress to help the maritime sector rise above these challenges this is a this is an all of society this is steel aluminum shipyards dry docks workers wrench turners we've asked for a national maritime strategy I my office and in concert with others uh both the House and the Senate have issued our thoughts on it talk to me about how we get here as a nation and start digging ourselves out of this hole thank you sir and thank you for the opportunity what we need is a clear signal from from Congress that this is a serious issue that you take it seriously which I know you do and and that you are intent on finding solutions to move things forward by that I mean I'll frame out how about if I can just interrupt you how about if we gave you a separate budget line is that a clear signal it is a clear signal sir and uh of course appropriations would be required as well but to put a fine point on it with the ready reserve of you as you have mentioned in at the end of 25 I have authority to buy four more ships and and then I'm done I have 12 million dollars which for which we thank you to do a design for a sea lift vessel but there's we would need additional appropriations authorizations and capacity to move forward from there correct me if I'm wrong in the first Gulf War approximately what was it about 400 ships that took our took our ground forces over now you're sitting on 40 to 60 uh it well that also would have included sir the commercial vessels that were available but they were approaching 200 ready reserve force vessels at that time okay keep going though what do we need to do what else clear signal yes sir a clear signal uh with with intent intent to move forward to begin build programs for things that we need uh nationally and and this could include not only building but it could include programs that are similar to things that we've done before where we have either uh built and then leased or leased and then we we provided the leases as the u.s. government and industry built to meet those leases long term it would be a 20 to 25 year commitment those are options or ideas for things that could be considered for the future but what comes with that is of course a clear signal that we care about this and we're going to move forward support from congress to make that happen that also of course impacts our ability to provide crews to because then the industry sees ah I have a future here I have a way to move forward without that we have the we have the fleet that we are authorized and appropriated to have using the cargo preference laws that we have and our and our do d cargo requirements over time which is what largely supports what we have today I think there's a the the Chinese Communist Party now has the largest navy in the world uh because they have the largest civilian shipbuilding industry in the world uh and those thousands of ships every one of them can be a warship just like that uh and I think we have talked about we've talked about this sea lift recapitalization this issue since I've been here but Mr Chairman I think it's time both of these committees start moving out in support of Marat thank you gentlemen's time's expired I now recognize uh Mr Garamendi ranking member Garamendi chairman waltz is marching down a path that I are just giving the rest of my time it's interesting to note that those used ships that you're about to buy the owners of those ships will take that was it 90 million dollars and then go buy a chinese built ship I'm trying to figure out Mr Walsh how that fits into the concerns that you so adequately put forward seems to me that we're headed down the wrong path there are strategies that we really can and should put forward bottom line of this until we authorize and appropriate we're not going to succeed now there's some ways we can do this less expensive I'd like to say on the cheap but just less expensive for example we're going to need a lot of oilers if we're going to have a problem in the pacific fact we need them today the John L Lewis ship runs what just under a billion a copy that about right we're not going to build many of them however if we were to pass a piece of legislation that senator wicker and I put forward which is called the energizing the American shipbuilding industry at most in general this is not for you this for my colleagues if we were to do that and say that 10 percent of the export of petroleum products from the largest petroleum product export nation in the world the United States was on American built ships we would build probably 40 to 50 ships in the next decade to 15 years energizing our shipbuilding industry the cost to the government not much however we would want to put in a small requirement that those ships be the word you use mr waltz militarily useful have a kingpost in the middle and some communication systems we could do this by simply changing the law which we once had all of the oil from the north slope in the original 25 years was brought to the continental united states refineries on american built ships and then we allowed that to go offshore to other refineries over the years and then we did away with the ships and now we are what we are energizing the american shipbuilding industry anybody from mr wicker's state here there are ways we can do this jones act allow and use the jones act military useful ships add maybe 10 percent we'll subsidize that we'll give a stipend as we do with the craft program the aircraft program and we can then build a domestic fleet the same time rebuilding our shipyards jeez i'm supposed to ask questions to you to the witnesses forgive me members you say you're agnostic general vanos you just need the ships i don't like that reply and you know why we've had this conversation i want you to be an advocate for american ships uh can you do that i'm absolutely an advocate for american ships and and we owe you a comeback with mered and the navy to talk about a creative acquisition strategy that's going to support maritime nation writ large and be part of the the national maritime strategy that merits put together thank you i know that we we talked earlier about the uh my colleagues talked earlier about the the mariners themselves obviously an ongoing problem not only across almost every part of our economy it's about pay it's about knowledge and it's also about in most of these cases we have maritime unions apprenticeship programs there are apprenticeship programs and some of the more recent legislation we ought to look at that use that more robustly with that i'm going to yield back thank you so very much well i think and i will not disagree with senator wicker and when he and mr gare mendy and i all agree on something we're probably in the right space i now recognize the gentleman from south carolina mr wilson thank you mr chairman indeed it is remarkable that we get to agree together with the constant gara monday and in general kelly and it's wonderful to agree also with senator wicker and indeed we support bipartisan your efforts in every way and uh general i have a vote i want to thank you for your service to the nation leadership at the united states transportation command and taking the opportunity to highlight uh south carolina we're so grateful that the service members of the 437th air wing stationed at joint base charleston from the air mobility command under the your command of transcom the joint base charleston is a great example of the joint readiness across the force and as this is due to the leadership within transcom uh enterprise and i particularly appreciated my dad served in applying tigers in world war two army air corps and we used to go visit the charleston air base to see f86's take off which we thought were very advanced at that time and so again your leadership is critical and in your statement you sadly mentioned that 17 of the 47 ships in the organic ready reserve force are 50 years of age or older with the oldest being 56 years of age this raises readiness concerns for the impact of that age and the lifecycle for our uh sea lift capacity and that's why i'm so glad as you clearly see uh you have the bipartisan support even bicameral and so of the house and senate with that in mind for each of you the iranian back puppets the houthis have continued their assault on the commercial and military vessels in the red sea this disrupting the free flow of commerce through transit routes events like this underscore the importance that the contingency plans and redundancy plans we have in the global supply chain with the direct challenge to our allies of korea japan india philippines australia with that in mind what is with the ongoing events general and admiral the and military exercise what lessons learned have we captured to help improve in the areas that we have against such threats thanks congressman i'll start with uh we are very focused on uh contested lines of communication like things like choke points and so we're working with commercial industry to to help them communicate with us to give them the intelligence and in fact you saw us do convoys with our commercial partners through the streets and into the red sea so we're taking those lessons out to the end of pacific it's a different it's a different category out there the threat is much higher so we're we are also focused on training mariners about how to uh how to navigate in in contested waters we know that they will be with us but it also i think about we are so dependent on our commercial transportation partners we cannot project and sustain the force without them so we will absolutely take these contested logistics ideas we and we are exercising them right now in the end of pacific and and today uh it was really outstanding we had prime minister fumio of japan speak and i hope everybody saw his resolve has stated his resolve to work with nato to work very closely continue with the united states and how important it is that we'd be working together and indeed with the red sea routes and i i know korea too has been involved uh general van obost uh would you assess the middle east as being one of the most enduring security and stability challenges due to the numerous attacks on our infrastructure uh iraq syria and losing three american service members in jordan recently on january 28 the horror of that are there any further steps that congress can do to better facilitate your efforts thank our hearts go out to the families of the fallen when i think about the the globe though i have to think about our pacing challenge is china uh and a cute threat is russia as you don't know what's going on there with especially russia and ukraine and the future of whether ukraine stands or falls which is dependent on a supplemental uh and i let gelcovoli make that make that statement but it's critical and we depend on a supplemental as well to continue going there are enduring threats around the globe to include in the middle east we have great partners in the middle east uh and i work very closely with eric carilla to ensure that he has the transportation logistics he needs to maintain deterrence in in the middle east we want to thank both of you your service could not be more important as we have a war between dictators and democracy i yield back and we're sending every witness to the school you went to your succinct and you answer the questions i now recognize the gentleman uh mr no cross thank you chairman both chairmen's and ranking members for holding this meeting and certainly to our witnesses very much appreciate the time that we've had to discuss not only in the past but today um we've heard a lot about the capacity uh mr waltz and his chart up there showing what china is doing and certainly china follows a rule that we don't you don't see any china's uh naval vessels being made in anywhere but china and certainly to support boats and our conversation and the one that i would like to have today talks about our industrial base the ability for shipbuilding certainly uh sea power has been focused on it and joe courtney and others but uh the uninterrupted recapitalization so on one hand we're having to go out to the used market to purchase ships because they're not available to us in the time factor and and the cost that we need them yet we don't want to set up that recapitalization to build new from the get go so it's a self-fulfilling prophecy we're not going to have the capacity until we make that decision collectively that we have to build this in america to build up that capacity because we talk about supply chain issues particularly came to light during the pandemic well the most difficult part to get of any ship of any airplane of any vessel that might run on tracks is called the human capital and you don't grow it overnight it takes time and certainly it takes a lot of pressure from us to say we need to build this how many times do they take an attack on the jones act so what i'm going to do is the both of you went to the facility yard and talked about the construction management model and what we saw there virtually in naval terms absolutely on time and under budget in naval terms but what they're doing there and we can expand that model so that that's self-fulfilling prophecy of not being able to have the capacity you have to start somewhere so i will share with us a little bit what they're doing in Philadelphia under that construction management model and how we can take that and potentially expand it because they want the work how can we give them the work they need and most importantly have those vessels for what we need to defend america thank you sir for that question i would add that philly isn't the only one that wants the work but certainly philly has shown philadelphia has shown that the vessel construction manager program can work the program it consists of us contracting with the vessel construction manager who then contracts with the yard to build the vessel is designed in this case i believe a lot of the successes attributed to having a strong vessel construction manager first of all but also starting with 100 percent design with a firm fixed price contract and a very small change order budget and then using commercial best practices to oversee the design build and implementation of that build with the ship so that is what has made the philly ship nsv program so successful and i believe that can be replicated in in in many senses to facilitate additional ship construction programs and it can be worked across many yards and many different vessel construction managers we build those ships differently than we do our vessels that go to war there's no question about that uh but 100 design or as close as we can get to it and we've seen that change one of the questions came up is how can we send a clear message to you while we did it last year in the ndaa the modified by american provision for major acquisitions used to be in the 50s we're gonna move that up incrementally per year to send the signal the industry we're going to buy from american up to the 75 percent that is the sort of signals we are sending but if we don't exercise it on our end and your end to actually implement these we're not going to get the right way and i'm going to yield back my final 30 seconds thanks i thank the gentleman i now recognize mr scott thank you mr chairman um i think i have a little take than some of my some of the previous comments that have been made uh i want the american citizens we're not talking about aircraft carriers or destroyers when we're talking about the uh the bayou's if i'm not mistaken and correct me if i'm wrong we're typically talking about a roll-on roll-off ship very similar to what we see um and the pictures unfortunately of the bridge collapse is that correct when we're talking about these roll-on roll-offs yes sir it is essentially the three most recent ships we bought were rocon so some container capacity some roll-on roll-off capacity the two previous or row rows when is the last time that a roll-on roll-off ship was built inside the united states of america the last commercially built vessels that were built in this country sir um for international trade not jones act international trade were built in the 80s we do have jones act construction now of an example would be mattson and and paesia to west coast carriers who build container vessels okay and they build them in this country so how many how many of those container vessels have built inside the united states in the last 10 years i can't answer the last 10 years sir i know paesia just finished two vessels and mattson has an order for three in philly that will follow the nsnb program and how long will it take to build those three several years i would expect uh this is an estimate probably four years okay my my point my point is that if we're going to deal with the capacity challenge that we have and the time that we have to deal with it you have to accept that the calendar days and the time limit and the capacity is a problem and and i just i think we should raise the nine ship limit uh and and if we get rid of a 50 year old ship and we and we end up with a 15 or a 20 year old ship until we're able to get new ships built uh if something kicks off between now and then then we're we're better able to serve of this country and and and so my question is uh you know you've called for um general ban i was the the nine ship limit be removed what if it's not removed how long would it take if it's not removed for us to fill the capacity gap that we have i given the expected decommissioning of of the 27 ships in the next eight years uh we will um be at a much elevated risk to be able to meet our mission requirements which is why we need to come back to you with a more comprehensive strategy that looks at the near term the mid term and the far term and and that's my compilation and so when we talk about the need to temporarily to raise the limit so that we're temporarily able to use ships not built in china but built in singapore built in japan we're standing down how many ships over the next give me that number again what you just get 27 56 percent of the fleet okay so we're going to get rid of 50 percent of our transportation capacity over the next how many years eight over the next eight years 2032 okay and it doesn't sound to me like in the last 30 years there have been that many ships built inside the united states in that category it is simply it's simply a question of do you want to have something to fill the gap until until the u.s manufacturers are able to fill this or not when when if you ask me so um real quick general van ovens we talked about the supplemental and the need for the supplemental for you can you talk to us just briefly about the 550 million dollars um the specifics of that just so that everybody uh i think the people on the committee understand but just so the american citizens understand the need for the supplemental from the standpoint of transportation command yes from the standpoint of transportation command $550 million or earmarked for transportation services uh to account for the transportation uh for the events after october 7th in the middle east the those transportation costs have not been recouped we have not reimbursed and that causes us to drain our funds uh such that uh we if we have a another emergency we'd have to look to see where we'd have capability to provide options for the secretary of defense so our transportation working capital fund is necessary to prove it's really our readiness function for transcom and that money has already been spent because of what happened in israel approximately 180 million dollars has been spent so far but we are forecasting up to 550 because we deployed forces and we'll have to bring them back in 2024 thank both of you for your your time in your service gentlemen's time's expired i now recognize the gentleman from pennsylvania mr delusia thank mr chairman general admiral good to see you both uh general van i'll start with you i appreciate the transportation command report responding to the request i had made in the this past year's ndaa identifying vulnerabilities and transportation networks here in this country personnel section under us transcom concerns regarding commercial railroad capabilities report states and i'll i'll read this brief passage over the past decade the implementation of lean operational processes by the major railroads common referred commonly referred to as precision scheduled railroading or psr has had impacts on the railroad labor force across almost all specialized trades the railroads have reduced the number of employees although the intent of psr is to improve the overall economic competitiveness and efficiency of rail operations it is arguably sacrifice resiliency and the ability of the rail industry to effectively respond to changes and quote general the overall assessment report is that uh essentially freight rail is adequate to meet the needs of your command although you identify that risk in the report just give me a sense of those staffing issues and how they could raise concerns intermediate longer term to the mission you have to accomplish certainly i would say across the transportation industry we are having we're are seeing labor shortages and so railroad is no is no exception to that so as you have less crews and you have less resiliency it could occur with delays and so we're working very closely with the railroad industry to have to have discussions about how do we ensure resiliency across the networks that said should we have an issue on a rail we do have multiple ways to perhaps offload the rail and go to trucking so i work with north com with respect to transportation uh making sure that it's we have robust a way to defend the transportation lines and i work with the dot to ensure we have multiple pathways to get our cargo where it needs to go very good thank you and i appreciate the department's uh you know announcement the last few weeks of implementing two-person minimum staffing i think will help with rail safety across the board as part of my railway safety act in general um real emerald phillips your testimony last year at last year's posture hearing mentions direction from congress uh for mera to develop a roll-on roll-off ship design for construction you've had a little bit of this discussion there give us a sense where are things what kind of updates you have for us if any thank you for that question sir uh we thank congress this year for last year we didn't have any funding to do this this year we do have funding to do this 2024 nda appropriated uh authorized 12 million and we have an appropriation for 12 million to begin to develop this design very good uh with that in mind given the pace of things today in votes i will yield back mr chairman i thank the gentleman i now recognize the gentleman from minnesota who has an accent mr fenstead thank you mr chair uh and thank you both uh for being here and and for your service uh many hardworking suppliers of several different transportation systems which fulfill missions and requirements for the three subordinate commands of us transportation command live and work in southern minnesota the demand signals for the industrial base is critical to our national security projecting power and investing in the defense workforce it is these private sector workers and innovators that will build and sustain the mobility enterprise employees and independent contractors alike have a role to play in this most important work so with that being said and with the uh acknowledgement of the time that we have here general van obost i understand that us uh transcom favors moving away from the independent independent contractors for truck for truckers that move freight and household goods do you think this is a wise move and have you based this course of action on any underlying data considering that a large portion of our trucking fleet is made up of independent contractors congressman i wouldn't say we're walking away from independent contractors in fact if you provide quality move services you're absolutely welcome and volunteer to join the home safe alliance again it's a single move manager but we will have multiple sub companies up underneath in fact at least 40 percent of the contractors up underneath home safe alliance must be you know our our smaller industry small business owners and so we are we are keeping a close eye to ensure that they meet that requirement in fact it is a performance parameter for them to meet great well that that's good to hear i mean it's obviously important for the folks that i represent it's a great opportunity and partnership to really strengthen and send signals to the defense industrial base and and uh i'm just happy to hear hear your response so with that mr chair me and my funny accent we'll yield back and now recognize the gentle lady from hawaii mr kota thank you very much mr chair in general thank you so much for for your service um general um your written testimony highlighted the fact that our forces are not ready postured or scaled to optimize limited strategic assets for global patient movement i'm especially interested in the challenges of patient movement in a contested environment and in large-scale combat operations against a peer or near peer adversary in the indole pacific my backyard uh the fiscal year 2020 ndaa established a pilot program to enhance interoperability and surge capacity of the national uh disaster medical system which includes three main components medical response patient movement and definitive care now i believe it comforted by pilot sites none of which are in the pacific region that being said general would you please briefly discuss how transcom works with and integrates the national disaster medical system into your planning for global patient movement in a large-scale pacific contingency i'd like to first point out that our air medical evacuation personnel have performed brilliantly over the last few decades to save our service men and women around the globe and i'm immensely proud of what they do every day that said we are at risk to meet the casual demand expected in a large-scale combat operation especially in the waters of the pacific in fact uh we expect to have to move uh the the amount of the entire patients we moved last year in one week in such an event this is how we have to think about how we're going to have to change our concepts of operation and our and our modes and and actually how we deliver we think about people having to dwell in theater how we have to partner more with our with our allies and partners to provide medical capacity in theater and how do we make those routes streamlined to get back to the united states and when we get back to the united states i work with us north com to work with the n dms to try to distribute those patients uh at different centers so again this is an end to end discussion but it's at the volume that we've just never seen in fact we really haven't seen uh if it should we uh lose a ship you know mariners in the water how we pluck them out of the water and how we get them into the system so we are really this is going to be a whole of nation effort we have to go to war and we're absolutely going to be using all services and and resources of our nation to deliver thank you i know i'm running out of time and i would you're not you've got an additional two minutes because they they didn't restart the clock so you've got an additional two minutes to us showing that being said i know that we do have to go to votes i would suspect that if we are looking at some kind of large-scale um disaster engagement casualties in the pacific hawaii would play a critical role in supporting patient movement and care especially as we get them towards the continent you know what kind of challenges do you foresee with transportation infrastructure both in hawaii and in the pacific places like guam in terms of our ability to conduct aeromedical evacuations also one big problem that we face consistently in hawaii which will only get worse in the case of some kind of contingency is having sufficient medical workforce equipment supplies facilities to be able to support health care needs as transcom thinking through what kind of search capacity for health care staff and facilities we need to be prepared for whether military civilians to meet any kind of patient movement or care through the into pacific through hawaii again to the continent thank you we are doing a lot of thinking about the entire network again i'm responsible for the end and movement of patients around the globe so we think we are rethink we are reposturing where would we hold patients where could we bring them for rehab you know a tripler would certainly be you know an option for that and so as i work with north calm and ndms on where we'd have to expand where we're thinking again about new concepts and new ways to take care of them so that that would be necessarily the downstream work as we set requirements for different locations around the pacific and in the united states thank you and you know i know that as i said five pilot sites perhaps if there are an extension or additional pilot sites one in the pacific would be a valuable one so that we can really start to look at what will be necessary for us to be able to prepare for any kind of conflict and mass casualties thank you chair yield back i now recognize mr hamen as thank you mr chairman you know during world war two uh for every aircraft carrier that was built by the japanese we could build six unfortunately for us today where japan and china is us except their capacity is much even it's even greater than what our advantage was in world war two yeah we we must uh mr chairman and colleagues we need to make shipbuilding a a defense a security priority and it's not going to be done here whatever we do here is peanuts to be honest with you when you look at you know really what shipbuilding capacity is all about and when we're talking about nine ships or 20 ships that's nothing compared to the capacity that that china has so we need to play the game that china played they played it very well they subsidize their industry they captured the market uh the market now that the world is dependent on them uh they've got all the capacity uh and they did it probably not using what's we call fair trade they use their own they subsidize their industries and that's what they do by the way that's what they do for everything that they feel to be strategic all those initiatives strategic for them they subsidize it capture the market and then they got it and uh and so we've got to start playing some of that game not just here in hask but on a whole of government approach and that's my my my comment for this but uh my my question is uh to you admiral phillips the port of baltimore is home port of part of the military sea lift commands national defense reserve fleet uh what is the assessment of their ability to respond with the tragedy at the frances scott key bridge where any of the vessels impact by by this incident sir thank you for that question we maintain typically we have six ships there we have four in port baltimore right now two of the four under maintenance the other two would be full up rounds they are unable to leave the port i would add that we believe once the 35 foot channel is open which we expect at the end of april that they were all they are all clear uh should they be recalled uh by the department of defense were you prepared for the event like uh what happened at that at that bridge and are there any contingency plans for let's say a black swan event or deliberate attack on our key infrastructure like bridges that we could bottle up our our fleet so sir as you're aware there are 48 total vessels in the ready reserve right now so there are additional vessels stationed around the country with similar capacities that would be available of course a black swan event is uh always a challenge to anticipate but uh we that is exactly why we don't station them all together and we station them strategically around the nation finally for for you admiral i'd really be uh interested in your in your views on how we can build we can restore ship ship building capacity here in the united states and not on an incremental basis somewhere to uh it really meets the the security needs of of this country i i really believe this is a critical piece of our security infrastructure and that we've been asleep at the wheel and and we don't have the capacity to respond like we used to certainly don't have the capacity to respond to an adversary like china we need to this is going to be a long-term thing it's not going to happen overnight how can we get back to having at least the capacity that we need to maintain our freedoms here in the united states and i appreciate that and i'll yield back gentlemen neils back i now recognize the gentleman from texas mr vc thank you mr chairman uh general i wanted to ask uh if you could talk a little bit about the v-22 i know that the pentagon has cleared it to fly again and given the unique capabilities that the v-22 has uh particularly in rapid intraviator transport can you speak to how the v-22 uh fits in the operational strategy particularly for missions that require both speed and versatility yeah so i'd love to talk about the cv-22 as much as i love it's a great airplane however i would ask you to speak to to the navy and so calm about the airplanes i don't i don't have them in my repertoire okay and then i also wanted to ask you um i and i'd talk with you about this before i know that it's taken nearly six years from the initial announcement in 2018 to begin implementing the new military household uh good shipment system and i wanted to ask you um uh why are these specific 14 installations uh chosen for the initial rollout thanks uh we were doing a conditions-based rollout and we've started here in april and we chose those locations because the services said that they were ready because this is not just a single contractor we are changing the entire model so we've worked with the services to train them they came forward and said we're ready at these locations and it made sense these are local moves within 50 miles and so as they as they chose sort of the the heat map of of where the most moves would be and where they were the most ready that's how we selected them we we do all of this in conjunction with the services okay uh and and what are the parameters for success in this initial phase and based on the current schedule uh when do you foresee the new system being rolled out to encompass 99 percent of service members and so we are uh we are going to pause uh bringing on new capability during the peak season to reduce risk and really focus on customer experience so the vast majority of this season will be done by under the old tender of service system uh and then we'll begin full domestic ramp up through the end of this year about september through december and then we all the way through to next year we'll start doing uh overseas moves beginning in september of 25 and then ramp up from there again a deliberate conditions-based approach uh to this capability uh that said we have you know almost 30 metrics that we watch we gather data every day do analysis weekly on the metrics that they're going to be graded against so immediately we'll be able to see if there are any concerns and provide immediate feedback and that feedback is also available well to the services and to the company and sub and sub vendors yeah i wanted to ask you also how do you think the moves if you if you look at the the current experience versus the the the new system that you want to put in place for the military moving system what steps are being taken to ensure that that the enhancements are going to be effective absolutely look the current tender of service program does not provide consistent high quality moving experience for our service members and their families and it's difficult to hold industry accountable for performance failures so this complete change in how we're doing household goods as as really mandated in 2018 by congress this is going to help us achieve a standardization and integration and capacity management that we can achieve today uh accountability with defined standards with trained personnel modern digital management tools where you could do the move on your iphone enhance communications and simplified claims again that we are we do not have today so given all of those changes we think it's going to be a radically different experience and speaking of the accountability that you just mentioned how was this new system uh as far as service quality uh concerned how is it going to handle potential issues that you hear from families dealing with loss uh damages uh people's belongings during the move yeah we now have a 24 7 contact center and the quality assurance representatives that are at the locations that will visit onsite are clear to immediately make a call if there is a problem which then gets funneled to a center that's going to take care of the problem right away so we will know immediately if things start to go off the rails because what we really desire is that our service members and their families have a confident pleasant quality move no matter where they're moving yeah thank you very much thank you sir i'm going to go back now recognize the gentleman from Mr. Moreland thank you mr chairman uh thank you general thank you for your testimony and general i appreciate your visits to my office it's been really helpful and i truly support your objective to ensuring that we had the fleet that is necessary absolutely and once we get those ships into especially the endopaycom area we got to get it loaded and unloaded and general in our last meetings we talked about the urgency of funding the port authority of guam and its unique role for the department of defense can you please elaborate on the necessity of the port authority of guam in us transcom operational structure and what infrastructure there is critical to your mission thank you i'll tell you it's an understatement to say how important guam is to our operations of pacific so thank you for your leadership out there and thanks committee for the support of the infrastructure and resiliency work that we're doing out there right now so guam is critical and the navy port seaport of navy seaport of guam is critical for us for a lot of our deployment requirements and then the civilian side of the port has been important for our sustainment if you will and and construction materials which are really critical again right now as we are we're bolstering our posture and helping the services and our allies and partners come out there and get settled in so i think about guam all the time in fact there's a new two-star commander that's going to roll out and be responsible for integrating all of those projects together i look forward to working with him or her on how do we help to ensure that we can phase in and meet the requirements of the build up there thank you and the new general is the one star that's dubbed up hoffman it will continue on there with his family so it's a wonderful along with that line there's two pieces of infrastructure i'm concerned about and to include the port of guams gantry train cranes which are in need of replacement and the harbors breakwater which reportedly one more typhoon could destroy if these two pieces of infrastructure fail the people of guam could lose access to commercial shipping considering the approximately 40 percent of cargo moving through the port of guam is for the military how is the department of fence will be impacted by this infrastructure deterioration yeah certainly we like resilient options with respect to birthing and where the cranes are uh you know the navy port and and the civilian side of the port and as you know the department of fence does not does not fund the infrastructure on the civilian side i turn to our maritime administration partners for opportunities for for loans because essentially we get billed to use those things and is that money that goes back that that that goes back to reinforce and reinvestment supposedly by that by the civilian contractor so i i defer to admiral phillips thank you ma'am uh and congressman thank you uh we have received letters from the governor on the topics you are mentioning exactly uh and we have also been visited by uh guv guam and port of guam staff many times i see them often at apa and and i thank them for their interest and their visits uh as you're aware we have a discretionary grant program port infrastructure development program that is an opportunity for guam they are a strategic port so they are a part of that process as well and uh as as discussed our gateway director who is is quite familiar with the staff at the port of guam uh has been in contact with them to help them work through opportunities to apply not only under pidp which i know you have done and done successfully in the past but also to look at other grants within the department of transportation that may also facilitate the needs of guam and particularly the port i thank you for that and we're looking forward to that being completed and final question is for you rear adro the maritime a security program helps america shipping companies remain competitive in global markets and service routes to the western pacific including guam can you please outline how fully funding the maritime security program benefits america and the pacific and supports our national security yes sir thank you for that question so msp maritime security program is is fully funded at present under current appropriations and authorizations 318 million a year that's also when the president's budget request certainly having a full 60 ships ready to support us cargo movements around the world and particularly in support of do d requirements and other cargo preference requirements is essential to us being able to move our cargo at the time in place of our choosing and and msp in particular is a key element to that process and and we're very happy that we have 60 vessels in there now who are executing those missions i thank you for that thank you for what you do i'm looking forward to working with you to make this happen thank you mr chairman i'll yield back and i would be remiss if i didn't recognize our senior enlisted leaders and the hard work that they do as our battle buddies every day the aides the civilian staff that works so tremendously i think both of our witnesses no joke for being the most succinct and accurate and answering the questions and i know that doesn't come without the great staff that's behind you with that this hearing is adjourned