 The Senate Veterans Appropriations Subcommittee on Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies will please come to order. We are here today to discuss the fiscal year 2024 budget requests for military construction and family housing from the Office of the Secretary of Defense and the Military Services. This hearing will consist of two panels, the first of which includes witnesses from the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the Navy, and the Marine Corps. The second panel will consist of witnesses from the Army, the Air Force, and the Space Force. Thank you to all of our witnesses for being here and joining us this morning. I'm glad to have you all here, and I'm especially glad to be leading this important subcommittee with Senator Bozeman. You know, as the daughter of a World War II veteran, this work is personal to me. I take serious our nation's obligation to our service members, veterans, and their families. We have to make sure we are meeting their needs and keeping our promises to them. I have worked to do that every day since I've been here in the Senate. It was my top priority when I led the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, and it is my number one focus as chair of this subcommittee as well. I am very glad to have Senator Bozeman as my partner across the aisle. We have worked closely together on the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, and I know he takes this responsibility seriously as well. I look forward to working with you on this subcommittee and with all of our colleagues on both sides of the aisle, starting by making sure we continue our progress on returning to regular order, because we cannot keep up with our competitors like China if we let critical investments like military construction fall behind or fall into uncertainty due to partisan fighting. Today's hearing is an important opportunity to assess what our nation needs, to stay ready, to support our service members, and keep our families safe. And I'm pleased to see President Biden showing he takes this seriously by proposing significant investments to improve the quality of life for service members and their families, modernize maintenance and training facilities, and make military installations more resilient against growing threats like climate disasters. This budget request increases military construction by more than a third compared to last year's request, continuing a trend of increases that is especially critical after roughly a decade of decline and amid rising construction costs and growing needs. After all, our ships and our submarines, our aircrafts, and more are only as good as the infrastructure they rely on, and they are only as well supported as the troops who actually operate them. That's why the investments in this budget are so important. For example, the billions in funding proposed in this budget to modernize our public shipyards. Back home in my state of Washington, the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard is a key naval asset, and I'm pleased to see that this budget includes funding for electrical infrastructure to help it prevent unexpected power outages. I also expect to hear more about the Navy's plans for progress on the multi-mission dry dock at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, including construction plans to address the unique threats posed to the shipyard by the potential for earthquakes in that area. And of course, earthquakes aren't the only natural disaster we have to be prepared for. Climate change is an urgent national security threat, and if we want to keep our nation ready for anything, we have to make sure our bases are resilient in the face of climate disasters, which is why the funding requested for 30 projects focused on improving energy and water resilience at our military installations is such an important investment. The department should also continue developing projects that enhance installation resilience in the face of severe weather. This budget also includes key funding to strengthen our alliances and partnerships around the world by supporting NATO infrastructure projects, and funding to address PFAS and other toxins at former installations that could put our communities in harm's way, an issue that must be dealt with on active installations. And last but not least, there are the investments here focused on improving the quality of life for our service members and their families, like good childcare, and schools for troops for our kids, or schools for our troops' kids, or good housing, or dining options. Those investments really improve our recruiting, our retention, and our overall readiness. And what's more, they're what our troops deserve. They're part of what we owe them for the sacrifices that they make. So I'm glad this budget request includes a boost in funding for troop housing for individuals and families alike, including $100 million for a Barracks project at Joint Base Lewis-McCord in Washington State. There is a significant housing gap at the base, and I look forward to hearing more about how this project will help close that. I'm also interested to hear more about the Air Force's plans to strengthen family housing projects as well. It is important to me that we are maintaining the housing stock we have and not letting the houses military families are living in right now fall into disrepair. I'm also pleased to see this request includes funding for five new child development centers. We have a childcare crisis in this country, and too many parents cannot find high-quality, affordable childcare options that work for them. Staffing shortages, worsened by the low pay in that sector, and high demand have made it very hard for families across the country to get childcare and troops are no exception. This crisis is keeping parents out of the workforce and holding them back from pursuing their careers, including careers in the military. I've been pushing very hard to pass my Child Care for Working Families Act because we do need in this country bold change and bold investments to end that crisis nationwide. And as that effort continues, I'm glad to see President Biden understands how important childcare is to our troops and to keeping our nation strong and ready for anything. Because at the end of the day, we can have the best equipment, ships, aircrafts, tanks, you name it, but none of it will do any good without the brave and talented men and women who work to keep our country safe. So I look forward today to hearing more from our witnesses about how the investments in this budget strengthen our country and working with my colleagues in a timely manner to pass a funding bill that lives up to our obligation to support our troops and their families and protect our nation. Thank you very much. And with that, I will turn it over to Ranking Member Bozeman. Thank you, Madam Chair. And it's a real pleasure to be with you today as Ranking Member of this subcommittee for our first MilCon hearing together. I look forward to working with you on the important issues within this portfolio. As the Chair mentioned, we've been on the Veterans Affairs Committee, the Authorizing Committee for many years. We did some great work there. We're doing great work there and going to do some great things on this committee. I would also like to extend a welcome to our witnesses here today and specifically recognize Vice Admiral Williamson as this will be his final appearance in front of our subcommittee before retiring after 43 years of service. Congratulations to truly outstanding career. We do appreciate you very, very much and all you represent. I was pleased to see this year's budget request at $16.7 billion, which is an increase over last year's request of $4.5 billion. While it's a 12% decrease from the fiscal year 23 enacted level of $19 billion, it's the highest MilCon request seen in many years. Unfortunately, instead of providing more purchasing power, the higher budget is consumed by more expensive projects due to high inflation and large increments. It's worth noting, however, that at least some of these increments are additive to the budget instead of pushing out other projects to stay within a flat top line. As we were tracking large increments on the horizon, the fear was they would start to consume the MilCon program, so I am glad to see that some of the increases have a direct correlation to some of the larger increments. However, as I mentioned before, this means the increase in accommodating existing projects, but it is not necessary allowing us to increase the number of projects. We are also losing our buying power due to inflation as we are all aware of the construction market as being heavily hit by inflation and other economic disruptors that are increasing project costs. Unlike the past few requests whose costs were already outdated by the time we received the budget, this request seems to account for this cost growth, but it came at the cost of other projects. It is clear when comparing last year's plan to this year's request that some projects were sacrificed in order to afford higher price tags on others. That is especially disheartening for a program that is already underfunded and makes up just 2 percent of the total DOD budget. I am also still worried about the execution of prior year projects. Even after the congressional increases the past bills have provided to help deal with inflation, there are still many projects remaining with cost disconnects. I think this year's request is a step in the right direction and I hope that future requests continue to grow, but I also look forward to a time that budget increases outpace the continued cost growth of projects. I look forward to hearing from our witnesses today and continuing the dialogue and work needed for a successful Milcon program. And with that Madam Chair, I yield back. Thank you very much, Ranking Member Boseman. I will now introduce our first panel. We have Assistant Secretary of Defense for Energy Installations and Environment, Brenda Noans. Representing the Navy, we have Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Fleet Readiness and Logistics, Vice Admiral Ricky Williamson. And as Senator Boseman said, I will note that this is Vice Admiral's last hearing with us as he is retiring from the Navy after 43 years. Thank you for your service. We all appreciate it. And finally, we have the Deputy Commander for Installations and Logistics for the Marine Corps, Lieutenant General Edward Banta. We will proceed now with witness testimony, starting with Assistant Secretary Owens, then Admiral Williamson, and finishing with General Banta. You each have three minutes, and Assistant Secretary Owens, you may begin. Thanks very much, Chairwoman Murray. Ranking Member Boseman, distinguished members of the subcommittee. On behalf of myself and my service colleagues, thank you for the opportunity to discuss the President's fiscal year 2024 budget. Request for the Department's Military Construction and Family Housing Programs. This is my first time testifying before this committee. Got some friends at the table who have got me beat by quite a bit. And I look forward to working with you in the coming months to continue aligning our policies and resources to support the National Defense Strategy. The 2022 NDS is clear. We're operating in an increasingly complex, global threat environment and environmental change. It's characterized by significant geopolitical, technical, economic, and environmental change. The People's Republic of China remains the dominant pacing challenge with its increasingly aggressive efforts to undermine U.S. alliances and security partnerships in the Indo-Pacific region. We also face threats like from actors like Russia, North Korea, and Iran, as well as climate change and other transboundary challenges. Together, these threats not only pressure the Joint Forces' power projection and maneuver capabilities, but also put the safety and security of the homeland at risk. Countering these threats requires a resilient joint force and defense ecosystem that can operate in a contested environment at home and abroad. As such, we are ensuring that our installations and infrastructure are resilient to a wide range of challenges by implementing policy updates, innovating in how we plan, design, and build, and deploying technology to counter the diversifying threats we face. In the Indo-Pacific specifically, there are two key priorities that will be critical to the success of this effort, retaining vital mission capabilities in the state of Hawaii, and ensuring that critical military construction efforts in Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands remain on track by extending the exemption for the H2B visa temporary need requirement through 2029. We look forward to partnering with Congress, the state of Hawaii, Guam, the CNMI, and other federal stakeholders in doing the work necessary to ensure that these priorities can be addressed. More broadly, we are requesting $14.7 billion in the budget for military construction across the Department, an increase of 44% from last year's requests. In addition, we are requesting $3.5 billion for installation energy, which will support our efforts to ensure we have credible, resilient, installation energy capabilities that can deter, defend against, and help defeat adversarial actions. The backbone of these efforts is the Energy Resilience and Conservation Investment Program, or ERSIP, which supports a full range of projects and technologies with a focus on microgrids, backup generation, and energy storage. Our request for this vital program is $634 million, $81 million above our FY 2023 request. Finally, the Department continues to focus on ensuring that service members have access to safe, quality, affordable, family, and unaccompanied housing. We are requesting $1.9 billion for family housing to sustain our increased focus and ensuring the delivery and maintenance of quality housing for military families and an additional $463 million to modernize unaccompanied personnel housing to improve privacy and provide greater amenities. For privatized housing, we will also continue to ensure accountability at all levels within DoD and MHPI companies as necessary to enforce performance. Nothing is more important to us than our people, our soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines, guardians, and their families. The investments that we make to improve the built and natural environments where they live and work are investments that pay off by improving their health and well-being. We appreciate Congress' and this subcommittee's continued support for these efforts and we look forward to your questions. Thank you very much. Admiral Williamson. Chairwoman Murray, ranking member Bozeman, and distinguished members of the subcommittee. It is an honor to appear before you on behalf of our sailors and their families. Thank you for your continued support to the Navy, its military construction program, and our 70 installations worldwide, which enable us to strengthen readiness, support delivery of new platforms, and ensure quality of service for our sailors. The Chief of Naval Operations issued a call to action last year for Navy leaders to apply a set of Navy-proving leadership problem-solving best practices that empower our people to achieve exceptional performance. My organization has fully embraced this call to continuously self-assess and benchmark to get real, to see ourselves, followed by self-correction and stay in left of problems. To meet the challenges of strategic competition and involvement threat environment, we must enable global logistics with resilient shore infrastructure and be honest about our current performance. Maintaining our advantage at sea requires transformational change of shore to support and sustain the fleet of the future. To achieve this, my organization continues to implement the Naval Global Strategy Assure, our strategic direction for the Navy shore enterprise in alignment with the National Defense Strategy, the Tri-Service Maritime Strategy, and the CNO's Navigation Plan. As a surface warfare officer, I can confirm that all readiness starts from the shore. Navy installations are essential shore platforms from which Naval forces train, deploy, and maintain forward presence. To get real over the past two decades, the Navy has taken risk and shore investments to focus on afloat readiness and strengthen future platform and weapons systems capabilities. Our investments in FY23 and proposed budget for FY24 begins reversing the impacts of those risks. Our single most strategic asset are our sailors who deserve world-class quality of service, a combination of both quality of life and quality of work. PV24 improves quality of life for our sailors through investments in unaccompanied housing, PPV, and child development centers. In FY23, we invested $140 million in unaccompanied housing and our FY24 budget invests $165 million. Investments in childcare are directed at decreasing weight list and being competitive with the private sector. The weight list is currently at $5,500, down from $8,000 in FY22. Our goal is to further decrease it to $2,000 by the end of 2024. To address quality of work, PV24 funds sustain it at 100% for nuclear deterrence requirements and 87% for remaining DOD-modeled requirements. PV24 also invests in demolition funds to reduce the Navy's footprint and support better-based design. For our military construction program, we thank you for the addition of $671 million to our FY3 budget, which funded six additional projects. The Navy's $4.7 billion PV24 military construction request funds planning and design, unspecified minor construction, and 19 projects, including four Pacific Deterrent Initiative efforts in Guam. The Shipyard Infrastructure Optimization Program is critical to preparing the nation's four public shipyards to meet the future needs of the Navy's nuclear-powered submarine and aircraft carrier force in support of the National Defense Strategy. We are making great progress in FY23 with the awarding of contracts for area development plans for Norfolk and Portsmouth Naval Shipyards, phase two of industrial modeling for all four of our shipyards, and an additional project planning efforts. Our FY24 PSIA budget provides $2.4 billion to continue to advance the program. With Congress's continued support, PSIAOP investments will halt the degradation of our Agency Shipyard Infrastructure, deliver required dry dock repairs and upgrades, and recapitalize industrial equipment with modern technology, substantially increasing productivity and safety. Thank you for the opportunity to testify before you. It has been my distinct honor and pleasure to work with you over the past four years to meet shared goals for our Navy and our country. We look forward to future collaboration and the pursuit to warfighting capability and support for our sailors and their families. Thank you. Thank you very much. General Bantip. Chairwoman Murray, Ranking Member Bozeman, and distinguished members of the subcommittee. Thank you for the opportunity to discuss the Marine Corps FY24 military construction budget request. First, I'd like to thank you for funding last year's budget request and the unfunded priority list. Congress's support will accelerate improvements to quality of life, enable Marine Corps force design capabilities, and rapidly grow our Indo-Pacon posture. In FY24, we are requesting $1.3 billion for 16 military construction projects as well as planning and design funds. This request aims to modernize our installations and reflects a balanced investment approach to support required warfighting capabilities, improve quality of life for our Marines and their families, and increase the resiliency of our installations. Viewed through an operational lens, these investments ultimately improve the readiness and the lethality of our force. Eight of our 16 projects will help bolster our presence in the Indo-Pacific region. Seven of them are in Guam, including four projects that will posture combat and logistics capabilities on the island, and one project that will enable our Marine Rotational Force in Darwin, Australia. The remaining eight projects in our request are in the continental U.S., yet complement our Pacific investments, recognizing that our ability to campaign forward begins here at home. For example, our budget includes four projects that support aviation and ground combat capabilities, to include aviation command and maintenance facilities in North Carolina, and a radar support facility in Damneck, Virginia. Constructing new communications towers on our ranges in 29 Palms, California, improves safety and supports our advanced live virtual constructive training, while a cybersecurity operations facility in Maryland supports critical operations in the cyber domain. We also appreciate this committee's continued support to improving quality of life for our Marines and their families. To that end, we plan to invest $318 million, or 23 percent of our Milcon budget, against four quality of life projects, to include a child development center, a recreation center, and a religious ministry services center on Guam. Most of our family housing construction request is also focused on Guam to build 57 additional units there. Recognizing the importance of housing our single Marines, we're requesting one new barracks at Marine Barracks, Washington, and to renovate and intend to renovate 13 more across the force. We're also prepared to renovate 12 more barracks if additional restoration and modernization funds are available. We will continue to work with you to deliver the best we can for our most valuable weapon system, the individual Marine. We're focused on improving the resiliency of our bases and stations, so they can prepare for, respond to, and recover from all types of hazards and threats. Our investments in strong community partnerships, water treatment infrastructure, like the project on Marine Corps-based Quantico, and electric utility upgrades will improve our resiliency, enable force generation, and support warfighting requirements. Again, with an eye towards increased readiness and lethality. Thank you for the opportunity to testify before you today for your continued oversight and put in support. I look forward to your questions. Thank you very much to all of you, and we will now begin the round of five-minute questions for our first panel. And I ask my colleagues, if you can, to please keep track of your clock and stay within those five minutes. Assistant Secretary Owens, let me start with you. I want to ask you about the quality of life for military families across our country. As you know, military families really struggle to access affordable, high-quality childcare. And I know it's a very complex issue, but one clear reason is the lack of available or appropriate physical space on our installations. Quality of life also touches on things like family housing, on-base dining facilities, schools, which are critical to supporting our service members and their families. And investing in these quality of life services and support, I know, improves recruitment and retention of our service members, and contributes directly to overall to military readiness. I am generally encouraged that the department has done a better job in programming for these projects rather than waiting for Congress to act. However, backlogs remain across the board. I wanted to ask you, how does the President's budget request address the most critical quality of life needs? Thank you for the question, Senator. And I totally agree with you. I'm also encouraged that the military departments have prioritized investment in facilities that will improve quality of life for our service members and their families. Our budget is requesting $1.9 billion for family housing, and an additional $463 million to modernize unaccompanied personnel housing. And I think that that's a pretty good start. The ability for us to make sure that we are never satisfied with the level of service that we are able to provide to our service members and their families is something that I think is imperative we need to adopt a footing where we need to be in a continuous improvement mode and move out from there because I think that you are directly connecting it to critical issues like recruitment and retention and we need to make sure that we are very focused on delivering high-quality places to live and work. What are the biggest challenges with quality of life issues? I would say the biggest challenges are the diversity of the types of facilities that we need to develop and maintain. A child care facility is not a family, it's not a house, right? And a barracks is not a mess. So that challenge to be able to standardize across all of our military departments is something that I think that DOD and OSD can do a better job of working with the military departments to make sure that we are setting and maintaining a high bar across the board so that we don't have situations where on joint basis, for example, a Navy person doesn't want to live in an Air Force house or vice versa, those types of things. Okay, thank you very much. Admiral Williamson, I am closely following the Shipyard Infrastructure Optimization Plan as you can imagine and I am eager to see the program stay on budget and on schedule, particularly as it affects Puget Sound Naval Shipyard. I understand the PSIOP will and should evolve and improve but we have to make sure its core goals remain on track. Can you talk about how the Navy is working on projects and resourcing the program to get this done in a way that effectively prepares the facility and workforce for both the short-term and the long-term needs? Yes, ma'am. Thank you very much for the question. I think this year we've made tremendous progress with PSIOP. Our budget, I think, directly reflects our commitment to PSIOP in that investment. A couple of things that you mentioned. One, my leadership challenged us. As you know, this is a very high priority in supporting our nuke deterrents in support of national defense. And so the challenge has been what have we learned? And so to your point about staying on track with cost schedule and scope, all three of those things are very important. And when we first did this, we chose not to do it like we typically do projects. We used a major acquisition process, a lot of learning to be had. One of the things for price, to understand what the market, raw material costs, the costs of the workforce to be able to do this, to plan that into the project early enough to allow the contractor that's doing the work to stay on schedule. That is very critical to the maintenance of our submarines and ships. I think that that's reflected in our investments. The other thing that you talked about, ma'am, is to look at the shipyard as a whole. It does no good to paint the floor and then paint the ceiling. So the utilities, for example, that support our infrastructure have to be invested in. And so we have made, and the budget reflects this, we have made the decision to go ahead and start strengthening the backbone of our shipyards to ensure that it's resilient, agile, and also efficient. Those are measures that we're taking. Identifying the critical path, marrying the work supply chain to the workforce, to the workflow, to the production efforts are very critical. And we're seeing that reflected in the ADPs. We have completed Hawaii's, we're doing the analysis now on Hawaii's ADP and we'll apply the learning there at Puget, at Portsmouth, and Norfolk. And we think there's tremendous opportunity to accelerate design and development of the projects as we move forward. But we are very grateful to the committee for that support and allowing us to move at pace with that, ma'am. Very good. I'm out of time. I do want to ask you about PFAS. I know that 40 of our investigations are ongoing right now. So, General, I may come back to you after if nobody else asked my question, I will come back to you on that because that's critical for all of us. Senator Bozeman. Thank you, Madam Chair. I'd like to ask a question that has come up repeatedly as I visit with different entities throughout the service. This year's request includes $2 billion in support of PDI projects. As projects in the Indo-Pacific region continue to increase across the department, they may end up competing against one another for limited resources. In fact, I think they are. I'd like to hear from all of you on what you see as the biggest constraints for mil-con execution in the region. Is there any coordination between the services or OSD on program execution to ensure that projects can successfully execute in a crowded environment? I know this is a huge problem I think I can speak for the committee in saying we want to help you but we need to understand exactly what the problem is. So, Mr. Owens. Thank you for providing the opportunity to continue to talk about H2B visas in Guam. I think, Senator, in my career, I thought I had been involved in very large construction projects I got into this job and I looked at the scope and the scale and the schedule of what is planned for Guam and I realized that I haven't been yet. The challenges that I see in terms of looking at $2 billion of infrastructure invested across Indo-Paycom are acute in Guam. There is a limited existing construction capacity that is, as far as we understand it currently, already doing everything they are fully employed and doing all the work that is currently ongoing and we have a lot more in the pipelines. There is a bow wave coming that we need to be ready for. In terms of and I think that the H2B visa extension to 2029 is critical in that. In terms of coordination we are in the final stages of standing up a senior leader installation council which is myself and the energy installation and environment assistant secretaries from all the military departments and the goal of that is to look at acute situations or it's difficult to characterize Guam as an acute situation but specific situations like Guam and what's going on in Hawaii to be able to coordinate across the military department so that we can that we're not overstressing the infrastructure for dealing with things like NEPA or environmental permitting and those types of things but the construction capacity issues are things that are outside our control at this point. Very good. Admiral? Yes, sir. The visas to reiterate what Secretary Owens talked about I think is a huge step. Again kind of taking it back to the previous conversation you know understanding the critical path of the work that's need to be done in Guam and making sure that we're working with the industry partners to get as much information as we can to ensure that we understand the critical path to success. One of the things that we a lesson learned we pulled out of PSYOP and I'm trying to apply across all United States Navy understand the demands of the workforce understanding the raw materials and access to that making sure that the resources are available to the contractor to buy down risk and buy those ahead of schedule I think help us keep us on the on that track but as we look at Guam in particular to your question it's not just the Navy and the Marine Corps it's also the Army the Air Force Space Force and a lot of folks on Guam the last thing I think we want to do is compete with each other so we need to be able to understand what the requirement is what that critical path is and execute that plan. Good, thank you General Sir thanks very much for the opportunity to answer your question so to follow up on Secretary Owens the scope and scale of our construction effort on Guam is pretty substantial a total of 132 projects we're only about 15 percent complete so the vast majority of that construction effort is still in front of us which reinforces the importance of that H2B visa to ensure that we're able to keep these on schedule cost and within scope I would also say in terms of joint land use to kind of follow on from what Ricky was talking about we recognize that it's not just the Marine Corps it's not just the other services but there are other agencies coming to Guam as well so there is a joint land use study ongoing right now we expect that to be complete next year and fully expect that there will be some shortfalls in requirements particularly quality of life and support family housing being one Dodea schools likely additional commissary capacity requirements and those I think will help us further identifying de-conflict requirements going forward so we'd certainly appreciate help when we come back with any requests in the future thank you sir thank you Madam Chair Senator Baldwin thank you Madam Chair and thank you to our witnesses today Mr. Owens in previous years there was a discrepancy between access to funding and authorities relating to hazardous substance remediation efforts between the active component and the National Guard installations due to a policy change in 2017 the National Guard was removed from the defense environmental restoration program and no longer had the same access to funds or authorities as the rest of the Dodea my colleagues and I secured a reversal of that policy to place the National Guard installations back into the program just last year so Mr. Owens can you please first confirm that the National Guard installations currently have access to cleanup funds through the defense environmental restoration program and I have some follow-up so let's start there Senator Baldwin I'm going to have to take this for the record I can't confirm it I'm not right in on not up to speed on that particular issue at the moment okay so so I will ask you then a couple of questions to follow up with because I had I have several on this regard so there's that gap in time where the National Guard facilities were not part of the defense environmental restoration program I want to also get information of how we look back and and have some parity or equity for that time that the Guard installations were excluded from the program and I would also like to get some information on how you prioritize sites for cleanup of of hazardous substances including PFAS moving forward and and and certainly want to have your commitment that we ensure parity in access to funds for National Guard installations moving forward that's the series on on this question and I appreciate that I would say that the the landscape is changing significantly with the release of the EPA's proposed regulatory rule around PFAS and that is going to have significant impacts on our defense environmental restoration program so as we look at the the way ahead for for DERP and specifically as it relates to to our remediation responsibilities and drinking water responsibilities for PFAS we're going to be having to ask very difficult questions about prioritization but but I will commit to get back to you on all the things that you're interested in and learning more about I I I appreciate that and the difficulty in in making those priority decisions I just would keep in mind for a state like Wisconsin where many of our facilities are guard facilities that we were not able to participate between 2017 and that reversal of policy last year or this year it goes into effect this year for the 2023 NDAA so another question for you Mr. Owens the office of local defense community cooperation provides critical assistance to counties and municipalities to both foster cooperation with military installations as well as to address any concerns or challenges communities encounter as neighbors to military installations this office has provided critical assistance to Wisconsin in the form of a planning and outreach grant as the state prepares to receive this month F-35 aircraft at the Truex airfield in Madison Wisconsin I've noticed a trend over the last few years in which the budget request for OLDCC falls well below what many deemed necessary to accomplish the increasing program demands so can you please describe what you're doing to support OLDCC as it expands in both staffing levels and in demand for the programs thank you for highlighting the the incredible interconnectedness of installations and defense communities I think it is a critical it is a critical we can't have mission completion without without defense communities that that much is clear I meet regularly with the OLDCC team and the director and I have been talking about ways to leverage some of the authorities that they have to and make sure that they are resource to be able to do the work outside the fence line that makes the work inside the fence line possible so this is something that I am focused on and appreciate the opportunity to talk more about going forward and I hope that we can address the concern that you have about funding going forward thank you thank you very much Senator Fisher thank you Madam Chairman after the Cold War we divested significant capacity in the Indo-Pacific and adopted a posture that assumed a more concentrated basing model it was assumed that that would suffice ultimately we traded away the flexibility of having larger network of bases and facilities ports and dry docks and runways for cost savings and efficiencies of needing to rapidly reconstitute in order to support distributed operations Mr. Secretary how would you look at the investments that are proposed by this budget request to support or improve our posture in the Indo-Pacific you mentioned some things in Guam but there's a number of areas many of our allies Australia Japan we're looking at U.S. territories in the region as well where investments need to be made so how would you characterize that thanks for the questions Senator Fisher and I would ask my colleagues to weigh in here the two billion dollars for the for PDI is the start right so we're looking across the Indo-Pacific to basically understand what that looks like I think the defense of Guam is another piece of this puzzle that we're going through but the diversification and the ability to project force into Indo-Pacom is a pivot that we are actively making and maybe if I can turn it over to Admiral Williamson yeah Admiral if you could tell me you know specifically some of the investments that are proposed there and I know in the Navy's budget request for milkan support I'm specifically interested in deterrence in the region yes ma'am specifically to Guam we have four projects next year about 750 million dollars two communication stations very vital one's actually being built on the Air Force side of the base satellite communication station and then a missile integration test facility that gets to Guam your broader question about distributed maritime ops and expeditionary events basing I am not a logistician by trade and so I'm a surface warfare officer so everybody said go back and read what the greatest generation did and ma'am you nailed it it's about being distributed across a very large AOR 6,000 by 4,000 it's not just the infrastructure and the bases and places that Admiral Aquilino calls it but it's also what's a float and so the totality of our investment is not just within the infrastructure it's also with ships and other means to be able to sustain that force and so I think our budget reflects that I would be happy to come back and talk to you because I think we get to a very classified level once we talk about the investments but I do believe that our budget reflects support of Admiral Aquilino into Paycom and PAC Fleet in their laydown plan ma'am well and the threats that we face in that region as well when you look at lack of flexibility and when you look at concentration those are immense for the future of the threats yes ma'am and again not being a logistician but understanding what we call the kill chain all the way from the industrial base to the last tactical mile that's got to be resilient it has to be agile we've got to be able to move things about quickly and support of the fleet and airmen and soldiers as well and so I'd be more than happy ma'am to come back over and talk to you in detail with that plan but your basic answer would be that you think this budget is addressing that I think yes ma'am I think we're beginning to get after that obviously there's some constraints with you mentioned allies and partners getting access we have to work through that we're again working very closely with Indo-Paycom and PAC Fleet to gain that I meet on a regular basis with Japanese and Australian counterparts to understand their capabilities and what they can bring and so yes ma'am I do think that this budget begins to reflect that we're getting after that thank you general with the Marine Corps can you tell me how you feel about the budgets that's presented there with regards to deterrence in the region yes ma'am thanks very much so as I mentioned this budget of our 16 projects eight of them are in the Indo-Pacific seven on Guam specifically which directly supports our bilateral agreement with the government of Japan to relocate forces off of Okinawa and the first island chain onto Guam so significant investment in Guam that relocation starts at the end of 2024 I would also reference the investment that we're making on an airfield ramp in Darwin Australia in support of our rotational force that goes down there and then in terms of the logistics footprint recognizing that we need to be in a more distributed lay down we are investing in what we call our global positioning network which is a series of a float and assure locations to preposition capability forward and again if you're interested I could come back and talk to you in a more classified setting thank you I was I was in Darwin a few years ago to look at the facilities that were waiting for our troops to go there so I thank you for the information about what has continued to be improvements in that area thank you ma'am Senator Peters thank you Madam Chair welcome gentlemen thank you for being here today I appreciate the conversation I have just a couple questions very local in nature in in Michigan so my first questions for you General Banta the the fiscal year 24 budget request includes 24 million dollar investment for supply facilities for the marine reserve unit in Battle Creek Michigan at the Air National Guard base there I would just like you to speak if you would to how important investments like that marine reserve facility in Battle Creek is to the Marine Corps and how they're so critical for marine readiness and why these investments must be made Yes Senator thanks very much for the question so the Marine Corps Reserve is an absolutely critical element of our total force so the readiness of the rear of the reserve component directly contributes to the readiness of the larger Marine Corps at Battle Creek in particular it's home to a couple of different Marine Corps Reserve units that includes a logistics company from engineers sixth engineer support battalion and then alpha company first battalion 24th Marines which is a an infantry company so in addition to just providing storage and headquarters space this is also supports training and readiness so these units have activated several times and deployed several times over the years in support of global operations so investments there investments at home directly influence and support the readiness of our reserve component and the total force so we will continue to invest where we can in our reserve facilities and I think that that spot in Battle Creek is represented of others across the nation as well I appreciate that General and so I want to talk about another Marine Reserve facility in Michigan this is one that is at Selfridge Air National Guard Base there was a proposal to consolidate to move that facility and upgrade that facility which is long overdue but my understanding the project was abruptly cancelled and there's been no timeline provided as to what may happen in the future I understand there was some potential cost overruns associated with supply chain disruptions as a result of the pandemic but those have been working their way through hopefully we are in a better situation right now but I would certainly appreciate you working with my office to find out how we can get this project back on track and have some sort of timeline I don't know how aware you are of that but if you are certainly would appreciate your help Yes sir, thanks very much so you are correct that that project was cancelled due to a significant increase in cost as we look to regenerate it we want to make sure that we have the requirements correct up front as part of our larger force design initiative sort of reforming the marine course certain aspects of it for great power competition we are looking at what our infantry battalions would require in the reserve component in order to ensure we get the facilities design aspects of it correct so I would be happy to come back when we have further refine those requirements and give you a better idea of what the timeline looks like for that project I hope that helps sir That is and I appreciate appreciate you coming back thank you so much for that it is an important project and helps strengthen that marine core presence on self-reger national guard base as well appreciate that Assistant Secretary Owens I was pleased to see that this budget can make significant investments in our army science and technology enterprise and particularly pleased with investments in the ground vehicle system center at the Detroit arsenal however I would like you to speak if you would sir on how robust investments not just in the R&D facilities themselves but in the quality of life and resiliency infrastructure like child development centers which have been discussed already as well as flooding mitigation improvements other kinds of improvements that are necessary in that Detroit facility how those modernization efforts should also be prioritized to support R&D generally Thanks for the question senator and I agree with you I think that the the ability for us to make sure that our R&D facilities are funded and resilient is a critical aspect of this I would point to some of the investments that we're making in ERSIP on the energy resilience conservation investment program we've requested $634 million which is about $81 million more than our 2023 request and I think the goal there is to make sure that we are creating the conditions around which continuity of operations can be maintained but beyond that I would say that the investments that we're making to quality of life are again critically important to all of the recruitment and retention challenges that all the military departments are struggling with right now All right Thank you Thank you Madam Chair Senator Schacht Thank you chair and vice chair and panelists appreciate you being here first I want to talk about resilience for future milcon projects we have to consider factors today that we're not part of the decision making decades ago severe weather events are more frequent and more severe and we can't just update building codes or do a required basic risk management assessment to check a box this actually has to be an analysis because we're going to waste a lot of money if we're not aware of the new risks so for Assistant Secretary Owens how does OSD ensure that the services incorporate resilience metrics at all levels from the base commander to the secretary of the service Thank you for the question I couldn't agree more with the statement about how resilience is critical I would start with pointing to the defense climate assessment tool which is a robust tool that allows us to be able to contextualize and understand where we faced risk associated with changing weather patterns and climate whether that is rising sea levels whether it's increased frequency of storms or whether it's wildfire DCAT gives us the ability to create an understanding and project in various scenarios high medium and low warming Is everybody complying is everybody doing that because one of the things I'm hearing it's just chatter I want to understand on the record whether this is happening or not I understand that the theory goes some of the people who manage bases and installations that would score very poorly on this are going very slowly in the process and that's kind of understandable because why would you hurry up a data set that is going to undermine your ability to recapitalize is there is there any truth to that I think it the specific to the example that you just gave I'll look into that and get back to you Senator but I would say that the conversations that we've had over the past week lead me to believe that that the services the military departments are using DCAT information to inform their decision making whether or not that is that requires DoD to issue a policy that makes it a requirement that they do it it's happening so we're trying to balance the stick versus the care that each of these military departments is challenged with and whether if a DoD instruction or if a DoD directive is needed in order to make that a make sure that we are keeping the availability and the applicability of DCAT something that the military departments are accountable to we will move in that direction well I don't want to get into specific basing decisions or the recapitalization capitalization of basing but I do think we're going to be in a scenario like some of these small towns who are being rebuilt to and three and four times paid for by the federal government and we just can't afford to do that and so whatever our politics are around climate and whatever you want to attribute the cause of increasing severe weather events to we can't afford to allow politics to interfere with our basing decisions and I am quite worried that we're going to keep rebuilding these places because there's a political economy around ignoring the facts of the matter my final question as I run out of time dry dock three at Pearl Harbor naval shipyard can't support newer submarine so I was happy to see the Navy budget include meal con funds to replace it with dry dock five but I was surprised that the Navy added the project to the unfunded priorities list Vice Admiral Williamson when will the Navy inform Congress about what additional resources are necessary and the other question is why wasn't this in the original request yes sir thank you very much for the question the initial the request is to ask for flexibility and to be able to move money for to buy down risk and so what we've learned out of the other side out projects is to work very closely with the industry partners the buy down risk part of it is to allow the monies more earlier within the project to allow the contractor to invest in raw materials as you know which are running very high because of inflation right now also to start making the investments in the workforce to be able to stay on cost schedule and scope so the requirements are is just to bring money to the left to allow us to get ahead and an execution so speaking of the workforce as you know a project of the size requires a PLA where are we on the beginning of negotiations yes sir I think those are underway I can get back to you with those details on it but I know it's pretty sure it's underway okay that's not I mean I'm not trying to contradict you but that is not what I'm hearing if it's underway then the head of the Carpenters Union for instance doesn't know it so let's make sure that everyone's in communication and the PLA negotiations begin yes sir thank you senator Hagerty senator Hagerty thank you chair Murray and ranking member Bozeman for holding the hearing welcome to everybody General Banta can I start with you today it's good to see you here as we all know the Marine Corps is pursuing the force design 2030 plan to fundamentally reorganize itself to deal with the military threats of the 21st century the implementation of force design 2030 will involve moving marines from Japan to Guam and I'm interested in the many ways that this affects our ally in Japan and our US territory in Guam and so I just wanted to ask you General Banta if you could briefly summarize the types of military construction in Guam that lies ahead so that we can facilitate this movement of forces from Japan senator thank you very much for the question you're absolutely right the military construction on Guam is significant it underpins the bilateral agreement with the government of Japan which facilitates the movement of marines from Okinawa to Guam in January we reactivated Marine Corps base camp laws the first base on Guam that we have built in over 70 years it is literally coming from the ground up almost brand new so to answer your specific question we are we have a variety of military construction requirements there from operational unit facilities logistics and combat units quality of life family housing training facilities ranges so all of those are being phased to ensure that when we start this movement by the end of 2024 that we have appropriate facilities there and ready for units to move into just to make sure general I want to see and make make certain you feel that the defense department including the naval facilities engineering command is prioritizing the type of military construction in Guam that is required are you getting that sort of synchronization that you would hope to see in order to resolve yes sir absolutely that's good to hear as the marines undertake the relocation from Japan to Guam do you see potential issues that could hamper the relocation are there issues that you'd like to highlight for us that we should be aware of yes sir I think it's been brought up once or twice already but the the size of the workforce the construction workforce available on Guam is insufficient so extending the H2B visa issue would be very helpful to us to avoid significant cost and schedule increases that could potentially delay the that movement from Okinawa to Guam have you seen a backlog or have you seen it actually slow down as the pandemic caused a impact on that we haven't really seen a backlog per se but we're starting to see bid bus on certain projects and if we don't get that waiver relief we would anticipate significant cost increases potentially on the order of $1.1 to $1.5 billion got it significant thank you General Bantow Vice Admiral Williamson I'd like to turn to you I'm pleased to see that your in for logistic staff has reached out to my Senate staff to demonstrate the Navy's navigation plan implementation framework for solving problems like contested logistics or how we resupply I'm also pleased to see that the NIF framework's collaborative approach is beginning to break through stovepipes and how we shoot how we maneuver how we defend and how we resupply in hostile environments my question never Williamson is what are ways that this committee can support the military construction necessary to better enable your ability to sustain the fleet for a potential conflict and conflict in Indo Pecom area of responsibility yes sir thank you very much for the question and thank you very much for your continued support I would fall in line with Ted's answer as we look at the distributed operations across that front it's not going to be just Guam it's going to be in other places as well so having the workforce available making sure that we understand the critical path and lay that out and we communicate that those Milcon projects and in some cases it's just not Milcon it's also RM projects we tend to talk large projects there's a lot of small projects as well and so being able to communicate that total requirement to you early and being able to mention things like the workforce one of the other things that we're seeing you know I think it's still leftover from the pandemic is cost of raw materials for example we're in high cost areas and so if I take just the standard rate of inflation and apply that to a project I'm going to miss and that I can see that's a missed opportunity that you mentioned very quickly we've got some I think great new opportunities evolving in terms of access with the Philippines with Japan's desire to do more and I'd like to ask you if there are specific military construction projects that we need to be prioritizing so that the United States is in the best best position it can be to leverage this new access that we're obtaining yes sir I would love to come back to you with a more detailed answer on that question if that's possible yeah I would love to hear it I'd like to come back yes sir thank you thank you Madam Chair thank you and let me come back to you on PFAS since nobody went in depth on that both the general Banta and to Admiral Williamson and I do know that the Navy is conducting PFAS investigations at 40 of our closed and realigned installations and they've completed the initial phase for roughly half of those there's a lot of work to be done a lot of those installations are in my home state of Washington and their surrounding communities have some of the worst recorded contamination levels so let me ask both both of you with regards to closed and realigned installations what additional resources do you need to help clean up environmental contaminants like including PFAS and General start with you and then go to Chairwoman thanks very much for the question so yes we take providing healthy environment for our Marines and families extremely serious to say and PFAS PFOA are a significant challenge to that not just within the military but DOD wide we currently have 12 active and two reserve sites that have suspected past a triple F storage or use on them and have been assessing them for potential cleanup we've completed four of those site investigations with the remainder scheduled to be complete by the end of this year in terms of additional resources I'm honestly not aware of any right now if I could come back to you with any future requests I'd be happy to do very much appreciate that Admiral yes ma'am also very committed to providing you know safe water for not only our active bases but any of the bases we've been to in the past currently 149 about the active and black bases 16 of those locations we're actively working as far as needed funds in PB 24 we've got $160 million laid in to look at the cleanup provide safe drinking water in locations that may not be there but ma'am I would love to get back to you with additional detail of anything else additionally we need okay the committee will need that so I appreciate it from both of you yes ma'am thank you senator rickowski Madam Chairman I'm going to defer to the fact that we have a second panel coming I will be submitting a question for the record to you Secretary Owens this relates to the final EIS at Fort Wainwright for the power plant there and the the call for multiple distributed natural gas fire boilers to provide the base for heat as you probably know we do not have natural gas that comes to the interior region at this point in time we're also looking at a shortage of supply of natural gas in Cook Inlet and my questions will be surrounding that as an issue so I would welcome your reply and if we have an opportunity for further one-on-one discussion we'll do that but I'll defer so that we can move to the next panel thank you Madam Chairman thank you senator rickowski and thank you to all of our witnesses today we really appreciate it that does conclude our first panel and we I invite the second panel of witnesses now to take their places at the table yeah thank you very much to all three of you for joining us today I will now introduce our second panel representing the Army is Lieutenant General Kevin Vareen Deputy Chief of Staff G9 installations from the Air Force we have Lieutenant General Tom Miller Deputy Chief of Staff for Logistics, Engineering and Force Protection and finally Mr. Bruce Atwood Associate Chief Operations Officer for the United States Space Force we will ask our witnesses now to begin our opening statements we will begin with General Vareen followed by General Miller and then Mr. Hollywood so General Chairwoman Murray ranking member Polesman distinguished members of this subcommittee thank you for allowing us to speak today and thank you for allowing me to speak about the Army's Military Construction budget request for fiscal year 2024 I do want to thank you for your support to our Army and to our families we are grateful as an Army for the support that we've received from Congress the Army's 2024 Milcon budget request reflects a balanced investment across the Army's priorities of people and readiness with an eye towards modernization our total Milcon request for FY24 is $2.75 billion which are applied in the following areas $386 million to Army family housing $305 million to Army family housing construction $1.7 billion to Military Construction for the Army $107 million to Military Construction for the Army Reserve $340 million to Military Construction for the Army National Guard and $151 million to support BRAC in the Indo-Paycom region the Army has MCA investments of $1.3 billion through FY19 through FY23 and the Army has a FIDEP plan for over $2 billion of investments in the Indo-Paycom region I want to briefly highlight the areas of readiness, quality of life and resilience as integral parts to our Army and its ability to fight and win both now and in the future with regards to readiness Army investments to improve capabilities and infrastructure training our ranges facilities in the industrial base maintenance facilities and power projection allows us to meet the training demand and posture for any contingency across the world in quality of life four major areas that we have directed an impact to our readiness one is barracks with Congress's support we've increased the sustainment to 92% we've spent $2.7 billion in FY22 to 23 and the Army plans to invest $11 billion in MILKON and FSRM for barracks over FYs 24 through 32 which equates to $1 billion over the next 10 years in family housing we've invested $928 million in government of targeting investments with facility sustainment restoration and modernization to address facility condition and military construction to increase capacity generous congressional support in FY22 and 23 accelerated the progress of several child care development centers and dormitory projects and we're actively working to design additional projects for inclusion in future budget submissions I'd be remiss if I didn't address the importance of on-time appropriations and the impact continuing resolutions have the year-long CR would prohibit would prohibit or impact the execution of 42 military construction projects for active guard and reserve totaling $1.4 billion including projects supporting combatant commands and new weapons system bed-downs because the Air Force fights from its installations it's crucial that we obtain consistent funding to operate key facilities and infrastructure as well as build facilities for new weapons systems through construction funds enclosing the Air Force's continued partnership with the subcommittee and its members and your dedicated staff is essential to the modernization of our assets the safety of our installations and the welfare of our airmen and families I thank you for your continued support and look forward to your questions Thank you I'm Mr. Hollywood Good morning Chair Murray Ranking Member Bozeman and distinguished members of the subcommittee Thank you for the opportunity to discuss the Space Force Military Construction Program and other installation topics of interest Space power is an important source of our nation's strength both at home and abroad and provides critical data products and services that enable our daily life and drive innovation in the United States and around the world Today military space capabilities and protection from enemy space-enabled attack are a prerequisite for success in every domain Our peer challengers continue to aggressively develop systems to disrupt, degrade and destroy our space capabilities The Space Force was formed to provide resilient, ready and combat credible space forces to ensure freedom of action and protect the United States interests in the increasingly contested space domain Our Space Force infrastructure priorities are guided by the Secretary of the Air Force's operational imperatives and the Chief of Space Operations lines of effort Our installation investments through military construction and operations and maintenance funding are especially critical because the bulk of our forces accomplish their wartime mission from their home station Our installations are our power projection platforms that require resiliency against natural and man-made threats Our Space Force installations also serve as home to many of our guardians, airmen and families We work tirelessly to provide them a comfortable and safe place to work and live Someone much wiser than me once remarked that you recruit the warrior but retain the family Thank you for your continuing focus on quality of life initiatives that help us retain these passionate and talented professionals They are our most important operational advantage To remain a lean service as Congress directed the Space Force leverages current Air Force installation support processes We are active partners in all the departments facility and infrastructure readiness initiatives The fiscal year 24 United States Space Force military construction priorities are at Patrick's Space Force Base Florida a commercial vehicle inspection facility and completion of the Consolidated Communication Center each for $15 million and secure to get improvements for $12 million We've also prioritized just over $90 million for planning and design to mature our projects through the military construction process and provide accurate estimates Thank you for the substantial fiscal year 23 Milcon PlusUp The Space Force requested just over $98 million and received over $291 million in appropriations Our fiscal year 23 projects include over $250 million in combatant command support including a dormitory at Clear Space Force Station, Alaska $16 million in ERCIP projects and $11 million for planning and design Our installation investments and our collaborative relationships across the Department of the Air Force especially with Lieutenant General Miller's office are critical to performing our mission and to the well-being of the guardians, airmen, and families on Space Force installations As Secretary Kendall says one team, one fight Thank you for your time today and I look forward to the opportunity to testify Semper Supra Thank you very much to all of our witnesses We will now begin around a five-minute questions For our second panel I again ask my colleagues to keep track of the clock Stay within those five minutes we do have votes on General Vareen let me begin with you Joint Base Lewis McCord has seen an increased need for housing over the last few years as more service members and their families have been stationed in Tacoma We need to make sure that our young unaccompanied soldiers have on-base housing when they arrive so they're able to access base support services I'm encouraged by the President's includes new barracks and the Future Years Defense Program includes additional barracks for fiscal years 25 and 27 but I am concerned that this is not enough How does the Army determine what is needed so quality housing will be available at JBLM and are there any additional requirements beyond the two barracks projects? Chairwoman, great question and I appreciate the question so I recently visited for JBLM I was just recently out there so I'm well aware of the housing situation we have at JBLM in a perfect world for JBLM we know that the availability of housing is critical because there's just not enough that's outside the gates of JBLM and so we're committed to expanding the housing that exists currently on JBLM I think there's two critical things that are happening all at the same time we're working to fund and build new construction that we know that is needed based on the expansion of units that are coming to JBLM as well but we're really leveraging the RNM as well the minor military construction efforts that are going on there as well we have existing structure in housing that we could that we're really taking a keen look to ensure that the remodeling of those homes are within the standards of quality that is expected for all families having toured about the new and the old I am comfortable I think with the with the way forward that the housing the housing partners the housing providers are using to get after the extreme shortage of housing there it's not acceptable when we have we know we're in a high cost area and we have young soldiers and families who have to venture miles away to try to find housing to accommodate them so we're fully committed to JBLM and we understand that it's unlike some of the other installations where you have the low cost housing or housing that's reasonable outside the gates and so we're going to do everything we can to expand that with regards to the barracks we're excited about the new barracks that's going to be built there and we're looking at using that as a test model for all of the future barracks I think as we build out on the west coast and both across other army installations okay I'll be tracking that closely so thank you General Miller the Air Force owns and operates about 15,000 family housing units half of which are overseas and over a third of those units are projected to be in poor failing condition over the next five years the budget request clearly prioritizes privatized housing projects over traditional family housing and at a time when we are seeking to stabilize many privatized housing projects I'm concerned that without increases to the overall request for traditional family housing our military families overseas are going to be asked to shoulder the burden so how does the Air Force plan to address the resources we need for family housing overseas thank you Chair Murray for the question housing whether it's in the continental united states or overseas for our families is absolutely critical it's it's critical for the all volunteer force I think it was described before you know you may recruit but you need to retain the family and that discussion happens around the kitchen table the Air Force is planning 342 projects in Japan this for FY 24 at $7.8 million as part of a rotational renovation of the existing housing that is there on Japan so there is a mix with the constraint of construction capability and not displacing too many families to go into an economy that's already challenging to find housing as they out on the economy so we work with Pacific Air Forces on what is the right mix sequenced by year recognizing that we have to do the renovation within the constraint of the construction capability that's resident in Japan so your point well made that there's a balance of especially the vast majority of the Air Force military housing is in Japan and we've the panel before us talked about all the complexity of the construction constraints that are going on in the end of Pacific so very much has our attention ma'am okay thank you very much Senator Boseman Madam Chair Senator Hovind has some place he's got to be so what I'd like to do is let him go and then I'll pick up after Senator Fisher that's okay very good Senator Hovind thanks Chairman and thanks to Vice Chairman Boseman appreciate it very much General Vareen the Jamestown Readiness Center which houses the 817th engineer company which is a sapper group has been looking to get the their new facility the Jamestown Readiness Center on the FIDEAP since 2021 are you going to put it on the FIDEAP? Senator I'm not well versed on the Jamestown Readiness Center simple yes it worked great if you want to go with that can I take it for the record and now I'd like to to report back to you with regards to the Jamestown it's important these outstanding soldiers need it and I would ask you to put it on the FIDEAP absolutely thank you and along that line you all are also working on a line of communications bridge fiscal 22 military construction approached bill included report language directing the Army National Guard to establish a dedicated training pipeline for the line of communications bridge Camp Grafton Training Center in North Dakota will soon be the only location outside of U.S. Army Engineering School at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri with the ability to train soldiers and guardsmen on every type of bridging unit in the Army's inventory so you need a line of a line of communications bridge training facility my question is will Army prioritize projects to include lodging and facilities that support a world-class training that takes place at Camp Grafton to do all kind of bridge building so that's kind of a long way of saying are you looking at or will you look at Camp Grafton because you need this facility so you can do all kind of bridges at a location other than Fort Leonard Wood Senator we will I just I will tell you that our Army is really about the total Army all of our components are critical to how we operate and if we have a facility that facilitates the combined training efforts of all of our components it's very important and critical for the Army so we will take a look at it yeah yes but you've been directed to look at it in legislation so the directives you get from the Congress are also of importance to you correct absolutely absolutely very important yeah and this is an existing facility so you remember that you got both active duty and guard and you got to train them both yes so you're talking about having only one facility without adding a facility this would give you two and would be in line with a directive you were given by Congress absolutely so your response to that would be what we will adhere to the requirement from Congress you'll take a look at it yes thank you sir I appreciate it and then Lieutenant Miller weapons generation facility so the only uh pop quiz what's the only dual nuclear base you have in the United States Air Force's arsenal mine on Air Force base good for you and you are building weapons generation facilities at a lot of units around the country I think maybe even one in Arkansas Vice Chairman I'm not sure but at the only dual nuclear base you have in the country you're using an old facility and when I asked you all about this you say well it's complicated because some just have ALCMs which are soon to be LRSOs and some just have ICBMs which are soon to be GBSDs but you have both and so you know we're working on it but given that we have both wouldn't it be a priority to get going on it particularly when the one we have is an older one so are you going to make enhancements while we bring online LRSO and GBSD and are you going to get going on a weapons generation facility at Minot Air Force Base? Senator, thank you for the question I just walked through the Effie Warren weapons generation facility as you described single mission missile only right about a month ago walking through and seeing the complexity of that and you described a little bit and I know the Air Force has testified prior that to learn the lessons from the missile only or the bomber only to be able to do the most complex which I really do believe will be at Minot to be able to cover both missions there is a congressional reporting requirement that the staff work that is a it's a classified briefing that's on its way to your office it's in final staffing which I think addresses the interim question that you have of what are we going to do to sustain the weapons storage area now for Minot as until the weapons generation facility for both and the future is made unfortunately it's a classified document sir so as it's it's in final stages right now I've seen a portion of it I think it will answer your question and I will follow up on the timeline when it's delivered and get with your staff and you if you wish sir well I remember the defense props committee too so I'll I'll certainly look at that you all been studying you know you all been implement or updating other weapons generation facilities and keep giving us this while we need to study because you're both so it's more kind we need to go from that to getting it done and so again I emphasize that the need to get that done but I will take a look at that report and again thank you both to the chairman the vice chairman and gentlemen thank you for what you do for our country we really appreciate you thank you senator fischer thank you madam chairman I've been to minot and I'm sure senator hoven meant to invite you general to also come to minot and he he is a good host there with obviously a lot of pride in what in what happens at minot keep our country safe so thank you general miller I'd I'd like to ask you what I asked the previous panel when we're looking at improving our posture in the endo pacific what specifically in your budget for milk on sport it is going to provide that deterrence there you mentioned set now which I appreciate you you mentioned the b-21 bomber which I appreciate modernization of all three legs of the triad are tremendously important and need to be kept on schedule schedule there's a little concern there so we need to make sure that we can keep those on schedule but what specifically in this budget it's going to help thank you senator and the only time I've ever been to minot was in january so it was a it was not not good it was a great trip it was so for for the end of pacific in broadly from your previous question Bassa Darwin jort region marianas anderson cadena three projects at tindall australia three projects at tinian and and actually two projects at cadena so 574 million dollars in the f y 24 across those 12 projects and I think in the the committee has already addressed the concern over what's the sequencing of that and it's it's got to be in accordance with the supported commander so the into a pacom commander in our case the pacaf commander actually mr hollywood and I just had the opportunity about a month ago to go to guam and to see and to talk to the army air force navy and marine corps missions that are there and the competing requirements the h2b visa discussion incredibly important for not causing delays for both because you can get if you have the workforce and then you incur a delay in supply chain to get the materials there you will lose the workforce to a higher need so I hope I hope that gives a somewhat of a flavor across into pecom okay thank you general marine do you have any comments on what the armies doing in order to make sure we have that deterrence in the in the end of pacific region in this budget yes senator I'm really a good course question and thank you I think in for the army we definitely are we're challenged with some of the same constraints and concerns the other services first and foremost this is a it's going to be a coordinated effort I think in the end of pecom to ensure that you know we don't over burden the island chains that are that are there and for us it's going to be significant as we focus primarily in the on guam that's that's the significant growth with regards to the army and if we look at if we looking at the current budget the way we have it there's about 800 million dollars that we have projected which will give us what which will cover 11 of our sites that we currently are considering in guam and a and a headquarters the c2 element there as well but again we are going to be challenged by you know by capacity workforce and trying to synchronize with the other services to to be able to get our facilities built and using the the workforce that that is very concerning as well to to complete projects so we we're we're comfortable where we are now but we also know that the laze will cause us to have to shift and of course we may not necessarily be able to stay on timeline thank you general miller I appreciate the Air Force's commitment to rebuilding off it after the devastation caused by the floods in 2019 and while the Air Force is making strong progress executing the funding that congress has provided through the natural disaster recovery fund to rebuild what was lost to the floods I remain concerned that the Air Force has not adequately prioritize the FRSM funding to renovate the former stratcom headquarters right now we have 32 organizations and over 1500 personnel to move out of buildings on off it that are slated to be demolished like a World War II bomber factory and move into that renovated office space so do you commit to working with me to find a path forward for that project yes senator the focus of off it especially since the spring of 19 when that flood occurred I was actually at Air Combat Command is the A4 then which off it of course the 55th wing is in Air Combat Command and although I don't have the FSRM dollars specifically to address your question right now absolutely will continue to commit and the the generosity of this subcommittee for national disaster recovery for both Tyndall for off it and be able to provide also in Virginia at Langley has been absolutely game changing and going to give combat capability to three F-35 squadrons coming first aircraft arrival within the next year great yes ma'am thank you thank you thank you madam chair thank you senator bozeman you uh yes in the interest of time I'm going to be very brief because we got a vote going on I've had the opportunity to visit with you all and we do appreciate your hard work and the fact that you're moving things forward I want to thank senator Murray for emphasizing the quality of life issues those are very important to her I appreciate her leadership it's really important to all of us very quickly general miller the air force budget primarily supports new weapon systems and combatant commanders leaving only 320 million out of the total 2.6 billion dollar budget to support the current mission portfolio with so much of the budget going to competing priorities how how's the air force getting after critical recapitalization projects with only 12 percent of your budget available for those kind of purposes how can we help you we important piece to us having the design the planning and design that makes a project mature enough so that the subcommittee can help us actually as a part is a lot of what the work the air force needs to do so there's high confidence in the projects we bring forward we put in the budget so they can be executed and we don't have to have additional cost of complete requests so we are looking at the balance of dormitories CDC's Indo-Pacific nuclear enterprise and Europe and I think a key homework for us is to make sure we're pouring the milk on planning and design money and to make those projects mature enough so that they can be appropriated for thank you thank you thank you madam chairman gentlemen thank you for being here today general miller one of the one of the capability gaps that we've of course been talking about in Alaska is the need for aerial refuelers in in Alaska so of course we're very pleased about the for additional KC-135s there to be staged at at Eilsen great expansion to our capabilities so that's that's good news unfortunately we've we've learned that these aircraft are perhaps a little sensitive to the tough temperatures there in in the interior four came up for a winter training exercise apparently two were a little bit dead on arrival due to the maintenance issues caused by the environment there so it certainly leads me to believe that in order to make the basing of the KC-135s successful additional hangar space is going to be needed so for the record can you speak to the need for hangar space there at Eilsen and why having to wait 24 hours to to thaw these aircraft after they've been stored outside perhaps it doesn't help us with our readiness issue thank you senator for that question for KC-135s you know as you describe mid-60s production for those aircraft and the environment that they operate in it is a it is a struggle for vast temperature changes unfortunately I don't have the information with me about plans for hangars for those four additional 135s but if I could take that for the record and get back with your staff or you I can do that all right go ahead and do that but I I guess just generally do you think that we need some hangars up there in order to keep these these important aircraft really at the ready in the winter yes ma'am I we've focused largely on the fighter force especially for for Eilsen and I'm not familiar with I know we operate KC-135s in cold environments not Eilsen level of cold so yes ma'am I'm committed to go back and do the homework and look at are there any lessons we've learned from a weapon system health perspective pre-warming I know there are some technologies where we pre-worn B-52s at Minot where there's an entire apparatus that pre-warm some of the avionics and the engines to get rid of some of the challenges you're describing where an airplane is not functional when it first arrives but I'll go do that homework ma'am well we we'd appreciate that for the record and just recognize that it's not just pre-warming the aircraft but it's it's those it's those individuals that have to then get into that aircraft another one that I would like to raise when we were looking at Air Force's unfunded priorities list for for FY24 on that list was an expansion of the Alaska Air National Guards alert crew facility there at J-Bear can you explain how this facility could improve the capabilities of the air guard you know they've got a pretty significant mission there when it comes to rescue operations both in in combat and for for civil support operations thank you senator for that question for as you I'm sure well aware alert commitments are one of the most important functions that any airman can provide because that is the last the last minute very close to the proximity of the aircraft from a sleeping command and control aircraft availability the I I'll get with our air national guard my counterpart to look at the funding profile and the plan for that specific facility but the importance of having the national guard ready at at the ready for immediate launch could not be more important to our national defense thank you we certainly certainly concur with that general marine as I had looked through the requests for milk on projects in the budget or the unfunded priorities list I really didn't see much that indicated moving out or leaning in on implementation of either the armies Arctic strategy or the national strategy for the Arctic region can you share with me whether the army does have plans to use milk on funding to enhance the capability to carry out the Arctic strategies senator thank you for the question my first answer would be yes we we do have you know a way forward to ensure that we meet the requirements of the Arctic the strategy itself I think when we look at you know Alaska and with your help we've we've had significant when it comes to some of the infrastructure we've been able to to see come on board since since FY 18 has been pretty pretty good we've really really appreciate your support there what we have in 23 with two barracks facilities coming online and some R&M projects as well I think we'll be able to expand we know we've got to expand capacity because of the shifting of some of our forces and growth in Alaska and then I think if you look at in FYs 24 through 32 there's 13 projects there as well that that signifies a growth and the shifting to support the audit strategy so we are we're in a I think a good place of course we just want to make sure that we keep on a timeline to ensure that the expansion and the growth and the transfer of units from other parts of the you know of our installations to Alaska we'll be able to accommodate them in a in a right manner good well again we've been placing a lot of priority on that and and just want to make sure again that we're all leaning in Madam Chairman I know that you spoke to to those matters that improve quality of life and well I didn't see a lot identified in Army's budget for Alaska this year no of course we're very focused on on the suicide issues that we have seen up north everything that we can do to help address that and we we believe we understand that improvements to certain facilities can certainly increase the quality of life for those that are are stationed there in Alaska so we had a great we had a great visit by the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs the Surgeon General of the Army went out to Fort Wainwright have an opportunity to see and understand better if you need a personal invitation to come on up we would certainly and invite you to do so we'll take you for the three mile walk from the outdated barracks there to the too small dining room in the in the dark come in January we'll give you some 30 below temps but we I think we know that we've got a little bit more to be doing there when it comes to quality of life in Alaska for our soldiers thank you Madam Chairman thank you I will submit for the record several questions since I do have to get over for a vote Mr. Hollywood I do want to hear from you and I'll submit it for the record how you're gonna how you're what your installation investment strategy is and how you're gonna allocate your resources directly and then both to General Varene and General Miller I asked Pif fast questions to the first panel I will ask you for the record the same question what resources do you need so we can expedite this process and and get us you know what you're gonna need for that for the record I'd appreciate it with that that will end our hearing today and I want to thank all of our witnesses and all of our colleagues for participating I look forward to working together on this year's appropriations bills to make sure we are providing the department service members and their families with the military construction and family housing resources I will keep this hearing record open for one week committee members who would like to submit written questions for the record should do so by five o'clock p.m. Wednesday April 26th we appreciate the department responding to them in a reasonable period of time with that we stand adjourned