Transcripts For CSPAN2 National 20240705

Half. Good morning, we are going to call this committee to order. Thank you all for being here to discuss your fy 2024 budget priorities, i think this is your last appearance before this committee, we extend a particularly warm welcome to you and wish you the best in your upcoming retirement, and we dont really care whether you retire in maine or montana. [laughter] but either place will work. You can move back and forth, rather than kansas. [laughter] at any rate, i want to say thank you for what you guys do. The National Guard has all has always done more with less. The Weapon Systems in vehicles and aging i. T. Infrastructure and facilities. The men and women that you lead have one foot in civilian life and the other foot in the military. They juggle their homes, families, duties. While serving their countries here and abroad. The workload is not decreasing and the Ongoing Mission on the southwest border and your support to military command demonstrate exactly that. Over the last five years the National Guard has shrunk by more than 40,000 Service Members. You are not immune from recruiting challenges that are active duty military nor are you immune from the separate impacts of government shutdowns, continued resolutions, and it is my sincere hope that with the threat of the government default, hopefully averted, we can now make progress on passing the budget on time, get it out of the cycle of annual continual resolutions. I want to hear how you are managing these challenges and how you are providing a ready modernize guard and reserve forces well as ensuring the healthy Work Life Balance in the military career for these men and women. Once again, i want to thank you for being here, i want to thank you for your testimony ahead of time. Before you begin that testimony i want to turn it over to susan collins. Senator. Sen. Collins thank you very much, mr. Chairman, for holding this hearing on the National Guard and reserve component fiscal year 2024 budget request. As the chairman is well aware, im very concerned about the budget request and its adequacy. The soldiers of the guard and reserve child in the just serve in the proud tradition of the minute men who fought for the very founding of our country. In fact, the one 33rd engineer battalion of the main National Guard has been an unbroken line of service from 1760 to this very day. Thats the distinction of which we have of which we are all very proud in the state of maine. The United States military is not able to fight a war without the garden and reserve. For the past two decades, the guard has accounted for nearly half of deployments to iraq and afghanistan. The guard has also taken the brunt of supporting the department of Homeland Security along the southern border since 2018. And they will continue to do so until our border is finally secure. They need to properly resource, ready, wellequipped and in integrated guard and reserve component cannot be more clear. The guard Safe Partnership program is also an essential International Security operation tool. Today, guard units have formed the 88 partnerships with 100 countries around the world. The maine guards partnership with montenegro paves the way for the countries exception to nato in 2017. Yes, the president s budget request cuts the guard and reserve budget by 3 billion compared to fiscal year 2023. Enacted levels impeding both modernization and readiness. As the general has previously shared with the committee, the National Guard represents a lower cost option to deliver deterrence and compat power. I understand all of you have considerable equipment shortfall and none of you have parodied with the active components in terms of fielding the most modern capabilities available. Congress has repeatedly needed to provide the National Guard and reserves without todays vehicles, platforms, and aircraft that were excluded from the inadequate budget request. Finally, the committee is aware that to transition dod, the Ongoing Mission at the border from active duty to guard or reserve units. I would welcome an update from our witnesses, stem some with status of that plan and what the plans are to pay for those deployments. I look forward to your testimony and join the i look forward to the testimony and joined the chairman in thanking each of you for your service. Lets start with general hoeven. Esteemed members of the subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to testify before you today. Your investment in the National Guard has built a ready, capable and professional force vital to our Nations Defense and communities in times of crisis. Thank you for your support. I would like to recognize the efforts of my wife, kelly and Tony Whitehead for their support and partnership in addressing soldier, airmen and family needs. As a communitybased force with the authorities to perform almost any mission, ensuring healthy and resilient guardsmen and families is not only our highest priority, it is foundational to all we do. This is my third time before you on behalf of soldiers, airmen and families of the National Guard. In that time the National Guard has repeatedly demonstrated its capability, capacity and readiness both at home and overseas on a historic scale. Over the past three years we performed 28 million man days in our communities responding to emergencies of every kind. As i speak, guardsmen are supporting relief operations in guam. In the last three years alone the National Guard has rescued or saved 18,826 individuals. In the midst of all those events our formation met every one of our overseas deployments, this included the nations final days in afghanistan where National Guardsmen helped at the kabul airport, activated dotage evacuated refugees and assisting with operation allies refuge. One of our other missions is the joint Multinational Training Group ukraine. In concert with californias 30 year state partnership with ukraine our guardsmen helped establish a Training Center in ukraine after russias first invasion in 2014. Focused on combat arms and lessons learned, National Guard trainers were some of the last to leave ukraine before russias unprovoked invasion. A few months after the war began we reestablished our Training Group and been training our partners every single day since then. Today, every Combatant Commander leverages our state Partnership Program which was recently mentioned, now includes 100 nations around the globe. Always ready always there is not just our motto, its a promise to america, a promise weve kept for over 386 years. In the 2800 communities we call home, they go in wherever a disaster occurs, the National Guard will be there because we already are. As i begin my final year as chief, there are still many things we must accomplish to ensure the National Guard remains always ready, always there. Today i will shorten that list to four priority areas. The first is our air National Guard units forming Space Missions for 28 years. In 1947 when the air force was established, guards 29 original squadrons were established concurrently and todays air force is the envy of the world. In 2019 when the space force was formed, we did not address nearly 30 of its operational squadrons that reside in the National Guard. With 1000 personnel, 14 units, we are almost all tooth and no tail. These highly skilled airmen are absolutely vital to the success of the Space Mission and just like our air force we want todays space force to be the envy of the world. The second is Premium Healthcare for currently serving guardsmen and reservists. There are many things we can surge in times of emergency but medical readiness is not one of the. Access to care is critical to medical readiness and the number one concern i hear from our guardsmen and recruiters when i visit our states and territories. To help recruit and retain the most talented, skilled, and ready force, National Guard Service Numbers regardless of status and medical coverage, this is a matter of readiness, a matter of a duty to the guardsmen who serve and sacrifice for our nation. We are working closely with the adjutant general and the Defense Health agency to clarify the number of guardsmen this would impact. And current programs could be reduced or eliminated to identify the cost and readiness and if it we can provide. The third is recapitalization of air guard Fighter Squadrons. We have 25 Fighter Squadrons in the air guard and our nation needs every single one of them. By working with the air force and congress we believe theres a path to recapitalize all 25 squadrons to the 35, f15 e x and our newest f16s through fleet leveling and aircraft. This would help the air force divest its older platforms and retain the capability, capacity and core structure it needs to help combatant command in war fighting requirements. Lastly, i ask your support in meeting the intent of the National Guard empowerment act. To be a full member of the joint chiefs of staff to represent our 430,000 guardsmen and their families of the vice chief cant do that effectively as a subordinate to his peers. In closing i want to thank you again for the National Guard we have today. All we do would not be possible without your support that you provide our soldiers, airmen, and their families. I look forward to your questions. Thank you, next up, general daniels. Chairman tester, Ranking Member collins, dustin wished members of the committee, on behalf of the 190,000 soldiers and civilians of the army reserve, command Sergeant Major lombardo and i thank you for this opportunity to testify and for your continued support for soldiers, civilians, families and other employers. Present in 20 time zones in 5 continents the ari reserve makes up 20 of the total armys personnel and just 5 of the total Army Operation and maintenance budget. We provide key units and capabilities nearly half of the armys maneuver support at a quarter of its forced mobilization capacity. While sustaining the mobilization and deployment of 10,000 soldiers and civilians annually. As a federal response partner the armor reserve maintains a ready posture for defense support to civil authorities by providing critical dual use capabilities such as petroleum distribution, Water Purification and railroad operations. In an extremely challenging recruiting environment, our highest priority is sustaining resources required to recruit and retain the best. Today and into the future. We also rely heavily on the support of families and communities and willingness of employers to share their best talents. By changing our culture to refocus on tough, realistic training, we are helping to bridge the knowledge divide between the military and the american public. This creates better experiences for civilian soldiers who want to share with their communities. As we build the army of 2030 we are grateful for the authorizations at appropriations of our people, enhanced readiness and accelerate equipment modernization to maintain superiority over any potential threat. The need for reserve component duties are performed cant be overstated and is long overdue. Thats why we support dods proposal to fundamentally redesign the current system, aligning benefits to duties performed and ensuring our soldiers receive the entitlements that they earned. Earn. The army reserve also appreciates congresss efforts to improve access to child care. However, accessing quality and affordable childcare remains a challenge for our soldiers especially during battles on the weekends. As army reserve pilots new initiatives and partnerships, continued congressional support to address weekend childcare gaps will help enhance retention and readiness. Finally, as the army reserve looks to the future, leveraging the National Guard and reserve equipped account remains a key component of our modernization strategy. This funding enables the army reserve to fulfill missioncritical shortages that improve overall readiness and operability. Command Sergeant Major lombardo, incredibly proud to lead the men and women of Americas Army reserve and i look forward to your questions. Thank you, general daniels. Next, at we have admiral john mustin. Good morning distant wished members of the subcommittee. Its my distant honor to report to you today alongside my reservist chiefs on the status and vision of Americas Navy reserve. I would like to begin by recognizing my wife, kim, whose her support for 30 years example 5 the unsung sacrifices typical of our military spouses. I would like to thank Navy Reserve Force master chief tracy hunt for tireless efforts in support of our listed reserve sailors. Originally i would like to stress my thanks and appreciation for my colleague and friend Lieutenant General dave bell and david bellon. We are going to miss you. Finally, i called the committees attention to the one hundred 3,000 sailors, 450 civilians, families who sustained them and the thousands of employers who value and enable the Worldwide Service of our citizens sailors. Are essential to the success of our reserve force. For more than a century the navy reserve is reliably responded when needed in times of peace and in times of war. In the recent past the navy reserve provided the rapid activation of nearly 9,000 sailors in response to coronavirus 19 pandemic and surged 500 sailors unequally short notice to support the ongoing security crisis in europe. Most recently they were instrument will to the execution of noncombatant evacuation operations in sudan, rapley removing american citizens from harms way. These activations i like the flex ability, readiness, and value our citizens sailors bring to the fight and yet these contributions merely hint at the demand expected of the navy reserve in conflict with great power maritime competitor. The navy reserve is rapidly transforming to deliver a Peerless Force designed, trained, and ready to fight, confidently and boldly, sustained multidomain high end warfare. To this end the secular priority of the Navy Reservist apple, more fighting readiness. Modernizing reserve equal and, Training Systems and mobilization processes is critical to delivering this readiness and a mandate to ensure the readiness and availability of Critical Response team, Service Component and Combatant Commanders depend upon. To ensure our sailors are ready to activate and serve on day one of any conflict the reserve force must maintain parity with our active counterparts and operate relevant modern equipment. To this end procurement of the modern aircraft variant to replace the legacy c130 airframes is the Navy Reserves number one you quit and priority. In the past year, Navy Reserve Fleet logistics squadrons flew 26,000 hours with 96,000 passengers, and 19 Million Pounds of cargo at a cost avoidance of one billion dollars. With an average age exceeding three decades the Current Fleet is unable to meet sustain fleet logistics requirements due to obsolescence issues. In conflict the strain on supply chain will be the achilles heel to contested logistics requirements and operations. The k c1302 is more capable modern airframe the delivers increased capacity supported by cost savings from parts commonality, fuel efficiency and reduced life cycle cost resulting in reduction of one thousand dollars per flight hour. In addition to accord modernization we are leveraging Technology Advancements to improve access to work and training entering the navy reserve into the 20 first century. These conference of transformative improvements include hardware and software upgrades, creation of digital workloads and implantation of policies and processes that harness our greatest assets, the mind, talents, ideas, and civilian skills about reserve sailors. In concert with these mobilization processes demonstrated during the response to the women pandemic at multiple Mass Mobilization exercises will leverage the navy reserve National Infrastructure to locally mobilize 50,000 sailors in 30 days rapidly, accurately and at scale. I reserve sailors are central to our navys in during the war fighting advantage so we are investing in personal and professional developer to every sailor, we are committed to retaining the best of our society and equally committed to maintaining a culture of excellence, laminating destructive behaviors, insuring sailor wellness and fostering a diverse, inclusive culture, doing so is about war fighting readiness and doing so enhances the asymmetric advantage generated by our League Winning team. Im grateful for the comings support of the navy reserve, our efforts are made possible by the Timely Delivery in fiscal year 24 appropriations bill. That provides predictive. To sailors, families, employers and most important global Combatant Commanders. Distinguished members of this could remain humbled everyday by the committed and contribution of our citizens sailors, our dedicated civilians and supportive families and employers that collectively are your navy reserve. Thank you for your continued support at attention today and i look forward to your questions. Thank you. Next up we have general david bellon. Distant wished members of the subcommittee, its great to be with you today to share our conversation, public conversation with those seated behind me about the Marine Corps Reserve. Congress has been a great partner to us as weve been in the middle of this historic Inflection Point to evolve the marine corps to meet the threats weve been directed to meet. And hopefully my comments today will provide a little extra context about what the Marine Corps Reserve has done to meet those demands. Time is what i want to emphasize. This is a Time Sensitive Task we have been given by you and by the department of defense and the Combatant Commanders to evolve quickly in order to first determine if necessary meet threats. What have we done about that. What have we done in the last year to meet that need with your help . I want to talk about a couple things specifically. I will first talk about a vignette. The lens through which we see the world, we focus on the marines first. The all volunteer force effort. We believe in our hearts we are tasked with winning our nations battles and we win our nations battles with marines and sailors. We dont man equip and, we equip marines and sailors. As we look deep into the threat and deep into our task, but we acknowledge is this amazing Human Capital that joined us because they want to serve, they chose us because they thought it would be a harder task. It would be more difficult than other choices. What they are asking us to do is to make their service worthwhile to honor them with the most difficult tasks and then to arm and equipment to achieve those tasks. To that end, we have formed up what we call the marine Innovation Unit. And acknowledgment this population we all enjoy, unique combined experience in education. They have their military service and they have their civilian occupation and if we bound them together they could do Amazing Things that we didnt Pay Attention to specialties and rank sent instead desire to serve and Human Capital. The Innovation Unit accelerated an opportunity to transition legacy capacity and capability and you gave us the tools to do it by using the funds for fy 22, and 23 we were able to take 400 marines facing a sundowning scenario with legacy equipment and instead a maneuver capability that allowed them to not only have a new mission but reinvigorating them. Heres the lesson from that. By placing it in tampa, florida and galveston, texas we went from a scenario where reenlistment rates in those companies because they perceived their service was undervalued to the highest in my component. They recently looking for a signal from us collectively that their service is meaningful, the task would be meaningful. So with your help and the help of your staff in particular, we have great guidance from you and we moved at the speed of relatives and enabled and empower these volunteers to continue service in a way that is inspiring. So in the future, what do i believe the future is. The other thing we did is combine the authorities youve given us by combining the commands that reinforce the reserve and Marine Forces south, southern command. So we are, push two tasks at once. We raised the capabilities and readiness of Marine Forces in the reserves and also provide capabilities and capacities to a significant under resourced combatant command and i believe the American People want us to do that and your marines and sailors love it. Im excited about the future, the quality of the marines that we have are phenomenal. The environment for recruiting is going to be difficult. And the American People and our forces are waiting for us to show service is meaningful and they can trust us as an institution and this is all about that. I appreciate the opportunity and look forward to your questions. Thank you. Next up we have john healy, chief of the air force reserve. s to be a change distant wished the results up to me, on behalf of the 70,000 women of the air force, men and women of the air force reserve its an honor for me to be here today with my senior and listed advisor, chief Master Sergeant as real nunez. Im amazed by the accomplishment of our reserve airmen as they meet every challenge put forth in front of them on behalf of our nation. This year marks the 70 fifth anniversary of the air force reserve and during that time, we provided the nation with an operational capability, strategic depth and Search Capacity across every core mission set of the United States air force. We provide a ready, accessible force that is Mission Effective and cost efficient. As the threat increases we are committed to the secretary air force operational imperatives, chief of staffs vision of accelerate, change or lose, with 3 lines of effort. When i took command of the air force reserve a year ago are you should a task order with my two priorities of ready now and transforming for the future. In the past year weve got to prove that ready now for through our ability to rapidly surge and provide experience, reserved airmen to combatant commands and joint force. Reservists provide critical support to nato allies and European Partners and perform everything from intelligence analysis and cybersecurity to airlift and air Security Missions to Aircraft Maintenance and force protection. The us air force and Us Space Force would not be able to support ukraine and deter russian aggression without reserve Citizen Airmen. To optimize our performance as part of the total force the air force reserve must transform for the future. The transformation requires the air force reserve to be proportionately and concurrently modernized with a regular component. Maintaining equipment parity with a regular component ensures our ability to match pacing threats. Legacy aircraft investment without recapitalization and delayed modernization ads substantial risk to the ability to sustain combat credible air superiority and strategic capacity in the future. We are grateful to congress for the National Guard and reserve a comment account that enables us to modernize, sustain our capability and replace obsolete equipment, when recapitalization by the active component is not feasible. Are most important Weapon System is our airmen. We are focused on ensuring reserve Citizen Airmen receive the support they need. This includes providing Mental Health resources, investment in resilience initiatives, offering social support through yellow river integration programs, and limiting recommendations from the independent commission on Sexual Assault and policy changes to remove barriers from service. Over the past 75 years the air force reserve has provided combat proven readiness. We are confident the air force reserve will remain prepared to defend our great nation now and in the future. Thank you for your continued support of the air force reserve, Citizen Airmen and their families. Look forward to answer your questions. Thank you for your statements. Appreciate it very much. I start with a story that has been welldocumented over the last 2 or 3 months about a 21yearold guardsmen that posted highly classified documents on the internet including intel about the war in ukraine. I can tell you i dont know anybody that can tell me why this person had access to this particular classified information, but it is troublesome and i dont think it gives the air National Guard are particularly good look. So general, what can you tell me about the status of the investigation . Thank you for the question. With respect to the airmen in the massachusetts National Guard, the secretary of the air force has initiated an explanation an investigation and we look forward to the results soon. Any and all recommendations they make will be implanted immediately. With respect to the individual its an ongoing fbi investigation and we look forward to the results of that investigation. We need to learn from the past as we move forward into the future. How confident are you that with the ig information, the people youve talked to, that this kind of situation will never happen again . Im very confident this will never happen again based on what we have found. Weve been doing this for a long time. A lot of personnel, a lot of units are doing this, this one individual was an individual action and not indicative of the entire system but we are looking at safeguards we can put in place that would prevent any individual in the future from ever being able to do this. Normally this person didnt do it without somebody above him knowing what was going on. Are the people that allowed this to happen being held accountable too . Yes, chairman. They have removed some folks temporarily in light of the investigation based on the results of the investigation, active air force or if it applies to the National Guard we will take appropriate action against those individuals. A couple of the presenters talked about the account for point of reference, congress appropriated 2. 9 billion over the last few years. This is a congressional add, to make sure the Garden Reserves have the equivalent they need, modern equivalent thats ready when called upon. And i think it is important we plan for how to utilize this money so the taxpayer gets the biggest bang for the buck. At the end of march, basically half the money had been spent. As i said it is important to plan, but i think your needs are great. I dont think anybody would dismiss that. For all of you, why does it seem, at least seem to me, it has taken so long to get this money out the door, together you quit and you need . Whoever wants to start, doesnt matter. On behalf of the National Guard, we programmed to get 99 to one hundred execution of all funding and as you mentioned it is actually critical to modernization and some of our dual use of equipment. What we have found is some of the supply chain issues have delayed the delivery of some of those goods, but we are on track to spend all of that money. Anybody else want to comment . General daniel, go ahead. We take a hard look at what equipment lines are open, what could go dual use capabilities are prioritized at the top of the list. Sometimes we cannot get access to that equip it in the sequence we would like to get it but we do monitor a lengthy list of requirements and make sure we spend those funds judiciously across the years that they were available to us. Admiral . My comment is similar. With a three year look we phase out the expenditures, there is pressure for new starts or new contracts which has delayed what we had intended originally but we will address that topic at a later moment but theres certainly an impact. The biggest delay this year was the fact that we wanted to reroll the money you had approved and your staff, some of whom are sitting here helped us with that. We are going to be committed one hundred this year and if any is left over we will spend that too. The cr does impact our ability to get started with it but once we get started the money does flow through our proportional multiyear plan of implementation and we will fully execute. Ive got 20 seconds left. You talked about 25 flying missions within the guard. How Many Missions does it impact . Specific to the 8 chance, we have 3 squadrons and all three would convert to a more current aircraft, at 35, f15 x or post block of 16, our newest ones. There are plans for every mission that goes away on the guard will replace them with another fighter mission . That is the plan we are working with the u. S. Air force on and we believe through fleet leveling and by current scheduled aircraft, we could provide the ability to do that. Senator collins. Thank you, mr. Chairman. I want to talk about an important issue you just raised since we heard our witnesses talk about the need to recapitalize the aircraft fleet. General healy, i understand that more than 3 quarters of the 25 air guard Fighter Squadron operate legacy f15 fighter aircraft. That obviously reduces interoperability and compatibility with activeduty units. The disproportionate fielding of the aircraft affect other units as well such as the air refueling wing in my home state of maine. My understanding is the current k cu 46 basin plan places 71 of the new k c 46 with active units, 14 with reserve units, 15 with guard units even though the guard flies almost 38 of all air force tankers so it seems disproportionate to me if only 15 of the new aircraft is going to the guard if the guard is flying 38 of all air force tankers. Should new aircraft be fielded in a manner that is proportional to the guards operational contributions . I agree 100 that it appears disproportionate right now. 70 of air force reserve fleets legacy. In the words of the secretary of the air force, legacy is defined as does not concern the prc enough light. Casey 135s, a tend investment, all issues and concerns for the air force reserve in terms of proportionality. The National Commission on structure of the air force in 2014 called for and recommended proportional and concurrent fielding of Weapon Systems with the guard and reserve in association with the active component and we are constantly advocating adherence to that recommendation. As Weapons Systems are upgraded, if the Garden Reserve is not proportionately recapitalized, we will ultimately lack the capacity and capability to participate in that if we are still flying in 37yearold aircraft. Whether is the f16s to the of 35, 1for1, kc 135 or 136 or any of the bombers for the be 20 one family of systems, looking to contribute and we want to be the Search Capacity we provided for the last 75 years. I want to follow up on the chairmans question about the Massachusetts Air National Guard members accused of leaking classified documents. What was the most disturbing to me was when i learned through some of the Court Filings that there was an air force memorandum that indicated that he had been repeatedly warned, so this was not a deviation that came out of the blue but in fact he had been reprimanded, and he had been instructed to, quote, stop any deep dives into classified intelligence information and focus on his job. He, quote, had been observed taking notes on classified intelligence material. These are very concerning because it appears that this serious breach might have been prevented or stopped much sooner if the airmen guard unit had taken greater action to restrict his access to classified information. My question is, what is the Standard Practice when someone has been reprimanded for misuse of classified information and then does it again . That to me shouldnt require an ig report. That should be on the books now, i would think. Yes, i found this extremely concerning as well. Anytime there is disciplinary action, the chain of command should address it immediately. I know it is not specifically ig investigation but the fbi investigation is the king at that to determine if there was negligence in the airmens chain of command. At the time he was mobilized under title 10 working for Combatant Commander and we are looking closely at the chain of command, whos responsible for that and if there was negligence on their part it will be addressed immediately. Good morning, everyone, thank you all for being here. As the cochair of the National Guard caucus i am appreciative of hearing your concerns this morning. I want to start with daniel hokanson, you may wish to weigh in, john healy but in your Opening Statement you talked about the readiness concerns and you mentioned specifically the Fighter Squadrons. The one hundred 50 seventh air refueling wing in New Hampshire, i am very concerned about the status of those kc 46 units, the fact that we still dont have all of them flying the way they were commissioned to fly but also what we have seen at the 157th that they faced cuts to their personnel, placing them 5 below the national average. I recognize your face constraints and you all talked about that. I am very concerned that weve got these aircraft sitting in New Hampshire and i know they are being used but doesnt feel like they are being used their full extent because of those personnel constraints. Can you talk about how you expect to resolve some of those issues and i understand you are conducting a study for the kc 46. When do you expect the results of that study and do you have any insights into what that is going to show . Yes, you bring upper Great Organization. Refueling unit just said a world record for the longest continuous flight over an aerial refueling. We are very proud of them. Yes, maam. Its a Great Organization and when we look across the air National Guard as im sure the air force reserve those as well, if we have any positions in excess we need to account for those. The personnel actions were not specific to the 157th but holistically at all our guard units but because you are the first of our kc 46 units, we are evaluating it on an annual basis to make sure we have the right number of personnel in the right position so we can fully leverage the capability of that system. So this is a temporary measure to keep in touch with what we are authorized but as we review this and identify additional capabilities we will reallocate the manpower. It has been temporary for several years. Yes, maam. As we mentioned before, our strengths have reduced in some cases so weve got to look across the entire air National Guard to identify where the personal savings comes from. Any insights from staffing study for the kc 46 . Do we know what that might recommend . Im not aware of that right now but i can follow up with staff on the specifics of that study. Do you have any additions to that, john healy . We are currently seeing more jobs in North Carolina and Great Results in terms of coming up to speed and delivery on schedule. I know that the air force command is holding the manufacturers to task to ensure we are releasing all the capabilities as fast as they are able and to recover the capabilities that werent initially produced the way they should be. We are looking forward to deliveries in california next and expect by then, the first aircraft delivery in 26 we expect to see a fully capable ac 36. How many years late . Yes, maam. I appreciate that but i think it is a message to boeing to do better in the future. General daniels, you mentioned the importance of childcare your Opening Statement and thats very critical foot we think about how important that is. We have interesting cooperative effort between the Portsmouth Naval shipyard and air National Guard in New Hampshire to do a joint Childcare Center that they would share. Can you speak to why that is so important to the guard . My challenge is ive got 850 Army Reserve Center speckled across the United States, most of which are not within 50 mile radius of a major installation. Therefore they are out in communities and historically we have challenges finding weakened care. We cant find the providers that are willing to work on weekends, weve done a number of different pilot activities over the past year and that is our challenge. We found a couple organizations we think we wake inroads with to help us have that opportunity. Thank you. I look forward to hearing more about what you have learned and how this committee can be supportive of that. Daniel hokanson, i want to go to your First Priority for how the guard gets integrated into the space force. I think that is a very real concern. I have asked general salzman about that issue on several occasions, and the ambiguous response has not been reassuring. I hope that we can continue to work with you on how that gets done. Thank you, mister chairman. Thank you, from the beautiful sunflower state. Senator more and. Ive always known you to tell the truth at least on some occasions. Thank you, all of you, for being here. I understand and appreciate the crucial role the National Guard and reserve play in the military. The disaster at home, around the world, you are there, and a great asset to the wellbeing and National Security of our country. Daniel hokanson, to follow up on the beginning conversation about the Space Mission. When general salzman was in front of this committee i asked him about the creation of space National Guard. He testified that his best military advice supported the most costeffective alternative that preserves operational capabilities. In your best military advice, on creation of space National Guard how would you answer that request from general salzman . Thank you for the question. I would argue that the comments the chief of Space Operations made describe the air National Guard units describing the Space Mission. My best military advice when i look at the fact that we have been doing this for 28 years, we are the only ones that ever found those missions can we have 14, 40 of operational squadrons. My greatest concern is readiness to the force. By simply redesignated in good those to spaceguard type organization, i could do that with resources in my budget and it would simply be from one weekend to the next. To enter of the capabilities they provide to the nation, the personnel would stay in the same place, same civilian jobs doing the same mission they do every day and some of them are deployed providing support to the nation. My concern is if we look at reestablishing another component it could cost our nation 1 billion and not only to restructure this with the different components but also the need to retrain those current air guard members that are performing this into another mission set. Overall when you look at this, it is an easy decision. The cost to stand up National Guard component and perhaps you answered that and make it clear. We look at the cost of a 640 million to remission what currently exists into a future type organization but the concern we have is right now the air National Guard space unit, the surge toward capability. Air force reserve counterparts that are incorporated in the space force, individual fillers, National Guard is man trained and equipped units. The concern when we look at the 28 years of experience we have, it takes 7 to 10 years to get folks trained and i dont think the nation can afford to see the reduction in readiness over that time period. Would you elaborate the National Guard reserve equal into account to the u. S. Army reserve mission . It is vital to my ability to modernize, modernizing the lethality elements for the last several years and looking forward to the 203040 future battles, the army reserve, service support, modernization efforts lagged behind the lethality elements. They support 35 to 40 of the ability to modernize. Thank you. Daniel hokanson, you and i had a conversation. At the starbase program, expanded in kansas, Stem Education is important to National Security and economic wellbeing of the nation. Starbase which i have visited on several occasions is very compelling in its mission. Having success. We have parts of the state particularly those that are the most rural, underserved or underserved and i appreciate your willingness to work with me to see that we change that circumstance. We appreciate your service to the nation, david bellon. Thank you for your testimony and the years you spent in duty to country. All kansans and particularly those who share your alma mater are honored by that service. Thank you to all our witnesses this morning. You have listed healthcare for the National Guard force as a command priority, and to pay dividends in readiness especially for short notice deployment. The healthcare for troops act, a bill that provide National Guard and reserve Service Members premium free healthcare coverage. Can you please describe the impact of this proposal, what impact it would have on increasing the readiness of the total force. Thank you. You hit it right on the head. The dental care as well, critically important and having been through multiple deployments, one of the biggest things we see addressing readiness is medical and dental readiness for personnel to go. That the largest thing that impacts readiness. Having that ability so every guardsman and reservist in uniform is serving has the ability to get Preventative Care or care when they need that and the same with dental care will ensure medical readiness. We look at the investments we put in our individuals in terms of the training and time that goes into it and not only that but their investment and time away from their families and employers. This is the best way to ensure when we make the call they are ready to answer whatever the nation needs them to do. Last month, daniel hokanson, the f 35 aircraft that started to arrive at truex field in madison, wisconsin, and trusting the National Guard with a critical capability for our Nations Defense. A couple questions about vat, the unit supports a significant number of jobs. What are the economic benefits for the local community we can anticipate from hosting the f 35 fighter wing . The community that established such a fantastic unit, the benefits is aerial ranges, refueling units nearby and airspace which made that a great choice but when you look at the community you have a stateoftheart aircraft that will be there for decades and the number of folks it employs the will be there to support that unit will make a difference to the local community and having been there, the coordination between the unit and the local community makes a difference. While i am grateful my home state is making a significant contribution to National Security i would say neighbors proximate to the airport are concerned about the impact of increased noise surrounding the airport. I helped secure resources in appropriations bill to help us start planning for noise mitigation activities. Can you elaborate on efforts the National Guard is taking to help with this planning for communities impacting,. To work with the fpa and the unit and as we get the aircraft in to identify those areas where we can reduce noise, this may affect the approach patterns they use or their departures and working with air crews to identify areas they can reduce noise and communities aware of grants or Resources Available to them to reduce the noise locally. Are these activities underway . Yes, as we get more aircraft and i look forward to being out there september 7th for the welcoming ceremony but as we go on they will definitely want to be Good Neighbors with the community because they are supporters of the organization. Thank you. Senator bozeman. Thank you, mister chairman. Thank you all for being here. Appreciate your service. I enjoy visiting with you when we talk about military construction and appreciate your service and we appreciate your family, this is a Family Affair and all that you represent. General daniels, one key element of funding is the reimbursement authority, this community authorizes this Funding Authority for military intelligence activities in support of combatant defense agencies. Can you speak to the importance of this authority, if you believe funded Reimbursable Authority should be expanded to other high demand skills like cyber and space activities . The funded Reimbursable Authority allows combatant commands to use operational funds to bring on an pay for reservists in a voluntary manner allowing additional capacity for folks that are available, willing and capable of using seville scouts, to support the requirement in combatant commands. Expanding beyond intelligence, other key technical areas would be great value to commands and allow the individual to use those civilian and military required skills and be very expert in those areas. Expansion would be welcome. Thank you very much. Duty status reform is an initiative that seeks to streamline activation and utilization of reserve component members. Efforts to consolidate the burdensome system has gone on three decades which has been frustrating for Service Members. Can you jump in and briefly discuss how consolidating the system what impact Service Members, families and increase retention. How can congress be more helpful . This is something weve talked about forever but with the situation we are in now with retention at this and that, its more important than ever. I will start out. When we look at 28 different duty statuses, to reduce these, it simplifies how we would mobilize our guardsmen and reservists but the biggest thing is we want people to pay for what we do. We want reservists to be treated the same as activeduty counterparts if they are doing the same mission at the same location at any time. The last thing we want is two soldiers, airmen, sailors or marines standing next door to each other and one getting benefits the other one isnt. This goes a long way to resolve that and address some issues that have long gone neglected. Anybody else . We fully endorse being able to have that passed into law to help us not only have equal pay and equal entitlements for the same activities but also remove the admin a straight of burden of knowing the right pass status to put someone in and simplify the entire process for everyone involved. That be great value in time savings as well. David bellon, as we all know, we encountered challenges with recruiting goals. What is the Marine Corps Reserve and they helped this committee better understand how we can help Services Going forward . For this year i think we are the only one that came close to meeting the goal, we claim that and population recruiting is slightly different. I dont think we should draw the wrong conclusions. We were successful this year but the secretary of the navy have testified that it will be back at 37,000, 33,000 today, seven by the end of the decade. If we look at where we are now, i have questions how we are going to do that. We are looking at proactively reestablishing capacity, some of our drill centers are located where the population was in the 50s. A big part of it is proving to the American People that service is honorable and worthwhile, the trends are not good in that direction. I dont see that as a bad thing. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Picking up on that, how do you do that . That they should want to step up and serve . I had a vignette earlier, working with your staff, we had a need that emerged, fast need for capability. At the same time we were looking at sundowning a couple units that were healthy in florida and texas. Demonstration by working with this committee and staff, and the reenlistment rates were going down because they saw no future in the service, with the formations. And we are going to give them the tools and equipment, but days like this where we have open testimony where we demonstrate open conversation, find ways to reestablish the faith and confidence over the previous years. It is important to have great utility not only for the service and individuals they serve with you but their future as well. The federal Tuition Assistance program. We want each of you to weigh in on that and start with you, daniel hokanson, we put together a Pilot Program through this committee and that air National Guard Pilot Program is important not only to recruit those individuals but to keep them and theres a difference between the services and activeduty and Garden Reserves and we need to beef that thing up. It wont pull people in, but make them better soldiers, airmen, marines for all of you. I would like to hear from each of you on that. It is a great program. When i visit the 54, i asked recruiters why people still come in. Education is one of those consistent things. We have been fortunate and look across the National Guard, all of them but one. The state helps provide Tuition Assistance so we have that stability throughout the process. We had to balance sometimes with the fiscal yearend Academic Year to utilize that funding. Anytime we have the ability to utilize that Tuition Assistance and also tuition payback and Retention Bonuses will make a huge impact. You agree we should make a priority to get that in place and strengthen it as a tool for recruit debt retention. Yes, sir, any benefits we can provide to them as a benefit when it comes to recruiting. I will come back to david bellon and ask the same of the others. Less than 1 volunteer. You are they . They have a call to service already. Anything to invest in them has an amazing return on investment from a citizens perspective. They are selfmotivated. Why wouldnt we invest in them . It is not easy duty. The army reserve used 25 million Tuition Assistance in 22, 30 one million this year, we put in a request for 33 million next year, credentialing assistance is another fund we use simultaneously. It is important for our members to become more educated along with enlisted but warrants as well. They leverage the credentialing assistance quite a bit. It is vital to keep them on the cutting edge of their technical experience for their civilian careers and to be ahead of their fears. It is super important. It is a Winning Program and we recognize the impact on recruiting which is obvious, that we can offer this incentive. Secondly, we have continued to invest for selected reserve Tuition Assistance recognizing benefit that provides sailors, the navy is a technical force. The education benefits the individual, selfish interest on my part as well to ensure our sailors are trained and ready when we need them. Ive been waiting to hear that. Are becoming so technologically sophisticated, every one of you that they need ongoing education to handle the amazing systems. Absolutely. In the past, we used to say we are competing for the same resources to recruit against the marine, the air force, the army, we are competing with amazon, google, meta , and others. It is very technical. The navy beat me to the punch, the air force is a technical the 4500 a year we spend on Tuition Assistance directly impacts our ability to recruit and retain. We have to get old pickup trucks, we can figure out the new one. 100 correct. Senator murkowski. Thank you for your service, thank you on behalf of the state of alaska. We appreciate our reserves and National Guard Service Members and civilians. They provide extraordinary support to us and the country. Weve continued what we see with innovation readiness training, irt, when it comes to homeland defense, missile defense, air refueling, combat search and rescue, strategic airlift, so much, we are very grateful, very proud of the reserve men and women who provide such benefit. I am thankful for the cost savings you bring to all of the effort here. Daniel hokanson, we had an opportunity to visit the more specific concerns you and i had shared. We discussed previously the issue of the space force, and the mission of the air guards 215 warning squadron at Clear Air Force base. They have been doing extraordinary work there with the groundbased radar Missile Warning missions since 2006. We are seeing space force becoming more mature, that is good. I have been concerned there hasnt been a clearly articulated or adequate plan to ensure that these airmen and their mission are cared for in a way that works going forward. With the space force. I fear they may miss out on opportunities, educational equipment. Ucation or equipment. I understand that prior to my arrival at committee, you did address a question regarding space force. I do not know if you want to add anything further to that in terms of your opinion on the establishment of the space National Guard to ensure that these guardians are equipped and trained for the missions that they are in the front on. This goes back to yes, senator, and as clear as you mentioned this goes back to once again theea years and years of experience at our airmen have doing this mission set. Just the incredible capability provide our nation each and every day. As you mentioned we are the only unit equipped surged go to war capability that exists within the reserve component for the Space Mission. En so having a Clear Pathway for them will not only help with our current recruiting but it will also ensure allll of those years of experience, all the work they have done and, frankly, the ability of our guardsmen to bring over half of them have backgrounds in technical or high tech or aerospace industries. They bring that Knowledge Base to work with them when they come to drill. We rely on them to deploy around the globe iob continue to do thr mission. So anything and everything we can do to retain them, as i mentioned earlier i best advice to reduce any impact at all to readiness or the ability to field these unit wouldd be to transfer the curret era National Guard units doing the Space Mission into a National Guard component forgu e space force so they can continue everything theyre doing today tomorrow. Thank you for clarifying that and putting that on the record. I appreciatepu it. I would like to direct the question to you, general healy. Fair to say we are both pretty proud of the 477 fighter group, use air forces oldest most experienced at 22 unit in the inventory. I think they produce some pretty qualified fighter pilots. You mention in your testimony the term concurrent and proportional fielding. That allows the air force reserves to incorporate new aircraft at the same rate and portion of our activeduty components. How will the current, excuse me, concurrent and proportional fielding affect units like the 477th especially as where were looking to the new airframes coming on such as the next Generation Air dominance and the e sevens . Thanks very much for the question and i dont know who wants to brag more on the 4 77. Ive had the opportunity to go twice up too anchorage to visit them. Simplyag put, twice the f22 fighter experience then activeduty counterparts, three times a fighter time experience activeduty counterparts makes them the most experienced f22 unit in it that air force and there exactly what you need to be at the forefront of the defense of the country. They are the tip of the tip of the spear that alaska provides. I think as we look towards the future and possible recapitalization from f22s into possibility of next Generation Air dominance, i think air superiority experience and fifth june aircraft will translate perfectly and would be the template to go by if we were to look at concurrent proportional servicing of an progression. Likewise with the e seven the experience both with guard in alaska and reserves in the continuous states, allows us to provide that same degree of expertise and experience moving forward. Thank you. Good to have a couple more questions that ive estimate this, this for the record. Perfect. Senator durbin. Thank you, mr. Chairman. I chair the Senate Judiciary committee and just happen to adjourn in time for me to make this hearing. Im glad to be here. I would like to say to all the witnesses the gao noted last year the pentagon is facing the most challengingin recruitment environment in 50 years. The army has especially struggled to meet the current goals. The service missed its end strength number by 15,000, or 25 in fiscal year 2022. Im glad to see this budget request increases competitive compensation and funding for Recruitment Marketing program as well as improving qualityas of life for s current servicemembe. I would like to ask you if you would tell me what the impact has been on the guard and reserve in this recruiting challenge. Open. Ill start with a National Guard. When you look at where we are today, our recruiters particularly on the arm inside having able to adjust to the current environment and we seen a steadyin increase in our recruiting abilities. Weve been over 100 the last three months. The army National Guard is on path to meet our end strength by the end of the fiscal year. In terms of air National Guard we are a little challenging environment. We look to be about 97 of our authorized end strength by the end of the year. What we have seen very positive increases especially over last year. Im not declaring victory but im saying right now all the trends are very positive and we hope to continue those into the new yearma and make sure we maintain our army National Guard authorized end strength andd return air National Guard authorized end strength. Tunnel with elements are that you make a most persuasive for those who are in listing. For those, and thank you for the question. When i go across the 54 i visit with recruiters everywhere i go. Education benefits are one of the first things they bring up. The other one is benefits such as healthcare. What you are finding finding in the current environment to be competitive is Many Companies are now offering benefits that they didnt before, medical, educational benefits, and so the competition out there for the same individuals is getting much stronger. And that also integrally were working with their ownys systems and that is reducing the time does to get personnel to get waivers and also addressing policies that are preventing some folks from serving. Any of the other members of the panel have . Its important to realize the math component. The population we are all trying to recruit right now is significantly smaller among gen z than the millennials. Thats a fact we have to do with. With. But also the propensity to serve has diminished and thats all about us earning the confidence of the American People back that service is worthwhile. Its a pretty holistic problem but there is a a math compones well. I would like to make a comment, about to Say Something that is a secret. Its not classified but im goingsi to share with you. We have 780,000 Daca Recipients, people are protected under daca. Many of whom want to serve this country, where they grew up. Theres an obstacle, congresspeople are not given them a pathway to citizenship. This should be a pathway. You want to open up your opportunities. We should across the board in the military. To dreamers and ten Daca Recipients who really want to serve this country and a think are genuine about it. For some reason theres been a resistance, perhaps it was a luxury of a lot of recruits and we didnt need others. But i would just tell you i met them, i know them, they make great sacrifices just to have this opportunity to wear the uniform you areor wearing today. I hope when youre in the highest levels of the pentagon that you discusspe this candidl. Your predecessors have not always been cooperative when i raised this issue. There is a resistance because these folks are quote undocumented. They mayth not have been born he but they love this country as much as any of us who pledges allegiance to the flex i hope youll consider that. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Senator capito. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank all of you and it at my voice of thanks and gratitude to all of you for your service into your families as well. To ask general hokanson, West Virginia is the home to some of the National Guard special forces capabilities including the special Operations Detachment europe and the second battalion 19th special forces group. Can you speak to the importance of the Guard Special forces capabilities and what they contribute to the joint force . Fo its an incredible capability. When you look at the two special forces groups that are not on active nuke on their boat in the army National Guard and if you go back really to the early days of 9 11 it was regards how special forces folks who were there and they had served admirably around the globe ever since that time. For us it something we work very closely with special Operations Command to make sure we make the ability for those leavingng acte duty to come to the National Guard and also to recruit those directly out of the National Guard into our formations. Its a criticalon skill set that we utilize each and every day, and our Combatant Commanders can never get enough of them. We are doing everything we can to recruit and retain and provide those bonuses and fincens to keep them in our formations. So you have transition pipeline from active for the special forces talent, is that what you are saying. Was absolutely. Good, good. I would note in the early days of 9 11 when the special forces deployed we lost a good West Virginia and at the very beginning of that and he was a special forces National Guard. This is kind of a technical question and im going to ask you but im not sure exactly what im asking in terms of the technical parts of it. Accurate position navigation and timing and gps services are essential to u. S. Critical infrastructure and for military operations. So our state is one of the state of West Virginia to participate as a test site for the National Guards National Integration of time resiliency for operations are called nitro. Could you tell me a little bit about nitro and where you see thats going and how important that is . Yes, maam. Its very important capability becausert it provides alternate resilient timing for gps and many of our systems operate on that. Currently we have six states that have fielded it and were working closely to support the states because this provides that capability to the states and local first responders. In the case theres lots of the gps andal terrestrial signal. Does this capability go through all different forces . Would this be something every guard and reserve would have a great deal of interest in . We are not sure of the exact fielding plan. Its based on the funding thats provided but we do have it in six dates and 21 others have expressed an interest. We are looking at the longterm viability of this, or if there are other alternate capabilities that provide the same. Right. This anybody else want to speak to that . Let me ask a question on cybersecurity. Im assuming all of you have certain cybersecurity components. Is it growing . How important is it to you . And is a coordinating aspect of this across the forces . Im going to start over here with general bellon. I think acknowledging where in Information Age its only going to get more important. Its vital to everything we do. I thinkrt for all of us we are looking for a more streamlined way for us to get our marine, soldier, sailors, and airmen who have civilian expertise and qualifications but may not have military occupational specialty to find a way to expedite their access to our systems that doesnt exist right now. Its a very byzantine, very hamhanded approach we have now. We need to do better than that. General . The army reserve is looking to expand the amount of our force that is cyber warriors. We are growing out a Cyber Protection brigade adding ande additional capabilities and i meet once a quarter with the army cyber lead along with the army National Guard director. We coordinate activities to make sure were not kidding, Training Pipeline to heavy too fast. Try to make sure were all in sync as a go forward looking to 2030. I will go to the admiral next. So cyber is a growth area for the navy reserve. We currently have about 8000 sailors within her Information Warfare community and we continue to work closely with cybercom as well as our fleet cyber which is tenth fleet to ensure the creation of our Cyber Protection teams and offensive cyber capability continues to mature. Were i see this happening most effectively is also related to our recruiting initiatives because we have got some civilians i can walk in the door immediately and we can do direct commission. We recently created a new cyber designator which is a significant step from a Community Management perspective. Or out the door. Once they served and decided they want to transition the got an incredible skill set here and to me thats a big selling point. Back. Finally. Yes, maam. Absolute growth industry within the air force reserve currently getting into mission assurance, increasing defensive and offensive cyber operations, absolutely looking towards leveraging our civilian experience and taking that to benefit to the reserves as well. General hokanson, did you want to wrap it up on cyber . Obviously we have 4000 cyber professionals in the guard. We are part of the Cyber National Mission Force and fully included. The one thing i would highlight is with state partnerships with 100 nations. Io one of their greatest request is to help them with the Cyber Defense and Network Defense in the country. We are finding when we look at misinformation campaigns that thisn is critical to helping or partners and allies and that something we leverage every opportunity. Thank you all very much. We appreciate your testimony here today. We appreciate your work in making sure our National Defense is up to where it needs to be. General bellon, we wish you all the best in the next phase of your life. Senators may submit additional questions. We would ask that if additional questions come in that you answer them as quickly as you possibly can. The defense subcommittee will reconvene on tuesday june 20 at 3 30 p. M. For a classified hearing with the intelligence community. This committee stands in recess. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] heres a lookt whats coming up on the cspan networks day. On cspan the house reconvenes at 10 a. M. For morning hour and at noonembers will try a second day in a row to adopt the rules for debe on legislation to block the rulation of g stoves. On cspan2 the senate is back at kenyon and will hold two votes at 130 a. M. , want to confirm david craneo be Energy Undersecretary for infrastructure and another to limit debate o a District Court nomination f southern new york. On cspan3 at 9 a. M. The House Intelligence Committee heres some former lawmakers about National Security and bipartisanship. At 3 30 p. M. The senate rules and administratn committee looks at Election Security and assistance on budget cuts to the election assistance commission. 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