The subcommittee on defense appropriations to the United States senate will come to order. Today we are receiving an update on military readiness and Defense Budget matters we are pleased to welcome to the committee the secretary of defense and the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff. Fiscal year 2017 department of defense appropriations agreement i look forward to completing the work of that bill in the coming weeks. We are well into the fiscal year and members of the subcommittee understand that legislation as we complete our work of the 2017 appropriation agreement, we also recognize request for additional appropriations fiscal year 2017 that has been submitted to congress. We welcome comments from the panel as well as the submission on 2018. Did is an honor judge the secretary of defense before us with his first appearance as secretary. I am pleased to welcome back to the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff before the committee. With the forward to hearing more about your priorities to increase military readiness to strengthen the department of defense. And now i turn to the vice chairman for opening remarks amply to join you to welcome secretary mattis in general the referred i have respect for both the outstanding leaders in give special welcome to the first testified eight been for the subcommittee. We have been at war 16 years in the total can be measured in many ways. More than 6,900 americans have given their lives in iraq and afghanistan more than 52,000 wounded. Clinics and hospitals serving 2. 5 million veterans from these wars. Taxpayers have provided 1. 8 trillion dollars to support the men women for continue to serve overseas. I have four concerns. First the proposal appears to do very little to restore readiness of armed forces in the short term. Congress has already address 5 billion it requested funds in the pending defense appropriations bill. Of the remaining funding only about eight alien, 8 billion is for nearterm training and maintenance. In addition we are not being told this package will accelerate the timeline for the services to recover their readiness. Member two, the 5 billion in overseas Contingency Operations funding is being requested without a strategy to support it in fact, the president s new counter isil strategy may not be presented to congress until may of this year. Secretary mattis, general dunford i hope you can provide insights on what the strategy may be. What are we getting ready for . What are the priorities . Thats not a hard question. Its an important question if we were being asked to appropriate this money. In short its a Readiness Package the Department Says waterproof readiness and no were requested disconnected from strategy. Third, the administrations package or poses 18 billion in cuts to nondefense programs to offset the increased military spending. The administration has provided no detail on these cuts but we all know whats on the chopping block. The white house is already proposing extremely reckless cuts to agencies like the state department for the next year which would jeopardize her nations ability to deal with crises without resorting to arms it was the white house would listen to the that then general jim mattis when he was on the state department in 2013 as the command of u. S. Central command. General mattis stated quote if you dont fund the state department fully than i need to buy more ammunition ultimately end of quote. The harm of go well beyond hurting our National Security. Some of the cuts could cut into medical research, something that many of us on the panel feel very strongly about. Education and everything in between. Our armed armed forces depend on a healthy welleducated American Workforce to sign up and serve our country. Cutting these programs will ultimately shrink the pool of americans to conserve our military making these proposals today in the longterm very shortsighted. Finally the administration does nothing about sequestration. If congress enacted this package tomorrow as it is, omb has submitted it, it would trigger an immediate acrosstheboard sequestration and military programs. Can you believe that . More money triggering a cut . Omb is asking to spend more than the law allows for defense but it didnt ask for us to change this underlying mendacious sequestration law. Omb is asking to spend more than the law allows and we need to do something about it. Previous demonstrations demonstrate freak on a asked for the navys request but not this administration. President chose proposal is in complete and it really doesnt address this issue in a serious way. Mr. Secretary general dunford we recognize there are holes in our armed forces that need to be fixed and i hope you will further your testimony to explain these. Congress needs to know what you think is the spending package that needs to be passed to consider problems with this proposal cuts to domestic and diplomatic spending the life of the new counter isil strategy of funding for increased training and the lack of any fixed sequestration. Appears congress may need to consider significant changes and as i close im in the judiciary hitting on the hearing with the Supreme Court nominee and i will be on the docket in just a few minutes a excuse me im gone. I promise to return. Thank you senator. Welcome to the committee. Witnesses we appreciate your being here. We will now hear from the secretary of defense james mattis. Chairman cochran vice chairman durbin distinguished senators i appreciate the opportunity to testify today in support of the president s request for additional funding and any other matters of interest to the committee. Mr. Chairman i request the committee except my statement for the record. Thank you, sir. As you know the president has committed to strengthening our military. The security situation facing our country has become more challenging. The looming threats about stripped the level of resources we have been allocating to defense. We in the departments are kingly aware of the sacrifices made by the American People and the form of the additional 30 billiondollar budget requests. We take seriously the responsibility to spend wisely this money to enhance the protection of our nation against burgeoning threats. We also recognize that hesitation now to invest in defense with deep in the strategic mismatch between our future security and the military means to protect our people and freedoms. Our military must ensure that the president and the diplomats always negotiate from a position of strength. Global threats require a global response, applying the full weight of our allies power. Allies which are also increasing their defense outlays. Diplomatic solutions will remain our preferred options but we cannot deny the rule role of our military in setting the conditions for diplomatic progress. Military deterrence is only credible if military strength is sufficiently formidable so allies can confidently align with us and tempering adversaries designs. We must look reality in the eye. We see russia and china seeking veto power over the economic diplomatic and security decisions of nations in our periphery. Terrorist groups murder the innocent and threaten peace in many regions and target us. North koreas reckless rhetoric and provocative actions continue despite United Nations sanctions. This situation calls for a department to make a safe and secure Nuclear Deterrent and a decisive conventional force that can also fight for regular enemies since our military must be able to counter all threats facing us. Im here today to request your support for the additional 30 billiondollar request for fy 17. John dunford and i will outline what this additional funding will do for our Nations Defense that the reason we are appearing here cannot be considered in isolation. While some might rip prefer larger amounts several compelling factors convinced us to limit the request. It is late in this fiscal year and the 30 billion is the number we believe that we can execute responsibly. In concert with this budget request we must also have continuity of effort that is not possible under another continuing resolution. Only in fy17 appropriations bill can permit us to spend the american taxpayer money judiciously and start us on the wrong long road back to military readiness and insured we can fight effectively. I must know their specific readiness gaps across our forces which i would prefer to address in closed session so as not to embolden our enemies. The request before he represents the first that in a threephase multiyear effort to restore readiness. Phase one is this years budget appropriation including the 30 billiondollar request for additional appropriations for fy 2017. Together aircraft back in the air, our ships back to see in our troops back in the field with refurbished or new equipment and proper training. We base this request on a realistic appreciation of the capacity we need to fight and win on the battlefield. Phase two starts with her fy2018 budget request to balance the defense program. This funding will allow us to acquire capabilities we do not have or cannot execute this fiscal year and will allow us to adapt to the changing character of war by providing cyber space and warfare capabilities. Phase three looks beyond 2018 and it will work with the congress in this committee to integrate our fy2019 to 23 budget within a coherent strategy. To ensure our strategy is fit for its time we have initiated the Defense Strategy review directed by this congress to reimagine our Strategic Concepts in all areas and we will complete the review by this fall to ensure a new framework informs our longterm planning. I know we will have to make hard choices. With the help of the congress i believe we can build a force that is more lethal without placing undue burden on the american economy. This will require sustained commitment from the congress in the form of additional funding and regular ontime budgets. Thank you for your strong support for ensuring our troops have the resources and equipment they need to fight and win on the battlefield. I pledged to collaborate closely with you for the defense of our nation and to keep our armed forces in check and i will welcome your questions. Thank you general. Thank you mr. Secretary. General, Joseph Dunford chairman of the joint chiefs of staff is here today. We welcome you and ask you to make any Opening Statement. Senate chairman cochran Ranking Member durbin distinguished members of the committee thank you for the opportunity to join general mattis in appearing before you and chairman nye have also submitted a written statement and requested he set for the record. Tonight he will be credited to the record. Im honored to represent human women in uniform is because of our soldiers sailors airmen and marines in your support that i can begin this morning by saying with confidence that your joint forces cant defend the homeland and our way of life and meet reliance commitment to maintain an overall competitive it ended over any potential adversary. Thats an important point to begin with an appointed shouldnt be lost on our first series are allies partners or the American People. However when we have a competitive advantage to the sustained operational commitment budget to instability and advanced prior of the tories have eroded that advantage. 15 years of war have taken a toll on our people and our equipment. Many of our men and women continue to deploy as much as they are home to similarly or platforms weapons and equipment are showing signs of wear. In many cases we have far exceeded the plan service life for our vehicles, our aircraft and our ships. Additionally a years of continuing resolutions in the absence of predictable funding has forced the department for nearterm readiness at the expense of modernization and the ants Capability Development. We now face what has been described as the modernization requirements for both nuclear and conventional forces. Meanwhile potential adversaries have accelerated capabilities in development and challenged our advantage critical areas such as space cyber Electronic Warfare and missile defense. Its important that we reverse that trend. The fy17 budget request is a muchneeded firstout. It helps the joint force address our most urgent nearterm readiness concerns that funding Current Operations addressing personnel shortfalls resource and training and improving our maintenance. Additional requests for resources allows us to a limited quantity of needed equipment to fill holes in our deployed units. Looking forward to fiscal year 18 and beyond sufficient predictable funding will be required to fully recover readiness balancer inventory of capabilities and maintain our competitive advantage. Thank you once again for the opportunity to be before you this morning and i look forward to your questions. C thank you for your statements. Let me ask you about our timeline and what are the pressures that we face in bringing this bill to the attention of all of our members of the committee. In your judgment what is the impact and this is for both of you, what is the impact if congress does not approve the additional 5. 1 billion for overseas Contingency Operations . Would you have the funding and flexibility to conduct and accelerate and counter in isis fight for example . Chairman, obviously we will keep the forces in the field at the top of their capability. Thats not only a military obligation but a moral obligation and if we can continue the fight. The problem isnt with eat are readiness again and with deep in the hole we are in, leaving us in an even worse situation and will cost even more to get out of it in the future. We have done this for several years now where we have continued to maintain the operational tempo but without the backdrop of sufficient readiness funds to keep the forces back here at home at the top of their game and its worsening as we go on. Let me ask the chairman for his thoughts. Chairman thank you. I think there are two things we look to do moving forward. One is to accelerate our campaign and the other is to position ourselves and seize opportunities and from my perspective not having the money will restrict their ability to accelerate the campaign and seize opportunities. We will lose flexibility. Set as secretary mattis has said we will make sure those men and women to our deployed in harms way will but what we wont be posture to do is set the flexibility needed for dynamic threat. C mr. Secretary, what is your assessment of russian aggression in europe and the investments that we will need to reassure our european allies to function . Chairman, russia has decided to become a strategic competitor with us and as i mentioned in my Opening Statement to try to achieve the Veto Authority over the diplomatic, economic and security interests of the nations along their periphery, so what we have got to do is ensure the Nato Alliance stands firm, stands united and stands unambiguously for a unified response to any kind of russian adventurism such as we have seen in crimea and ukraine and with the mischief they are causing inside the elections in europe that are ongoing. If we dont have the funding to maintain the Reassurance Initiative and frankly the reassurance goes away. Its as if we are denying the reality that has been revealed to us over these last several years. So i strongly endorse the European Research initiative and i noticed the Nato Alliance has reversed its reduced funding and overall the funding in prison for the first time this last year. They are also on line to maintain their level of commitment. C i now recognize mr. Durbin. Thank you mr. Chairman pic as my staff to explain it twice because i wanted to make sure i understood. Under the budget control act if we give you, lets put oh over here come if we give you 25 billion more to the department of defense and the supplemental request the budget control act will require the department of defense to do a 5 acrosstheboard cut in order to make up for that 25 billion that is being sent to you. That of course makes no sense whatsoever. I can imagine that you want to go through that exercise so my question to you is this. Did you consult with omb before the supplemental request was made to congress . Senator lee consulted extensively with them on our requirements and the mechanism for how to address this as you point out is complicated and i would take no issue with how you characterize the budget control act and sequestration. Im aware of its senator. Its not something i can give you a solution for that my position on the executive branch and the department of defense but i share your assessment and i take no issue with how you characterize it. Thanks mr. Secretary and i dont linew for this. This is ombs job and i dont know why they are playing this game with us. They need to waive the budget control act if they truly want to provide money for the department of defense for the safety and security of United States and if they dont i dont even know why we are wasting our time with his hearing. Secondly let me ask you about the civilian hiring freeze announced by the president. This hiring freeze affects civilian workers at the department of defense could we estimate there are 742,000 civilian workers, 1. 3 million active duty men and women. On january 23, 2017 President Trump issued a hiring freeze of the federal civilian workforce at the department of defense. How has this hiring freeze impacted the departments daytoday operations . What impact does it have on the resources you will have available when it comes to readiness and in the investments which you believe are necessary for National Defense and are we hiring contractors to avoid this frees . Senator we are not right now hiring contractors in the spirit of the president s order however i have been given, and i delegated liberal exceptions authorities, waivers frankly in order to keep shipyard workers, depot workers on the job, everything right down to daycare workers so that our troops can dro