Upcoming fiscal year budget. Senator probation subcommittee held this hearing wednesday. The subcommittee on defense appropriations of 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 honorable james mattis secretary of defense, general Joseph Dunford junior chairman of the joint chiefs of staff. The fiscal year 2017 department of defense appropriation agreement has been approved by the other bodies, house of representatives. I look forward to our completing work on that to bill in the coming weeks. We are bill well into the fiscal year and members of the subcommittee understand the importance of enacting defense appropriation legislation. As we complete our work on the 2017 defense appropriation agreement, we also recognize that our request for additional appropriations in fiscal year 2017 has been submitted to the congress. We welcome comments from our panel as well as on the submission for 2018. A distinct honor to have the secretary of defense before us in his first appearance as a secretary. I am also pleased to welcome back to the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff before the committee. We look forward to hearing more about your priorities and efforts to increase the military readiness and strengthen the department of defense. I will now turn to the vicechairman, senator durbin for any opening remarks. Think he. Im pleased to join you in welcoming secretary manus. I have a respect for both of these outstanding leaders and give special welcome to secretary mattas first before the subcommittee. Our nation has been at work for nearly 16 years and the toll of the complex can be measured in many ways. More than 6900 americans have given their life in iraq and afghanistan, more than 52000 wounded. Our va clinics and hospitals are serving more than two and a half million veterans of these wars. Our taxpayers have provided 1. 8 trillion to support the many women who continue to serve overseas. Its not surprising we find our armed forces so currently or currently under strain, but the evidence is mounting its not necessarily a decade and a half of war straining our military, but instead a selfinflicted congressional wound called sequestration. Sequestration cuts in 2013 eliminated 35 billion from the department of defense base budget virtually overnight. The shockwave of these cuts, which were never ever supposed to happen ripple through the training maintenance of readiness of our military services and have estimated it will take nearly till 2022 fully recover from sequestration. We can take off through sequestration impact and jobs in our Economic Growth just as easily because it hit to just as hard on domestic spending. The administration has proposed 30 billion in additional defense spending. 25 billion to build readiness, 5 billion to increase spending on afghanistan and to counter isil campaign. I have four concerns. First, the proposal appears to do little to restore readiness of our armed forces in the short term. Congress is already addressed 5 billion of requested fund and appropriations bill. Of the remaining funding, only about 8 billion, 8 billion is for near term training and maintenance. In addition, we are not told if this package will accelerate the timeline for the services to fully recover their readiness. Number two, the 5 billion in overseas Contingency Operation 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 Till may of this year. Secretary mattis, and general dunford at hope you can provide insights on what the strategy maybe. What are we getting ready for . What are the priorities. Its not a hard question. Its an import and question if we were being asked to appropriate this money. In short, its a readiness practice that it work third, the Administration Package proposes 18 billion in cuts to nondefense programs to offset the increased military spending. The administration has provided no detail on these cuts. We all know what is 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 our nations ability to deal with crises without resorting to arms i wish the white house would listen to than it general jim mattis these on the state department. In 2013 as commander of Us Central Command general mattis stated quote if you dont fund the state department fully, then i need to buy more ammunition ultimately. The harm will go will be on hurting our national security. Some of the cuts could cut into medical research, something many on this panel feel strongly about. Education, also, everything in between. Our armed forces depend on healthy, welleducated American Workforce to signup and server country. Cutting these programs will ultimately shrink the pool of americans who can serve in our military making these proposals today in the longterm shortsighted. Finally, the administration does nothing about sequestration. If congress enacted this package tomorrow as is, it would trigger an immediate acrosstheboard sequestration of military programs. Can you believe it . More money triggering a cut . 0mb is asking to spend more than the law allows for defense, but did not pass for us to change this underlying sequestration law. It is asking to spend more than the law allows and we need to do something about it. Previous administrations do this frequently when they asked, but not this administration. President trumps proposal is in complete and really doesnt address the issue in a serious way. Mr. Secretary, general dunford, we recognize there are holes barred forces and i hope you go further to explain these. Congress needs to know why you think this is a spending package that needs pass. Considering the problems with this proposal to cuts to domestic and dramatic spending, lack of a new counter isil strategy, modest spending for increased training and the lack of any fixed sequestration and it appears congress may need to consider changes. Let me say as i close one floor up im in the Judiciary Committee on a hearing with the Supreme Court nominee and i will be on the docket in a few minutes, so excuse me if i am gone. I promise to return. Thank you, senator. Welcome to the committee witnesses. We appreciate your being here and we will now hear from the secretary of defense, james mattis. Chairman cochran, vice chair 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 of the committee. I request the committee except my statement for the record. Thank you sir. As you know, the president is committed to strengthening our military. The security situation facing our country has become more challenging with the looming threats have outstripped the level of resources we have been allocating to defense. We in the department are keenly aware of the sacrifices made by the American People in the form of the additional 30 billiondollar budget request. We take seriously the responsibility to spend wisely this money, to enhance the protection of our nation against emerging threats. We also recognize hesitation now to invest in defense would deepen the strategic mismatch between our future security in the military needs to protect our people and freedoms. Our military must ensure the president and our diplomats always negotiate from a position of strength. Global threats require a Global Response applying the full weight of our own and her allies power. Allies, which are also increasing their defense outlays Diplomatic Solutions will remain our preferred options, but we cannot deny the role of our military and setting the conditions for diplomatic progress. Military deterrence is only credible if the military strength is a sufficiently formidable that allies can confidently align with us in tempering adversaries designs. We must look reality in the eye. We see russia and china seeking veto power over the economic Diplomatic Security decisions of nations on their per. Terrorist groups murder the innocent and threaten peace in many regions and target as. North koreas reckless rhetoric and provocative actions continue despite United Nations censure and sanctions. The situation calls for our department to maintain a safe and secure nerve Nuclear Deterrent and decisive conventional force that can also fight irregular 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. We will outline what this additional funding will do for defense, but the reason we appear here is not considered in isolation while some might prefer a larger amount, several compelling factors convinced us to limit the request. It is late in the fiscal year in the 30 billion is the number we believe that we can execute responsibly. In concert with this budget request meat we must also have caught new any of effort thats not possible under another continuing resolution. Only fy 2017 appropriations bill can permit us to spend the american taxpayer money judiciously and start us on a long road back to military readiness and ensure we can fight effectively. I must note there are specific readiness gaps across our forces, which i would prefer to address in closed session so as not to embolden our enemies. Of the request before you represents the first step in a threephase multi year effort to restore readiness. Phase one, this years budget appropriation including the 30 billiondollar request for additional appropriations for fy 2017 to get our aircraft back in the air, ships back to see and 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 our fy 2018 budget request to balance the defense program. This funding will allow us to break acquire capabilities we do not have cannot execute this fiscal year and it will allow us to adapt to the changing character of war by providing cyberspace and Electronic Warfare capabilities. Phase three looks beyond 2018. We will work with the congress and this committee to integrate our fy 2019 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 concept in all areas. 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 and with the help of congress i believe we can build a force 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 in ensuring our troops have the resources adequately they need to fight and win on the outfield. I pledge to collaborate close it with you for the defense of our nation and to keep our armed forces second to none and i will welcome your questions. Thank you. Thank you. General Joseph Dunford, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff is here today and we welcome you and ask for you to make any Opening Statement. Chairman cochran, Ranking Member durbin, distinguished mentors of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to appear before you. I have also submitted a written statement and i request you except for the record. It will be printed in the record. Im honored to represent your men and women in uniform and its because our soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines in your support i can begin by saying with confidence your joint forces can defend the homeland and our way of life and to meet our Alliance Commitments and maintain an overall competitive advantage over any potential adversaries. I think thats an important point to begin with an point that should not be lost on our adversaries, allies and partners or the American People. Well we have a competitive advantage today, sustain operational commitments, but instability and advances by our adversaries, 15 years at war have also taken a toll on our people and their equipment. Many of our men and women continue to deploy as much as they are home. Similarly, our platforms, wetland weapons any criminal showing signs of wear. In many cases we have far exceeded the planned service life or our vehicles, aircraft and ships. Additionally, eight years of continuing resolution and absence of predicable punning has forced the department to prioritize nearterm readiness at the expense of modernization and advanced ability to velma. We now face what has been described as the wave of modernization requirement for both our nuclear and conventional forces. Meanwhile, potential adversaries have accelerated Capability Development in a challenge and advantage quickly areas such as space, cyber, Electronic Warfare and missiledefense. Its important that we reverse the trend. The fy 2017 budget request is a muchneeded first step helping the joint force address our most urgent nearterm readiness concerns by funding current operations. Addressing personnel shortfalls, resourcing training and improving their manus. The additional request for resources allows us to pick your limited quantities of needed equipment to fill holes in our deploying units. Looking forward at fiscal year 18 and beyond decision and predicable funding will be required to fully recover readiness, balance our inventory of capabilities and maintain our competitive advantage. Thank you once again for the opportunity before you this morning and i look forward to your questions. Thank you for your statement. Lets 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 the senate. In your judgment, what is the impact 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 flexibly to conduct and accelerate to counter isis by, for example. Obviously, we will keep the forces in the field at the top of their capability. Thats not only a military obligation, but moral obligation and we could continue the fight. The problem is it would eat our readiness again and would deepen the whole we are in leaving us in an even worse situation and it 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 pass this to the chairman for his thoughts. Chairman, thank you. I think there are two things we look to do moving forward. One, accelerate our campaign and the other to position ourselves to seize opportunities and from my perspective, not having the money will restrict our ability to accelerate the campaign and seize opportunities. We will lose flexible the. As secretary mattis said we will make sure that as many women who deploy and arms wait at the wherewithal to a college the mission, but what we wont be fostered to do is accept the flexibility. Mr. Secretary, what is your assessment of the russian aggression in europe and that investments that we will need to reassure our european allies of our abilities and function . Chairman, russia has decided to become a strategic competitor with us and as i mentioned in my Opening Statement to try to achieve a Veto Authority over the diplomatic economic and security interest of the nations along with their prefer, so what we have to do is ensure that the Nato Alliance stands firm, stands united and stands unambiguously for unified response to any kind of russian adventurism such as we have seen in crimea and the 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 of initiative, then frankly the reassurance goes away. Its as if we are denying reality that had been revealed to us over these last several years, so i strongly endorse the european rea Surge Initiative and i noticed that the Nato Alliance has reversed its reduced funding and overall the funding has risen for the first time this last year, so they are also online to maintain their level of commitment. Im going to recognize the distinguished senator. Thank you, mr. Chairman. I asked my staff to explain this to me twice because i wanted to make sure i understood it. Under the budget control act, if we give you lets put oh go over here, if we give you 25 billion more in the department of defense and the supplemental request, the budget control act will require the department of defense to do 5 acrosstheboard cut in under tour make up for the 25 billion been sent to you. That of course makes no sense whatsoever. I can imagine you would 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, we consulted extensively with them on our requirements. Of the mechanism for how to actually address this is as you point out complicated and i would take no issue with how you characterize the budget control act and effective sequestration. Im aware of it. Its not something i can give you a solution for from my position and the executive branch of the department of defense, but i share your assessment and i take no issue with how you have characterized it. Thank you mr. Secretary and i dont blame you for this. This is omb job and i dont know why they are playing this game with us. They were need to wait for the budget control act and if they want to provide more money t