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 GuardService 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 professi