20250115: FC: Organizational Meeting for 119th Congress

Committee on Armed Services

2025-01-15

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Source: Congress.gov

Summary

This meeting of the Armed Services Committee opened with informal greetings before transitioning into formal proceedings, including the welcome of new members and the adoption of foundational committee resolutions[ 00:07:45-00:11:21 ] [ 00:28:16 ]

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. The members affirmed their commitment to national defense, bipartisanship, and effective oversight.

Themes

Committee Responsibilities and Bipartisanship

The committee's fundamental responsibility is to provide for the nation's common defense, safeguarding both the country and its allies. Despite potential disagreements, there is a strong tradition of carrying out responsibilities in a bipartisan fashion, which members are keen to continue. The ranking member emphasized that this commitment to bipartisanship is one of the two biggest drivers of the committee, ensuring the annual defense bill is passed for 64 consecutive years.

National Defense Priorities and Threats

The committee plans to focus on strengthening national defense, addressing complex and growing threats, particularly from China, and tackling challenges within the defense industrial base. Key priorities include acquisition reform to help the Pentagon quickly adopt innovative technologies, rebuilding production capacity to ensure timely manufacturing of equipment and munitions, and recruiting and retaining personnel for the military. Additionally, fostering strong partnerships and alliances is critical because the U.S. cannot manage global challenges alone.

Defense Spending and Oversight

While acknowledging the need for significant and sustained investments in national defense, especially given adversaries' rapid advancements, the chairman expressed concern that current spending levels are insufficient. He advocates for increasing defense spending to above 4% of GDP to ensure peace through strength. Both the chairman and ranking member stressed the importance of rigorous oversight to ensure that the current $900 billion budget is being spent effectively and efficiently.

Introduction of New and Returning Members

Both the chairman and ranking member introduced new members to the committee, highlighting their diverse backgrounds, including military service, public office, and expertise in areas like space technology and defense manufacturing. Several returning members were also welcomed, including Jason Crowe, who served on the Foreign Affairs Committee, and Gil Cisneros, who previously served as Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness.

Formal Committee Business

The committee addressed four items of official business: adopting committee rules for the 119th Congress, approving security procedures, approving the authorization and oversight plan, and formally appointing committee staff. Each resolution was adopted through unanimous consent, with a brief discussion regarding training for new members on classified information management during the security procedures vote.

Importance of Committee Staff

Both the chairman and ranking member underscored the critical role of the committee staff, describing them as the "greatest asset" and a "very talented group of professionals" available to advise all members regardless of party affiliation. New members were encouraged to utilize the staff's expertise.

Tone of the Meeting

The tone of the meeting was highly collaborative and welcoming, emphasizing a strong bipartisan commitment to the committee's mission. Members expressed mutual respect and a shared dedication to working together despite potential disagreements, which they viewed as part of democracy. There was a serious and focused approach to national security issues, combined with clear expressions of gratitude and congratulations for both new members and staff.

Participants

Transcript

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Welcome back, sir.  Thank you.
How was your holidays?  It was great.
How was yours?  Good.  Went too fast.
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Committee will come to order.   I ask unanimous consent that the chair be authorized to declare recesses at any time without objection, so ordered.  Without objection, members have five legislative days within which to submit statements to be made a part of the record, so ordered.  We have four items of official business to consider today.  Adoption of the committee rules, approval of the committee's security procedures, approval of the committee's authorization and oversight plan, and finally, the appointment of committee staff.   Before we begin consideration of the business for Forest Day, I want to recognize myself for a few minutes to welcome everyone to the Armed Services Committee.  This committee's fundamental responsibility is to provide for our nation's common defense.  The work we do here is critical to the security of our country and that of its allies and partners around the world.   And while we have our disagreements, we have a long tradition of carrying out our responsibilities in a bipartisan fashion, and we guard that jealously.   That tradition will continue.  I look forward to working closely with my good friend, the ranking member, to enact an NDA that strengthens our national defense and provides for our war fighters.  That effort starts in the next few weeks with a series of hearings and briefings focused on the very complex and growing threats we face from our adversaries, especially China,   the challenges facing our defense industrial base, which is enormous, and the ways we can reform acquisition and field innovation more quickly.  Following these hearings, we will begin our aggressive schedule of hearings and briefings from the leaders in defense in the Pentagon and combatant commanders that will lead us through the NDA markup.   We will also continue our oversight work on key defense programs to determine if they actually provide the capabilities that we need.
If they don't, they'll be cut.  At the end of the day, I expect that we will find significant savings at the Pentagon.  But I want to be clear, buying the new capabilities we need, paying the long overdue bills for readiness, and providing for our service members will be very expensive.

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