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Source: Congress.gov
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I want to start off apologizing. We had a meeting with the President of the United States this morning, so I was detained along with the rest of the committee. Hopefully they'll be coming in shortly as the meeting is ongoing. I couldn't get out of there. But now the Subcommittee on Defense will come to order. Today the Subcommittee will convene for an open oversight hearing to receive testimony on the National Guard and Reserve Forces. Pleased to be joined by General Stephen Nordhaus. Chief of the National Guard Bureau, Lieutenant General Robert Harder, Chief of the Army Reserve, Vice Admiral Nancy LaCour, Chief of Navy Reserve, Lieutenant General Leonard Anderson, Commander of the Marine Corps Reserve, and Lieutenant General John Healy, Chief of the Air Force Reserve. Warm welcome to all of you and thank you for years of distinguished service. The men and women of the National Guard and Reserve Forces wear the uniform not only in times of war, but in times of peace, recovery, and crisis. The Guard and Reserve are not simply backup forces. They are citizen soldiers who are neighbors, coworkers, constituents who stand ready to serve at a moment's notice. They fight overseas, but they also fight wildfires in California, and I can attest to that, and respond to hurricanes and natural disasters. throughout our country, and the National Guard serves with our partners around the world through the state partnership programs to build critical capabilities for our allies, as we saw in Ukraine. Most importantly, they have also been on the front lines protecting our border to ensure the flow of deadly fentanyl is stopped. What makes these service members unique is not just their versatility, but their dual commitment. They balance civilian careers and military obligations with extraordinary professionalism. But that balance is not without a cost. That's why we must ensure that the Guard and Reserve receive the same level of equipment, modernization, and training resources as their active duty counterparts.
That will require smart, sustained investment. This committee has long supported the Guard and Reserve throughout the National Guard and Reserve equipment account. including $850 million in fiscal year 2025. I'm interested in hearing from you what more can be done through that account to ensure that you can continue your great work. I also look forward to hearing from all of the witnesses on how we're thinking about innovation, taking calculated risk, and retaining talent to address growing career areas such as AI and cyber. What additional resources could Congress look at providing to our organizations to make them more successful? Lastly, I look forward to hearing your thoughts on specific areas that equipment and modernization efforts would apply to your organization. Where do you see current gaps that are preventing the Guard and Reserve from being able to train and integrate with active duty forces? So with that, I now recognize the distinguished ranking member, Ms. McCollum, for her opening remarks. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr.
Chair, I stated to our people testifying this morning that I will be leaving to go interior, which you and I both served on. Right after my opening statement, Mr. Case will be here in my stead, and I hope to be back. So good morning again to each and every one of you. Thank you for appearing before the committee. Thank you for your patience. As the chair said, you all play a pivotal role in the safety and security of our nation. And I want to not only thank you, but for each one of the service personnel under your charge for their dedication to our country and protecting the goals, objectives, the ideals of our Constitution. As I have said in our previous meetings, fiscal year 2026 budget process is off to a very rough start. I think it's gone beyond rough. I think we're in more than rough shape now with the delays that we know are coming, knowing what the numbers are going to be. And this is because there's only four months left at the end of FY 2025. And all that still hasn't been finalized yet. So this committee really doesn't know what foundation we are building on to get a budget done as the chair has been asking us to do in June. The skinny budget this year has been released, and there's, you know, rumors the full budget might not be released until June. And we were told yesterday, soon. Well, soon is not soon enough. We have not been able to discuss in any detail the budget priorities. So, specifically, it is disappointing that we'll be unable to discuss each of your priorities and programmatic details for FY26.
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