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Good morning. Subcommittee on Defense will come to order. Today, the subcommittee will convene for an open oversight hearing to receive testimony regarding the Department of Defense from the Honorable Pete Hexoff, Secretary of Defense, General Dan Cain, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Mr. Secretary, General Cain, congratulations to you both on your new roles and welcome to your first hearing before the subcommittee. We look forward to working with you closely to provide for our common defense. And a very special welcome to Mrs. Bryn McDonald. Bryn, it's great to have you back here in this room. You sat beside me on this side of the dais, so it might be a new feeling. sitting where you are now, so I'm sure it's a bittersweet that you're no longer serving as a dependent member of my staff, but I commend your service to the nation, and Mr. Secretary, you're lucky to have her. I have no doubt that she'll provide you with the same level of faithful advice that she provided for me. The work we do in this committee has never been more important. We are navigating an increasingly complex and uncertain global environment. with adversaries like China and Russia pursuing aggressive actions and challenges in regions like the Indo-Pacific, the Middle East and beyond. Our military must be prepared to meet those challenges and that preparation requires substantial investments in both personnel and equipment. But we also must be responsible stewards of the taxpayer dollars. Balancing national security priorities with fiscal responsibility is a delicate but necessary task. Mr. Secretary, I commend you for quickly hitting the ground running and focusing on your key priorities of reviving the warrior ethos, building our military, reestablishing deterrence, and ensuring the defense of our homeland. The American people expect their borders to be secure. The challenges of our southern border, including the ongoing flow of illegal drugs, human trafficking, and other illicit activities, are growing threats to our security and must be addressed.
The cartels exploiting our border are increasingly sophisticated and dangerous. The Department of Defense has a critical role in this fight. Mr. Secretary, I applaud your efforts in focusing resources to ensure the border is secured. I look forward to more discussion about what resources are necessary to keep the momentum going without compromising our ability to meet threats abroad. I also want to hear from you both about the readiness of our force. I have heard from senior military leaders and service members alike about the ongoing concerns related to the health of our force, including the need for modernization, the ability to respond quickly to emerging threats. While this committee has consistently provided funding for investments in next generation systems from hypersonics to autonomous platforms, we're still seeing troubling delays and cost overruns in a number of programs. We simply cannot deter near peer competitors like China by falling short in sustaining our defense and industrial base. That is why it's critical that we continue to focus on the pace of modernization, particularly in areas like air superiority and munitions production. The committee has been steadfast in our support of entities within the department that challenges the status quo, such as DIU, the Office of Strategic Capital, and APFID. These innovation entities are alternative pathways to deliver capability quickly to the warfighter, and I would appreciate the opportunity to work with you to bolster these activities as a way to bring disruption and competition into the department, which in my experience can yield better and faster results. I also want to discuss the critical importance of our partnerships and alliances. The AUKUS agreement is one of the most significant defense initiatives in recent years, with the potential to reshape the strategic landscape in the Indo-Pacific. As we pursue these initiatives, we must ensure that we are maintaining our own military capability, Our shipbuilding programs remain over budget and behind schedule and under-delivered.
This is simply not acceptable, and we need to have a credible, executable naval force structure plan to keep pace with threats that we face, particularly from China, while ensuring taxpayer accountability. Finally, we must always remember the men and women who wear the uniform. Far too long we heard from too many junior enlisted service members who were struggling with basic needs. These men and women, the backbone of our own forces, they perform the tough and often dangerous work that keeps our country safe. I was proud to help secure a 10% raise for our junior enlisted service members on top of the 4.5% raise that all service members received last year. It's critical that we continue to provide support for all those who fight in defense of our great nation. We ask a lot of our military, and the strategic landscape is more complex than ever. I look forward to a frank discussion on how we are matching resources, priorities, and honoring our commitments to both readiness and to our people. I now recognize the distinguished ranking member, Ms. McCollum, for her opening remarks. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and I'd like to thank all of you for appearing here today.
I'd like to thank all the men and women who serve in our military, both wearing the uniform and as civilians. As I say often, national security is holistic and not just defense spending. Do Americans have the health care that they need? Are we providing good nutrition to our kids so that they can eventually grow up strong and serve in our armed forces?
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