Buck McKeon

Mr. McKEON

Mr. McKEON. I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. McKEON. Mr. Chairman, pursuant to H. Res. 260, I offer amendments en bloc.

Mr. McKEON. Madam Chair, I urge the committee to adopt the amendments en bloc, all of which have been examined by both the majority and the minority. We have no speakers on these amendments. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. McKEON. Madam Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. McKEON. Madam Chair, I move that the Committee do now rise.

Mr. McKEON

Mr. McKEON. Mr. Speaker, I move that the House do now adjourn.

Mr. McKEON

Mr. McKEON. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and insert extraneous material on H.R. 1960.

Mr. McKEON. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Chairman, I rise in support of H.R. 1960, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2014, which overwhelmingly passed the Committee on Armed Services. In keeping with the committee's tradition of bipartisanship, Ranking Member Smith and I worked collaboratively to produce this bill and solicited input from each of our members. We've already adopted 169 amendments during markup and look forward to a robust debate the remainder of the week on the floor. The legislation advances our national security objectives, provides support and logistical resources for our warfighters, and helps the United States confront the national security challenges of the 21st century. The bill authorizes $552.1 billion for national defense in the base budget. It also authorizes another $85.8 billion for Overseas Contingency Operations, consistent with the House budget, and the bill contains no earmarks. Of critical importance, the bill takes serious and significant steps to end the crisis of sexual assault in our military. This includes stripping the commanders of their authority to dismiss a finding by a court-martial; prohibiting commanders from reducing guilty findings to lesser offenses; establishing minimum sentencing requirements for sexual assault; extending whistleblower protections to those who report rape, sexual assault, or other sexual misconduct; and other vital measures. Based on the years of work and oversight our committee has done on this critical issue, I share Senator Levin's reluctance to remove the commander from the decision process for crimes under the Uniform Code of Military Justice. The only way to change the culture is to hold commanders responsible and accountable for their actions and decisions. Elsewhere in the bill, despite historic cuts to our Armed Forces, we prevent military readiness shortfalls from becoming a readiness emergency. We restore flying hours for the Army and Air Force squadrons, direct money to help reset equipment returning from Afghanistan, and relieve some of the military's maintenance backlogs. The bill also provides our warfighters with resources and authorities they need to win the war in Afghanistan and to pressure al Qaeda and its affiliates. We fully fund a series of important authorities that support the transition in Afghanistan and U.S. national security interests. However, we prohibit the use of the majority of those funds until the Secretary of Defense certifies that U.S. priorities have been accommodated in a bilateral security agreement. We have made controlling costs a top priority. However, the mark guards against achieving false, short-term savings at the expense of vital, long-term strategic capabilities. For example, we prohibit the premature retirement of Navy cruisers and amphibious assault ships, critical vessels that are vital to the Pacific-focused strategy. The bill also continues investments in oversight for key systems while preserving our capacity to meet future challenges. The bill continues our care for our warfighters, veterans and their families with the support they earned through their service; and it mandates fiscal responsibility, transparency, and accountability within the Department of Defense. The bill reduces the number of general officer billets and works to end redundancies in military headquarters and task forces. For 51 straight years, the National Defense Authorization Act has been passed and signed into law. Congress has no higher responsibility than to provide for the common defense. And with that in mind, I look forward to passing this bill for the 52nd consecutive year. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. McKEON. Mr. Chairman, I yield 3 minutes to my friend and colleague, the vice chairman of the Armed Services Committee, the chairman of the Subcommittee on Intelligence, Emerging Threats and Capabilities, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Thornberry).

Mr. McKEON. Mr. Chairman, I yield 3 minutes to my friend and colleague, the chairman of the Subcommittee on Readiness, the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Wittman).

Mr. McKEON. Mr. Chairman, I yield 3 minutes to my friend and colleague, the chairman of the Subcommittee on Military Personnel, the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Wilson).

Mr. McKEON. Mr. Chairman, I yield 3 minutes to my friend and colleague, the chairman of the Subcommittee on Tactical Air and Land Forces, the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Turner).

Mr. McKEON. Mr. Chairman, I yield 3 minutes to my friend and colleague, the chairman of the Subcommittee on Strategic Forces, the gentleman from Alabama (Mr. Rogers).

Mr. McKEON. Mr. Chairman, I yield 3 minutes to my friend and colleague, the chairman of the Subcommittee on Seapower and Projection Forces, the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Forbes).

Mr. McKEON. Mr. Chairman, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from Alabama (Mrs. Roby), my friend and colleague, the chairman of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations.

Mr. McKEON. Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlelady from South Dakota (Mrs. Noem), my friend and colleague and a member of the Armed Services Committee.

Mr. McKEON. Mr. Chairman, I yield 2\1/2\ minutes to the gentlewoman from Indiana (Mrs. Walorski), my friend and colleague, and a member of the Armed Services Committee.

Mr. McKEON. Might I inquire how much time we have remaining?

Mr. McKEON. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself the balance of the time. At this time, I'd like to thank Mr. Smith. This is our third bill that we've worked on in these positions, and I think we've become better friends over the years. We understand each other. We know that we, at times, will have disagreements. I have to confess, I've been married now 50 years, and my wife and I have had a couple of disagreements. I was always wrong, and she's stood by me, and we've had a great relationship. And we have a great relationship working in this committee. Likewise, our staff. I think they have done yeoman's work to get us to this point. And our subcommittee chairmen and ranking members that we've heard speak here today. And I have to agree with Mr. Smith on the sequestration. We, I think, all understand that this is bad for our Nation. We voted on it, those of us who did, knowing that, understanding that it would never happen. Well, reality set in, and it happened. I've had a few people come to me and say, gee, sequestration isn't that bad. They really haven't seen the full impact to this point. We're just starting into the first year of sequestration. And I was meeting with General Breedlove today, our new European commander. And he's just a month into his new job, and he's starting to feel the sequestration. I think what we need to understand is--and I've talked to each of our military leaders as they came in and secretaries as they came before our committee for the hearings that led up to this bill--that if something doesn't happen between now and September 30, all of this work, everything that we're working on is, as Mr. Smith has pointed out, going away. We are cutting $487 billion out of defense over the next 10 years. That's in the bill. We also, through sequestration, cut another $500 billion out of defense over the next 10 years. That is not reflected in--this year's portion is not reflected in this bill. Our Budget Committee in the House passed a budget, and they kept the top line number from the Budget Control Act of $967 billion, and they gave us additional money for defense, which we've used in this bill. But if we're not able to resolve the differences between us and the Senate on September 30, it will be like Cinderella and that magic shoe. Everything goes away. The carriage becomes a cantaloupe, or a pumpkin, and it's bad times. We've got to deal with that, we've got to deal with raising the debt limit, and there are a lot of very serious things on the table. So I would encourage all of our colleagues to join in the debate tomorrow. We had a great debate in committee. We had differences, and we talked about them. We didn't get personal, and we didn't get rancorous. We came out with a vote of 59-2 because everybody on this committee understands how important our work is, how important our national defense is, and how important the men and the women and their families in uniform are, and we stand behind them. Now we do need to make sure that we have the resources that they need. With that, Mr. Chairman, I would encourage all of us to support this bill tomorrow. Join in the process. Make it a better bill if we can. I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. McKEON

Mr. McKEON. Mr. Chair, I rise in support of the Path to Prosperity-- our House plan to balance the budget in ten years, restore our economy and grow jobs. As Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, I am particularly gratified to see this plan provide for our men and women in uniform and our national security by replacing deeply harmful sequestration cuts to our national defense with other commonsense reforms. Since 9/11 our military has been operating at a very high operational tempo around the world keeping this country's citizens safe from those who seek to do us harm--from deadly attacks by al-Qaeda to the sabre rattling of Iran and nuclear provocations of North Korea. But back home as our economy slowed and our deficit rose, this Administration began to question our role in the world and called for substantial reductions to our national defense. While we agreed that everything should have been on the table in order to address this Nation's deficit spending, defense has represented only 18% of our national budget, while our military has absorbed 50% of the cuts to date. Which is why it is so important today that House Republicans stand unified, both fiscal and national security conservatives, on the goal of replacing arbitrary, automatic across-the-board cuts to our military. This House Republican budget, as does its counterpart from the Republican Study Committee, provides $560.2 billion in defense funding for fiscal year 2014. This is the amount my Committee called for in our views to Chairman Ryan, and an amount consistent with our military responsibilities. Over the next decade, we provide over $6 trillion to fund our nation's defense. While this is significantly less than the levels in previous budget resolutions passed by the House, it is $500 billion more than will be available under sequestration. It allows our military to execute the current national defense strategy and avoids the hollow force and unacceptable level of strategic and operational risk our commanders have warned us about in hearings before our Committee. I want to thank Chairman Ryan for his unyielding dedication and belief in this country and in American exceptionalism. Absent his vision and absent this House budget, in just four short years, we will be paying more in interest on our debt than our national security. I urge members to support this budget and one of Congress's core constitutional responsibilities--to provide for our common defense.

Mr. McKEON

Mr. McKEON. Madam Chair, I rise today to speak briefly about one of the programs that is being consolidated in the SKILLS Act: YouthBuild. While I support the overall bill on the floor today and look forward to an eventual reauthorization of WIA, I am concerned about the fate of YouthBuild. Let there be no doubt that with the GAO findings on our workforce training system there needed to be some consolidation, but not all programs are created equal. Some work better than others. Some work well in some districts while not so well in others. Mr. Speaker, I had the great privilege of visiting the local YouthBuild center in my congressional district just a couple weeks ago. The Antelope Valley YouthBuild center is molding teens and young adults into model citizens. The staff works with youth ages 16-24 to help them build the confidence and skills needed to thrive in their communities. Participants work toward acquiring marketable skills to launch them into their careers while ensuring they complete their high school education. Participants give back to their community by building affordable housing in the Antelope Valley. YouthBuild leverages public dollars as well as private dollars. Community and faith-based non-profit organizations sponsor most of the programs and the staff work tirelessly to make the program well-rounded for the participants and respected in the community. I spoke to several young people during my visit whose lives had been completely transformed by the program. Instead of dreaming for even a sub-par life, these young people now have the confidence to not just survive in our world, but to thrive. The skills they learned, the bonds they made, and the good they did in their communities is shown through their great pride in what they have accomplished. They are finally feeling hopeful for the future. I do not want the rug to be pulled out from under them by consolidating this program. At least in my district, this program has a significant impact on many lives and the community at large. I understand that not all programs are best run from Washington. Bureaucrats often don't understand what local communities need and how they operate, so operating every program at the national level is bad policy. But Mr. Speaker, some programs deserve a second look and I believe YouthBuild is one of those programs. In 2011 alone, nearly 18,000 young people were turned away due to a lack of funds. The program has served over 110,000 young people since 1992 and since 2006 the Deparment of Labor has had twice as many applicants than it can fund. Madam Chair, this is a popular program that has proven results. It is a program that has changed lives for the better in my district and many other districts across our country. I would urge Chairman Kline and Subcommittee Chairman Foxx to reconsider consolidation of YouthBuild if WIA gets to a conference committee.

Mr. McKEON

Mr. McKEON. I thank the chairman of the Appropriations Committee for yielding, and thank him for the great work that he has done on getting this bill to the floor; likewise, the chairman of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee. They have done yeoman's work to help provide for our national defense. Mr. Speaker, I agree with much of what my good friend, the gentlelady from New York, said: Sequestration is bad. And if we don't pass the CR, we will feel worse than the effects of the sequestration. We will shut down the whole government. Nobody wants to see that, and so I commend her for what she said. This is not perfect, but it keeps a lot of people working. I think it is very, very important that we get it done. As chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, I am happy to see us voting to include a full-year defense appropriations bill as well as a full-year Military Construction-Veterans Affairs bill. This is very important. At least we have one committee that can do regular order still, and I think that is very important. Enacting a full-year DOD appropriations bill is the first step toward restoring funding for our military, which has been whipsawed by the dual combination of the sequester and the CR that we are operating under. None of our currently serving service Chiefs--the Chief of the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines, including the Chief of all of the services--in their time have ever operated under a real budget. Most of the Members of Congress haven't served under regular order in seeing how we have really done. So this is a step forward to get us back to regular order. A full year appropriation will allow the service chiefs to cancel programs that we've already canceled in the Defense Authorization Act. It allows them to restore critical shortfalls in their operation and maintenance accounts and add back a certain amount of training and flying hours. This legislation does not by any means solve sequestration, but it gives our commanders some much needed flexibility and gives us time to work on a House budget that restores funding for our military. Let me give you just a couple of quick examples of why we need to pass this package and encourage the other body to return to regular order: a straight CR stovepipes funding in certain accounts. General Odierno, Chief of Staff of the Army, is looking at having to curtail 37,000 hours of flying for helicopter pilots at Fort Rucker in Alabama, where all of our helicopter pilots go to be trained. That's about 500 to 750 pilots who will not be trained. Units preparing now to deploy to Afghanistan are not receiving the same training as those who are there now fighting. That is shameful. We need to restore those accounts. This puts those who are preparing to go at greater risk once they arrive in theater. Under a full year DOD appropriation, which we'll be voting on today, General Odierno will have the authority to restore a lot of those flying hours and critical training for those who are preparing to deploy. I have just another little example. Admiral Greenert, Chief of Naval Operations, has said that if he had the funding that would come from the appropriations bill that we're voting on, he would have the flexibility to move money between accounts, and the Navy would be able to keep a carrier strike group and an amphibious ready group in the Middle East and the Pacific through next year. That is crucial to our national security. I would encourage all of our colleagues to support this bill. It's not perfect, but it takes us a long step toward helping to secure our national security. I thank the chairman and the chairman of the subcommittee for their great work.

Mr. McKEON

Mr. McKEON. Mr. Speaker, it is with great pride and some sadness that I rise to honor Mr. Michael R. Higgins, a Professional Staff Member of the Armed Services Committee, on the eve of his retirement. For over forty years, Mike has dedicated himself to his country and the Armed Forces. He served in the United States Air Force for twenty years and retired as Lieutenant Colonel. For the next 23 years, it was our great fortune that he chose the Armed Services Committee as the home for his incredible talents. Mike served 7 HASC chairmen and 8 subcommittee chairmen, helping to steer our committee through war and peace. His sage advice guided members out of the Cold War and through the sporadic conflicts of the 1990s, social changes both large and small, and a tough 11 years of war. For any analyst looking to answer the question, ``How did the all- volunteer military survive those war years?,'' I would urge them to examine the contributions of Mike Higgins. When the Pentagon struggled to attract quality recruits, Mike helped improve military recruiting and retention programs. When issues arose with outdated military pay and retirement policies, Mike modernized those systems. When the strains of combat brought in Wounded Warriors to rehabilitate, Mike helped guarantee attention to their needs. Mike encountered an historic array of challenges to the Armed Forces. Some were structural, some were strategic, and some were social. But Mike's consummate professionalism, commitment to the military people that he loved, and perseverance in the face of the toughest political and policy debates helped us meet each issue with wisdom and experience. For that, I am grateful and in his debt. His legacy is unmistakable. Whenever the military and Congress found themselves at odds, whenever there was a shared obstacle to overcome, and whenever a member of our committee -Republican or Democrat-needed advice or counsel, Mike was there. Mike Higgins is a giant. He shaped the service of every man and woman of the Armed Forces over the last two decades. Every military retiree, their survivors, and each military family benefited from Mike's commitment to them. Mike will cast a long shadow far beyond his retirement. His humility is matched only by his intellect, his ability to listen and a fearsome ability to see to the heart of an issue. When oversight is your business, sharp eyes are your sword. And no sword was sharper than that of this modest, unassuming Airman, who served his country with the tenacity of a lion, yet would today be surprised that so much is being made of all that he accomplished. Thank you, Mike.

Mr. McKEON

Mr. McKEON. Mr. Speaker, I submit for publication the attached copy of the rules of the Committee on Armed Services for the U.S. House of Representatives for the 113th Congress, as adopted by the committee on January 15, 2013.

Mr. McKEON

Mr. McKEON. I thank the gentleman for yielding. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Kentucky for the purpose of a colloquy.