OPENING REMARKS OF CHAIRMAN WILSON

WASHINGTON, DC - Today, Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC), Chairman of the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Readiness, made the following remarks, as prepared for delivery, on the Subcommittee's hearing titled “Army Fiscal Year 2019 Budget Request Readiness Posture.” For testimony and to watch the hearing click here.  

"Today the subcommittee will hear from 4 Army senior leaders regarding their service’s fiscal year 2019 budget request and correlation to current and future readiness across the total Army.  We are grateful to have the Regular Army component, Army National Guard, and Army Reserve so superbly represented – truly embodying the integration of the TOTAL ARMY. I want to take this opportunity to sincerely thank our witnesses for their service, a combined 144 years of experience is seated before us. Specifically, I want to explore the shortfalls, gaps, and critical challenges that lie ahead as you continue to implement the Army’s readiness recovery plan. We also want to recognize the progress achieved thus far, and gain a better understanding of how the fiscal year 2019 budget request enables critical war fighting capabilities and life-cycle sustainment.  Ultimately, how does this budget request support the Army mission and those men and women who wear the uniform and are in harm’s way.

The fiscal year 2019 base and Overseas Contingency Operations budget request for total Army Operation and Maintenance includes $70 billion dollars, an approximate $4 billion dollars above the fiscal year 2108 National Defense Authorization Act amount.  We appreciate the Army’s prioritization of Readiness and efforts to train towards decisive action capabilities, increase global posture and capacity and lethality to defeat the threats identified in the National Defense Strategy, but we recognize there is more work to be done. 

It is our responsibility as members of this subcommittee to understand the readiness situation and how the budget request impacts the Army in correcting deficiencies and restoring the capabilities this nation needs.

President Ronald Reagan frequently used the phrase, 'Peace Through Strength.'  I agree with President Reagan and believe we must maintain a high state of readiness across our armed services in order to achieve that goal.

Needless to say, we have a lot of ground to cover this morning and I look forward to hearing from ou