Contact: Josh Holly; 202.226.3988
Bartlett Statement for Joint Hearing on Army and Marine Corps Reset Requirements
Washington, D.C. – Three House Armed Services subcommittees held a joint hearing earlier today to examine the costs and requirements associated with resetting and recapitalizing Army and Marine Corps equipment. U.S. Rep. Roscoe Bartlett (R-MD), Ranking Member of the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Air and Land Forces, released the following prepared remarks for the hearing:
“I would like to welcome General Chiarelli and General Amos back to the committee. Gentlemen, thank you for being here today and thank you very much for all you do for this nation.
“My primary concern has to deal with the procurement portion of reset. The Army’s 2010 request for reset is $11 billion—of which $7.9 billion is for operations and maintenance (O&M) and $3.1 billion is for procurement. From 2007 to 2010 the O&M portion of reset has stayed constant at approximately $8 billion per year. However, during that same period, the procurement side of reset has gone from $8.6 billion to $3.1 billion. I realize that the $8.6 bilion number in 2007 was a little high because of deferred requirements from 2006. Nevertheless, five Brigade Combat Teams from the surge have already started or are getting ready to reset, large amounts of equipment returning from Iraq will require reset, additional equipment is being sent to Afghanistan and yet the procurement portion of reset has been reduced by over fifty percent.
“I am concerned that the Army will be forced to pay for additional reset costs out of their base budget which will negatively impact modernization; which has already been reduced in this budget. My question for the Army is this: did the Army request $11 billion for reset or did they request a higher number and $11 billion was all they could get? I recall that during the Army posture hearing Ranking Member McHugh brought up this same concern and General Casey stated that the numbers may have to be re-looked.
“We face an enormous challenge as we work to rebuild, reset, modernize, transform and grow our armed forces while actively engaged in combat. The redeployment of forces from Iraq, and the increase in forces in Afghanistan greatly increase the complexity and the resourcing requirements for reset. I look forward to the discussion today and I hope it will provide us with a better understanding of the Army and Marine Corps efforts to reset the force in light of these challenges.”