00:00Please to yield two minutes to the ranking member of the Hask Subcommittee on Tactical Air and Land Forces, Mr. Norcross of New Jersey.
00:07Gentleman from New Jersey is recognized for two minutes.
00:10Thank you, Chairman.
00:12Thank you, Ranking Member, for what you do each and every day.
00:15Something we can be proud of.
00:17Mr. Speaker, this bill continues the Tactical Air and Land Forces Subcommittee's proud bipartisan tradition
00:25and our commitment to share responsibility, tough choices to manage strategic risk.
00:32In particular, thanks to my tail chairman, Whitman, and our staff who work together day in and day out in an incredibly bipartisan way.
00:43When we look at some of the challenges ahead of us, we look to the markup that we had just a few weeks ago
00:50to see how things can work correctly when we work together.
00:56And we hope we stay on track for that, certainly as we go through this amendment project.
01:01This bill addresses the risk, the cost of military modernization without sacrificing oversight
01:07and ensuring responsible execution of our defense program.
01:11I just want to mention two.
01:13First, the F-35 fighter, the most expensive program in the history of DOD.
01:19And one that consistently struggles to deliver capability as promised.
01:25This committee bipartisan bill adds new requirements to fix these known problems and capabilities that we need now.
01:33As the contractor has promised.
01:35Our bill does not waste taxpayers' investment on production aircraft,
01:40but will add to the large number of fighters that are not being used right now.
01:45Sitting on the ground, waiting and waiting and waiting.
01:49Second topic is our munitions, as we heard just a few minutes ago.
01:53The multiyear procurement authorities, coupled with the strong investments in our munitions accounts,
01:58sends a strong signal to our industrial partners.
02:02To our industrial partners.
02:04And I'm proud to be part of that work that the subcommittee has done over the past several years to be there.
02:10And finally, I want to thank the professional staff.
02:12Jay Valerio, Dave Sinecki, Heath Boop, Michael Curlin, Max Huntley, and Brooke Albrecht.
02:19And just to take a moment, because this will be the last NDAA for Bill Sude,
02:23who has spent 27 years on the Hill, contributing in an incredibly important way.
02:29And with that, I yield back.
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