Mike Levin Questions Witness About The Impact Of Budget Constraints On Military Housing Projects

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During a House Appropriations Committee hearing prior to the congressional recess, Mike Levin (D-CA) questioned Sergeant Major Carlos A. Ruiz of the Marine Corps about service member housing projects.

Transcript

00:00This is my good demonstration of how this should have been run.

00:06Mr. Levin.

00:07Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

00:08And thanks to everyone.

00:10I particularly want to thank our Marines and sailors.

00:14I have the great honor to represent Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton.

00:18And I have visited, and I'm very grateful for all the leadership on base.

00:22There's a lot of progress being made with limited resources,

00:25but still far too many of the barracks are run down.

00:29They need a lot of help, and we want to do all we can to help

00:32as part of the Barracks 2030 initiative.

00:34You certainly have my commitment to do that for as long as I have the honor to serve,

00:38to do everything we can for, they don't call it quality of life.

00:42They say operational necessity, which I think is right.

00:46Call it readiness.

00:47Call it, you know, whatever we need to get the job done

00:50to make sure that people have a clean and safe place to live.

00:52I wanted to ask about rising costs in the context of the Barracks 2030 initiative,

00:59specifically things like construction costs.

01:02And Sergeant Major Ruiz, thank you for the time that you spent with me the other day.

01:06To what extent, you know, as the construction costs have gone up,

01:12does that change the approach of the Marine Corps?

01:14Or do you have to focus on, you know, only implementing part of Barracks 2030

01:21as opposed to the original plan?

01:24Can you comment more on the impact of construction costs?

01:26Sir, thank you for your time earlier in the week.

01:32Absolutely.

01:33And I think what I'll say is that we label it Barracks 2030

01:37because we were in a hurry, right, at the beginning of a commandant's tenure

01:41to get after our infrastructure correct.

01:46And now, as the budgets develop, it may slip, right?

01:53So although this was never to be a one-fit-up issue,

01:57we can get things up and running in one-fit-up is a multiple-year,

02:02multiple-fit-up endeavor, the Marines that are serving today

02:06may not likely ever see a brand-new building go up

02:10in the first contract of their service.

02:13And so to the credit of our commandant,

02:17even through these budget conversations,

02:20he continues to tell the leadership that we will find the money

02:24and we will invest into the operational need of getting after

02:29the responsibility we have to house the Marines

02:33in a manner that's deserving their excellence, sir.

02:36Thank you, Sergeant Major.

02:37I was told, as I mentioned to you, just on Camp Pendleton,

02:40over 120 buildings, roughly half of them need to be completely redone

02:44or torn down altogether at a cost of over $1.2 billion.

02:49It's just for one base.

02:52So question for any of you.

02:55Have any of you done any sort of analysis on the impact,

02:58I'm going to use the T word, of tariffs on construction costs

03:01as it pertains to your plans?

03:04No.

03:05Nobody?

03:07Nobody.

03:07I would say the Corps of Engineer, I know,

03:11has been paying attention to this.

03:12I mean, I won't speak for them, but I will say we are taking a look at this.

03:18It does affect every one of our projects

03:20in the sense of the availability of equipment for the projects.

03:29What sorts of stuff do you import that might be more expensive

03:33as you look at the portfolio of projects?

03:36Is it materials?

03:38Is it just to put a...

03:39It's a little bit of everything, Congressman.

03:41A past one we had prior to the T word was solar panels.

03:48There was only so many places that we were able to purchase solar panels.

03:53And so we had to request an exception

03:55or that project was just going to sit and languish and not be completed.

03:59And you can imagine a project that's been a multi-year project

04:04and we're waiting on solar panels to finish it, close it, and occupy it.

04:09And so, I mean, that's one from the past that I'm aware of.

04:13I don't think we have the analysis for current effects based off tariffs,

04:19but I know the core is paying attention closely.

04:21Very good.

04:22And hopefully you're conducting that analysis,

04:24and I really hope that as you develop it that you share it with us.

04:28You know, our hope is to be as helpful to you as possible,

04:32but we need you to be transparent with us as we seek to help.

04:37The cuts are the other thing I want to mention.

04:40A couple of my colleagues talked about this.

04:41So, same question for Sarge Major Ruiz is, you know, this 8% budget cut,

04:48how does that impact the Marine Corps ability just to implement

04:52the barracks improvement plans that you have on the books?

04:56And what additional resources might you need?

05:00Yes, sir.

05:01As I stated earlier, we began six years ago

05:06in a very huge endeavor to transform the Marine Corps.

05:10So, we got really light.

05:13And what I would offer now is that it's not just

05:17should the budgets develop in maybe a downward trend.

05:22It won't be just barracks and infrastructure.

05:24It will be the inability to pay for bonuses and retention may turn,

05:31may be affected because we have incredibly talented Marines

05:35in our formations that are needed to stay for the next fight.

05:40And if they see, they may see that, hey, I've waited my turn to get a bonus

05:46because I did what I was supposed to do,

05:48and now I'm here at an E5 getting ready to recover a bonus and stay,

05:54and it's not available to them, they may decide to walk away.

05:57So, although our retention numbers, even this year,

06:02we're already 100% and climbing for the goal of the year,

06:08I'm not looking to break that momentum, Congressman,

06:11and I'm looking to have that available in the mail purse.

06:14And I'm over time, but I just want to sincerely thank all of you

06:17for the work that you're doing.

06:18And, you know, I think all of us on this subcommittee are here to help you

06:23in every single way that we can.

06:25So with that, I'll yield back.

06:26Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

06:27Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

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