During a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing prior to the Congressional recess, Sen. Jerry Moran (R-KS) questioned Lieutenant General Leonard F. Anderson IV, Commander of the Marine Corps Forces Reserve, about the continuing resolution.
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00:00Senator Bozeman, thank you. Starbase, I've taken an interest in, General Nordhaus,
00:07but following the CR, our fault, not yours, we've experienced these temporary closures of star bases
00:14and that is troublesome to me. And again, we'll do everything we can one more time to make sure
00:24we don't have another continuing resolution, but how long, how can the current funding get this
00:30program through this fiscal year? What do you expect? Will there be another pause or can we get
00:36through the fiscal year with the money that you have? Senator Moran, first off, I'd like to give a
00:43shout out to both of your adjutants generals as star bases go across the 54. There's 90 locations
00:50and General Venerti and General Bridges, once again, just do amazing work. And so as we look
00:56at the star base program, I don't have the exact dollar, so we'll have to get back to you. But I
01:01know how important those programs are, the STEM and what they bring to the fight into our youth as we
01:07get after building our youth so that they have those engineering and mathematical skills that we
01:15hopefully bring into the National Guard or to our armed forces so that we can have the best and
01:21the brightest and the most skilled, capable people to defend our homeland, respond in the homeland,
01:27and win our nation's wars if needed. I'll give back to you on the statistics and facts.
01:32Thank you very much. We were discouraged to learn that star bases were going to conclude their work
01:37and enough money, fortunately, was found to keep them temporarily going. I would like to see that
01:45we'd make it through at least this fiscal year and give Congress another chance to and the
01:49administration to get its work done. And thank you, Senator, for the support. You're welcome.
01:56My final question is of the of the leaders here who have not answered this question,
02:02for the record and for our use with our colleagues. What's your experience with the continuing resolution
02:08with the consequences? Help us make the case that a continuing resolution is not. I mean, we've never
02:16done what what has happened this past year has never happened before. Tell us why it shouldn't happen
02:21again. And I'm not sure several of you have spoken about this, but if you have something you'd like to
02:27make the case for us or help us make the case, I'd be glad to hear your answers.
02:32Senator Anderson, thank you. From the maritime side of the table, Senator.
02:36Yes, sir. I have three different areas really in the CR. And again, thank you for
02:41the Negriya under these conditions. That was certainly helpful. But where it most affects us is people.
02:46As you know, with reservists, our most precious resource is time. And what I lose is time with reservists
02:52under a CR. How? First of all, the active duty support orders, those have been turned off for the
02:58rest of the fiscal year or any additions to that, I should say. So some of that would certainly affect
03:04our exercises and training. What we see as we integrate with the active component, as they have
03:08to reduce some of their exercises due to their operational funds being reduced, is that now there are
03:12limited opportunities for our reservists to train alongside our active component, which is exactly how
03:16we're going to operate in Indo-PACOM. And then lastly, we've had to discontinue our enlistment
03:22incentive bonuses for reservists. So now there's reserves that wanted to stay in, they haven't been
03:27able to sign up, and we're hoping for the next fiscal year that we'll be able to keep them on board.
03:33And as his amphibious partner here, thank you for saying the naval services, I would say again, I would
03:38echo the thanks for the Negriya in the CR. Those are very
03:46informed that they are a year old when the committee made out when we were not executing
04:01strength, we're in a different situation now. We made end strength in April, we're going to end
04:05the fiscal year above authorized end strength but within controls due to the success of our
04:10recruiting effort. And so that reality doesn't necessarily carry through in the process when
04:15we're taking a CR and carrying it forward, if that makes sense. Thank you.
04:20And Senator, for the Army Reserve, again, it's just like my teammates, it's a reserve pay
04:24account's most affected. I think with the CR, we, it was about $186 million less than our
04:29president's budget submission. And so that affects cutting orders, soldiers that were scheduled to
04:34go to school, exercises, you know, all of that affects the predictability of our formation, which
04:40really is the most important piece for us. And if I could just share one thing to Senator
04:45Bozeman's point on partnership with, with reserve forces. So we do a lot of partnership. Don't
04:50mean to veer into this, sir, but we do a lot of partnership with other nations, reserve forces.
04:54We, I was just in Poland, we partnered with the Estonians, the Philippines, of course, our
04:58Five-I partners. But last year, we hosted a forum during AUSA in October, where we invited many
05:05reserve force partners to come. We had, from many nations, were there. And my British teammate,
05:10Mark Lancaster, two-star general, I thought he said one of the most, it was a poignant statement.
05:16And he said, the war in Ukraine right now is a war being fought between two reserve armies.
05:22And so all of us, we take that to account. We're laser focused on making sure our young men and
05:27women are ready. Just wanted to share that with the committee.
05:29Sir, from the, from the Air Force Reserve, the biggest thing that the year-long CR affects
05:37us with is the ability to be predictable and stable. So that's the bread and butter of the
05:42Air Force Reserve. The ability to know in August that I'm going to request time off from my civilian
05:48employer in October, and knowing that I'm going to have those orders available to me.
05:53What's ultimately happened is we've driven behavior changes where reservists will no longer
05:58sign up to serve in October, because they can't adequately predict that they're going to have
06:03orders to work. Likewise, from a training perspective, when I look at exercise planning,
06:09we are very hesitant to plan on exercises in August and September, because if a CR exists long term,
06:16or if we get marked later in the year, as in this year, we're likely not going to have the funds or
06:21the manpower to be able to participate in those exercises. Much like the Air National Guard said,
06:25and in my opening statement, we are likely to ground our airplanes the first week of September
06:30this year, because we're $26 million short of executing our flying hour program. It's going to
06:36directly affect the degree of how ready we are, sir.
06:40The moment of sunshine has come to an end, and my temporary position is disappearing. But thank you
06:47all for your presence here today, your leadership, and we have the greatest regard for you and for
06:52the men and women you lead. Thank you.