During a House Armed Services Committee markup meeting before the Congressional recess, Rep. John Raymond Garamendi (D-CA) spoke about money allocated to the construction of the border wall.
00:00The Chair now recognizes the ranking member of the Subcommittee on Readiness, the gentleman from California, Mr. Gere Mendy, for any comments he would like to make.
00:07Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And, Chairman Bergman, thank you for the kind comments, and let me throw them right back at you.
00:14It's been a great pleasure to work with you, and I'm really pleased with the amount of good, substantive provisions that you have put into this year's mark.
00:24It has really been a pleasure. This mark continues our tradition of putting aside partisan differences for the needs of our service members and their families.
00:36I also want to be sure that the staff who work tirelessly on both the readiness sections of the bill and on the committee events we've had throughout this year are fully recognized and thank.
00:48David Zanicki, Jeannie Womble, David Kennedy, Sampa Samara, who, by the way, is not here today.
00:58She had a son a week ago, and we send congratulations to her, indeed.
01:08She will eventually return, and when she does, I expect that we'll have the opportunity to see the baby.
01:15Ethan Pessler and Abby Snyder, also.
01:20My personal staff, led by Robert Hurd, Ryan Nasselhoff, Justin Smith, and Sidney Hillbush, also contributed mightily to the work of the committee.
01:32I'm pleased this year we continue to build on readiness and subcommittee's body of work related to improving the sustainment of our weapons systems.
01:40As we know, for numerous hearings and briefings, there is much more work to be done in achieving the higher readiness rates for our aircraft, our ships, and for our ground vehicles.
01:52I am certain this subcommittee will continue to focus on that in the days, months, and years ahead, trying to drive up those readiness statistics.
02:02I'm also pleased by the committee's work to continue to ensure that our service members and their families live in high-quality, safe, and well-maintained barracks and housing.
02:12I do note, with some dismay, that a billion dollars of barrack improvements for a couple of our bases was removed and sent over for a border wall.
02:23That requires the attention of all of us who care about the quality of life for our members.
02:30This mark also ensures our continued ability to conduct informed oversight of the department through the fine work of the staff of the General Accounting Office.
02:39I cannot commend the General Accounting Office enough for the work they have done to keep the department honest on sustainment issues,
02:50and I thank them in advance for the work that they continue to do pursuant to the mandates in this bill.
02:56I will note, with considerable unhappiness, that our Appropriation Committee has made a drastic reduction in the GAO's budget,
03:07and it will definitely affect all of us who often rely upon the GAO for information, for insight, and review of what's going on at the Department of Defense.
03:19It is a 50 percent reduction in the GAO funding, and that will have a dramatic effect on our ability to know and understand what is happening at the Department of Defense.
03:32Now, maybe we can stop that.
03:35Maybe we can turn that around.
03:36Maybe it's just a hangover from the work of the doge boys and girls out there who seem to think that the best thing to do with government is to eliminate it.
03:48But the elimination of the GAO and the 50 percent reduction will have profound effect on our ability to get information that we need to do our job.
03:58Well, we'll think about that in the days ahead.
04:01Once again, I want to thank Chairman Bergman.
04:03It has been a pleasure working with you, and for the members of the committee, for their collaboration and their partnership.
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