00:00Thank you, Mr. Hill. I now recognize the vice chairman of the full committee, Mr. Huizenga, who represents Western Michigan.
00:07Thank you, both Chairman Davidson and Chairman Hill. I appreciate the opportunity to be down here.
00:14I actually represent the Battle Creek Air National Guard facility up in Battle Creek.
00:20We had a briefing earlier with someone from the 110th Air Wing, and I just want to say thank you and extend my gratitude to them.
00:31They operate the MQ1s and 9s out of Battle Creek, and obviously that is part of the portfolio that we're talking about here.
00:42I want to try to touch on a couple of things.
00:46It might seem a little disjointed, but based on some experience that we had had, previously going through reworking of CFIUS, I'd like to know more about, specifically from Mr. Frankston, how your operations fit into that CFIUS operation and that review.
01:10Thank you for the question, Vice Chairman.
01:12So CFIUS is managed by one of our sister offices, so still within the umbrella of our industrial-based policy office.
01:19We collaborate with them daily.
01:23The CFIUS reviews, they have the lead on how they work with the Department of Commerce and the other inter-agencies that review each of these potential cases,
01:34but a lot of that is informed by where an adversary or a foreign partner may want to make an investment.
01:41We need to be aware of that as we're targeting our own supply chains, too.
01:45It helps us to know where China or another adversary is trying to gain leverage against a key shortfall that we may have or something else.
01:53So there is a constant exchange of data.
01:55And typically that had been in manufacturing space previously.
02:00Now we've sort of expanded into strategic locations, correct?
02:03Yes, sir.
02:04Which is literally the review of land and acquisitions.
02:07That might be outside of either a technical ability or some sort of manufacturing ability, correct?
02:13That is correct, sir, yes.
02:15Okay.
02:15And it's appropriate in your view?
02:17Yes.
02:18It absolutely is a direct bearing where our adversaries are.
02:21So that land that might be next to a base or that might be next to an industrial facility may just be an opportunity for espionage or a different...
02:31Probably not just sheer coincidence that the Chinese are interested in picking up land next to a facility.
02:36Okay, I'm going to track over to Dr. Ormsby here a little bit because I think this is something that as we've gone through discussions of DPA previously, kind of famously, at least in Michigan, there was discussion when we saw the shortfall in ventilators, for example, during COVID and the supply being cut off by China.
03:03There was discussion of implementing DPA to compel our manufacturers to go into that specific manufacturing.
03:14Ford, as my recollection, actually voluntarily stepped up and changed some of their production to be able to fulfill that.
03:22But that's outside of sort of the traditional role of DPA.
03:27And certainly what you've been talking about with these core six funds, you know, the core Title III dollars, I'm more interested in how you see how the CARES Act supplemental funds, how the Inflation Reduction Act funds fit into that.
03:46And then we see the foreign policy side of this with Ukraine supplemental, the Indo-Pacific security supplemental, and the Israel security supplemental funds.
03:55So explain to everybody that might be watching this, and certainly for us up here, where you see these different funds and how they fit.
04:02And you had mentioned there's expiration dates on those.
04:05And if you could outline that.
04:06Yes, thank you for the question, Vice Chairman.
04:10I think a lot of that really does go to Mr. Frankston, where we're setting the priorities within the legal authorities that we get and the funding authorities that we get.
04:23And then in our office, we execute the priorities, basically.
04:29So I would say the various funds do apply to needs that we have, you know, as we look at replenishing munitions, replenishing stocks.
04:45It does help.
04:46The expiration date issue that you bring up can be a bit of an execution hindrance for us, to be honest with you.
04:59In that, especially as we get large dollar infusions coming in, and I don't want to say unplanned, but maybe not expected well in advance, right, with restrictions on how you can use them.
05:17And then we have to fairly rapidly come up with a strategy, and we have to get those funds on agreements and issued, which causes us to have to do some prioritization of who we're working with, when we're working with them, with our limited staff.
05:33My time's expired, but I look forward to exploring that a bit more in maybe a second round.
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