[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 24 (Friday, March 4, 2005)]
[Senate]
[Page S2084]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. REED (for himself, Mr. Hagel, Mr. McCain, Mr. Kerry, Mr. 
        Biden, Ms. Landrieu, Mrs. Clinton, and Mr. Nelson of Florida):
  S. 530. A bill to amend section 691 of title 10, United States Code, 
to increase the end strengths of the Army and the Marine Corps for 
fiscal years after fiscal year 2005, and for other purposes; to the 
Committee on Armed Services.
  Mr. HAGEL. Mr. President, I rise today to join my colleague Senator 
Jack Reed in introducing legislation to increase the size of the United 
States Army by 30,000 troops and the United States Marine Corps by 
5,000 Marines.
  In recent testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Army 
Chief of Staff General Peter Schoomaker testified that the current Army 
endstrength of 502,400 troops is adequate to fight the Global War on 
Terrorism if the Army National Guard and Army Reserve can sustain the 
current active-duty force.
  Our current over-dependence on Army National Guard and Army Reserve 
mobilization is irresponsible policy. This policy threatens to break 
the United States Army and severely damage our national security.
  America should not leverage its security interests upon a Reserve and 
National Guard force that is already over-stressed and over-burdened. 
There are 100,000 soldiers in the Army National Guard mobilized and 
serving on active duty. An additional 50,000 Army Reserve soldiers have 
been mobilized. Many of these reservists are in critical specialty 
areas and are completing 2 years on active-duty.
  The Global War on Terrorism began almost 3\1/2\ years ago. Since 
then, the active-duty Army has grown 5 percent, while the demands 
placed on our soldiers have skyrocketed. LTG Richard Cody, Vice Chief 
of Staff of the Army, recently testified to Congress that almost 50 
percent of the Army's available manpower is deployed.
  The bulk of our active-duty combat soldiers are currently in a cycle 
of deployment that includes 1 year in Iraq or Afghanistan followed by 1 
year at home. The Marine Corps has shortened the cycle to 7 months 
deployed and 7 months at home. However, these soldiers and Marines are 
no longer spending time with their families. Instead, their time at 
home is spent training and preparing to redeploy.
  These deployment cycles are just as demanding for our National Guard 
and Reserve personnel. GEN James Helmly, Commander of the Army Reserve, 
has told the Pentagon leadership that current personnel and deployment 
policy threatens to permanently damage the Army Reserve's recruitment 
and retention.
  This policy is not sustainable. It must be changed. In order to 
effectively meet the global challenges of the 21st century, our efforts 
must assure Americans that the Army and Marines have a sufficient 
number of full time, highly trained and fully qualified personnel to do 
the job.
  The Army has over 500,000 soldiers on active duty today. By the end 
of this year the Army will have over 510,000 soldiers. Later this year 
the Marine Corps will have over 178,000 Marines on active duty. Yet the 
Pentagon's Fiscal Year 2006 budget submission only pays for 482,400 
soldiers and 175,000 Marines.
  The Department of Defense, DoD, has chosen not to fund known costs 
and instead has deferred an increase in Army endstrength to upcoming 
supplemental appropriations requests. The leaders of our Armed Forces 
must have realistic funding in order to conduct realistic wartime 
planning and execution. The Congress and the American people expect DoD 
to tell us what our real National Security costs are.
  In previous years, Senator Reed and I have introduced legislation to 
increase the size of the Army. In 2003, our first effort to increase 
Army endstrength by 10,000 troops was simply dismissed by the Pentagon.
  Last year, our second effort to increase the size of the Army by 
30,000 soldiers resulted in compromise legislation to add 20,000 
soldiers to the Army and 3,000 Marines to the Marine Corps. The 
Pentagon has essentially ignored this provision in last year's Defense 
Authorization Bill by not funding the increased personnel in the Fiscal 
Year 2006 budget.
  The legislation Senator Reed and I introduce today will establish a 
U.S. Army endstrength of 532,400, which is 30,000 soldiers higher than 
current levels. It will also establish a U.S. Marine Corps endstrength 
of 183,000 or an additional 5,000 Marines. Our legislation requires DoD 
to make these new endstrength levels permanent and requires DoD to pay 
for it in their annual budgets.
  Our effort to increase the endstrength of the Army and the Marines is 
not a choice between increased manpower versus critical 
recapitalization, modernization, research, and military construction 
needs. DoD must have both fully funded.
  Article 1, section 8 of the United States Constitution gives Congress 
the power ``to provide the common defense . . . to raise and support 
Armies . . . to provide and maintain a navy . . . and to make laws 
which shall be necessary and proper for carrying out the foregoing 
powers.'' The Congress must exercise its responsibility to ensure that 
our Army and Marine Corps remain the best led, best trained, best 
equipped and most professional fighting force in the world. I urge my 
colleagues to support this important legislation.
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