[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 23 (Tuesday, February 6, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S626-S627]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]





                         DEFENSE APPROPRIATIONS

  Mr. ROUNDS. Mr. President, it is in that spirit that I bring this 
message to my fellow Members of the U.S. Senate. I rise today to ask 
for support for the Defense appropriations bill for fiscal year 2018.
  I would like to start by thanking the majority leader for bringing 
the Defense appropriations bill to the floor. Now, just because the 
majority leader brings it to the floor doesn't mean we will necessarily 
get the opportunity to debate it. It requires either the unanimous 
consent of all the Members or at least 60 Members agreeing to have that 
debate. That is one of the reasons why we haven't had any 
appropriations measures on the floor. It takes 60 Members, Republicans 
and Democrats, just to begin the debate of each one of these 12 
separate appropriations bills, which make up what we normally vote on 
during a year. This is also part of that process which has been broken 
for more than 44 years because it has only worked four times in 44 
years. But you have to start someplace.
  Providing long-term funding stability for our Armed Forces is vital 
to their ability to adequately train, equip, and maintain the force. In 
particular, under short-term, stop-gap funding measures known as 
continuing resolutions, which we are operating under right now, the 
Defense Department is restricted from starting new programs. These new 
programs are ones that we have already authorized through the National 
Defense Authorization Act on a bipartisan basis for 2018; we just 
haven't appropriated the money yet so that they can actually do the 
programs we have already agreed as a body are important to have in 
place. This is very concerning to me because in today's rapidly 
changing threat environment, these programs were designed to protect 
our Nation against those new threats.
  If we are to adequately recover readiness levels that were lost over 
the last 8 years--really, in many cases, due to sequestration--as well 
as to modernize our Armed Forces in this increasingly dangerous and 
complex world, we must give them the funding, stability, and certainty 
that continuing resolutions fail to provide.
  As a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee Subcommittee on 
Readiness, I am pleased that the subcommittee has held two hearings 
this year on our services' readiness posture. To put that in non-DC 
terms, it means just exactly what their conditions are right now and 
their need for modernization.
  Today, I would like to share just a few examples of readiness issues 
facing our military force. The first are issues plaguing our Navy, and 
both demonstrate the need to adequately fund not only our Navy but all 
branches of our Armed Forces.
  The first issue concerns the F/A-18 Hornet aircraft. For any Members 
who are wondering which aircraft it is, this is the one that people see 
on a regular basis on film clips and so forth showing them taking off 
of the carriers. This is our primary Navy attack aircraft. This is the 
one that we use for aerial combat. We also use this one to do the 
attacks in both Iraq and Syria.
  The first issue is plaguing our Navy--and what they do is they 
demonstrate the need to adequately fund not only our Navy but, as I 
said, all of the different branches. So this is not only the Navy; all 
of the branches need this assistance.
  Vice Chief of Naval Operations, ADM William Moran, stated that our 
legacy F/A-18A and D Hornets today take twice as many manhours as 
originally planned for repairs and maintenance. He has also stated that 
``on a typical day in the Navy, about 25 to 30 percent of our jets and 
our airplanes are in some kind of depot maintenance.'' Overall, just 
over half are unavailable for operations today. So it is not just the 
F/A-18 Hornet, it is all of their aircraft that are in need of 
upgrading.
  To sum up the Admiral's comments, the Navy is putting in twice the 
maintenance manhours to maintain a fleet that is less than 50 percent 
available.
  In a crisis situation, the Vice Chief said, ``We can and we do put 
airplanes and ready air crews forward,'' but ``there's no depth on the 
bench behind them if we had to surge forces.'' In other words, all of 
the aircraft that are available right now, we have on the frontlines. 
These are the ones that are serving overseas. We don't have backups in 
case they start to go down.
  The Marine Corps is also experiencing serious readiness issues with 
its F/A-18 fleet, and there is a human cost. On December 8, 2016, the 
Marine Corps announced that yet another pilot had been killed as a 
result of a training accident in the F/A-18 Hornet. This was the third 
Marine Corps F/A-18 Hornet class A mishap--which is defined as an 
accident resulting in a death or the complete loss of aircraft--over a 
month-and-a-half time period. In the previous 22 months, the Marine 
Corps had experienced seven class A mishaps flying legacy F/A-18 
Hornets. Sadly, some or all of these mishaps might have been avoided 
with the additional training and maintenance that would have been 
forthcoming with the additional funding that had been recommended in 
the National Defense Authorization Act, which this body, on a 
bipartisan basis, has already voted on.
  Returning to the Navy, its maintenance-related readiness concerns 
extend to its attack submarine fleet. Admiral Moran recently mentioned 
that attack submarines are sometimes sent to private shipyards for 
maintenance because government shipyards are already at capacity with 
higher priority work, especially and specifically on aircraft carriers 
and ballistic missiles submarines, but the private shipyards do not 
have the capacity to take on extra repair work. This lack of shipyard 
capacity is severely impacting our attack submarine fleet.
  For example, the USS Albany, which is an attack submarine, spent 48 
months in the repair yard due to repeated delays as the workforce 
focused its attention on aircraft carriers and on ballistic missile 
submarines. That means an entire crew spent years waiting for a 
deployment that never came.
  Worse still, the USS Boise attack submarine wasn't even put in the 
shipyard last summer because the shipyard workload was so far over 
workforce capacity. As a result, that boat is currently sitting in 
Norfolk, VA, and is not certified to dive while it awaits maintenance. 
This is a taxpayer asset sitting at dock tied up, not being repaired, 
not even being worked on. Right now, it is so far out of shape, it is 
not even allowed to dive. In fact, the Boise will not be able to rejoin 
the fleet until 2020 or later. That means this vital Navy asset will be 
unavailable for at least another 48 months.
  In fact, a maintenance backlog has docked 15 nuclear-powered attack 
submarines for a total of 177 months--or almost 15 years--in which 
those attack submarines have not been available in the protection of 
our country.
  While I am discussing some serious Navy readiness challenges, all of 
our services face readiness challenges.
  Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson recently said:

       The fiscal year 2018 continuing resolution is actually 
     delaying our efforts to increase readiness of the force, and 
     risk accumulates over time. We are stretching the force to 
     the limit, and we need to start turning the corner on 
     readiness.

  With a shortage of nearly 2,000 pilots, out of about 20,000 total, 
Secretary Wilson went on to say, current Active-Duty pilots were 
burning out because the Air Force was too small for what the Nation is 
asking.
  ``Our biggest need right now is for a higher and stable budget to 
provide security and solvency for the nation,'' she went on to say.
  According to Defense Secretary James Mattis, operating under a 
continuing resolution for 2018 runs the risk of delaying vital projects 
and increasing their costs, including 37 Navy projects, 16 Air Force 
projects, and 38 Army projects. The projects that could be impacted 
include progress on new trainer aircraft, weapons systems, and 
important training programs.
  The most important things Congress can do to solve these problems are 
to provide funding stability and avoid arbitrary budget caps that 
constrain defense spending below that which is required to protect our 
Nation. This bill that is before us now does both. More specifically, 
only by removing these caps can we avoid the Department of Defense 
having to make difficult choices that are so devastating for our Armed 
Forces. In particular, we must avoid their having to make the false 
choice of paying for readiness while assuming the risk for 
modernization or vice versa.
  The American people expect us to adequately defend America next year

[[Page S627]]

and for every year to come. This requires us to put an end to 
continuing resolutions and remove arbitrary budget caps and the threat 
of sequestration. Only by doing so can Congress fulfill its No. 1 
responsibility: keeping Americans safe.
  I conclude by again thanking the majority leader for bringing the 
fiscal year 2018 Defense appropriations bill to the floor. He can't do 
it alone. He needs our cooperation. He needs our understanding as to 
just how critical this is. If there is not unanimous consent to move 
forward, it will require 60 of us to agree. It is time to bring this 
bill to the floor for full debate and passage.
  I ask all of my colleagues to support it, get it to the President's 
desk as soon as possible, and finally bring an end to the defense 
component of a continuing resolution that, with arbitrary budget caps, 
is so severely impacting the readiness of our Armed Forces.
  Thank you.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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