[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 15]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages 21824-21826]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]


[[Page 21824]]

          SPEECH OF DEPUTY SECRETARY OF DEFENSE, RUDY de LEON

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. ELLEN O. TAUSCHER

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, October 5, 2000

  Mrs. TAUSCHER. Mr. Speaker, I wish to submit into the record a speech 
by Deputy Secretary of Defense Rudy de Leon. This speech takes a look 
at the state of America's military, its accomplishments over the last 
decade, its challenges in recruiting and retaining the best people, and 
the realities we face in building the next generation of our fighting 
force.
  Perhaps most importantly, Secretary de Leon does a superb job of 
illustrating the success that can come from Congress and the 
Administration working together. In the areas of defense and foreign 
policy, we must never divert from our traditional approach: that 
politics must stop at the water's edge.
  Mr. Speaker, I hope that we will never deviate from that wisdom. Over 
the last eight years, the President and the Congress have come together 
in the area of defense policy, and the results have been stupendous. I 
know from my own experiences on the Armed Services Committee how 
valuable a bipartisan approach is, and I thank Secretary de Leon for 
articulating the concepts so well.

     Remarks by Deputy Secretary of Defense Rudy de Leon, Defense 
                   Orientation Conference Association


                            October 4, 2000

       Donald Bickle [DOCA President], John Olsen [DOCA Vice 
     President], thank you both for the opportunity to join you 
     today, for your leadership of this outstanding organization 
     and for your service to this nation. John was in the Air 
     Force and Donald was in the Navy during both the Second World 
     War and Korea. We are grateful to you both. Members of the 
     Board, members of DOCA and spouses, ladies and gentlemen.
       First, allow me to begin with two simple words to every one 
     of you. Thank you. Most of you will recall a time not so long 
     ago when virtually every American had a family member or a 
     friend in uniform and when what Tom Brokaw calls the Greatest 
     Generation shared the lessons of their lives with the 
     generations that followed.
       Today, in an era when the military is smaller and less 
     visible in our society, you--the members of that Greatest 
     Generation--have been a bridge like no other. As informed 
     observers with experience and insights into the military, and 
     as respected and powerful voices within your communities, you 
     have been in a unique position to help the nation understand 
     the sacrifices and needs of our sons and daughters in 
     uniform. And that is why I wanted to speak to you today.
       I thought I might begin this morning by painting two 
     pictures, pulled directly from recent headlines and world 
     events, that capture a fundamental truth of our time.
       The first picture is of the Former Republic of Yugoslavia. 
     It is a picture of an entire people standing up and speaking 
     out, of workers putting down their tools and walking out of 
     their factories, of truckers and taxi drivers blockading 
     roads, and of tens of thousands of average citizens taking to 
     the streets to demand that their votes be counted and that 
     the dictator who brought such misery and death to an entire 
     region be ousted. And as this drama unfolds, the world hopes 
     that a long, bloody chapter in the history of Europe might 
     perhaps be coming to an end.
       The second picture is from a world away on the Korean 
     Peninsula. It is a picture of the leaders of North and South 
     meeting for the first time and of a historic ceremony to cut 
     through the DMZ--the world's most fortified border--with a 
     reopened railway and a historic highway along which trade 
     will travel. It is a picture of families reuniting in tearful 
     embraces after a half-century of separation and of North and 
     South Korean athletes marching into the Olympic stadium in 
     Sydney under a common flag for the first time. And as this 
     drama unfolds, the world hopes that a long, sad chapter of 
     division in Asia might perhaps be coming to an end.
       As different as these two pictures are, as distinct as the 
     histories that have propelled these two nations to this epic 
     moment, they share a common thread. Both would have been 
     impossible without the presence, the persistence, and the 
     determination of the United States Armed Forces and our 
     allies. Both remind us of the powerful forces of freedom that 
     can be unleashed by the stabilizing presence of the American 
     military around the world.
       So there's no more fitting time than now to consider how we 
     reached this moment and to consider the great questions that 
     will continue to face our nation in the future. What should 
     our role be in the 21st Century? Is America's military ready? 
     And how can we ensure that our forces can meet the immediate 
     crises of today while at the same time, modernizing to meet 
     the emerging threats of tomorrow?
       These are valid and profound questions for our nation. They 
     demand thoughtful and honest answers. When it comes to 
     America's Armed Forces, we need a candid and comprehensive 
     portrait of the state of our military. And that is what I 
     want to discuss with you this afternoon.
       Military readiness is a function of many factors, including 
     the overall level of defense spending; the quality and 
     quantity of those we recruit and retain; the capabilities of 
     their equipment; and, finally, their ability to fulfill the 
     missions we ask of them. To understand each of these is to 
     understand the state of America's military at the dawn of the 
     21st Century.
       First, there is the spending this nation devotes to our men 
     and women in uniform. I think if we look over our shoulders 
     at the past decade, we see that there have been several great 
     revolutions that have had a tremendous impact on our country 
     and the world at large.
       There is the revolution in global affairs, most notably the 
     collapse of the Soviet Union. With all the benefits of the 
     Cold War's end came the burdens of being the world's sole 
     superpower. As General [Hugh] Shelton [Chairman, Joint Chiefs 
     of Staff] outlined to you this morning, soon we had fewer 
     military personnel facing more missions, combining to levy 
     unprecedented demands on our military men and women.
       Then there is the revolution in technology with its daily 
     digital leaps that are transforming everything from how we 
     communicate, to how we learn, to how we understand our 
     universe. As Secretary [of Defense William] Cohen has said, 
     information can indeed be the great equalizer, placing 
     enormous power in the hands of the common citizen or 
     consumer. At the same time, information can also be the great 
     destabilizer, placing enormous and deadly power in the hands 
     of those who wish us harm. And so we now also face the 
     prospect of hackers launching daily assaults on our defense 
     systems and our critical infrastructure.
       At the same time, there has been a revolution in 
     demographics. Those born between 1965 and 1979--the so-called 
     ``Generation X''--comprise one of the smallest groups of 18-
     22 year olds, and, therefore, the smallest pool of potential 
     recruits, since we started the All Volunteer Force in the 
     1970s. While the next wave--so-called ``Generation Y''--is 
     considerably larger, it won't start having a major impact on 
     recruiting until at least 2003.
       And then there is the revolution in our domestic financial 
     affairs. We have balanced the budget and have eliminated 
     deficits as a drain on our national security. Contrary to 
     conventional wisdom, the decline in military spending did not 
     start with the end of the Cold War. Rather, it started 
     several years before with efforts to reduce the deficit--
     specifically the Gramm-Rudman Deficit Reduction Act--in the 
     late 1980s.
       Ten years ago when I was staff director of the House Armed 
     Service Committee, and eight years ago when I entered the 
     Pentagon, the overwhelming reality was the enormous budget 
     deficit that hung over our heads. Few dared even think about 
     real growth in spending or investment.
       Today, we have achieved a sea-change in our financial 
     affairs. Because of hard economic decisions and deficit 
     reduction, and because of the roaring economy, these 
     decisions helped to unleash, those record deficits have now 
     turned into record surpluses.
       That surplus has now allowed us to do something many 
     through unlikely, if not impossible, even only a few years 
     ago. With the President and Secretary of Defense working with 
     the Congress, we are now making new investments in our 
     military men and women totaling some $180 billion in just the 
     last two years--the largest sustained increase in defense 
     spending in fifteen years.
       Consider the second measure by which to measure readiness--
     the quality and quantity of those we recruit and retain. The 
     dynamic economy is pulling away many potential recruits and 
     many of our highly skilled people. So we faced the twin 
     challenges of too many people leaving the force and too few 
     people entering the force.
       That's why a significant part of that $180 billion increase 
     in defense spending is going toward dramatic improvements in 
     quality of life. With respect to pay, all our men and women 
     have now received the largest pay raise since the early 
     1980s. Others with special skills and many in their mid-
     careers have received additional raises and bonuses on top of 
     that, some as much as 5 percent more.
       With respect to benefits, we have made dramatic changes. We 
     have fixed and improved military retirement, restoring 
     benefits so our people can once again retire with 50 percent 
     of their pay after 20 years of service and have a powerful 
     incentive to stay in the force longer.
       With respect to housing, we're making progress as well. I 
     know that some of you visited Travis Air Force Base in 
     August, where you saw substandard housing in an

[[Page 21825]]

     area where the basic housing allowance we provide our forces 
     sometimes isn't enough to match the high cost of living. 
     Well, we've modified the allowance to better reflect the 
     actual cost of off-base housing. And now we're making a truly 
     historic change. This year, we are going to reduce from 19 
     percent to 15 percent what many of our people pay out of 
     pocket for off-base housing. Within five years, we plan to 
     eliminate those expenses entirely and we're going to devote 
     $3 billion to do it.
       With respect to health care, we have made, and will 
     continue to make, improvements in an area that consistently 
     ranks among the top concerns of our forces and their 
     families. I know that in March some of you visited Fort Sam 
     Houston in Texas, home to the U.S. Army Medical Command. Our 
     TRICARE health system is now fully operational in the 
     continental United States, and our service members and their 
     families rate the quality of care they receive as very high. 
     Our next major challenge is ensuring we provide care that is 
     accessible and hassle-free. That's why we will soon be 
     implementing important changes to lower the health care costs 
     for active duty service members and their families, and to 
     expand coverage for family members.
       But just like the nation as a whole, we're grappling with 
     sky-rocketing health care costs and a growing population of 
     older Americans--our retired veterans. So Congress is about 
     to pass--with the Administration's support--an expansion of a 
     pharmacy benefit so that our military retirees can afford the 
     cost of their prescription drugs. Health care will continue 
     to be a hard issue, but we will continue to work hard with 
     Congress in keep faith with our retired veterans who served 
     their country so nobly. And Secretary Cohen and particularly 
     General Shelton, continue to work with Congress in this area.
       In many ways our force is only as strong as the families 
     behind it. And because so many of our personnel are also 
     parents, we've also devoted tremendous time and attention to 
     ensuring strong military families. As a result, our schools 
     recently led the nation in a national survey on writing, with 
     our overseas schools coming in second to only one state, and 
     our stateside schools coming in year. In recent years, 
     students in our schools have scored well above the national 
     average at all grade levels and in all subjects.
       At the same time, by adding $190 million to child care 
     programs over the past six years, we now have a child care 
     system that has been described by many, including the New 
     York Times, as ``a model for the nation.''
       Thanks to all these efforts to improve quality life, we're 
     now witnessing some important improvements in retention. 
     However, it's not only the fundamental rewards that keep our 
     people in uniform, it's the personal reward of doing the job 
     they were trained to do. In fact, those soldiers serving in 
     places like the Balkans have some of the highest re-
     enlistment rates in our armed forces. The services have 
     already worked to relieve the stress of current operations. 
     In the future, our challenge will be to ensure that the 
     stress on our forces and their families doesn't turn that 
     motivation to serve into a motivation to leave.
       We want our forces to stay because they by almost every 
     measure, the quality of our men and women is higher than it's 
     ever been. With more of the force staying in the service for 
     longer than 10 years, they are more experienced than ever. 
     With more high school diplomas and more advanced degrees to 
     their name, they are more educated than ever. So while very 
     real challenges remain in keeping quality people, America 
     needs to know what General Shelton told the U.S. Senate last 
     week and perhaps again to you today. He said, ``In my 37 
     years in uniform, I have never been around better soldiers, 
     sailors, airmen and marines.''
       Our efforts to improve quality of life have also improved 
     recruiting. In addition to the demographic revolution and 
     lure of the private sector I mentioned, the causes [of our 
     recruiting challenge] are many. They include the ever-
     increasing value of a college education and the ever-
     increasing availability of tuition assistance that has now 
     made college available to virtually every high school 
     graduate who wants to attend.
       So what did we do when we wanted to recruit more young 
     people? We put more recruiters on the streets. We created 
     higher bonuses for enlistment. We increased educational 
     incentives. And we tailored advertising and more spending to 
     reach out to young people.
       As a result, we're now seeing a real turnaround in 
     recruitment. Just last week, the Army enlisted its 80,000th 
     soldier for the fiscal year ending September. Shortfalls 
     indeed remain in some areas like naval flight officers and 
     computer specialists. But for the first time in three years, 
     every service not only met their active duty recruiting goal, 
     they exceeded them, and not only in terms of quantity, but in 
     terms of quality as well. For example, over 90% of our 
     recruits hold high school diplomas, much higher than the 
     national average. So while challenges remain, America needs 
     to know that we're still recruiting the best and brightest 
     this nation has to offer.
       Of course, just as important as the quality of our men and 
     women, is the third measure of readiness--the quality of 
     their equipment. The end of the Cold War was a time of 
     transition for our force. But by 1997 we knew that a 13-year 
     decline in procurement spending would have to end. So we 
     ended it. As General Shelton noted to you this morning, this 
     year we achieved our $60 billion in annual funding for the 
     new weapons, tools and technologies our warriors need. Over 
     the next five years we plan to increase that to $70 billion. 
     And in the years beyond, building the advanced force of the 
     future means that procurement will have to remain a national 
     priority.
       That's why we are investing in the next generation of 
     aircraft. We're investing $38 billion for the revolutionary 
     V-22 Osprey that takes off and lands like a helicopter but 
     flies like an airplane, allowing our forces to be more 
     mobile. We're investing $45 billion for the massive C-17 
     transport that carries more cargo to less accessible places, 
     like those airfields in Albania during the air war over 
     Kosovo. We're investing $62 billion for the F-22 that will 
     ensure our supremacy of the skies for decades to come. And 
     over the long-term, we're investing in our largest 
     acquisition program, the Joint Strike Fighter.
       America needs to know that all this investment is fueling 
     an unprecedented Revolution in Military Affairs. Indeed, it's 
     not enough to spend more, we also have to spend smarter. And 
     we're doing both.
       The Navy is improving the capabilities of its ships and 
     aircraft, increasing their striking power by tying them 
     together with the most sophisticated technologies.
       The Air Force is transforming itself into an expeditionary 
     force and--as the world saw in Kosovo--making greater use of 
     Unmanned Aerial Vehicles that reduce the risk to pilots and 
     increase our intelligence and reconnaissance capabilities.
       The Marines are revolutionizing their capabilities by 
     honing their skills in urban warfare.
       And, of course, the Army has embarked on a historic 
     transformation to dramatically enhance the speed, mobility, 
     and firepower of our soldiers. That's why we worked with 
     Congress to secure more than $7 billion for the next four 
     years to propel that transformation, including more than $4 
     billion for Interim Armored Vehicles that will be more agile 
     and lethal on the battlefield than anything our soldiers have 
     today. We're also investing $48 billion in the lighter and 
     more lethal Comanche helicopter.
       America needs to know that we're also transforming the 
     Defense Department to better support this new military. We 
     created the Joint Forces command in Norfolk to improve the 
     ability of the services to operate together and to experiment 
     with the most advanced technologies and tactics. We created a 
     Defense Threat Reduction Agency to pull together our counter-
     proliferation efforts. We created a special task force to 
     advise and assist communities should a chemical or biological 
     weapon ever be used on American soil. And we created another 
     task force to defend our computer systems as part of our 
     normal warfighting mission. As different as all these efforts 
     may be, the result is the same--our men and women will be 
     safer and our military will be stronger.
       I've mentioned many of the investments we're making in our 
     military. But I would suggest that just as important as what 
     we should be spending is what we should not be spending. 
     Consider the money lost to inefficiencies within the Defense 
     Department itself. That's why we began a Defense Reform 
     Initiative that is now saving us tens of billions of dollars.
       Consider the money wasted on excess infrastructure. As a 
     result of the four rounds of base realignment and closure to 
     date, we expect to save more than $25 billion by the year 
     2003. Those of you who visited Kelly Air Force Base in March 
     know how base closure, if done right, can mean the opening of 
     new prosperity. The country and the Congress need to know 
     that we can't build a lean, agile 21st Century military if 
     it's dragged down by an oversized, outdated 20th Century 
     infrastructure. The country and the Congress need to know 
     that two more rounds of BRAC would save us $3 billion a year, 
     billions that could be better spent on our forces and their 
     families.
       Which brings me to the fourth and final measure of 
     readiness I want to address--and perhaps the most important 
     of all--the ability of our men and women to complete the 
     missions we ask of them. As you know from your visits to 
     bases and installations around the country, and as the Joint 
     Chiefs told Congress last week, and which I believe General 
     Shelton reiterated to you this morning, our front-line 
     units--the first to fight in the event of a conflict on the 
     Korean Peninsula or in the Persian Gulf and the Balkans--are 
     capable. Our forces can fulfill our strategy of fighting two 
     major theater wars. And in the future, we should experience 
     an increasing trend in readiness.
       And so if the question is asked, ``Is America's military 
     ready if we call?'' We need only look to the times when we 
     have called them.
       Those of you who went to Guatemala last year know that when 
     Hurricane Mitch ripped across Central America, America's 
     military was ready. As General [Charlie] Wilhelm

[[Page 21826]]

     [then Commander-in-Chief, U.S. Southern Command] told you, 
     the millions of tons of food and supplies that U.S. forces 
     flew in and gave out saved countless lives and helped to 
     literally rebuild entire regions from the ground up.
       When Slobodan Milosevic unleashed a wave of terror in 
     Kosovo last year, America's military was ready. We had 
     soldiers in neighboring countries preventing a wider war and 
     airlifting tons of food and supplies to save thousands of 
     Kosovar refugees. We had sailors and marines on ships and 
     submarines in the Adriatic, and naval aviators flying into 
     those dangerous Balkans skies. And we had airmen engaging in 
     the most precise campaign in the history of air power. They 
     conducted the vast majority of those 38,000 NATO sorties. 
     They took to the skies for 78 days with only two planes lost 
     and not a single combat casualty. And while that record was 
     not achieved without stress on certain assets, that is a 
     historic achievement of which our forces and the American 
     people should be enormously proud.
       Indeed, the true measure of America's military is the job 
     they do every day. In short, America needs to know that the 
     U.S. Armed Forces are the best trained, best educated, best 
     led, most respected and finest fighting force the world has 
     ever seen.
       So in closing, I want to recite a page from America's past 
     that I believe points the way to ensuring our military 
     strength in the future. Half a century ago, this nation stood 
     at the hinge of history, an unprecedented time of both 
     promise and peril. There was the promise, our victory in the 
     Second World War. But there was also the peril, a dawning 
     Cold War. And America's very survival demanded that we think 
     anew and act anew. And so to navigate the shoals of the 
     century that lay ahead, Arthur Vanderberg, a Republican 
     Senator from Michigan, joined with Harry Truman, a Democratic 
     President from Missouri, and the nation came together around 
     a common foreign and defense policy to defend freedom and to 
     create a Marshall Plan and an alliance called NATO that would 
     eventually win the Cold War.
       Today, in the long wake of our triumph in that long 
     struggle, America again stands at the hinge of history. Again 
     there is the promise, of the world's sole economic and 
     military superpower. Again there is the peril, the new 
     threats of this new century. And to chart the nation's course 
     in our time, William Cohen, a Republican Senator from Maine, 
     joined with Bill Clinton, a Democratic President from 
     Arkansas, to help restore a spirit of bi-partisanship to 
     defense policy and to ensure that when it comes to our men 
     and women in uniform, politics does indeed stop at the 
     water's edge.
       Ladies and gentlemen, in recent years we have recognized 
     that truth. We have worked with Congress to support and 
     strengthen our military. We have upheld our sacred pledge to 
     care for America's sons and daughters who wear this nation's 
     uniform. That is the message I wanted to bring to you today. 
     That is the message I hope you carry back to your communities 
     and the country. Thank you very much.

     

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