Youve got different levels of maintenance as you well know with the organizational maintenance, operational Level Maintenance we can do, we are doing some of that on a daytoday basis. We may be able to contract other types of capabilities going forward. Thats still a work in progress. Ideally wed like to have the ability to conduct maintenance in one of the neighboring countries or some of the higherLevel Maintenance but again, a work in progress not yet solidified. I just wanted to express my Appreciation Chairman Milley for your Leadership And Courage on how you continue to speak out on behalf of what is an increasingly diverse force of men and women. Ideal back. Mister green is recognized for five minutes. Ranking member rogers thank you for holding the hearing and i want to thank our witnesses for being here today. We appreciate your combined service to this country. The war on terror has continued and the military has taken rests to maintain readiness during budget increases of the last years of the Obama Administration including insulation management, Research And Development for future systems. The last administration set us on the last path, those four years of increased budgets help but they could not make up for 20 years of war and seven yearsof cots. Todays force is still challenged with decreasing over match due to those radius cuts and the risk decisions that were made to maintain readiness. When we send americas sons and daughters not that each of you would agree it should never be there whenthey go to war. It looks like a real dollar cuts in spending in this Budget Proposal were once again intentionally sacrificing the future fight for readiness today. In the case of an 80s Budget it looks like there pitting their risk in the 3 to 5 Year Range in hopes that beyond that they can find new technology that will create over match. The question is how do we maintain over match with threats such as title and are increasing our budget 6. 8 percent and we are effectively decreasing hours. My first question gets very granular and it goes on what Mister Johnson was talking about the cdc. If im understanding for the army correctly, were coming cdc rotations by other in this budget . Thats correct can youtell me why . I dont think thats correct. Its 10 rotations a year but theyre cutting them by a third, id be very surprised. Would you get back to me on this . I appreciate that. On mediation we were looking at a cut of 15. 6 percent across all the services for mediation. And you guys give me a description on what were doing to make up those cuts where is that some technology we dont know about . Is there some system that will address the decrease in Readiness And Capability with the 15percent Cut in mediation . I want to make sure were investing in the right capabilities and we want to be able to network those capabilities in new and effective ways that weve not been able to do in the past. That requires investing in the right Kinds Oftechnology to be able to do that. Uk isr and you say you look at the fact that the Air Force is taking a couple of lines of isr, what theyre really doing is not decreasing the number of details, theyre taking counsel lines so that they can have the ability to upgrade some Capability Network there burns together in ways that we had done before. Applies to each of the services. We have to invest in those days are going to allow us to have resilience forces, it is a matter of the absolutely legal and. I want to make sure capability is decreasing 15. 6 percent, i guess thats my big question. Have the same capability even though were cutting mediation. Our goal is to have better capability with those investments we want to make sure that the platforms that we invest in are able to accomplish some of the things i just described. One of the open source turtles, the Computing Research Association reported a concerning quote. The armynavy and Air Force Research Initiative some accounts are 31. 1 percent, 18. 9 percent and 17. 9 percent respectively. Considering these recent cyber attacks, is that really a wise decision . Im not a computer scientist, im a physician but it seems that cuts in those particular areas, areas of research seems misplaced considering the recent attacks. Could you comment on that or perhaps i could get something in writing back. First, ill remind you that Rdt And E overall were investing 112 billion. And specifically for cyber theres a 10 point, almost 10 and a half billion Dollar Investment in cyber that includes cyberspace operations and a number of other things. We think cyber is pretty important. We are part of a whole of Government Effort to defend our networks here in the Country Area our focus is further out towards the source of malign activity. Time has expired, i apologize. Thank you gentlemen for being here and i know its a long hearing. I want to address this constant Conversation Weve been having about the top line. It feels very 2005 to me. All the hearings we had from the last two years ive been here i talked about not just the amount of dollars were spending but how we are spending them and we need to be intellectually honest as members of congress that we are part of the problem. We make your budget on one year instead of the whole setup. Every year you come to us with 2 billion worth of legacy programs youd like to cut and we dont let you cut them and then lets be frank, if were talking about budget the nearly 10 billion that was taken out of dod and put towards the Border Wall should be factored in for anyone whos concerned about the top line. Thats what we have responsibility for what i am worried because there is bipartisan agreement that china is gaining on us. Im worried our big lumbering bureaucratic system is an inhibitor to us being competitive acquisition getting the best technology into the pentagon. Secretary austin, can youtalk about what were going to do to acquire faster andbetter technology . Thats a focus for us. We are far from being as agile as we need to be in order to capture or take advantage of the emerging technologies. And so youve given us some authorities in the past that we cannot fully use or employ we need to push to number one take advantage of what youve already given us number to encourage our force to be more. We need to take advantage of emerging technologies that may be available in smaller companies. That Half Capability that they cant get across the valley of death to provide capability scale. So the Deputy Secretary and i are focused on this and shes launched some initiatives to be able to address this. Your personal attention to that i think is going to be important for the futurefight. Switching gears to the authorization of military force, in a bipartisan way we called for the repeal of the 2002 au mf. Its now beings discussed and debated in the senate but there seems to be confusion here in the house and maybe in the senate as well on whether the pentagon is currently relying on the 2002 aumf for any operations. Can you confirm where you stand on the 2002 aumf . On the 2002, that is going to go away. Did the 2001 one is the one that uses all the authority and thats the one we need to hang onto. If we repeal the 2002 will that affect current operations in any way . My military assessment is know it wont. It wont have any negative effect on government operations. Its the critical one for us to continue operations. One of the things that myself and representative gallagher are doing is we run a bipartisan Task Force on Supply Chains and the Deputy Secretary was gracious with her time and came last week. I have become possessed with this issue because of the covid and having to negotiate with chinese middlemen for masks and i said in front of my second gm in my area that has to go to temporary shutdown as we cant get a . 14 microchip. Can you tell me your commitment that you think this issue seriously western mark was stunning for some of us the amount of vulnerabilities we have even at the pentagon for things like ammunition propellants and for pharmaceuticals on other countries particularly solesource from other countries. Can you commit you will help with transparency on our Supply Chain . You heard me mention earlier 341 million investment to help boost our support of american industry and some of that includes microelectronics. But we are absolutely focused on this. We think the Supply Chain vulnerability is a maximal security issue. To your point over the last year. Thank you and i yield back. Thank you Mister Chairman, ranking member rogers. Terry austin, thank you for joining us today. I want to maybe my colleagues representative slotkin on the Supply Chain Task Force. It has illuminated a lot of the challenges we see because of covid so i appreciate your commitment to seeing how we can shore up this Fly Chain Challenge i like to start by focusing on issue has been of concern in my state of oklahoma on military bases across the nation. Improving the quality of privatized base on military installations. Since being sworn into office either engaged in military housing stakeholders in my district across the state of oklahoma including tager Air Force base for jill and while im cautiously optimistic that things aremoving in the right direction there is still work to do. Ensuring Highquality Housing is one of my priorities. Despite the recent Reforms Evidence from earlier this year just military families are being charged thousands of dollars in outofpocket expenses by private military housing contractors for reasonable 88 degrees. In Response Id like to go with Sarah Jacobs to clarify military families cannot be charged inaddition to rent for upgrades. Terry, can you tell me what actions dod is taking to ensure servicemembers do not face financial hardships in obtaining onbase accommodations for a disabled member of their family . Thank you for the work youre doing in this area. It is absolutely critical. Theres nothing more important than our military families. And as weve seen in the past , this has not gone the way that it should have gone in terms of contracted housing or privatized housing. Youve seen us increase the supervision in this area. We are working with the services to really ensure that we have the requisite Oversight And Emphasis and hold contractors accountable for providing Quality Service to our family members. And this willremain a priority for us going forward. It directly affects the morale of not only our family members but all these services. You have my commitment we will remain engaged on this. Its apparent to me that one of the biggest threats is the current space race threat. China has become incredibly competitive, landing a rover on mars and putting in place a geosynchronous satellite. You believe this budget provides the Research Technology Exploration we sure you . Again, 112 billion for rdt and the, poverty the investment. But i would go one step further and say that weve invested for we had planned to invest 20. 6 billion or so dollars for to resource our efforts in space. Thank you, i yield back. Brief announcement, so both are supposed to be called at 1 30 and its my intent to keep going through them. If, well its a little bit complicated, votes are 25 minutes to half hour but there are members who wish to have if you google the right at 1 30 and come back so we can cycle through that way. I dont want to waste any time and take advantage of all thetime that we have. So to process that if youre coming up and you want to go vote and come back i will give you an opportunity to ask the Question Mister rogers and i willfigure out our own deal with the other. Thank you so much. General milley, i want to talk about the longrange precision fires. My district is a key center of innovation this modernization priority. I know general, is committed to the longrange position fires bring to Force Employment for the joint force so can you the value of the multiple dilemmas groundbased position fires can provide for Force Employment . First of all all the services capabilities and are developing capabilities for longrange precision fires and its important when youre facing an adversary to present them with multiple dilemmas simultaneously so its very difficult for them to solve. The landbased precision fires will give us a significant advantagerelative to the pacing. So that they can he operated all these basically unsinkable aircraft carriers. If we work out through the diplomatic arrangements they have units stationed there with Longrange Rescission Fire and we can do significant damage. Were expanding the Army And Navy so were experimenting that with Army Force and marine forces in the pacific and south China Seas through exercises and other things and in addition to that were doing Longrange Rescission Fire testing that is being done at the various ranges these are quite extended ranges that will cover the south China Sea so the conceptual idea would be we could handle the chinese Purpose Fleet with land raced air and naval fires. Thank you general, i appreciate that. Moving on and talking again about the Supply Chain, weve all become critically concerned. As we talk about single source materials, we talk about rare earth Materials Id encourage you encourage you general austin to into how that impacts are smaller defense manufacturers from entering into a petition when they have to trade for the Supply Chain, Thats Something they have a lot of trouble doing and to have it do well at. I also encouraged a discussion about rare earth materials and if there are alternatives. The Research And Development we might make into alternatives, Thats Something thats been brought up that we i dont think we have a good understanding of what we could do with respect to alternatives to rare earth materials especially single sourced rare earth materials from our adversaries and i like to bring up that in conversations with former senior defense officials currently serving servicemembers and leaders in Defense Innovation ive heard time and again that the military just isntinnovating that we need to. So to make better use of Privatesector Information by Morning Acquisition System to improve access to talent through better Stem Recruiting and to ensure that the Research And Development within the dod is better supported and risktaking to as many of our military members say Sail Past and learn, what is the best way forward to make these changes and howcan congress that support these changes . I think you have to establish programs that and mechanisms that encourage innovation. And while you want to reward success in support small companies and their efforts to get their products on board, you also want to condition the horse to be able to accept an element or a measure of risk. And were not really good at that. I think in order to beagile weve got to become better. So you will see the Deputy Secretary begin to employ a couple of initiatives that encourage innovation and would help us begin to pull some things forward and support some things going forward that we havent been able todo in the past. We will keep pushing on this and falling on this until we become more agile. I do think we need to do better at taking advantage of what youve already given us to help us with that agility. Thank you and i echo miss slotkin in our gratitude and having involved in this process. I think its important and finally before my time is up, i want to say to you general i deeply and sincerely appreciate your comments to miss so land. Chair recognizes jack for five minutes. Thank you chairman for holding this hearing. I want to thank you Terry Austin and General Milley for being here. The first time we met was the first i attended in the armed services committee. The discussion we held when you came before the committee in january as you know i voted in favor of the waiver required for your appointment i did so because i thought we should take advantage of the opportunity to have something in there that understood the impact policymakers have so that you its good to seeyou again here today. I really appreciate your Leadership Continuity you are able to bring to the department during the most recent transition. I know you understand the urgent threats we face as you both must share my frustration the budget cuts that President Biden is sent over. We need to be more efficient with how we spend our money but now is not the time to cut our Defense Spending like Resident Biden has proposed. The national Defense Strategy clearly calls for 3 to 5 percent real growth each Year And President buying has somewhat ignored the nds and what you will in size by proposing we cut Defense Spending with a request that does not keep pace with inflation. I heart her alternate proposals circulated around congress that might come before this committee or the top line 10 Percent Cut for Defense Spending. The three Percent Number is based on the nds im not sure where that comes from. For both of you 10 percent is a random number should we be comparing that and as an alternative recommendation to whats being called for an nes and what either of you consider a 10 Percent Cut to the a serious Policy Recommendation . When it comes to rupturing the budget congressman, and by the way thank you for your service. I think randomness is never a good idea. So we endeavor as you well know to link our resources to our Strategy Strategy to policy to the will of the american people. This particular budget was based upon the interim strategic guidance given to us by the president early on and my guidance to the force. So those were the things that provided us really the structure to be able to build a budget on but to answer your question i do not think randomness is a good idea when it comes to budgets. Im not aware of a proposal of a 10 Percent Cut per se but thats not what this budget does. This budget is flat depending on the calculations so its 11 billion more and ill tell you a few billion less against constant dollars and of course you get the fact of inflation. The bottom line is its all relative to a threat and i think this budget is a lot of taxpayer dollars. I think it adequately to defend the United States for fiscal year 22 and i would urge a rapid passing of it and rapid enactment of it. I brought up the 10 percent because i think thats being circulated and i think that can come in that form. Iq for that. Im concerned this is only the beginning of the Defense Budgets. Given Resident Biden relies on your expertise i would urge you both to advise him on how disastrous it would be for a 10 Percent Cut that comes out. Last week we discussed we can implement the goals of national Defense Strategy despite budget cuts, something general berger since stuck out. He said we have a perfect record of guessing where the next conflict is going to happen and we got it wrong every time. We know there will be another threat so i dont see why president is forcing us into a when we are losing to china around low. Assuming we are able to keep up with the threat from china , where you see the next threat coming from and also how harmful are the proposed budget cuts as you prepare the military for whatever future conflictwe might have . Thank you smith and china is the most challenging competitor that we will face. We have to prepare for the most challenging competitor and as we do that, it also prepares us well for other things. We will see threats from russia, iran, North Korea and continued to see a threat from transnational terrorism. I agree with general berger that theres always something we werent cited unnecessarily but we were prepared to address because we prepared for most challenging thing. My time is up and ideal back. The chair recognizes secretary often in recent testimony you provided both senator collins and Senator King asked if you work with them to restore the proposed cuts. In both cases you said the plan was to resource that shipped in 2023. General milley, you testified something similar earlier today. Id like to understand more clearly. The most recent figures, progress is anticipated the procurement of two flights in fiscal year 22 and two in fiscal year 23 for a total of 4 shifts and in light of this i understand you are committing to procure three flight three ships in fiscal year 2023 . We will certainly work out the balance of our investments in the next budget. I dont want to predict where thats going to land but were going to go after that that we didnt resource in this budget in the next fiscal year. If you look at all of last year in the navy was saying they needed the flight from a Capability Perspective but also they were projecting to ships whether that was last winter in february or again putting out some figures in the fall and in december. Itwas always to ships each time. We received this Budget Request to go down to one if its not a commitment to go back up to three, and i think its not resourcing the ship with the two senators and i are asking about. It would represent a broken contract. You did talk to senator collins about wanting to have the right mixof capabilities in place. I agree with what senator collins said about quantity having a quality of its own i want to focus on the capability piece. They said it seeks control missions and its also expressed urgency to the committee about getting the and the our radar and those capabilities will be brought to the navy into the fleet. The navy is looking to decommission cruisers as well. Therefore the flight three hasnt performed the role of Air Defense for our strike groups but this would take several years to fully build that new capability last week the committee received testimony that the benefit of an amdr are undeniable. In light of the change from two shifts all through 2020 to just one now and get them this testimony that we perceive from the navy about the importance of capability, whats the driving force behind the reduction . You have to make tough choices in any budget and again, in this budget where investing in a ddg, two submarines and a frigate. Which i think is a pretty substantial investment. Again, weve said before that the 355 Ships Navy is a good goal to shoot at. You have to look at the progress over time and also consider the numbers of goals that we are putting in the wall between not only the fiscal year 22 and when you do that you get a better picture of a full capabilities but i agree that it is important to make sure that we invest in that ddg going forward but in any budget you have to make some tough choices and we also need to make sure we have the capacity to build a ship that we invest in. Can i add in terms of capability, the destroyer is a workhorse of the navy but the most important investment in naval capability is the submarines so the priority went to the submarines. Are talking about hard tradeoffs, this is a tough Budget Challenge rather than delivering with the Combatant Commanders are saying they need on the fleet in five years. I know theyre trying to get that flight three out there but one could argue that the ships requested, three of them not be as critical as thedestroyer but we will have to talk about that right now. I just say it is concerning in some ways breaking multiyear capability is unprecedented and it does undermine trust that the navy is going to be able to follow through on future contracts so its concerning to the industrial base and that capability in my opinion but i do see that the navy is expressing interest in a future multiyear procurement for fy 23 through 27 for the flight three i look forward to working with you on that. If you have any comments for the record. We are recognizing Mister Carl. Called and again both are going roughly half an hour so if someone wants to go over now and come back to go until two here do that. So Mister Carl is recognized for fiveminutes. Thank you ranking member rogers. Gentlemen, thank you for spending the time. I want to point out something that to alabama colleagues are in support of your auburn tigers and thats tough coming from a big alabama fan, im going to let youknow. Real quick. The fiscal year 22 Shipbuilding Budget has beena hot Topic Today obviously. In your recent hearings we held here, the report the navy submitted to congress last week our longrange shipbuilding highlights the importance of steady acquisitions and profiles to maintain our industrial base. However, just a few pages later in the report, the report has 398 to 512 ships in the Navy Longrange Plan and the difference of 114 ships, do you think there might be a little question there how we lost 114 ships . Thats not my Question But Secretary often , its the shipyard that ive spent the last 10 years recruiting young people to work in being threatened to be shutdown now because of this budget. So with that said, the shipyard will be facing layoffs in the workforce in the coming year because of this fy 22 budget. Why did this administration not follow the law and submit a true 30 Year Shipbuilding Plan . The Shipbuilding Plan will come. It will be fy 23 submission but thats on the horizon so we presented our Oneyear Budget this year and the next year we will present the budget for outlook for the final. There was a submission by the previous administration. In the current administration have the opportunity to fully review that but thats in the works. There will be a 30 year shipbuilding program. Case 46, the Air Force has accepted delivery of the kt 46 aircraft that is not fully operational and still has some difficulties even being used. The first operation is not expected until 2024. Seven years after theoriginal date. Do you think any of this makes sense . Taxpayers are paying for aircraft that are not fully operational and the first is projected to be operational seven years after Contract Date so terry, along with all the issues that the kc 46 a is facing now cannot even correctly hold fuel. Is it time to recommit and look at contracting these aircraft out to other companies . We will work with the Air Force to ensure that we are providing the right amount of oversight and drill down into choices going forward. An assessment suggesting that we moved to an alternative plan has not yet been presented to me but this is something thatwe absolutely have to remain focused on. We have airbus planes that are flying in europe so we know weve got capabilities of other aircraft other than just whats being built and delivered. General, one quick one for you. Every time they say that China Or Russia is a better military force i see you blow up a little bit and i thank you for yourservice. Just to be clear and ill reiterate, we dont bow to china, no other military has a better military than the us. I had an opportunity to see them and theres glitches in the software. They are operational and we are flying them and doing banking operations and training exercises aroundthe world. Were not using them operational income, thats where were not using but they are being used in training. Software things that have to be worked out and i have confidence in it as the program. Ideals my time back. Miss gloria is recognized for five minutes. Iq and General Milley over the last year ive been reviewing the to look at things both positive and negative on the current organization. A couple of questions i had. Us code 163 states the president may direct the communications between the President Or Secretary of defense and commanders of the unified Combatant Command be transmitted to the chairmanof the joint chiefs of staff. As the President Or Secretary given direction to you that communication to the Combatant Commanders to go through you . Word is routine communications and its in the ucp and yes its currently in effect. Routine communications, normal communications but the chain of command is clear. The chain of command is the Resident Secretary of defense and the service secretaries for the Apartments Area i am an advisor and i advised on the advantages and disadvantages and the risks and benefits of the chain of command is clear. The routine medication goes through me in order to do my job as advisor. Thank you and another portion, us code 16 says subject to the authority of the direct control of the secretary of defense he preserves at the spokesman for the commanders of the Combatant Command on operational requirements of their commands. The user as a spokesman for the Combatant Commanders on the operational requirements . I do. And the joint staff i was looking you recently said theres a low Probability Title would take over taiwan militarily in the near term this seems to be in conflict to the statements made a difference in last week by the cfo but they believe that china could militarily access taiwan in the next six years. If their window is six years, what is your window . I didnt say i disagree with their assessment. The assessment is based off the speech where president xi challenged to develop capabilities to see taiwan moving from 2035 to 2027. Capability is not intended to. My assessment is operational assessment. Based on what ive seen it snow. That always Change Area is something that could change quickly. From statements and how many members of congress interpreted that, we heard Admiral Davidson clearly state they thought there was an intent youre saying is a capability. Im up to their testimony, their words very explicitly i go back and look at it again. If admiral actually know Admiral Davidson say that china had an intent, has made a decision and they intend to invade the seas taiwan that i dodisagree with that. I see no evidence of that intent or decisionmaking. Im talking about capability. What they are talking about his capability and the chinese leadership, president xi challenged them to accelerate their development which is two different things. Understand your making a nuance and i think it interpreted to the admirals testimony but your taking that capability as well so whether they had intense right now with amy in the future between now and 2027, just looking at this budget which really is a divestment to invest strategy i would say that with without the sense of urgency that could happen in the next six years its not probable to think we could divest toinvest. For instance the commission has more ships before we have the replacements, thats retiring bombers faster rate than we are replacing their inventory the Air Force said in a hearing there a minimum of maintaining 45 last week we had several hearings that expressed about the Navys Budget and its investment strategies and Mister Gallagher referred to mister Davidsons Competence at the davidsonwindow. I just wanted to and we have very little time left after the question of between Combatant Commanders and yourself acting as the role of advisor to the president who should we be listening to . I feel like the Combatant Commanders, their message is different than her game as a message in the blood because the budget does not convey a sense of emergency we see it as a Shrinking Fleet rather than counter the threats we see from china in specific and i have very little time left. Out give you an answer for the record. Ms. Cheney is recognized for five minutes. Thank you General Milley, Secretary Austin i wanted to ask about bsd. We had consistent testimony as im sure you know in front of this committee and prior years with the extent to which gst will save the Taxpayer Money moving forward with 38million in cost savings over the Life Extension of the minuteman. Obviously it also has elegantly increased capabilities over the minuteman. I listened to you today and it sounds like there may be question about whether or not you agree with those assessments or whether or not a change will be made as you look at posture. What factors might lead you down the path of not going with the less expensive, more effective Cable System . If i conveyed that i already made some sort of decision, thats absolutely not the case. Thing to do is we got to conduct a nuclear Posture Review of which we are going to do that is to make sure that we have the right pieces in place, the right balance and to make sure that we continue to the gst in the context of their nuclear Posture Review. My intent was not to convey a preference or a decision. Thats not where i am. I appreciate that and again, just looking at the costs that we see of consistent testimony it would be some concern if we move towards trying to utilize extension at this point. General, i want to ask you about afghanistan. It does seem that weve now seen, and taking 50 to 60 more districts. It moves the district centers at some point but it does seem are withdrawing from the. You talk about both what the actuals this ethics are . We havent heard anything in terms of over the horizon basic whether you think this is good policy withdraw . In terms of the district and the provinces as was mentioned earlier, the 19 district centers a one or so in the hands of the 50 were done previously 34 months. In addition know provinces have fallen to the town and. 300,000 or minus three fourths consisting of the Army And Police forces for the afghans. We have not done Trade Advice and assisting. Sometime the tactical level so they are shouldering the burden of that for well over a year. And in terms of what we are doing, what we are doing is a deliberate responsible drawdown and retrograde to bring us military forces and relocate forces there to maintain a single to keep capabilities there and keep the money going forthe government. What happens in the future, theres a wide variety of possibilities. Worst case civil War And Government fracturing of the army, thats possible that would be a bad outcome. Theres also the possibility of not high on the Probability List but a negotiated settlement between the government and then alternative outright takeover of the town and that is unlikely possible. A variety of outcomes you. We are executing the order again in a very professional way as far things are relatively stable and. Thank you general and i think its obviously a significant concern you the advance and we know is that Counterterrorism Mission got to conduct we dont have any agreements for over the horizon. But i want to end with a continuation of this topic has been discussed. My colleagues suggested that there were servicemembers who were being somehow persecuted because of their political beliefs and ideological beliefs. I wanted to first of all thank you for noting the attack on the capital wasan attack on the constitution. It was an attack provoked by the commander in chief and he could have immediately intervened to stop it and he didnt. Its important for us to understand was in the capital that they and why we have to protect the first amendment rights of our service people is also critically important we remind everybody that the Uc Mj makes it a crime to engage in condition or mutiny. I would urge as you are focused on getting to the bottom of what happened that we need to do the same here but we need to focus on that piece of this as well and with that i yelled back. Thank you, we recognize representative pickets. Thank you so much for joining us. I wanted to follow on a question from my colleague ms. Cheney about the gst and i know you said final decision will only come after the nuclear Posture Review but it seems from the budget best decision has already been made with the claim that the fight to build the new Gb Fd would be less to maintain the m3 so it seems this conclusion is based by comparing the total Lifecycle Cost of the two options through 2075 at a Deployment Level of 500 icbms. If so where do those numbers 400 2075, as a Baseline Requirement and leave that decision is that still going to berevisited down the road as he said . Certainly as i indicated a couple of minutes ago, ive not made any decisions on this. I think it deserves the right amount of Effort And Attention and we will make the best choices but these choices need to be informed by the Posture Review and makingsure we have the right balance year. Thank you. I think its important that we do the process necessary not invest in a very expensive nuclear platform as for instance our president is in active negotiations to reduce our reliance on nuclearweapons. My next question is i represent San Diego and almost all of the people in uniform i are struggling to find childcare. Im happy to see the president s budget increases base pay it seems like theres so much we need to do and i was surprised in this budget that it only requests funding of a single construction of new childcare development center. One 200 Space Center at sheppard Air Force base in texas. You said to my colleagues that you are working on investments in Homecare Support so i wanted to know what more you planning to do to address childcare beyond this single one space that is being constructed. Thanks for the question and for your continued focus on what i believe is an important issue. We will continue to work with the services as they work with their installation commanders they identify what their needs are and make sure that those needs are reflected in the military construction plans going forward. I personally believe that i know all the secretaries and the peacefully that this is a important issue and one we need to continue to invest in so more work needs to be done to the point that youre making. I really want to emphasize that i think its in the budget is not sufficient and i can tell you from my constituents in San Diego, of our subsidized childcare waiting with spots more than half of them are military families its a really critical need and i hope that you would continue to intensify it and i appreciate your comments there. If miss escobar is there im happy to give my remainder of my time to her. All right. Well then, Mister Chair i yelled back. The chair recognizes representative mclean. You Mister Chairman. Mister secretary i want to thank you for being here in front Ofthis Committee and its a pleasure to meet you in person. I want to speak today on what in regards to what a lot of my colleagues have already spoken on which ischina. And i think we all agree is kind of seems to be our most challenging adversary or national threat. Were fortunate enough to have thousands of businesses across our country that have contract with your department. My question is you believe it would be in the best interest of our national security to ensure that the ccp does not have access to our military intellectual property . I absolutely believe that. And i think its important to me to make sure that number one, the dod networks are properly protected but we need to advocate for or ensure that all those people, all those companies that are supporting us and Supply Chains are doing the right things to meet the standards to reduce older abilities in the Supply Chain. Its critical. When the United States conducts a foreign military sale to a nation that has also accepted Road Funding that are military equipment might fall into the hands of the ccp. If not can you explain how do we ensure this doesnt happen and what do we do to make this better and to protect america and to protect our intellectual property . What action steps can we take . Before we entered into the agreements, we certainly do assessments to make sure that people that we are selling the gear to have the capability to protect our property. And they agreed to do whats necessary to do that. I didnt mean to interrupt. When we engage in a sale, we put mechanisms in place to make sure that our intellectual property is protected. And secure. To the best of our abilities, yes. We takeappropriate and responsible action. And of course the State Department is involved in deciding whether or not these sales will be consummated. What do you think, what measures if any can we take to make sure that we ensure this process is even safer to a greater ability . The american public hears on a constant Basis China is stealing our intellectual property and its coming from a lot of our business dealings. I think we can, we need to continue to engage our partners and allies and emphasized the importanceof this. We need to make sure that as we convey equipment that we are confident that the people that we are conveying it to 10 protect the intellectual property. Thank you sir, i yelled back. We are at that magic hour as i know the secretary stops at 2 00. I never pronounce that correctly, ill learn the end of the session but you are recognized for five minutes and you will be the last question are we havebefore we close it. Mister mccourt, thank you for your service and all your testimony today. I want to focus on the specific Deterrent Initiative and the importance of those relationships in the pacific region and the changingnature of the future conflict. Terry, i applaud you for showcasing Americas Commitment to the indo pacific region by making your first overseas visit with your trip to japan, South Korea and india and a brief stop in the hawaiian islands, im sorry i missed you but as we are discussing the fy 22 Defense Budget which i appreciate the president s budget and the investment in the pdi but i also think as china becomes more aggressive in region the United States needs to be more aggressive regarding our critical investments in the pdi and there are things that are not in that budget unfunded like the Guam Defense of the Homeland Radar of hawaii, that i think we need to take a look at so that we can fully fund that pdi and fully meet the objectives that weve discussed today which is one of those national instruments which is our military deterrence and the strength of that deterrent in the indo pacific region. As a member of the pacific Islands Caucus i want to continue to call attention to the pacific Islands Region. China regularly provides military training in the region. They have been broadening their reach throughout this essay. Actively cultivate those relationships with senior defense officials. We know what their investment that theyve been doing in guam for in Western Samoa for a number of decades and as those defense officials from china go to the different pacific island regions they get full military honors and popout new guinea. Under their Defense Force Chief under president xi, senior officials have held bilateral meetings with their counterparts in popout new guinea. Given the increasing military engagements in the pacific Islands Region especially popout new guinea, many of those islands rested on the section 1251, will the Dod Plan similar highlevel engagements to strengthen those relationships with our counterparts of those Mall Island nations to deter china from extending their reach the western pacific into the eastern pacific . As you pointed out congressman, the indo pacific is important to us and in my very first trip was out to the region and i would just say that china is engaging a number of different countries with economic. Carrots. Yes, but we have Something China doesnt have. Have allies and partners and if you consider the australians, beach bands, the careers of the world, there is tremendous capacity in our allies and partners. I think the pacific islands are absolutely important and you will see us continue to engage various countries in the region and to make sure that where we can we are increasing our Capacity And Accessibility and strengthening the relationships. But weve far and away exceed any capability that china would have in terms of Partner Or Ally capability and were going to continue to strengthen what we have. What are your thoughts on expanding those relationships that we currently have or deviously had for example. The senate about the gavel in for the day. Lawmakers are starting their session later than usual to give members time to travel to washington national cathedral to attend John Warners Funeral Senator Warner died lastmonth at the age of 94. Today lawmakers will be working on judicial nominations at 3 45 easter. Theyre expected to vote on a limited on the nomination of Donald Horton to the us District Court of maryland. Live coverage of the senate is here. The presiding officer the senate will come to order. The chaplain, dr. Barry black, will lead the senate in prayer. The chaplain let us pray. Gracious god, today accept the Love And Loyalty of our hearts