House building on capitol hill where shortly agriculture secretary sonny perdue is set to testify. Hell update members on the state of the Rural Economy. Actually, governor perdue, seen on your screen right there, live coverage here expected to get underway momentarily on cspan 3. Many which we dont even know. On this occasion, we ask a special blessing on our agriculture industry, and that your blessings come upon our new secretary of agriculture, sonny perdue. Dear heavenly father, finally we thank you for your holy spirit. For oftentimes we know not what we should pray for as we ought, but your holy spirit intercedes for us with groanings that cannot be uttered. We thank you for that. And we ask your holy spirit to enter this room today. These and other blessings we ask in your son, christ jesus name, amen. David, thank you. Mr. Secretary, welcome. You and i have had several conversations before this morning. Let me officially congratulate you on becoming our nations 31st secretary
Committee will come to order. Last week, the Committee Held classified and unclassified sessions on the state of the world or more accurately, the state of the world environment in which the American Military must operate and u. S. National security must be protected. I was struck by the essential point general petraeus made that we face many threats and can overcome any of them except perhaps what we do to ourselves. Today, we turn to the state of the u. S. Military. I continue to be concerned and sometimes even disturbed by evidence that is accumulating on the damage inflicted upon our military in recent years and the stresses our forces are under. That damage comes from a variety of factors including budget cuts of 20 , continuing resolutions, the failure to recognize or at least admit and then address mounting readiness problems as well as the shrinking size of the force while keeping the tempo of operations high. There is certainly plenty of blame to go around between both parties
Committee will come to order. Last week, the Committee Held classified and unclassified sessions on the state of the world or more accurately, the state of the world environment in which the American Military must operate and u. S. National security must be protected. I was struck by the essential point general petraeus made that we face many threats and can overcome any of them except perhaps what we do to ourselves. Today, we turn to the state of the u. S. Military. I continue to be concerned and sometimes even disturbed by evidence that is accumulating on the damage inflicted upon our military in recent years and the stresses our forces are under. That damage comes from a variety of factors including budget cuts of 20 , continuing resolutions, the failure to recognize or at least admit and then address mounting readiness problems as well as the shrinking size of the force while keeping the tempo of operations high. There is certainly plenty of blame to go around between both parties
Committee will come to order. Last week, the Committee Held classified and unclassified sessions on the state of the world or more accurately, the state of the world environment in which the American Military must operate and u. S. National security must be protected. I was struck by the essential point general petraeus made that we face many threats and can overcome any of them except perhaps what we do to ourselves. Today, we turn to the state of the u. S. Military. I continue to be concerned and sometimes even disturbed by evidence that is accumulating on the damage inflicted upon our military in recent years and the stresses our forces are under. That damage comes from a variety of factors including budget cuts of 20 , continuing resolutions, the failure to recognize or at least admit and then address mounting readiness problems as well as the shrinking size of the force while keeping the tempo of operations high. There is certainly plenty of blame to go around between both parties
The available pool of candidates. With the problem being of United States efforts with the deficit at the point of over 1,000 total pilots. We are here to hear on the on services on their plan. We know we cannot buy our way out of the problem since the military does not compete with the potential salary and some cases of the lifestyle of commercial airlines. We must make sure services are using all lever of all control. The to incentivize these pilots and discuss the way forward to stop the flow of military pilots. I look for waward to hearing fr the witnesses to understand the retention problem and to assess the proposed resolutions for the services and increasing retention. Before i introduce our panel, let me offer an opportunity to make opening remarks chairman, thank you and thank you to our witnesses who are here today. The Arm Service Committee have been receiving quite a bit of testimony over the last few monthst on the issue of readiness. There is some debate on the readiness