National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2017
Floor Speech
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Mr. COLE. Mr. Chair, I rise to express my concern with only certain aspects of the Calvert amendment that is included in part of the second en bloc of amendments to the Fiscal Year 2017 National Defense Authorization Act.
I have the great privilege of representing the men and women who serve our nation at Tinker Air Force Base and Fort Sill. There is no finer group of people anywhere in the world. They are patriots. And they serve as the backbone of military readiness for the U.S. Air Force and for the United States military. Without the work performed at Tinker, located in Oklahoma City, many of our most complex aircraft simply would not be mission ready. The aircraft could not be flown and our nation's defense would be greatly degraded. Therefore, to find that our civilian workforce is disproportionate, duplicative and is detracting from combat power is incorrect. Civilian employees are essential to the operations and readiness of our military. We simply cannot do the mission without them.
I agree with the finding that across-the-board cuts to the defense civilian workforce are not the answer. However, it is important to note, that all areas of the workforce do not need additional cuts. For example, depots had already taken a greater percentage cut than the military and now we find ourselves in the unfortunate position that for military readiness purposes--for the absolute necessity of supporting our warfighter--we are in the position of requiring some of our Air Logistics Complexes to hire over 1,000 additional personnel per year for a 2 year period. In fact, this bill contains a provision which will provide direct hire authority so that the services can hire the people they need, quickly and efficiently. Sometimes in our zeal to limit or cut our civilians, we lose sight of the mission and make assumptions that are not rooted in fact.
Again, I want to commend and thank our outstanding civilian workforce and particularly those who live and work in the great State of Oklahoma for their skill and their dedication to the military mission. Their contributions to our great country should be acknowledged and commended.
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