National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2016

Floor Speech

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Mr. WITTMAN. Mr. Chairman, I want to commend Chairman Thornberry and the members of the Armed Services Committee on a very strong mark. I want to especially thank my distinguished ranking member, Madeleine Bordallo, for working with me to address some of our most critical readiness challenges.

The FY16 National Defense Authorization Act makes notable strides in restoring full spectrum readiness in helping move us away from what the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Dempsey, referred to as the ``ragged edge'' of being able to execute the current Defense strategy.

Specifically, this year's NDAA prohibits the Department from pursuing an additional BRAC round or any other effort aimed at locking in unwise force structure reductions during a time of accelerated transition and uncertainty, but does task the Department to conduct an assessment of where we may be overcapitalized in facilities so Congress can make informed decisions going forward.

We must be strategic about our long-term decisions, such as how we treat our headquarters and civilian personnel. We need to keep those things in mind. They do important work for this Nation, and on their behalf, we owe it to them to take the time to look at how provisions in this bill could negatively affect their efforts.

This year's NDAA also restores many critical shortfalls across the force. For example, for the Navy, the bill fully funds the operation and maintenance accounts for an 11th carrier and the 10th air wing, aircraft maintenance reset, and ship operations.

For the Army, the bill fully funds collective training exercises resulting in 19 Combat Training Center rotations for brigade combat teams, as well as fully funding the initial entry rotary wing training program and restoring funding to meet 100 percent of the flying hour program requirement.

The bill also provides the Marine Corps with additional resources to meet aviation readiness requirements to ensure adequate numbers of mission-capable aircraft.

For the Air Force, the bill provides additional training resources for high-demand areas such as pilots for unmanned systems, joint terminal controllers, cyber operations, insider threats, and open source intelligence.

Finally, the bill addresses several other shortfalls by resourcing many of the Department's most pressing unfunded requirements.

I am proud of what we have accomplished in this year's bill and encourage all of my colleagues to support its passage.

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