▶ 0:03:34Heat. Heat.
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▶ 0:20:28The subcommittee will come to order. I ask unanimous consent that the chair be authorized to declare recess at any time without objection. So ordered. I'd like to welcome everyone to today's energy installations and environment hearing. I want to thank our witnesses from the Department of Defense, Army, Navy, and Air Force for being here with us today.
▶ 0:20:52Before a single shot is fired or a plane takes off, readiness is built or broken in the barracks, on the training fields, and across the bases where our service members prepare for the fight. Today's hearing is about making sure that foundation is strong, reliable, and ready for the demands of a dangerous world. Unfortunately, as is normal in life, there are serious challenges standing in the way.
▶ 0:21:22First, the military construction cost premium should concern us all. Every year, we spend billions of dollars to build new facilities for our forces. Last year alone, Congress 17.5 billion. That's with a B dollars. And according to the department's own estimates, it costs the military about 40% more to build the same facility than it would cost in the private sector.
▶ 0:21:51That means nearly $7 billion last year was effectively wasted, eaten up by outdated policies and red tape. That's not just not just bad budgeting. It's billions stripped away from real readiness from the facilities our service members depend on and from the future of our force. Second, we're carrying too much dead weight.
▶ 0:22:16The Army and Air Force are spending hundreds of millions of dollars maintaining empty facilities we don't need. That money should be going forward towards modernization, new barracks, and quality of life improvements, not excess infrastructure. As to barracks, we cannot ignore the urgent need to fix the unacceptable living conditions too many of our young service members are facing today. Poorly maintained barracks are not just a quality of life issue.
▶ 0:22:46They are a readiness issue. Each of our witnesses should be asking themselves how swiftly that they can implement the barracks privatization provisions included in our reconciliation bill so that we can quickly reverse the negative readiness provided by our current infrastructure. Environmental cleanup is facing similar challenges.
▶ 0:23:10POS contamination remains w remains widespread and while the department is beginning to plan for remediation efforts, it must move faster and pursue technologies that are safe, effective, and fully protective of service members and surrounding communities. On the energy side, the department spends nearly $5 billion a year keeping the lights on at our bases.
▶ 0:23:35We need to continue pushing for energy solutions like advanced nuclear power technologies and utilities privatization to make sure our bases can efficiently support sustained operations. Lastly, I want to recognize the clear success Army has provided in its move to privatize its lodging program and my support of air force in following that model.
▶ 0:24:02Yet, strangely, the Navy continues to run its lodging operations in-house, diverting resources away from its core mission. The Navy's focus should be on war fighting and lethality, not on hotels. Taking care of our service members, giving them safe, functional places to live, work, and train is not a luxury. It's a necessity for readiness.
▶ 0:24:31and not only for readiness, but for retention and ultimately victory. I thank the witnesses for being here today. I look forward to your testimony and to working together to fix these problems. And with that, I turn it over to Miss Strickland for any opening remarks that she may have. Mr. Chairman, thank you for recognizing me. First, I will read Ranking Member Gamy's statement for the record.
▶ 0:24:59This hearing, an annual fixture on the readiness subcommittee's calendar, is an event of particular importance to the work we do and also one that I often leave with a sense of frustration. This group of witnesses, all career civilians who have dedicated their working lives to providing support for our soldiers, sailors, airmen, guardians, and marines, likely share some of my frustrations.
▶ 0:25:23Though you are too well prepared to express those thoughts, you know from firsthand experience what happens when we underfund facilities sustainment accounts or fail to make our installations resilient to energy disruptions or natural disasters. You understand the cost in both monetary terms and in how a lack of foresight and planning can impact the mission. There are human costs related to cuts of these budget lines that otherwise appear sterile on a budget spreadsheet.
▶ 0:25:51And before I get into the substance of my remarks, I first want to thank you for your service. It is common practice these days to thank the admirals and generals who appear before us, but the career civilian workforce provides the backbone of our government agencies. So for that, we thank you for your service. In this time when the civilian workforce is actually under attack, I think it appropriate to recognize and publicly appreciate your service and thank you.
▶ 0:26:16In the last two years, there has been a renewed focus on infrastructure sustainment thanks to the good work of another set of professionals at GAO. We were a gasast to see poor conditions in which our service members live and a wave of witnesses came before us pledging to make things better, telling us that our personnel were our most important resource. Yet already, senior leaders are retreating from this position.
▶ 0:26:41To varying degrees, we've been told that the burden of sustaining our infrastructure is now, as is now required by statute, is just too much. That we can't afford to dig ourselves out of the hole the department has created for itself. I disagree. The requirement that some find so offensive was a bipartisan biccameal provision in last year's NDAA, which set a minimum investment for facilities sustainment accounts.
▶ 0:27:08Last week in our readiness program update with the vice chiefs, the Air Force told us that this year would see a renewed focus on sustainment. I hope that vow extends to infrastructure. What your comp patrollers may see as a burden, I see as a moral obligation to the people who serve. We set a minimum requirement on investment in facilities, not as punishment, but because the military departments have proven to us year after year that you won't do it on your own.
▶ 0:27:36The requirement was born out of years of frustration stemming from this very hearing. For years, your predecessors testified about the risk the leaders in the Department of Defense were willing to take in our infrastructure accounts. We've paid the cost when storms or earthquakes ravage the department's buildings, often because they have been under sustained and the recapitalization projects that would have brought them up to modern building standards deferred year after year. No more.
▶ 0:28:03Even with this measure, I suspect your maintenance backlogs continue to grow. But at least it's a start. Sadly, the neglect is not only in barracks and child development centers. It's an infrastructure critical to operations, hangers, runway repair, and communication facilities, to name a few examples. At the same time we talk about our adversaries investments, we continue to ignore that investments in our installations are readiness enablers.
▶ 0:28:30This short-sightedness illustrates two areas that the department continually ignores. Addressing contested logistic risks and maintaining its facilities. I'm tired of hearing the same narrative out of the Pentagon. And I don't accept it. What makes things worse is that even when Congress adds funds to ensure the adequacy of facility sustainment accounts, the DoD continues to see these accounts as a biller.
▶ 0:28:55As recently as Monday, there was reporting that the administration is spending over $1.4 billion on the southwest border. A close examination of the budget execution documents associated with the fiscal year 25 fullear resolution shows that over a billion of that came from Army facilities sustainment, restoration, and modernization accounts.
▶ 0:29:19And while there are reasonable questions about how we secure the border, taking money from the Army's vital infrastructure accounts is not how we should do it. If this reporting is accurate, it's another example of selling out our service members and the lack of commitment to sustaining our infrastructure. I fully understand that the witnesses before us today are cogs in a very big machine. You give input, but the decisions are left to others.
▶ 0:29:45But fear not, I will address these issues again in other hearings with witnesses closer to the decision. That said, we rely on you to advocate for these programs, to use your years of experience, institutional knowledge to shape the narrative, and to offer the best advice you can based you can based on fact, not ideology.
▶ 0:30:08the service members and their families rely on you to do that because in the end it's the men and women who serve who pay the cost of diminished readiness. So I'm going to stop there, Mr. Chair, and that concludes Mr. Garmeny's remarks. Now I want to add a few of my own is Congresswoman Strickland representing the 10th Congressional District of Washington State. Mr.
▶ 0:30:29Chairman, I often tout Joint Base Lewis McChord at every single hearing because of the important work they do as the country's largest joint base and fourth largest overall military installation. But I would be remiss if I did not highlight the infrastructure needs at JBLM.
▶ 0:30:48JBLM is the only Air Force base that is Armyled and as a result, all of the real property on JBL is owned by the And while I understand the army at large has very compelling needs, this means that sometimes the needs of our airmen are left to the wayside. This includes fire station 105, which was built in 1952.
▶ 0:31:15This fire station is McCord's sole crash, fire, and rescue capability for the 40 C7s that our joint force depends on for strategic airlift. And I'm going to tell you something. You have to see it for yourself to believe the state of disrepair it's in. It's atrocious. The fire station has received some band-aids over the years, but it fails to come even close to meeting current operational and safety requirements.
▶ 0:31:40This project kept being neglected on the Army's military construction list despite strong advocacy from the garrison and first It wasn't until the firefighters at Joint Base Lewis McChord brought this to my attention, had me do a site visit, and we were able to go after it to secure funding for planning and design. So, that is progress. Another Air Force priority that falls by the wayside is resolving the ongoing encroachment issues in the North Clear zone.
▶ 0:32:10It took over two years for the first transaction to be completed and there are 20 left to go. Now, I understand how unique this project is given that the Air Force is providing the majority of the funds and the Army is managing the real estate transactions, but the services fail to resolve this issue and it's just unacceptable. Since coming to Congress in 2021, I have been working in good faith with the Army to address the acute housing needs at Joint Base Lewis McCord.
▶ 0:32:38And while I will address this specifically during my questions, I am extremely frustrated with the Army's approach, or lack thereof, to ensuring military families are adequately housed. After four years of discussion, studies, and partnering to find solutions on and off the installation, it's clear that the Army refuses to fully acknowledge and work to address the scope of this crisis. However, I promise all is not bad. We have made progress.
▶ 0:33:04I was pleased to attend the recent groundbreaking of over 200 homes at JBLM in March and the groundbreaking of a firstofits-kind barracks that is being built with sustainable building materials. But we need more housing at In 2021, JBLM opened a first of its kind children's museum, the only on the only museum on a military base in the world, which has provided the children and families on base with not just a place to explore, play, and learn, but also connect
▶ 0:33:35as a community. I'm also pleased that after several years of dedicated work by Garrison and our local housing provider, that complaints about on-base housing are down dramatically. That's progress. There's always more work to do, but it highlights what we can do when we work together to address big problems and take them seriously. Mr. Chairman, thank you for your patience. And with that, I yield back. Thank you. And Mr. Moy, you're recognized for five minutes. Mr.
▶ 0:34:05Oh, excuse me. I was going to skip your opening statement to get right to the questions. Mr. Thompson, you're recognized for your opening statement. Another, by the way, another perfect subcommittee hearing down the tube so we don't have to now seek perfection the rest of the day. H happy to yield my opening statement time. Uh Chairman Bergman, Representative Strickland, and distinguished members of the subcommittee.
▶ 0:34:31Thank you for the opportunity to provide a program update for the Department of Defense Energy Installations and Environment Portfolio. As this committee well knows, our installations remain the foundation of our national security posture, and I look forward to working with this committee to ensure they are postured to support the presidents and the secretary of defense's focus on ensuring the US military remains the most lethal and effective fighting force in the world. The president and secretary of defense have laid out a clear objective for the department.
▶ 0:34:59Restore peace through strength by reviving the warrior ethos. Restoring trust in our military. rebuilding our military by matching threats to capabilities and reestablishing deterrence by defending homeland. To achieve these goals, we must ensure that the supporting infrastructure is postured in terms of quality condition and layown to support the entire spectrum of military operations.
▶ 0:35:24At the same time, we know that our installations are challenged with aged infrastructure, extreme weather, and increasingly complex operational demands, among others. To address these challenges, we continue to focus on installation resilience to support military readiness and operational capability. This ensures our resources directly support what matters most, maintaining ready forces and resilient installations that can operate effectively under any conditions.
▶ 0:35:51We're focusing on energy resilience and infrastructure modernization, operational energy, and investing in our innovation and research programs. At the same time, we recognize the resilience of our installations is enhanced by partnering with our communities and that we are making a concerted effort to work with them on mutually beneficial initiatives that enhance resilience and prevent risk to national security. We also recognize that our service members readiness starts at home.
▶ 0:36:19The department remains committed to ensuring that the DoD's housing portfolio meets appropriate life, health, and safety requirements and provides a positive living experience for military personnel and their families. And we're continuing to address risk to human health in the environment through our environmental cleanup programs. To accomplish these goals, the department must ensure that we make the most efficient use of our resources and manpower.
▶ 0:36:43As such, the Secretary of Defense has issued a clear directive to focus on eliminating waste and duplication to enable the department to focus on its core mission of defending the nation. In support of this directive, EI is leading several efforts to review current processes and regulations to create efficiencies and reduce costs, including a review of our military construction and FSRM portfolios, real property efficiencies, and a review of how we are implementing environmental laws and regulations.
▶ 0:37:12Finally, as part of this administration's efforts to counter China's malign actions in the Indoacific, we continue to work with key stakeholders to address DoD's use of lands and natural resources in Hawaii via our Hawaii coordination cell. We're also undertaking a holistic master planning effort to effectively sequence development, prioritize needs, and align support functions with mission growth on Guam. and we look forward to working with Congress to address key issues in the future such as further extension of H2B visa authorities.
▶ 0:37:42Thank you for the opportunity to provide this update today. We appreciate your continued commitment to our soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines and guardians. And I look forward to your questions. Thank you, Mr. Clipstein. You're recognized for five minutes. Thank you, sir. Chair Bergman, Congresswoman Strickland, and distinguished members of the subcommittee. Thank you for inviting me to provide an update on the Army's energy installation and environmental programs.
▶ 0:38:08Our Army installations underpin our readiness and serve not just for the Army, but also for the joint force as force projection platforms. Given our current operational environment, our installations are no longer sanctuaries in time of conflict or crisis and must be resilient, modernized, and hardened to support a variety of missions, whether they be at home or abroad, while defending against evolving threats. Achieving these requirements necessitates a sustained and focused effort.
▶ 0:38:36First, our investments in installations must facilitate warfighter training, lethality, and readiness. Second, the critical services that enable our installations to function must be secure and reliable. Lastly, our installations must be as efficient and effective as possible to maximize the taxpayer dollars that the Congress and the American people entrust us with. Part of enabling our readiness and lethality is ensuring quality housing for both our unaccompanied soldiers and our families.
▶ 0:39:07The Army recognizes that its deferred maintenance backlog has emerged over many years and has unintended consequences mostly with our barracks. This is why the Army continues to prioritize funding towards our permanent party unaccompanied housing. This priority helps to ensure the best quality of life for our soldiers and also helps to reduce the deterioration of the barracks. our privatized family housing portfolio. We have made many improvements for the Army's oversight of our housing providers.
▶ 0:39:36This includes new quality control mechanisms that housing providers have implemented to ensure that the repair work is being done timely and correctly. Additionally, the congressionallymandated thirdparty install inspections of our homes allows our installation leaders to verify the quality and status of the work completed.
▶ 0:39:56If or when those inspections identify concerns that may jeopardize the life, health, or safety of our soldiers or families, installation leaders work quickly with a housing provider to correct the situation. To project power and provide resiliency, our installations and associated services need to be able to recover rapidly from disruption, whether that's man-made or natural. As such, ensuring access and delivery of reliable energy for our installations is critical.
▶ 0:40:26Therefore, the Army continues to explore a variety of technologies that can provide more reliable energy for our installations and our soldiers. We thank Congress for its support for continued Blackart exercises that provide us with vital information about the interconnection of our critical systems and assets and increases our resiliency. Our installations must also provide realistic world-class training environments to maximize war fighter lethality.
▶ 0:40:55To that end, our environmental programs are critical to meeting statutory requirements for the preservation of our training lands and to ensure the water on our installations is safe for consumption. The Army is also improving its business practices by working with private partners to deliver higher quality and more economical support to our installations.
▶ 0:41:16As an example, our use of energy performance contracts and intergovernmental support agreements save us millions of dollars each year and help us to develop and improve partnerships with our local defense communities. In closing, the Army continues to strive to make many of these critical investments designed to deliver the highest quality, most efficient, and safest Army installations possible to support lethality, readiness, and war fighting.
▶ 0:41:46Thank you for the opportunity to appear before this committee and I look forward to your questions. Thank you, Miss Johnson Turner. You're recognized for five Good afternoon, Chairman Bergman, Congresswoman Strickland, and members of the subcommittee. Thank you for inviting me to speak with you today on the Department of the Navy's energy installations and environment portfolio and for the opportunity to work together for the well-being of our service members and their families.
▶ 0:42:16The Department of the Navy, our Marines, sailors, and dedicated civilians serve with urgency to defend, project peace through strength, and when needed, defeat our enemies. We greatly appreciate your support for the resources required to be prepared to fight and win. This portfolio provides direct support to the war fighters and their families and is foundational to all that we do.
▶ 0:42:43Warfighting excellence starts on our installations, our power projection platforms. I remain deeply committed to the task at hand to ensure that we provide the infrastructure to support our sailors, marines, civilians, and all of our critical missions. Unfortunately, the majority of our infrastructure is not in good condition. As an institution, we have allowed these assets to degrade over time, have accumulated, and deferred cumulative risk.
▶ 0:43:13The average age of our infrastructure is over 50 years old and beyond its useful life. We have expanded our planning horizons to ensure that the important investments we make at our installations have the greatest impact. In a similar fashion, the Navy and Marine Corps continues to make significant investments in the Navy shipyard infrastructure optimization program.
▶ 0:43:36SCOP is a holistic multi-deade investment that will improve submarine and aircraft carrier nuclear maintenance at Navy's four public shipyards. With 40 projects completed to date, we are already seeing the return on investment with increased nuclear maintenance throughput. In the housing portfolio, we know our Marines and our sailors are better fighters if they know that our families are living in safe and quality housing.
▶ 0:44:06During my recent visit to Quantico, I was satisfied that our privatized partner was addressing our famil family's needs with urgency and care. We know we have more work to do to ensure our partnerships are healthy across the portfolio and we remain focused on this important priority for our barracks. The Marine Corps remains committed to barracks 2030 plan.
▶ 0:44:29In fiscal year 24, our Marines repaired or renovated 11 barracks and the Navy in the past three years have renovated 14. With the permission to expand public private venture projects for both Hampton Roads and San Diego, we will provide an additional 11,000 beds. All efforts increase our teammates quality of life.
▶ 0:44:52We are reviewing our critical infrastructure to fully address our gaps in modernization and recapitalization and are addressing the challenges and threats to infrastructure including water and electricity grid protection from cyber threats. Our work inside the fence line is important to serving as a good defense community partner outside the fence line.
▶ 0:45:16With a strong sense of urgency, the Department of the Navy is looking holistically at military construction improvements and alternative construction to help deliver resources to the war fighter faster. In addition, we continue to make progress on completing environmental cleanups from chemicals of emerging concern and others like PAS. We are in line with the defense department-ledd commitment to prioritize and respond.
▶ 0:45:46All in all, these tangible improvements are in necessary to ensure the long-term strength and readiness of our force. But we have more work to do. I look forward to working with you to ensure that the Navy and the Marine Corps have the resources they need to win. And I look forward to your questions. Thank you, Mr. Saunders. You're recognized for five minutes. Thank you, Chairman Bergman, Congresswoman Strickland, and distinguished members of the House Armed Services Readiness Subcommittee.
▶ 0:46:17On depart on behalf of the Department of the Air Force and the nearly 645,000 active and reserve component airmen and guardians, thank you for the opportunity to testify before you today. I welcome the occasion to discuss the department's energy installations and environment programs as our partnership with this subcommittee has been foundational to ensuring that we maximize the lethality and warfighting capability of our 177 DAFF installations across the globe.
▶ 0:46:44One of the top priorities for the DAFF is the quality of life of our airmen and guardians and their families. Therefore, we focus investment and innovation on our housing, dormitories, and child development centers. To this end, thank you for your continued support of these programs. We have initiated our first ever commercial onbase apartment complex at Edwards Air Force Base in California, and we are seeking to privatize our Konis lodging in order to modernize and ensure robust sustainment.
▶ 0:47:12We're also exploring ways to provide Wi-Fi to service members in our unaccompanied housing. In addition to quality of life, the health and safety of our service members, their families, and the surrounding communities remains amongst our highest priorities. As such, the daff remains committed to fulfilling our PAS related cleanup responsibilities in accordance with federal law and implementing the new PAS drinking water standard, all while promoting transparent collaboration and engagement with the surrounding communities.
▶ 0:47:41Today, the DAFF is undeniably focused on ensuring our installations are ready to support air and space operations in an era where China is expanding, modernizing, and diversifying its entire military. As power projection platforms, the readiness of the Department of the Air Force's installations is critical to our nation security.
▶ 0:48:01The DAP's installation infrastructure action plan or I2AP is guiding the revitalization of our installations to ensure the Air Force and Space Force can deliver combat power with the necessary speed, range, and intensity to deter adversaries.
▶ 0:48:18The I2AP sets clear objectives, goals, and key actions to align installations with critical mission capabilities, optimize vital infrastructure, and maximize mission The DAFF currently carries about 20% excess facilities and 60% excess airfield pavements. Sustaining this excess infrastructure forces us to invest critical dollars in areas that do not directly contribute to war fighting and contributes to a significant backlog in maintenance and repair.
▶ 0:48:46Therefore, we are increasing demolition and freeing up scare res scarce resources by pursuing several innovative approaches such as expanding the use of enhanced use leases and strategic real opportunities. We appreciate the subcommittee support for improving our infrastructure with the NDAA budget provision on FSRM. This will greatly improve our facility conditions. However, we will struggle to meet this budget requirement in full without first optimizing our inventory.
▶ 0:49:15To achieve peace through strength, we must also ensure our our installations can remain resilient disruptions. Reducing our reliance on vulnerable energy sources and rapidly fielding emerging technologies is essential to defending the homeland and strengthening deterrence. The DAFF continues to pursue micro grids and utilize third-party financing and innovative partnerships to modernize and improve resiliency.
▶ 0:49:40We're also steadfast in our pursuit of commercial micro reactor technology at Ison Air Force Base in Alaska. In closing, the DAFF is committed to ensuring our installations provide the nation with the war fighting capability it needs to deter our adversaries and to providing high quality of life for our airmen, guardians, and their families to ensure we maintain a lethal and combat credible force. Thank you for your continued support of our airmen and guardians, and I look forward to taking questions. Thank you.
▶ 0:50:11And as I said about 20 minutes ago, Mr. Molen, you're recognized for five minutes. We're now back on on track. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The ongoing military buildup on Guam underscores the island's pivotal role in deterring aggression and maintaining peace in the region. Uh but this investment must come with a commitment to infrastructure that is resilient not just to military demands, but to the growing threats of natural disasters.
▶ 0:50:40Typhoon Moir exposed the fragility of Guam's civilian and military infrastructure. It underscored the urgent need for climate resistant construction, redundant power system, and hardening facilities capable of withstanding typhoons, earthquakes, and other environmental hazards. So, Mr.
▶ 0:50:59Thompson, can you speak on how ERCIP funds are being prioritized in Guam and whether sufficient funding is being requested to meet energy resilience objectives for both operational continuity and disaster response? Yeah, thank you, Congressman. Uh, specific to the ERSIP projects or the ERSIP funds, uh, there are three ongoing ERSIP projects in Guam right now.
▶ 0:51:29Uh I could tell you they are largely focused on replacing uh older legacy generator sets uh with more modern generators, additive backup generation capability as well as uh battery en energy storage solutions as well. And I believe one component of one of the earth is actually a hardened structure uh based on what we learned from ma war to actually keep those assets safe. So that's on the the earth side.
▶ 0:51:58more broadly with with the infrastructure in Guam. I know that uh I was previously with the Department of the Navy and now with the Department of Defense. I do appreciate the Congress support uh of the appropriations we've asked for to not only recover from MA war, but make a more resilient Guam as part of that recovery, not unlike what the department's done at Tindle Air Force Base or at China Lake as a result of uh the earthquake there.
▶ 0:52:26Lastly, I'll say um just this morning I actually signed off on a report to Congress that uh was asked for in the NDAA that lays out the department's assessment of the resilience of the infrastructure in Guam and makes recommendations including some of the things you mentioned uh undergrounding utilities and other high priority areas with a a rough order of magnitude of those costs. Appreciate that. Thank you.
▶ 0:52:51Uh, Miss Johnson Turner, what specific challenges is the Navy encountering with project delivery on Guam, particularly in relations to water and wastewater Delegate Moren Hoffay. Um, I I would say um the Department of the Navy has great coordination with Guam Power Authority and Guam Water Authority as we continue to collaborate on infrastructure and utility requirements.
▶ 0:53:20Um as we continue the buildup in Guam, we have um talked through, worked through, continued to engage on construction capacity challenges, but u thankful to Congress for the support with H2B visas extension um that we have the workforce there to continue in that space. Um lastly, to the point Mr. Thompson made um relative to Congress's support for the supplemental, uh thank you for that.
▶ 0:53:46Um we are getting after various projects such as Harding u utilities which will be helpful uh as we move forward with utility and um buildup. Thank you. Uh Mr. Kipstein, how is the army balancing milcon innovation uh for example modular construction 3D printing with the unique logistical challenges on Guam? Delegate Morgan, thank you for the question.
▶ 0:54:15Uh the army's using all types of innovative uh construction capabilities. As you mentioned, 3D printing and modular construction have proven very beneficial in other areas and they'll be assessed as we begin to do construction on Guam. The Army currently does not have a a Milcon project yet on Guam, but when we do, we'll be looking at all the options uh to improve and to harden those facilities uh to be resilient. Very good. I was just at uh Austin, Texas also for the uh defense initiative unit.
▶ 0:54:45That that's incredible. I hope to see those 3D buildings go up quickly and especially Yong Guang. Thank you. Uh and last question, Mr. Saunders. Uh the IGSA with Guam Department of Agriculture for stray animal control is a promising model. What steps is the Air Force taking to expand similar partnerships in Guam to address broader infrastructure and service needs? Delegate Moyan, thank you for that question.
▶ 0:55:11I myself lived in Guam for three years, so I'm familiar with the uh the challenge with the stray animals. The deaf is extremely proud of that IGSA with the uh government of Guam Department of Agriculture. Uh and uh not only is it the first uh IGSA for us in in a US territory, but it's also the first where we share services as opposed to having one entity provide services for the other. So in this case um both the department of the air force and the government of Guam department of agriculture share the service.
▶ 0:55:40The department of the air force helps with providing some manpower and equipment and the uh department of the Guam department of agriculture provides both shelter services and veterinarian services. So we use that as a model as you mentioned and we robust that with our um local community to look at other opportunities uh for additional IGSAs. Thank you panel. Thank you very much Mr. Chairman. Thank you. Miss Strickland, you're recognized for five minutes. Thank you, Chairman Bergman.
▶ 0:56:10As you all heard earlier, I represent Joint Base Lewis McCord, and since the day I arrived in Congress, I have talked about housing. So, you will hear me talk about housing so much, you'll get tired of it, which means the message is finally sinking in. But I'm very pleased, Mr. Cliffstein, that the new Secretary of the Army visited JBLM during one of his very first visits to an Army installation. And one of the issues I discuss extensively is just the need to build more housing on post.
▶ 0:56:37I was honored to attend the groundbreaking of additional 200 homes at JBLM, but we need an additional 860 homes by 2027. And this was an assessment that the Army itself. On March 3rd, I sent you a letter on the ongoing housing crisis at JBLM and the need to find creative solutions to addressing this issue, including exploring enhanced use lease.
▶ 0:57:03It's very unfortunate that I just received my response the day of the original scheduled hearing. In your response letter, you state that you continue to monitor the housing waiting list at JBLM and that it supposedly does not show a need for more housing.
▶ 0:57:20However, when the housing waiting list was over 700 families, the Army stated that the housing waiting list was not an accurate reflection of the housing need at that base and we need to rely on the housing market assessment. I can tell you that the Puget Sound region that I represent already has a housing crunch outside of military. It's why the cost of housing is so high because the supply is not meeting the demand.
▶ 0:57:47So, it feels as though the Army keeps moving the goalposts and we're failing the service members at JBLM. And to be honest with you, full transparency, this started back in 2021 when I first got here. This is not even indicative of an administration, but we have a chance to make some progress. So, Mr. Clipstein, can you tell me more about the Army's strategy to build additional homes at JBLM and something more specific other than we're looking into it and we're monitoring it? The need for this housing is not going to go away.
▶ 0:58:17This is a rapidly growing region. This is a quality of life issue and if we don't address it with urgency, especially given the fact that we want to increase the defense budget by $150 billion, talk to me about what we're going to do. Congresswoman Strickland, thank you for the question and um and thank you for uh acknowledging the receipt of the of the response to the letter.
▶ 0:58:39I I would tell you that um working with our housing provider there, we're we're trying to expand the number of houses in 2027, we're looking to target about hund00 million of equity contribution to the housing provider to to build out the extra 245 homes that are there. Additionally, there's a there's piece of land that's outside the facility.
▶ 0:59:01We're we're looking at that as an enhanced use lease opportunity to give that to the uh senior commander at the installation and we'll work with him to sort out how to continue to move forward to use that land uh to increase the housing opportunities. We recognize that quality housing on the uh in the in the JBLM area uh is is a is a challenge and uh we're going to continue to work with you, your office and with the local community to uh improve those Thank you. I appreciate that.
▶ 0:59:31I'm going to switch over to the topic of climate change now. So under the heading of efficiency and sadly driven by ideology, Secretary Hegsth is cancelling or drastically cutting important readiness programs that happen to have a benefit to climate change.
▶ 0:59:48as applied his decree that the department, and I quote, does not do climate change crap, is curbing innovation, making installations less able to continue their mission during energy interruptions or in the wake of natural disasters, and is generally making the department less ready to fight and win. Mr. Eclipse. In February, General George talked about the fact that the Army's drones did not perform well in cold environments due to lower than life expectancy battery life.
▶ 1:00:18I understand that the Army has had several advanced battery R&D programs designed to increase cold weather cold weather battery life as well as lower dependence on foreign sourced critical minerals. Would you agree that these programs are important readiness enablers and what are you doing to advocate for these Congresswoman, thank you.
▶ 1:00:40I think uh it's clear that the army's invested in finding all types of energy opportunities in trying to figure out how to improve the resiliency and the extension of life batteries for our soldiers uh and to improve the resiliency on our installations. I'll need to take the for the record the question on drones and I and come back to you. All right. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. and I yield back. Thank you. Uh Mr. Jimenez, you're recognized for 5 minutes.
▶ 1:01:10Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I don't know who can answer this question, but uh maybe maybe you can. Sir, Mr. um um would you would you agree with the with uh my statement that it that you need the right energy source for the right mission? Congressman, I would agree that uh the right energy source for the right mission would be an appropriate response that you don't want to cram an ide ideological energy source into the right into the wrong mission.
▶ 1:01:41Congressman, I think we would look for whatever opportunity, whatever available energy source meets the requirement. I think that would be a fair statement, right? The one that that actually is going to get the job done no matter what it is. It could be batteries. It could be something else. It could be gas. It could be nuclear. Whatever. Okay. whatever the optimum energy source is for that mission, that's what we should be looking at and not looking at because that's what we're here to do. We're here to win wars, right, Congressman? I would agree with that. Okay. Thank you.
▶ 1:02:08Do you do you have an opinion as to what our greatest existential threat to the security of America is today? Congressman, I think uh what I would characterize the existential threat to our nation today would be uh an adversary that could put our u our lifestyle at risk that could hold our our nation at risk through any type of means, whether it's cyber, nuclear, or otherwise. That would be a nation, Congressman.
▶ 1:02:36It could be a nation or it could be another entity that has nationlike capabilities. A nation, it's something made by by mankind, right? Not not it's not a it's not a climatic thing. This is this would be a nation state would be our a biggest existential threat to American security, right? I mean the Biden administration said that climate change was the biggest existential threat to to America. Okay. I totally disagree with that and so what I want I want to know your opinion on that. Cong.
▶ 1:03:07Go ahead. Yes sir. Yeah. Thanks Congressman. I'm happy to take that on on for my my panel mates here as the representative to the DoD. Yeah, exactly what you said. It is a nation state. It is China. It is it is competitors that pose the existential and most significant threat to our way of life in our homeland. Right. And so and China being the world's greatest poller. Okay.
▶ 1:03:28I think uh we we uh we need to face up to the fact that we need to whatever it is we need to do in order to defeat them or at least hold them at bay, show strength, etc. and how whatever energy source it takes to do that, that's what we have to follow. Would that be accurate? Totally accurate. A accurate, congressman. Thank you. Now, I'm going to shift gears. Okay. Now, I'm going to go I've got a problem in the Keys.
▶ 1:03:53And the Keys is um is um housing for for our you know, our war fighters, uh but also housing for regular people. And so there's I believe an opportunity in there and which can actually can be exported uh around the country is that we we own a lot of land. Department of defense owns a lot of land. All right?
▶ 1:04:17And so we've got this this issue with housing uh for Department of Defense, but we can leverage that land to develop public private partnerships that not only not only develop um adequate and actually very good housing for our servicemen and women, but also for the private sector. Um Mr. Thompson, have you been looking at that at all?
▶ 1:04:41not only in the Keys but you know around the country leveraging the property that we own in order to save money um and then also provide a service to your to the other communities that are around these these uh bases that the big problem around the country is is uh affordable housing. Yeah, thanks Congressman.
▶ 1:05:04Uh we have specifically been looking at that really on a few fronts um more broadly than the keys which I'm familiar with from my time in the Navy but I'll let my Navy teammate talk to that on two fronts. Uh Deputy Secretary Fineberg has challenged us uh 30 days ago. You've got 60 days to identify a plan to maximize and unlock the potential of the DoD real estate portfolio. Uh we've also engaged our partners at HUD.
▶ 1:05:30Uh there's not yet never before been an opportunity for DoD and HUD to partner on joint solutions that might meet DoD needs as well as community leads while providing developers potentially access to to HUD programs that they don't typically have access to today. So we're burning that candle on both ends, sir. Yeah. Developers are looking for the one thing that we have is the dirt. Okay.
▶ 1:05:53And that is one way to bring the cost down and it's also a way to to have them, you know, in other words, they can share or actually bear the entire cost of the project, give us uh give us the housing that we need and also solve a community issue. And so with that, my time is up and I yield back. Thank you, Mr. Thank you. And uh Miss Alvareth, you're recognized for five minutes. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you to the panel for being here and your your lifetime of service to our country. I greatly appreciate it.
▶ 1:06:22I want to just stay state for the record. I I I agree completely with the chairman's opening remarks, the ranking members opening remarks, and you know, I truly believe that everybody at at the table, and everybody within the DoD can can walk and chew gum at the same time. And so, we can we have a responsibility to face all the threats in front of us. And I would contend that we can't meet the lethality goals if our installations are underwater. We can't defend this nation if we can't turn the lights on. And so, I want to kind of go down that path of being able to to walk and chew gum at the same time. So, Mr.
▶ 1:06:51Thompson, first of all, it's good to see you again. Um, I you mentioned and I I caught on to this uh the cost the DoD pays every year on energy and that half is imported, which obviously creates, you know, national security challenges in and of itself. I also believe firmly that nothing is a priority without a plan.
▶ 1:07:10So, can you share for this committee your near terterm goals and what progress we can expect when we meet again this time next year in terms of meeting some of those energy capacity needs, storage needs, all all of the Yeah, thanks Congresswoman. It is nice to to see you again as well. Um, let me circle back to that the to the point about a nation state and and existential threats.
▶ 1:07:34To be clear, when when Secretary Hegset signed out his direction to the department, uh it was also clear that in working on our installations and in our resilience portfolio, we were to plan for extreme weather events, build to a standard that would allow, you know, our infrastructure to endure in those scenarios. Um, specific to the energy question, we we are frankly all in on an all of the above approach.
▶ 1:08:03Uh I mentioned the resilience efforts in Guam. They still contain some elements of photovoltaic uh because the environment there is right for that as well as battery storage. Uh likewise over uh at the Naval Academy where I first had met with you. We are still investing in the infrastructure to support the Naval Academyy's 2065 resilience plan. Um which clues includes energy upgrades, seaw walls, etc.
▶ 1:08:28I don't have to debate why, but I do know that the sever kind of crosses the road after a heavy rainstorm over in Annapolis. I greatly appreciate that. And my my first Kodell for this committee was I won't name the base, but they had uh energy generation in the form of solar, but they had no storage to actually ensure that they could keep those lights on. And I I mentioned this last week. I'll I'll I'll reiterate the point that we are our installations are depending on a 50-st state strategy, a patchwork of energy policies.
▶ 1:08:59And we are very much our installations are at the mercy of those individual state policies. And so I would just challenge you, you know, let's think about the lowhanging fruit of when we're already generating what's the easiest way we can store where we're not generating and need it the most in terms of the vulnerability of the installation to those threats. I would challenge us. So, I just again, it's not a priority without a plan. So, I look forward to working with you on that. Um, Miss Johnson Turner, um, I I want to follow up on some storm water issues.
▶ 1:09:28There's a bit of a theme with my district, yes, and the Naval Academy. So, it's a it's not an everyday occurrence, but it's over 50 times a year that we're experiencing it at our installation, but installations across this country. Um, the Department of Defense analysis shows that more than half of our mission assurance priority installations are under increased flooding risk. You know that. However, the department does not have dedicated funding for storm water infrastructure or military facilities.
▶ 1:09:51How has this impacted readiness and is the department considering ways to address flooding risk through additional investments in storm water infrastructure or other solutions to address flooding and related infrastructure degradation? I would say it's not a priority without a plan or without a dedicated fund. How would you respond to that? Congresswoman, thank you for the question. Um I recently was at the Naval Academy for example um and to Mr. Point uh Mr.
▶ 1:10:17Thompson's point to talk about uh their resiliency and the fact that you know flooding does happen um and it does impact um students the training etc. So to your point um we're continuing to get after whether it's you know having um resilient power water wastewater so that we don't have mission interruption um prioritizing our infrastructure.
▶ 1:10:41I'd be happy to have a followup with you to come back and talk specifically about the Naval Academy um and their plans for more resiliency. I would appreciate that specific to my district, but it's also any low-lying installation is going to have this challenge. Again, I don't know if it's a priority until we have a line item and not just, you know, when we have extra money in a specific budget year, we're going to address it. So, I look forward to working with you on that. And, Mr. Chair, I'll yield back my 10 seconds. Thank you, Mr. Mills, you're recognized for five minutes. Thank you, Mr.
▶ 1:11:11Chairman. Thank you to the panel for being here. Uh, Mr. Thompson, with Milcon project costs being typically 68% over the commercial industry standard and years over the projected completion dates, what is the DoD's strategy for implementing a more modern approach like the progressive design build? Yeah, thank you, Congressman. uh similar to my response earlier uh where the deputy secretary Fineberg has charged us with a real property solution.
▶ 1:11:39He's also uh required us to do a military construction reform uh within 60 days which I think he signed 20 days ago. Uh so there are a couple of things on the front. I'm familiar with the studies that show 65% cost premium. Some say 40% cost premium. It's a number significantly larger than zero. Um, one of the things that we're looking at, uh, in military construction, specific to progressive design build, um, is one, expanding the use of that authority.
▶ 1:12:08Um, two, uh, earlier contract involvement. Over the course of our Milcon reform, I've met with four CEOs now of private sector military construction companies to get their feedback on us. All of it is the same in terms of moving left in terms of the constructor's involvement. And then a number of issues that we've identified where we're simply not using the tools we have and in some cases where we could use some additional tools from Congress and I look forward to working with this committee on those.
▶ 1:12:36And and what do you hope to find in a 60-day directed review of the department's portfolios and procedures that years of conducting business this way hasn't already Uh I I will come back to you uh with a comprehensive list.
▶ 1:12:55I will tell you when I was assigned this task, I was very excited because some of these things we some of us who have been in the system have identified for years and now that we've kind of made our way to a place to make recommendations to the deciders. Um we've got some really good insights we've developed over years where we have real opportunity here to move schedule left and move cost down. Well, Milcon is certainly something that concerns me greatly.
▶ 1:13:20You know, you had spent some time out in Guam and clearly you got a level five corrosion capability right there in Guam because of the seawater. You've got buildings who have fallen in on airmen and actually injured some of our members in the military. And so, it's important for us to not only understand how to best serve our armed forces and our soldiers, our sailors, our airmen, our marines, our guardians, those who truly are there to protect us.
▶ 1:13:46but also do it a costefficient way to be good steward of taxpayers funding. So I look forward to seeing what the DoD strategy is moving forward. I look forward to seeing the cost analysis and how we can be more effective, but also how we can move quickly and rapidly to provide the necessary housing and at least the level and quality of housing that our soldiers and our airmen and our armed forces deserve. So with that, I go ahead and yield my time. Thank you. Uh Mr. Tran, you're recognized for five minutes.
▶ 1:14:16Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you to the panel for being here today. Uh we are now st uh starting to learn about the impacts that months of massive reduction in the civilian workforce will have on the Department of Defense. I understand most of the reductions have been voluntary, but they have also not been strategic.
▶ 1:14:35I'm deeply concerned about the impact these substantial reductions will have on executing the very programs this sub subcommittee has supported for years including those in housing milcon and energy just to name a few. Uh if you can start Mr. Thompson and then I would like to hear from each of you.
▶ 1:14:51Uh what are the risks you are taking operationally and in quality of life programs when you lose engineers, contracting officers, other personnel from MilCon, housing and installation and operational energy programs and what efficiencies do we lose and what is the scale we are looking at here in the terms of reductions of jobs. Yeah, thank you Congressman. Uh first I'll just I'll briefly talk to the risk. I mean obviously we talk broadly about EIE, energy installations, environment.
▶ 1:15:21All of those programs are executed locally and tangibly, right? These are these are civilians working in the homes in the military housing offices on the base doing actual cleanup efforts and engineers who were doing high voltage electricians etc etc. So I think the risk is real and tangible.
▶ 1:15:39In terms of what degree of risk uh have we incurred or carried I think it is too early uh to know we we've had a few working sessions amongst ourselves for areas like the military housing office if that were an area where we saw scale uh opt op optins to deferred resignation or other programs then we would want early insight in that to be able to action that to maybe get an exemption to a freeze or reassess but right now I don't have those insights to tell you what risk
▶ 1:16:09we might be carrying or anticipate carrying in the near term. Great. And I look forward to hearing back if there are any of those risk that comes up. Um, can I ask if any of the other panelists want to address this? Mr. Clips, Congressman, thank you. Uh, I I echo uh Mr. Thompson's comments. We're still assessing the risks uh across in a vertical manner as well from both the department level down to the installation level and what that really means.
▶ 1:16:35As you know, many of them have not left yet, but we know that they're leaving and so we are looking to uh mitigate and perhaps even realign this the capabilities that we have, but we owe you uh follow on. Thank you, Miss Johnson Turner. Congressman, I would just add um you're going to hear the same thing echo that it's early. Uh to your point though, I would say that that we recognize that civilians are important to the mission.
▶ 1:17:00Um we are um in line with the administration looking at every dollar right to support readiness and in some cases we'll have to do things different and better uh but look forward to following up with you as um we have more time at this and understand the impacts more. I appreciate that Mr. Saunders. Thank you Congressman. I I'd echo all the comments you've heard before. It is a little still uh too early to assess uh for us in particular. The round two of the DRP uh is you know just recently completed.
▶ 1:17:27So, uh, we need a little more time to assess, uh, whatever those potential impacts are. Uh, on top of that though, I just reiterate that it is, uh, critically important for us, all these quality of life programs that you described, uh, and that, uh, we would look at those to make sure that they're properly staffed to ensure that we don't, uh, impact the readiness of our airmen and guardians and their families. Thank you so much for that. And changing gears a bit uh, to DoD installation maintenance. I've been very concerned about the upkeep of military installations since my days in the reserves. Uh, Mr. Mr.
▶ 1:17:55Thompson, given the large number of military installations and differences in facility management practice across the services, how well is the office of the Secretary of Defense able to provide oversight of trends in facility management and maintenance across installations and address areas of needs and improvements? I I will uh I will take that uh for the record and come back to you specific to the the transient population or the transient infrastructure support.
▶ 1:18:24I I don't have that broken out relative to the other infrastructure, sir. Okay. Thank you. Uh the Department of Defense consistently requests less funding for facility sustainment than what is recommended by its own facility sustainment model. A 2022 GAO report and recent budget submissions shows that the DoD has typically requested only about 80% of the model's recommended funding in recent years.
▶ 1:18:46uh how was this facility sustainment model developed and why has DoD historically requested less than it what what it uh recommends for Yes, sir. I I I'll have to come back to you on how it was developed and why uh it's been around longer than my my grandkids. So, I don't know where it started, but I will certainly come back to you with that uh and a more full answer on why we continue to under undersubmit budgets relative to that model. Fair enough. Thank you so much, Mr. Chairman. and I yield back.
▶ 1:19:16Thank you, Mr. Higgins. You're recognized for 5 minutes. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Ma'am, gentlemen, thank you for being here today. Mr. Clipstein, my staff in Louisiana represents South Louisiana recently had an outstanding uh visit, Boots on the Ground at Fort Johnson, formerly Fort Poke. And I don't want to put you on a spot on this. I just want to make certain it's on your radar. Are you familiar with the rotational unit billetin area at Fort Johnson, sir?
▶ 1:19:46Congressman, I'm I'm familiar with the project. Not not all the details, but I am familiar with the project. Yes, sir. So, can I rest assured that uh it it has the emphasis of of your office to to get that project completed? You do, Congressman. Thank you very much.
▶ 1:20:06I am uh sympathetic to cost overruns on construction like that because um my experience whether it's private or government builders is that when you undertake uh a large project like that there's going to be some unforeseen cost that you that you discover in the initial phase. So phase one it's supposed to be built in three phases.
▶ 1:20:31Phase one is is uh is over budget by about a hund00 million. So to a guy like me, that's a lot of money. But in a town like this, it's not a lot of money. So, I'm I am I am one of those budget hawks that's watching this stuff very closely, but I also have an objective understanding that that that things happen in the initial phases of construction that should uh that should stabilize
▶ 1:21:01the the next phases of construction. And I I I just need that that project completed because those guys need that billet um properly reestablished. Miss Johnson Turner, I'm an old Army guy. My father was Navy, so I think we can have a peaceful conversation.
▶ 1:21:23uh the the army and the air force has has shifted the way they handle it lodging to a large extent and the the navy has has not and I've had navy guys tell me it's associated with the the culture of keeping the crew with the ship and and and I generally understand that but I want to give you an opportunity to explain to the country uh why the Navy has continued to manage its lodging
▶ 1:21:54when the Air Force and the Navy models have uh led to some improvements in infrastructure and eliminating the need for like appropriated funds for uh to run daily operations etc.
▶ 1:22:07So please explain the Navy's position regarding Congressman, I appreciate that question and the Department of the Navy has taken a refresh look at our lodging program looking at it um comparing it to um sort of the metrics if you will um for the Army's lodging program uh specifically.
▶ 1:22:29Um we have a nonappropriated fund model um that we leverage um within our um MWR program. Um and so I'm happy to have um coordinate a follow-up meeting with you to further discuss that would be great the program. Yes, ma'am. We want to appropriately support the Navy's um requirements in that in that particular endeavor lodging, but but we're also looking for enhanced efficiencies out of the Department of Defense in general.
▶ 1:23:00And this uh this this committee and this subcommittee in particular has has specific responsibilities in that regard. Mr. Saunders, the Air Force, thank you, sir, um for being here today. The Barksdale Air Force Base is home to the second bomb wing and the legendary B-52A Strata Fortress. It it it faces uh Barksdale faces two significant infrastructure challenges.
▶ 1:23:28one most pressing being the the severely deteriorated state of its uh aircraft wash facility. It's been explained to me that the that the that the thorough uh washing process is is important for maintenance on in many ways that you you don't really understand unless you're on ground, you know, participating in that in that process.
▶ 1:23:57And the the current the very very um old washing facility requires quite some time to to clean aircraft. The new one talking about $50 million. Again, to a guy like me, that's a lot of money.
▶ 1:24:16But in order to maintain the B-52 and the and the Air Force's uh um mission to secure our nation and the world, is that on your radar, sir? And are you pushing that project? Yes, sir. Congressman, thank you for the question. I recognize that I' I've run out of time here, but I'm happy to take the question for the record so I can give you a more uh thorough um response to I look forward to that answer, Mr. Chairman. My time is expired. I yield.
▶ 1:24:45Thank you, Mr. Herrian. You're recognized for five minutes. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and uh thanks to all our witnesses today. Really appreciate your testimony. It's great to be here. And I'd like to emphasize that all of you agree that military installations are absolutely critical to power projection, readiness, and resilience. They are not just administrative hubs. And I think it's important that we keep in mind and that I reinforce that our installations are the foundation for training, deployment, sustainment, and recovery operations globally.
▶ 1:25:16They're critically important. You all highlighted some concerns. You made clear that aging infrastructure, energy vulnerabilities, and facility sustainment backlogs are direct threats to our readiness and deterrence. I'd like to stress that these risks undermine operational capability in contested environments.
▶ 1:25:37And note that I'd like to note that while these critical vulnerabilities grew worse, the Biden administration focused its resources and political capital on renaming our bases rather than addressing the urgent need to harden and modernize the infrastructure that underpins our warf fighting capability. We are correcting that now. Mr.
▶ 1:26:00Thompson, you talked about explicitly talked about small modular nuclear reactors, SMRs, and TRISO fuel development. SMRs are intended to reduce reliance on vulnerable civilian grids, maintain critical installation functions during attacks, blackouts, or disruptions.
▶ 1:26:22You mentioned the department's investments in on-site generation technologies, including small modular nuclear reactors, SMRs, as part of an enhanced energy resilience plan. My question for you, can you provide more detail on which types of installations are being prioritized for potential SMR deployment and what challenges you foresee in operationalizing these reactors? Yeah, thank you, Congressman.
▶ 1:26:51I I'll talk uh broadly here and then commit to uh following up with a more detailed uh uh response. So So the department, going back to my comment on real estate and energy combined, the department is looking broadly at all of our real estate uh that could be mission compatible used to support small modular reactors. We know that keeping AI infrastructure domestically is a national security imperative. we understand where we are in terms of critical mineral mining and refining operations.
▶ 1:27:21So, we're looking at the whole of our portfolio, assigning the parameters that best suit uh federal lands or DoD properties with these capabilities and working that really quickly, I think within the next few weeks to have that site picture. So, specific to where would we go with SMRs, I know the military departments have a view uh specifically to SMRs.
▶ 1:27:43We're now cross-checking that against the other capabilities or requirements that we would look to pursue and I think we'll have a really clear sight picture on where those DoD places are that would be SMR candidates. All right. And uh Mr. Clipstein, if I pronounced that correctly, um the Army manages a vast installation footprint with high energy demands across strategic support areas that are critical for mobilization and deployment.
▶ 1:28:12My question for you is how is the army evaluating or planning for SMRs to enhance the resilience of key mobilization platforms especially under contested logistics scenarios. Congressman, thank you.
▶ 1:28:26Um so the army is looking at various options uh for SMRs and we're working with various uh private part private partnerships uh to take a look at what opportunities uh in in conjunction with DIU uh and the uh and the air force to take a look at what uh what types of um prototypes could be developed over the course of time. And there's there's ongoing efforts to look at that and then where best to place that.
▶ 1:28:52and I'd like to come back to you with uh more details for question for the record, sir. Great. I would certainly appreciate that. That's all the questions I have. Thank you, gentlemen. And Mr. Chairman, I Thank you. And Mr. Deluzio, are you recognized for five minutes? Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and hello everybody. Uh Mr. Toms, love to start with you. Uh there's a PAS incineration plant near my district in East Liverpool, Ohio.
▶ 1:29:16Representative Rule, who represents that part of Ohio, and I sent a letter to Secretary Hegsth, uh, back in February, expressing some concerns around the department's incineration plans there, and specifically around the EPA's uh, 2024 guidance uh, which talked about uncertainty around the effectiveness and safety of PAS incineration. I've got I think you responded on behalf of the secretary. Just got this letter today, though. It's dated April 3rd.
▶ 1:29:42My understanding is OSD ledge affairs just got it to my team today, but I've taken a look at it. Uh, want to you state the DoD continues to prohibit incineration according to the memorandum from your office from July of 2023. I want to just ask quickly and directly, do you have plans to incinerate PAS and East Liverpool? Not currently. There are plans like I said in the letter.
▶ 1:30:08I I think we are um we are revisiting our current policy on in incineration. I expect to get um that clarity and a change very soon. So one, can you commit to communicating with Mr. Rouley and me given our correspondence here about any of those those plans should they change? Absolutely. Yes, Congressman. Thank you. As you can imagine, we've got some concerns with our our constituents and our communities about any impact on health. Uh and certainly as you develop guidance in coordination with EPA, I want to make sure you keep us a breast.
▶ 1:30:38So, thank you. Uh, and Mr. Thompson, on a different topic also to you. I'm very interested in DoD's efforts around pursuing small modular and micro reactors. I know there's been some discussion. I just caught the end of it here. I think it's an important goal. I've got a facility in my district that Westinghouse runs looking at this technology, looking to bring more of it online. What do those plans look like? I know there's talk about data centers. What are some other potential applications? How is DoD thinking about this as a power source?
▶ 1:31:08Sure. It it it it could be the power source for uh many DoD installations. When you look at some of the and we do have a a DoD working group that just established a few months ago that is working fuel type waist stream.
▶ 1:31:25But when you look at some of the scale of what we think industry can get to in the next few years for a small modular reactor, many of them would be enough to to more than peak power uh even our highest load installations and provide essentially power to the grid uh and provide community or defense community support around those installations. So the application could be coupled with um a high demand asset like a data center or AI training model.
▶ 1:31:51uh it could also be used as the the base load to support an installation and surrounding community. To me, it seems there's a grid resilience piece here about shoring up our infrastructure. Is that part of how DoD is thinking of this? Absolutely. Yes, sir. Very good. And I see some heads nodding from each of the respective branches there. Anyone else want to use some of the two minutes I've got left to share what you're seeing?
▶ 1:32:11I would just say um to to your first question about um small modular nuclear from the Department of the Navy perspective as we talk about um strategic use of land um we issued a request for information in 2024 just to see what the response what the interest level is if we were to offer um federal land uh to site uh small modular reactors.
▶ 1:32:36We received a u lot of interest in that space and as we work within the collaborative of the other military departments and with department of defense we are looking seriously at moving forward um with that um in response to the RFIs.
▶ 1:32:53I'll just add for the Department of the Air Force, similar to the other services, uh we obviously look at uh micronuclear reactors as an opportunity to address uh our resiliency needs uh and especially in areas that may be more remote and isolated. Uh we're in the acquisition process uh currently for a micronuclear reactor at Alson Air Force Base as I mentioned in my opening comments.
▶ 1:33:16uh and uh like I said that that primarily uh addresses both resiliency but it also is especially valuable in areas where uh it's a remote and isolated type of uh population. Very good. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'll get Thank you. And Mr. Tran, you're recognized for five minutes. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Uh Mr. Thompson, I have one last question for you.
▶ 1:33:37I'm uh concerned about the impacts of rising insurance premiums on the financial health of the department's privatized family housing projects, especially in wildfirprone places such as California or hurricane prone locations. Insurance premiums are rising and some uh sometimes companies aren't issuing new policies. Are these higher premium premiums impacting the sustainment accounts that ensure these homes are adequately maintained?
▶ 1:34:06and how are you looking at this problem? Yeah, thanks Congressman. I I'll give you the the simple answer first. Yes, they are absolutely the the continued increased cost in the military housing privatization initiative partners uh for getting insurance um is is is growing as a portion of overall operating expense and ultimately does affect the overall sustainment account from these companies.
▶ 1:34:31We we hosted a summit back in April with the MHPI prov part partners with a specific focus on insurance. I think we've got an acute understanding by project now of what that effect is. We've had early conversations with uh some of your staff members from the committee about alternatives and options to address or potentially address some of those insurance costs. Uh and happy to to keep you updated or come back to you as we make progress on that. Thank you, Mr. Thomas Thompson. Mr. Chair, I yield back.
▶ 1:35:02Mr. Benners, you are recognized. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want to go back to the topic of the SMRs and uh Mr. Thompson. Um on the SMRs, is u is the are the armed services looking at the ability of SMRs to actually create JP4 and JP5. Unless one of these guys know, I'll have to take that for the record. Sir, you don't? Okay.
▶ 1:35:28I'm gonna I'm gonna ship something to you because yes, these SMRs could just by air and water actually create JP4 and JP5 which solves some logistical issues, okay, for you all. Okay. And so um I'll ship some information over to you. U the uh the other thing about SMRs is is that you're right um a lot of these AI centers are going to need a vast amounts of power and I was talking about the property that we own.
▶ 1:35:55I think it would make sense for us to kind of partner with that and sell excess power to them and generate revenue because one of the things that I'd like for the Department of Defense to do is is see how we can optimize um and reduce the burden on the taxpayer for the revenue needed by the defense department and any way that we can start to generate revenue from either excess property or in this case if we are going to have SMRs you know in our bases etc which I I think makes
▶ 1:36:25all the sense in the world. Um, selling the excess power to the grid and generate revenue and maybe, just maybe, that base will be free of charge to the American taxpayer with the revenue that it generates because of the power it generates. And so, I would love for you to see that. And then I will uh I'll ship to you the information about the ability of these small nuclear reactors to create uh jet fuel uh and other kinds of fuel from the air and uh and from the water.
▶ 1:36:54There's some demonstration projects being developed right now. Thank you. And I yield back. Thank you. Um I yield myself time for ask a couple of questions here and and um one of the opportunities of of going last is that we're going to minimize the duplication of questions here because our staffs all work very hard to get us good questions to enable ourselves to be informed by
▶ 1:37:24you all. But you don't need to hear the same question asked five different ways by five different people. So I appreciate all my colleagues uh the variety of the questions. Um um Mr. Kpstein, providing power at the tactical edge is essential to sustaining the army's most critical weapon systems.
▶ 1:37:46Uh is there any plan to modernize tactical combat and logistics forces to deliver power with low signatures and enable faster, more efficient logistics? uh especially in a potential um endopacific Thank you, Mr. Congressman.
▶ 1:38:06I I am personally not aware of the projects, but I'll take that for the for the record because I I do I am aware that there are efforts to reduce power uh improve the storage capabilities and provide uh longerterm uh battery capabilities. But the specifics I I can't provide to you right now. So, if you will, yeah, if you wouldn't mind just looking within DoD to see if if there's a, for lack of a better term, an advanced base logistics plan to do that. Okay. Um, and Mr.
▶ 1:38:36Clipstein and Mr. Saunders. Um, the Army and the Air Force continue to maintain millions, I repeat, millions of square feet of vacant and infrastructure costing taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars in ON&M costs every year. Uh, can each of you, and by the way, for the record, okay, not to be answered now, provide an assessment of how much excess infrastructure your service currently maintains?
▶ 1:39:06how much you are spending annually to sustain it and what actions are being taken by your department to address it and uh either use it or figure out a way to make it disappear. And again, for the record, if you want to make a comment now, if you got some things going, I'd love to hear it. Oh, certainly, Chairman Bergen. I I I appreciate that uh that uh question. I'm very happy to take it for the record and to give you a uh a response to all the parts of the question there.
▶ 1:39:36Uh something we're very passionate about. So, we'll take that for the record and provide the response. Great. Chairman, I'll I will do the same because it's uh we are very focused on optimizing our installations and our and our facilities. So, I'll take that for the record as well.
▶ 1:39:50Well, thank you because a lot of times we we do we work very hard on creating new capabilities but we know the long-term sustainment on and m that's a challenge for any of us I mean period how do we maintain the on and m at a reasonable level to be to be used in the manner in which it was designed um again now another question for the record for all of you do any rules or regulations s currently
▶ 1:40:20exist that limit your ability to consider new emerging technologies aimed at improving the design build of new facilities. I know I know in earlier a question about depac authorized uh a uh a review a design build review of 60 days. Did I get that right?
▶ 1:40:47So again for the record are are there any existing rules or regulations within that would you just look at and go you know this doesn't add value going forward. Okay because sometimes a rule is regulation is put in place for a reason but the disappears. Okay. Um having said that any saved rounds. Okay.
▶ 1:41:17I know you know this, but you guys are and ladies are on the front end of the war fight because if we don't do your piece right, the readiness level of our troops, our families, uh, and their ability to fight and win is going to be diminished.
▶ 1:41:37So by what you do every day, you add such important value mainly in the mindset of the men and women in the military and their families because they want to know that you all have got their back because they've got each other's back in the fight. So thank you for what you do. And with that, with hearing no further questions, this hearing is adjourned.