Hearing of the Emerging Threats and Capabilities Subcommittee of the House Armed Services Committee - Opening Statement of Rep. Wilson, Hearing on "Fiscal Year 2017 Information Technology and Cyber Programs: Foundations for a Secure Warfighting Network."

Hearing

"I am pleased to welcome everyone here today for this hearing on the Fiscal Year 2017 Budget Request for information technology and cyber programs.

Lately, the Secretary has been highlighting the need for increased innovation in the Department of Defense through public-private partnerships, as well as the importance of generating new capabilities to offset the growing advantages of future potential adversaries. I believe information technology and cyber will both serve as key enablers, and at the same time present key challenges for the Department as it tries to realize its vision.

In this time of fiscal constraint, I also believe it is equally important to enforce management rigor to make sure that we are squeezing the most out of every defense dollar. Where it makes sense, we need to learn from industry and use the kinds of business analytics and business intelligence methods that work so well in the commercial sphere. That also means using commercial tools to the maximum extent, especially in areas like business systems and cloud computing. We need to find better ways to foster and maintain our own human capital to support the acquisition and management of information technology and cyber systems.

In looking through this most recent budget request, I want to make sure that the Department is emphasizing these two complementary tracks: increased innovation, as well as increased management discipline.

I would like to welcome our distinguished panel of witnesses, and appreciate their perspectives on all of these issues. This panel includes:

The Honorable Terry Halvorsen
Chief Information Officer
Department of Defense

The Honorable Peter Levine
Deputy Chief Management Officer
Department of Defense"

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