Continuing Resolutions Hurt the Military
Floor Speech
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Mr. TAYLOR. Madam Speaker, we are here tonight to speak about how, for far too long, Congress has passed continuing resolutions that have devastating effects on our military and national security apparatus. They have hurt our maintenance, readiness, training, and contracting, causing a cascading and negative effect in extending our deployment schedules, which hurt our strong military families, who are the very foundation of our force.
Indeed, Secretary Mattis said in January 2018:
As hard as the last 16 years have been, no enemy in the field has done more to harm the readiness of the U.S. military than the combined impact of the Budget Control Act's defense spending cuts and operating under continuing resolutions.
Madam Speaker, Congress has passed continuing resolutions for 9 out of the past 10 years.
I will say, Madam Speaker, that I am encouraged, skeptical, and hopeful that Congress will move toward regular order this year and forego a continuing resolution for the defense of this Nation later this year: encouraged, because the Senate has expressed they will take up defense appropriations and move it to the floor for the first time in years; skeptical, because I am a realist, and they will attach another bill to it, which will make it tougher to get passed; hopeful, because I am an optimist. We all know it is the right thing to do, and we are pushing to make it happen.
Madam Speaker, I have the great honor of representing the district with more military and veterans than anywhere in the Nation. If anything is going on in the world, our men and women are there on the front lines, fighting for families, fighting for friends, fighting for freedom.
We, in Congress, owe them better. We must do better. We must get our acts together and lead with the courage and the spirit of our Nation, and the courage and spirit of those men and women in uniform who stand watch for us every single day.
Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from California (Mr. Hunter).
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Mr. TAYLOR. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman from California, who is also a combat marine. I won't hold it against him. He is a marine, and we are appreciative of him being here and of his time in Iraq and Afghanistan in defending what we hold dear.
He is a leader on military and defense issues and national security issues here in Congress, so we truly appreciate his service then and now.
Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Missouri (Mrs. Hartzler).
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Mr. TAYLOR. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from Missouri, who is a strong, principled, conservative voice on the House Armed Services Committee and a huge supporter of our military and national security apparatus. I thank the gentlewoman for her service here and, of course, to our military, and for her good work.
Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Bergman).
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Mr. TAYLOR. Madam Speaker, I would certainly like to thank the gentleman, Congressman, general, and marine--marine nonetheless--for his fantastic service to this great Nation, both then and now, as a colleague, as a fellow veteran, and as a neighbor in the Cannon building on the south end there. I thank the gentleman for his service and his steadfast support of our military men and women.
Madam Speaker, the regular use, as you have heard, of continuing resolutions impacts commanders at all levels. You have heard about more training deaths than combat deaths. I have to tell you at the service and major command levels, commanders are not allowed to start new programs, increase rates of production, or begin new military construction projects. As you move to lower echelons of command, it forces leaders into making risk determinations related to readiness and training.
Consider, Madam Speaker, Oceana Naval Base. You heard the gentlewoman from Missouri talk about parts and maintenance and half of the Navy airplanes not being able to fly. Oceana Naval Base, which resides in my district, if it were a country, it would be the seventh largest airforce in the world.
The Air Force Combat Command is also in my district. Flying hours for many of these units have been far below the needed hours for units prepping for combat deployments.
As you heard, many of the aircraft are grounded because of maintenance and not being able to get to parts. It has taken years and will take years to recover. We are certainly not there yet.
Air National Guardsmen who volunteer at the beginning of the year are only able to have orders cut for the duration of the continuing resolution if it happens. This sometimes reduces the level of their benefits, such as their basic housing allowance. They are eligible to receive less than that because the orders get broken into separate pieces.
This really affects the ones at the lower rank, the enlisted, like what I was, those who may have military families. Again, hurting our military families which is the strong basis of structure for a strong force.
Let me give you another example. While returning from a deployment, approximately 90 airmen had unanticipated changes in their itinerary which caused additional expenses to be incurred. Since these expenses were not authorized prior to the new fiscal year, these members were not reimbursed for more than 60 days after their return. Some of the unpaid expenses ranged from just a few dollars to $7,000 for one young airman.
Imagine, Madam Speaker, if you are a young airman, E-3, E-4, and you have a family, $7,000 is a lot of money. It could be the difference between paying the mortgage and keeping the lights on back home, contributing to the stress of our military families.
In the weekend of January 20, 2018, there was a scheduled training weekend. The expiration of the continuing resolution caused a last- minute cancelation of an event impacting 950 airmen. Fifty of the airmen who traveled out of Langley Air Force base, also in my district, before the order was given to cancel were immediately sent home without accomplishing any training events. They may never be able to get that training back as they prepare to go to combat for this Nation.
There are some other negative impacts that we don't hear about often. The Virginia National Guard is second contributing to the war effort amongst other guard units around the country. The Reserve components make up 47 percent of our Nation's operational forces, yet they are required to cease operations during a continuing resolution while Active Duty counterparts continue training. Forty-seven percent, Madam Speaker, of our operational forces have to shut down during continuing resolutions.
Let me read a couple things that I got from the Virginia National Guard.
During the most recent shutdown that happened, 3 days, was inaccurately reported in many media outlets as having minimal impact, to the contrary Virginia National Guard faced the following: They had last-minute notification of inactive duty training for 2,211 personnel, resulting in the absence of anticipated monthly income, which equated to 4 days of Active Duty pay.
Notifications to more than 630 full-time soldiers and airmen that their potential employment would be temporarily terminated were sent out. That affects retention. $28,000 worth of contract actions were canceled, and a projected $7,500 in subsequent loss as a result of these cancelations.
Missed training opportunities. During the most recent shutdown, the National Guard lost training opportunities totaled $7.7 million, affecting expected income for 58,000 soldiers and airmen and 37,000 Federal technicians.
Aside from those losses, that contributes to mission and morale impacts. Again, the Virginia National Guard is second in the Nation contributing to the war efforts, and the Reserve components make up 47 percent of the Nation's operational forces.
Madam Speaker, we have to do better for our military apparatus. I just want to reiterate to you that I have the great honor of representing the district with more military and veterans than any congressional district in the Nation. If there is anything going on in the world, if Mother Freedom needs to be defended anywhere in the world, then our men and women are there on the front-lines fighting for family, for friends, and for freedom.
We in Congress and the Senate owe them better, and we have to do better. We have to get our acts together. We have to lead with the courage and the spirit that they have. We can make it happen, and we should push and push until we got it done.
Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
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