Fiscal Year 2013 National Defense Authorization Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. SCHILLING. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank Congresswoman ROBY for holding this important leadership hour. I rise today to speak on some important issues facing our military as well as some provisions within the National Defense Authorization Act.

Here is the bottom line: Our national debt, which is approaching $16 trillion--or $50,000 for every person in this country--is a national security threat and we must find ways to bring our spending under control.

This House has acted to change the debate from how much can Washington spend to how much spending can we cut? We've led by example and cut our own office budgets by almost 12 percent. With the belief that more common sense in Washington can lead to uncommon savings for the taxpayer we have taken a government wide approach to cutting spending

The House has also stressed efficiencies when it passed a bill by my colleague ALLEN WEST that would cut the Department of Defense's printing budget by 10 percent.

However, placing our warfighters at risk is not the solution to our debt problem. There are proposals out there to make deep cuts to the Department of Defense that would only create dangerous consequences for the stability of our fighting forces. One proposal would reduce Department of Defense civilian employee levels beyond what our organic industrial base can handle. As a member who represents a vital part of our organic base, the Rock Island Arsenal, these proposals strongly concern me.

The largest concentration of civilians in the Army is within the Army Materiel Command and the largest concentration of civilians within Army Materiel Command is found in our arsenals and depots--or our organic base. This organic base is what ensures that our military is warm and ready to go at a moment's notice.

That is why I am also concerned about proposals that would reduce organic base specialization in areas like manufacturing.

Without the ability to specialize in these areas, our warfighters could be left flatfooted when emergencies happen. For example, the Rock Island Arsenal was able to produce up-armor kits for the doors of Humvees for our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan when their vehicles were being attacked with IEDs. The Arsenal's ability to do this work quickly gave industry the time it needed to create long-term fixes for them and provided our troops with the tools they needed to most safely and effectively accomplish their missions.

During this time of fiscal constraint we must be careful not to penalize our organic base--which provides quality to the warfighter and value to the taxpayer. We must preserve and strengthen our organic base, not weaken it. The workers at the Rock Island Arsenal are a great example of how manufacturing skill can yield success for our warfighters.

In addition to serving on the House Armed Services Committee, I also serve on the Small Business Committee where our focus is solely on job creation through helping small businesses.

Small businesses have proven that they can perform a service or produce goods for the government at a lower cost and often at a faster pace than their larger counterparts, but many challenges remain for businesspeople seeking to break through the bureaucracy.

My colleague on the Small Business Committee, Representative JUDY CHU, and I introduced H.R. 3985, the Building Better Business Partnerships Act in February, which passed through the Small Business Committee last month, to reform mentor-protégé programs that exist to help small businesses win government contracts.

The Building Better Business Partnerships Act allows the Small Business Administration to oversee civilian mentor-protégé programs to streamline the process for each agency and ensure the programs are benefitting all small businesses.

This bipartisan language was successfully included in the FY 2013 NDAA in Committee to help small businesses compete for and win more government contracts so they can create jobs and get folks back to work.

This week, the House will debate the Defense Authorization bill. Our Constitution requires that we ``provide for the common defense'' and for fifty years in a row, Congress has acted to authorize defense programs. I look forward to working on a bipartisan basis to deliver a strong, common sense defense bill for the United States of America.

Again, I want to thank Congresswoman ROBY for holding this leadership hour. This July, the Rock Island Arsenal will celebrate 150 years of protecting our brave men and women. As a member of the House I will continue to pursue policies that allow our arsenals to thrive and grow their workload so that the Rock Island Arsenal can celebrate another 150 years and beyond.

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