Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2015

Floor Speech

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Mr. KILDEE. Mr. Chairman, my amendment would appropriate $10 million to fund an amendment passed unanimously in the 2015 NDAA that allocates additional financial literacy training programs for incoming and transitioning servicemembers. This $10 million will be spread equally among the service's operation and maintenance accounts.

This increased financial literacy training would be funded by allocating $10 million from the Navy's $14 billion aircraft procurement account, which includes nearly $1 billion in funding over the Navy's request to purchase 12 EA-18G Growler aircraft. The Navy actually requested none of these 12 aircraft.

The problem we have is that far too often servicemembers have inadequate training or experience. We are often talking about young people who have yet to really fully have their feet underneath them. When a servicemember has financial difficulty, often they are preyed upon by unscrupulous lenders, payday lenders, often.

In fact, in some cases--this was reported widely recently--offering and executing loans at up to 400 percent interest rates, often targeting these young servicemembers.

While this has an effect clearly on the financial condition of servicemembers, it also can have an effect on readiness, in that many servicemembers require a security
clearance to perform their duties, and financial difficulties and the loss of a clearance can have an enormous impact on readiness.

All that being said, I will be withdrawing my amendment. The offset that we offered, according to CBO, would require a $50 million offsetting cut to raise $10 million, and I will certainly yield to anybody who would like to explain to me the mathematics behind some of the scoring that comes up.

Hearing none, I will move on.

This is an important area. It is an important question. The House has already unanimously acted in the NDAA to support this program.

While it is my intention to withdraw this amendment, what I would ask, if the chairman and ranking member would engage and work with us on this--and certainly engage the Department of Defense--to find the financial resources to support this expanded literacy program, it would be of great benefit to our servicemembers, and it would be of tremendous value in terms of our readiness.

With that, I reserve the balance of my time.

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