Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2016

Floor Speech

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Mr. BRIDENSTINE. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And congratulations on producing a very good bill that will provide the necessary funding to properly defend our Nation.

And let me express my appreciation for providing $26 million in your bill to fund an Air Force pilot program for the acquisition of commercial SATCOM services.

Aligned with the House-passed fiscal year 2016 NDAA, the program has the potential to lower costs and increase utilization of commercial satellites.

Mr. Chairman, thank you for giving me the opportunity to discuss military satellite communications, or SATCOM. As you are aware, the demand for SATCOM has increased by a factor of 10 since the outset of our simultaneous commitments in Iraq and Afghanistan, and it continues to grow.

Further, the need for protection against jamming, spoofing, and other interference has also increased as our adversaries deploy more sophisticated countermeasures to deny and degrade communications to our warfighters.

The government-owned, government-operated SATCOM system, Wideband Global Satellite Communications System, or WGS, cannot keep up with demand--not even close. As a result, the Air Force has sought less expensive, more protected SATCOM solutions from the commercial sector to augment national capabilities.

Mr. Chairman, the military needs more SATCOM capacity, and it needs SATCOM that is better protected. Congress can help by restoring $32.8 million for development and testing activities associated with the Protected Tactical Testbed.

We also need additional funding for the Protected Tactical Wave Form itself. This effort will help make both commercial and WGS satellites more robust and protected against jamming. Alongside the Air Force's pilot program I referenced earlier, the Protected Tactical Testbed and Wave Form may begin to give warfighters access to a global architecture of protected commercial SATCOM.

That said, I understand the Air Force has programmatic challenges with the Protected Tactical Testbed that must be addressed. However, I urge the committee to keep an open mind in conference. If the Air Force addresses your concerns, then I hope the committee will consider restoring funding for the Protected Tactical Testbed and Wave Form.

I thank you again for this opportunity to speak on such an important issue to our military servicemen and -women.

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Mr. BRIDENSTINE. Mr. Chairman, I thank the distinguished chairman of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee for bringing this bill to the floor.

The Bridenstine-Rogers-Turner-Poe amendment is not a reflection of concern with what is a good bill under the circumstances. The Bridenstine-Rogers-Turner-Poe amendment would appropriate $25 million to fund military responses to Russia's continuing violation of the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, the INF Treaty. This is the exact same amount that the House Armed Services Committee, the HASC, authorized recently in a bipartisan and noncontroversial provision in H.R. 1735, which passed the House Armed Services Committee on a 60-2 vote.

Senior DOD officials, from the Secretary of Defense to lesser Senate-confirmed officials, have testified that the United States is considering a range of military options to respond to Russia's violation of the INF Treaty. DOD defines these as countervailing and counterforce options. What do these include?

Number one, extending the range of the Army's current Army Tactical Missile System, ATacMS; land-basing Tomahawk or otherwise modifying similar capabilities; and also other capabilities per classified DOD reporting.

The emphasis should be on modifying current systems as opposed to developing brand-new capabilities, which would take longer and cost far more.

This amendment is imperative to ensuring that another year isn't allowed to go by before Russia's President, Vladimir Putin, is made to understand that he cannot profit by his violation of the INF Treaty.

As The New York Times reported on June 5, following the submission of the most recent State Department annual report on arms control compliance: ``American officials have made no discernible headway in persuading the Russians to acknowledge the compliance problem, let alone resolve it. ..... In December, the Pentagon told Congress that it had developed a range of military options to pressure Russia to remedy the violation or neutralize any advantages it might gain if diplomatic efforts fail. Brian P. McKeon, a senior Pentagon official, told Congress that ..... if a diplomatic solution was not found, `This violation will not go unanswered.' ''

Mr. Chairman, I urge the support of all Members for the Bridenstine-Rogers-Turner-Poe amendment.

I reserve the balance of my time.

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Mr. BRIDENSTINE. Mr. Chair, I would just argue that, while it is true that the other body has not acted on this yet, it is also true that this body has already acted in the Defense Authorization bill. It came through committee, and certainly it had overwhelming support in committee and overwhelming support on the floor of the House.

I think that the will of this body ought to be done by all of my colleagues supporting this very important amendment and to make sure that Russia understands that they cannot go unchecked when they violate a treaty of this magnitude.

I yield back the balance of my time.

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