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House panel adds $950M for readiness needs

A House subcommittee has approved a $950 million increase in operations and maintenance funds in hopes of restoring combat readiness, set aside $650 million to improve living conditions on military bases and driven a stake into the heart of the base-closing process.

The House Armed Services readiness subcommittee approved, by voice vote, a $143 billion operations and maintenance budget and a $24 billion construction budget that will become part of the 2009 defense authorization bill.

Subcommittee chairman Rep. Solomon Ortiz, D-Texas, said he expects even more money to be added for training, maintenance and supply stockpiles next week when the full armed services committee meets to pass its version of the defense policy bill.

“I remain gravely concerned that the readiness of our armed forces continues to decline,” Ortiz said. “More than six years of continuous combat operations have strained readiness. This strain is manifesting itself in more and more aspects of our military forces.”

The $950 million increase on operations and maintenance funds would go to a variety of programs, he said, including $260 million to repair Army combat vehicles and equipment, $120 million to address a backlog in Navy ship repair, $117 million for Army missile and ammunition maintenance, $110 million for Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve maintenance programs, $78 million for unfunded Marine Corps operations and maintenance needs, $60 million for Navy aircraft maintenance and $50 million to redistribute equipment to Army units that have shortages.

Earlier Thursday, the terrorism, unconventional threats and capabilities subcommittee approved a $185 million increase in the defense budget to cover unfunded priorities for the U.S. Special Operations Command.

Ortiz said readiness problems extend beyond the jurisdiction of his subcommittee. “Equipment shortages hamper training and deployment of ground forces,” he said. “Personnel shortages require sailors and airmen to perform ground combat missions. Resource shortfalls and aging equipment reduce the mission capability of aircraft. Maintenance shortfalls have created equipment readiness deficiencies in the Navy’s surface fleet.”

Because of concerns that the 2005 base-closing process was unfair, the readiness subcommittee proposed to repeal current law, including authority to form a bipartisan commission to make decisions, and the process for implementing the commission’s recommendations.

“If a future administration were to request a new round of closures, the BRAC process will need to be dramatically different,” Ortiz said.