MILITARY CONSTRUCTION APPROPRIATIONS FOR 2003 HEARINGS BEFORE A SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE NOTE: Under Committee Rules, Mr. Young, as Chairman of the Full Committee, and Mr. Obey, as Ranking HEARINGS BEFORE A SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE NOTE: Under Committee Rules, Mr. Young, as Chairman of the Full Committee, and Mr. Obey, as Ranking RALPH REGULA, Ohio JIM KOLBE, Arizona SONNY CALLAHAN, Alabama CHARLES H. TAYLOR, North Carolina ERNEST J. ISTOOK, JR., Oklahoma JOE KNOLLENBERG, Michigan JACK KINGSTON, Georgia RODNEY P. FRELINGHUYSEN, New Jersey ROGER F. WICKER, Mississippi GEORGE R. NETHERCUTT, JR., Washington RANDY "DUKE" CUNNINGHAM, California TODD TIAHRT, Kansas ZACH WAMP, Tennessee TOM LATHAM, Iowa ANNE M. NORTHUP, Kentucky JOHN E. SUNUNU, New Hampshire JOHN E. PETERSON, Pennsylvania VIRGIL H. GOODE, JR., Virginia DAVID R. OBEY, Wisconsin ALAN B. MOLLOHAN, West Virginia NANCY PELOSI, California PETER J. VISCLOSKY, Indiana NITA M. LOWEY, New York CARRIE P. MEEK, Florida DAVID E. PRICE, North Carolina ROBERT E. “BUD” CRAMER, JR., Alabama JAMES E. CLYBURN, South Carolina JESSE L. JACKSON, JR., Illinois CHAKA FATTAH, Pennsylvania JAMES W. DYER, Clerk and Staff Director DOV ZAKHEIM, UNDER SECRETARY OF DEFENSE (COMPTROLLER) RAYMOND DUBOIS, DEPUTY UNDER SECRETARY OF DEFENSE (INSTALLATIONS AND ENVIRONMENT) STATEMENT OF THE CHAIRMAN Mr. HOBSON [presiding]. Committee will come to order. The subcommittee meets this morning to complete its review of the President's budget request. I want to welcome our panel, the Under Secretary of Defense, Dr. Dov Zakheim, and the Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Installations and Environment, Mr. Ray DuBois. We look forward to hearing from you. Without objection, both of your prepared statements will be entered into the record. And I, too, have some words that I would like to give for the record. And I hope all those little people writing notes in the back take this down. By now everyone knows that I was gravely disappointed by the 15 percent cut the military construction account suffered. This disappointment was even more of a blow given that the last year's statement by the administration that the fiscal year 2002 budget was the initiation of an aggressive program to renew facilities and to break "the current cycle of pay me now or pay me later much more." This budget request, however, contradicts that assertion and confirms that we are back to "business as usual." Consider the impact of the reduction. Operational and training facilities are reduced $580 million, or 37 percent. Maintenance and production facilities are cut $635 million, or 59 percent. Community facilities are reduced by $196 million, or 51 percent. R&D facilities are reduced by $151 million, or 82 percent. And funding for troop housing, medical, utility, administration and supply facilities are reduced as well. Now consider the following information about the condition of DOD's inventory: The recapitalization rate goes from 83 years to 150 years. I do not think we will all be around then, Doctor. The most recent installation rating report shows that 68 percent of the Department's facilities are rated C-3, which means they have serious deficiencies, or C-4, which means the facilities cannot |