Thank you, Senator Inhofe.  I would like to join you in welcoming our nominees and thank them for their willingness to serve in positions of great responsibility in the Department of Defense.  I would also like to thank your family members, many of whom are here today, for their support.

Mr. Shaffer, if confirmed as the Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment, you will be responsible for supporting Secretary Mattis and Secretary Lord in their efforts to ensure that DOD’s acquisition and sustainment processes and organizations are effectively buying and fielding the equipment that our military needs in a way that is manageable and sustainable within allocated budgets.  DOD is challenged with keeping up with near peer adversaries, rapidly changing technologies emerging from the global commercial sector, and limited resources.  I look forward to hearing your thoughts on how you plan to address these challenges, if confirmed, especially given your extensive leadership experience within DOD, NATO, and advanced technology organizations.

Ms. Daigle, as the nominee for Assistant Secretary of Defense for Readiness and Force Management, if confirmed, you would assume the role at a moment when the Department of Defense seeks to make real progress on its long path to full spectrum readiness recovery. It is essential that the Department ensures effective oversight over how the military services plan and program their budget requests so that they are truly aligned to restoring readiness.  For example, operation and maintenance is the core of readiness funding.  Yet too often, O&M accounts are sacrificed in order to increase funding for modernization and research and development (R&D) activities.  If confirmed, I hope you will ensure that the Department’s force-wide readiness policies not only have benchmarks to restore readiness, but that effective funding is requested as well.

Dr. Wardynski, if confirmed as the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Manpower and Reserve Affairs, you will face many challenges in ensuring - first and foremost - that the Army grows responsibly while guaranteeing quality standards are maintained to meet national defense objectives.  As a West Point graduate and career Army officer, your experience will prepare you for the myriad of difficult challenges, including declining propensity and eligibility among the nation’s youth to serve in the military, and the need to reform the officer management system.  In particular, the decade you spent as the Director of the Office of Economic and Manpower Analysis at West Point should serve you well in finding creative solutions to the personnel challenges you will face.  I’ve had the privilege of knowing and working with Dr. Wardynski for several decades, particularly his work at the Department of Economic and Manpower Analysis at West Point.  I can think of no one more highly-qualified for this job than Dr. Wardynski and I look forward, if confirmed, to working with him.

Mr. McMahon, you have been nominated to serve as the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Sustainment, and Mr. Beehler, you are nominated to oversee the portfolio of the recently reorganized Assistant Secretary of Defense for Energy, Installations and the Environment.  If confirmed, both of you will be faced with significant challenges regarding the Department’s policy and programs related to military construction, energy security, installation resilience, mission assurance, climate change, and critical environmental programs.

As the largest energy user in the federal government, our deployed forces and domestic installations continue to face significant vulnerabilities with respect to their supplies of energy.  It is critical that they be diversified, distributed, and secured.

Furthermore, all of these challenges are exacerbated by climate change.  The GAO recently found that “weather effects associated with climate change pose operational and budgetary risk” to DOD.  Notably, last year, hurricanes alone cost DOD over $1.1 billion in military construction recovery.  If DOD is going to ensure taxpayer-funded facilities will survive for 40-50 years or more, as intended, the Department must do more to adapt and mitigate the effects of environmental changes.

Thank you, again, to all the nominees for their willingness to be here today and to serve their country.  I look forward to hearing your ideas on the important issues facing the Department of Defense.