Chairman Visclosky Statement at Hearing on National Guard/Reserves

The Subcommittee on Defense will come to order.

The Committee will receive testimony on the posture of the National Guard and Reserve Components and their fiscal year 2020 budget requests.  This will be a two-panel hearing – panel one recognizes the Chief of the National Guard Bureau.  Panel two will recognize the Reserve Component Chiefs from the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force reserves.  I would encourage all members to stay for both panels.

Our witness for panel one is General Joe Lengyel, Chief of the National Guard Bureau.  We are pleased to welcome General Lengyel, a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

General, welcome back to the Subcommittee for your fourth and final hearing as Chief.  As you are retiring later this year, we wish you luck in the future and thank you for your years of service.

This Subcommittee has provided the Reserve Component with significant resources through the National Guard and Reserve Equipment Account – an appropriation which is not included in the President’s Budget Request, as well as additional funding for counter-drug operations, Humvee modernization, helicopters, fixed wing aircraft, and more.  We look forward to hearing about the importance of NGREA investment in the 54 state and territorial guard organizations.  

However, we would like to cover all aspects of funding for the Guard and Reserve today, to include your request for funding in the military personnel and operations and maintenance accounts.

With that, I thank you again for appearing before the Committee today to discuss these important issues.  We will ask you to present your summarized statement in a moment, but first I want to recognize the distinguished ranking member, Mr. Calvert, for his opening comments.