Chairman Thornberry joined by Reps. Walorski, Knight, MacArthur & Zinke at Ripon Society Discussion
WASHINGTON, DC – House Armed Services Chairman Mac Thornberry (TX-13) appeared before a breakfast discussion of The Ripon Society yesterday morning, delivering a speech in which he not only talked about the political fight picked by the President over this year’s defense authorization bill, but laid out his Committee’s reform agenda for keeping America secure.
Thornberry was joined at the discussion by four other Members of his panel, including Congresswoman Jackie Walorski (IN-2), Congressman Steve Knight (CA-25), Congressman Tom MacArthur (NJ-3), and Congressman Ryan Zinke (MT-AL). The Armed Services Chairman opened his remarks by discussing the National Defense Authorization Act, which, he noted, was passed with broad bipartisan support when it came out of his Committee. But in a historic first that, he said, put American troops “in the political crosshairs,” the measure was vetoed by President Obama after it was approved by Congress and sent to his desk.
“For 53 straight years,” Thornberry stated, “Congresses of both parties have passed and Presidents from both parties have signed into law defense authorization bills. It has been beyond partisan politics. This year, for the first time – even though our bill came out of committee 60-2, the President vetoed it – not because of anything that’s in the bill, but to try to force Congress to increase spending in other areas. The Washington Post said it was historic, but not in a good way. He seems to have made his point, but at the expense of our troops because it put them in the political crosshairs – a place that they’d never been before.”
Thornberry noted that the President has since reversed course and agreed to sign the defense authorization bill in light of the Bipartisan Budget Act that was agreed to last week. But he added that, with the exception of some dollar adjustments that were made to reflect the budget deal, the bill the President would be signing is virtually identical to the bill that was vetoed.
In addition to this year’s defense authorization bill, the Lone Star lawmaker – who was elected to the House as part of the Republican Revolution of 1994 and has risen to become one of the most respected voices on national security issues on Capitol Hill – also shared his thoughts on the challenges facing America around the globe and the reform agenda his Committee is pursuing to meet these challenges in the coming years.
“In this complex world, with all of these threats facing us, it is imperative for our military to be more agile, because everything moves faster these days,” he stated. “How many generations of an iPhone do you go through in just a short amount of time? Meanwhile, it still takes us 20 years to field an airplane. That airplane is going to be out-of-date many times over by the time it’s in the air. We don’t know the tactics of the Russians, the Chinese, the Iranians, or the terrorists. So it is imperative that we be more agile in dealing with these threats.
“Defense reform is a very high priority to me, and I think for most people on the Committee. That includes acquisition reform – how we buy stuff. We want to get more value for the taxpayers, but, more importantly in my mind, we have to field technology faster if we’re going to keep up with the changing threats. That also includes personnel reform. In this year’s bill, we have a new retirement system for the military. A lot of people thought that could not happen, by the way. Maybe in the discussion, we can get into ways that can be a template for broader entitlement reform that everyone knows we need to do. Third, we have organizational and overhead reform – cutting the bureaucrats in the Pentagon not only so we can be more agile, but so more of our resources go to folks on the front lines instead of the bureaucracy.”
After his remarks, Chairman Thornberry introduced the four Members of his panel who were joining him for the discussion. “They are consistently some of the most thoughtful, engaged and constructive Members of our Committee,” he said in describing them.
Congresswoman Walorski thanked the Chairman for his leadership and kind remarks, and then spoke briefly about her own background. She related how she was running a non-profit organization in Romania when 9/11 occurred, and how being out of America on that momentous day spurred her interest in returning home and entering public life. “We need to do everything we can possibly do to protect our nation, no matter who’s in political power,” she declared. “It should be something that unites us as Americans.”
To that end, she pointed to one issue she was working on that, she said, was critical to keeping America secure – namely, keeping the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay open so terrorists are not transferred to U.S. prisons here at home.
“I went down to Gitmo and saw first-hand what our American servicemen and women are up against trying to keep these terrorists in a secure environment,” Walorski stated. “The last thing we need to do is bring terrorists into the U.S. prison system. Understand what’s going to happen with recruiting. We already have a problem with Americans being recruited to go fight with ISIL; but to also link these terrorists with cellphones and the type of things you can get your hands on in the U.S. prison system. They’d be targeting neighborhoods and they’d be targeting states.
“As we look at the next presidential election, I’ve taken it upon myself here at HASC to articulate the importance of national security to female voters. Because at the end of the day, we own this issue. Women will decide the next president, just like women decided the last president… I want to make sure that we have a chance over the next 12 months to articulate to Moms at home, who are concerned about security in this country and are really concerned about things like ISIL recruiting and the safety of their kids. They want to make sure that our land remains safe. And in order for our land to remain safe, we have to address and be the alternative to a President who has been inactive and reactive, at best.”
Thornberry then introduced Congressman Knight, who represents the District in California where the next Air Force bomber is scheduled to be built and, as such, is a strong supporter of acquisition reform.
“The acquisition period of getting an airplane, going through the testing phase and actually getting it operational could be 10 or 12 years,” Knight observed. “And that is too long. We want the test phase to be long enough so we can work out all the kinks and it’s safe for our airmen. But it’s got to be fast enough that we can move forward with technology. Right now, we are building an airplane and then flying the wings off of it, and then building another airplane. In the ‘60s, we were building overlapping airplanes, so when the F-100 was being built, the F-101 and F-102 were being built; the F-100 was still flying. We don’t do that today, so the acquisition period process has got to be a lot faster.”
Knight, who spent nearly two decades as a police officer before his election last fall, also spoke about the people he represents, and how their interest in — and deep commitment to – America’s national security helps to guide his service as a Member of the House.
“Last night, I held a tele-town hall,” he said. “I took 15 questions. One question was on, ‘Do we have enough aircraft carriers?’ Another question was on, ‘Do our fighters go long enough in the air on a tank of gas?’ I thought, only in my district will people be asking questions like this. Normally, people will be asking about the new Speaker or is the budget going well or things like that. But my first question is from a woman who asks about aircraft carriers. That’s why I’m on the Armed Services Committee.”
MacArthur also talked about his background before taking office this past January, and how his experience running a business shapes his approach to his role on the Committee and service on Capitol Hill.
“I come at this position on Armed Services through the lens of a businessman,” he stated. “That’s what I did for 30 years. I had the privilege of running an insurance company with thousands of employees. And I can’t get that out of my system. That’s the way I look at things. And when I look at what’s before us on the Armed Services Committee, I think about it in those terms. There is the need to define our priorities and our objectives and our strategies. There’s a need to fund those things and support our troops and make difficult choices and honor our commitments. There’s the need to have accountability. That’s part of what we do – bringing people in and making sure that the administration and the Department of Defense know that we have their back but we also have our eye on them. And on behalf of the American people, we are holding them accountable.”
“For me, one of the great lessons in business is you only get things done by finding common ground and by compromising. No one gets everything they want – nobody. That’s how I approached, for example, the vote last week on the budget deal. I was one of 79 Republicans to support it. I didn’t like everything in it. But one of the things that it did was give us some visibility in defense for the next two years. It gave our troops and their commanders visibility and stability and an ability to plan. That was important enough for me to swallow some things that I wasn’t very happy about. And I think that, for me, is one of the key principles that comes out of a business life. You have to compromise. You’re not going to get it all.”
Thornberry then introduced Congressman Zinke, who was elected to Congress last year as a decorated Navy SEAL, but opened his remarks by talking about his other important job in life – as a Dad.
“I come as not only a former commander at SEAL Team 6, but also a father,” the Montana Republican stated. “My daughter is a Navy diver. She married a Navy SEAL. I told my daughter two things — don’t join the Navy and don’t marry a Navy SEAL. She did both. But I think from my perspective, I’m probably the last person who wants to go to war. I’ve seen it up close and personal, and it is a horrifying experience. But when we do go to war, we have to make sure our troops – our children – have the right equipment, the right training, and the right leadership to win decisively on the field of battle. I think we owe that to our troops. But what I see today is that we’ve learned how to say ‘retreat’ in five languages. And the world is a very complicated. We face asymmetrical threats. But we are creating vacuums. And when vacuums are created, they are filled.”
To view the complete remarks of Chairman Thornberry and Reps. Walorski, Knight, MacArthur and Zinke before The Ripon Society breakfast discussion yesterday morning, please click on the link below:
The Ripon Society is a public policy organization that was founded in 1962 and takes its name from the town where the Republican Party was born in 1854 – Ripon, Wisconsin. One of the main goals of The Ripon Society is to promote the ideas and principles that have made America great and contributed to the GOP’s success. These ideas include keeping our nation secure, keeping taxes low and having a federal government that is smaller, smarter and more accountable to the people.