Henry Cuellar Presses Top Pentagon Officials: 'Why Can We Not Do Things On Budget And On Time?'

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During a House Appropriations Committee hearing prior to the congressional recess, Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX) asked Pentagon officials about the military's issues with staying on budget when fulfilling contracts.

Transcript

00:00Chairman and ranking, thank you.

00:01We've got to go to the same place, talk to Coast Guard.

00:05But just, first of all, Admiral, Mr. Secretary Admiral,

00:11and I think a fellow Texan also, General,

00:15thank you for the service that you provided.

00:17A couple of things.

00:18One, the military does bring some skills and assets

00:24that the Department of Homeland doesn't do.

00:28So I'd like if you can follow up on that

00:30and what you all bring to it.

00:33It's not only the southern border,

00:34but, of course, we've got the coast, as you know, number one.

00:38Number two, you know, the law already calls

00:41for operational and regulatory efficiency reviews.

00:45The law already calls for contracting and procurement standards.

00:49The law already calls for quarterly performance updates.

00:52The law already requires development submissions

00:56of updated performance measures.

00:58I'd like to just focus on the contracting and procurement standard,

01:02as it's been brought up by both the chairman and the ranking member,

01:07is why can we not do things on budget and on time?

01:12I mean, if the Chinese can do it, the Japanese can do it,

01:16and other folks can do it, you know, we always come up,

01:18well, we've got workforce development and all that,

01:20but why can, you know, there's already penalties there

01:25for monetary penalties, suspension of work,

01:29and other things under the law.

01:31You know, we keep coming up with excuses,

01:34but you've got other countries that keep doing this.

01:37On budget and on time are the two factors.

01:40Finally, the last thing, and you can follow up on this later on,

01:45in my San Antonio area, as you know,

01:48there's been different suspension of contracts.

01:51There is one in particular that had to do with some data,

01:55a data contract that deals with service members' records,

02:00data for promotion boards, and other things.

02:02And again, this contract was, you know,

02:05we think it was necessary and it was performing,

02:08but then you all cut it.

02:09I don't want you to take up the time now,

02:11but have somebody follow up on that.

02:12But I'd like to go, and if you can mention a little bit

02:15on border security, what you bring in that Homeland doesn't have,

02:19but more importantly, on budget and on time

02:22and why other countries can do it and we can't.

02:27Why don't we start with the border piece,

02:30and then we can go to another question.

02:31And so from the Navy's perspective,

02:3330 intelligence specialists on the border,

02:36helping with the southern border,

02:3858 P-8 sorties for intelligence and surveillance,

02:42and now three ships.

02:43And Minneapolis-St. Paul is a littoral combat ship

02:47as well as two destroyers,

02:49and they relieved two destroyers.

02:51So the presence for counter-drug flow, counter-immigration,

02:56there's a maritime component of that that the Navy is performing

02:59and has performed for a long time.

03:01The first time I got underway on this ship in 1987,

03:04we had a law enforcement detachment,

03:07and that's something the Coast Guard and the Navy are really good at doing together

03:10to extend the reach of the Coast Guard.

03:12Sir, in terms of the Marines,

03:15our first combat engineer battalion based out of Camp Pendleton, California,

03:18is operating on the southern border.

03:20They're doing engineer tasks.

03:22They're constructing concertina wire.

03:26They're building obstacles.

03:27They're doing what they do,

03:28so they're continuing to get the training that they would normally get at Camp Pendleton.

03:31They're just getting on the southern border.

03:33But that's our contribution as our first combat engineer battalion.

03:36Just real quick, just on the border as well.

03:45I mean, I think the Navy, since its inception,

03:48has been a homeland defense organization.

03:51They work with the Coast Guard.

03:54They do ballistic missile defense,

03:56and keeping sea lanes and trade lanes open has been part of their job since inception.

04:01So I think it's a very important aspect to what they do.

04:04In terms of on time on budget,

04:06I think it's a number of different things.

04:08One, as I mentioned in my opening statement,

04:12the industrial base has been hollowed out.

04:14We have lost a lot of manufacturing and our ability to manufacture.

04:19We've had prior conflicts where we've spent a lot of money,

04:22and the bills for our deferred infrastructure spend,

04:26whether that's piers, docks, is now coming due.

04:32And it's been going on for a while.

04:34And so these are not new problems.

04:36I mean, I look back at testimony 20 years.

04:39I keep hearing the same things.

04:40I'm trying to figure out why it hasn't been fixed, to be perfectly honest.

04:44But I will tell you, I think it's a combination of bureaucracy.

04:49So just to give you an example, in the Navy, in acquisitions alone,

04:55we have 56,000 people in our acquisitions department.

05:01Now, we did last year 217,000 contracts.

05:06That's 34 contracts per person.

05:09That's two contracts a month.

05:12Something's off.

05:13You know, I keep trying to understand what are all these people doing.

05:18And these are complicated contracts.

05:20But I'll also be honest, when I look at our contracting, it's poor.

05:24We don't control our IP.

05:26We can't repair stuff.

05:29We don't have very good penalties built in for lack of performance.

05:34These are all things we are going to really try to change.

05:37And I kind of called it in my confirmation hearing, shared risk.

05:41I think it's great for the private sector to make money, and they should.

05:45But they should be paid according to the risk that they take.

05:48And that is not going on right now.

05:50And we need to fix that.

05:52So it is not an easy solution.

05:54But it has our focus, and we are going to get it fixed.

05:59It will take time.

06:00We will be very transparent with all of you and walk you through and tell you the good,

06:05the bad, and the ugly and try to get it sorted.

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