During a House Appropriations Committee hearing prior to the Congressional recess, Rep. Steve Womack (R-AR) questioned General Steven S. Nordhaus, the Chief of the National Guard Bureau at the Department of Defense, about state partnership programs.
00:00And to the Generals, Admiral, thank you for being here today.
00:04One of my favorite topics, the reserve components.
00:07And it's no surprise that when issues regarding the Guard and Reserve come up in this subcommittee
00:15that a lot of heads look in my direction because of my experience down through the years with the National Guard.
00:22I want to ask General Nordhaus about the state partnership program.
00:25We have a lot of them scattered around the country.
00:30I think we have 18 now in the Indo-Pacific region.
00:33Arkansas just recently had a big exercise with Guatemala not terribly long ago.
00:40And I personally believe these SPP programs are just really important.
00:46And it's a two-way street.
00:47It's good for the state.
00:48It's also good for the host nation.
00:50What are your thoughts about expansion and what budget constraints could impact our ability,
00:56particularly as we look to the Indo-Pacific region?
01:00Congressman, thank you for the incredible question and the funding across the board.
01:05I want to thank Congress for state partnership funding.
01:09As we look to the future right now, we have 115 partners around the globe.
01:1560% of the nations are partnered with a state partner.
01:19And last year, we did 1,000 engagements at 1% of the theater security cooperation budget.
01:25Like you talked about, whether it's the Indo-Pacific region, I just recently went out to Timor-Leste with Rhode Island.
01:31Their partnership is only three years old.
01:33And they're with the latest democracy on the planet in Timor-Leste.
01:37And that relationship was incredibly strong.
01:40And the president and the minister of defense all thanked me repeatedly for that incredible relationship.
01:47Then I met with Hawaii and Guam when I was over there and also saw their incredible partnership with the Philippines.
01:55And so as we look to the future, every time we get asked to partner with another nation through the State Department and through the Combatant Commands,
02:04multiple states are asking to be that state partner.
02:06So I don't think we're short on the ability to add state partners out there.
02:12But we do need consistent funding as those partnerships grow.
02:15We need a little bit to kick it off each year to start those key leader engagements and then the additional funding.
02:20And as you look at the funding for the state partnership program, the Combatant Commands,
02:25I hear them talk all the time about how incredibly important it is.
02:28And I think a little bit of extra funding in there continues to just robust that program across the board for our national security.
02:35Are you still getting good comments, good reviews back from the host nation and from the units themselves?
02:43Absolutely, Congressman.
02:45Recently, I met with Norway in the Pentagon with Minnesota.
02:49And just over the top, incredible relationship there.
02:53Sweden and New York came into town.
02:56That partnership's only three years old.
02:59I know Virginia and Finland, that partnership has kicked off since those two nations have joined NATO.
03:06And just over and over here, the robust coordination between our states, you know,
03:12our states have went to combat with their state partners.
03:16I know that in an upcoming JRTC operation, they're going to have a couple state partners actually train with them.
03:24So it's not only do we do mill to mill, but we do it globally, but it also goes mill to sieve and then sieve to sieve.
03:32Another question, budget-related question.
03:35I've had some concerns about constraints on the budget and the impact it could have on our ability to get units to the combat training centers
03:44or to the exportable combat training centers.
03:49Is that a concern?
03:52Is this something that, I mean, I consider these combat center rotations to be very important to our readiness.
04:00And I would assume that you would agree that for the reserve component, it's no different.
04:05Congressman, certainly the CTC rotations that we do are critical to our readiness each year.
04:13This year we're doing two, and we're going to do one ex-CTC.
04:17And then while that contract is expiring, we're going to go to CRC, so they're combat readiness exercises.
04:24And they're going to be 15-day deployments.
04:26We're doing force-on-force and getting after large-scale combat employment operations.
04:31As I talked to Lieutenant General Stubbs, our director of the Army National Guard,
04:35he thinks there's great opportunity here and that we're going to find good training
04:40and that it will make us more lethal and more ready for the war fight if we're called upon.
04:44Yeah, thank you.
04:45You referenced John Stubbs for the benefit of my colleagues up here a long, long time ago.
04:52When I was a battalion commander, John Stubbs was one of my lieutenants.
04:55And since that time, he has become the adjutant general for the great state of Arkansas
05:00and now the director of the Army Guard.
05:02We're very, very proud of him.
05:03And I'm assuming you're getting your money's worth from his service.
