Norman D. Dicks: “I just wanted to make sure my colleagues have not forgotten a little history here. I have heard a lot of talk about the…”

“I just wanted to make sure my colleagues have not forgotten a little history here. I have heard a lot of talk about the defense budget not having been cut. I want to say that is the most ridiculous thing I have heard all night tonight. Mr. Chairman, we have cut the defense budget by $100 billion a year since 1985. When we take today's budget, it would have been $350 billion. Today, it is $250 billion. We have cut procurement by 70 percent. The Joint Chiefs have just written a letter to Secretary Perry saying that we are short annually $20 billion in procurement. We have downsized the military since the gulf war dramatically. In the gulf war we had 1 million men in the U.S. Army. Today we are down at 495,000. And we are operating at a higher op tempo than at any point between the Vietnam war and the gulf war. We are sending these kids, these young men and women in the military, out more often to more places. The op tempo has never been higher. To say in the face of that evidence that we do not need to do more for defense is simply incorrect. We are operating in a very fragile situation here. We added about $6 billion to procurement. That takes us up to $44 billion. The Joint Chiefs say that we need to be at $60 billion, and Secretary Perry has admitted the fact that we have got a major shortfall in procurement. This budget does not really come close to meeting the legitimate requirement.”