Richard Shelby: “The Department's 2017 request totals $9.7 billion. This is $500 million above the 2016 enacted amount and includes some…”

A complex and evolving security environment requires a serious commitment to our national defense.

I am deeply concerned, however, that the administration's failure to direct the appropriate resources to the crisis at the southern border has resulted in shifting the burden to the Guard.

I remain concerned that the Air Force budget request is insufficient considering the needed modernization across the inventory with a rapidly evolving threat.

As Senator Shelby at our Senate testimony hearing last March pointed out to us, we must maintain what we have before we can build new, and I think he hits the mark head-on.