Kay Hagan: “I wish to thank the chairman and the ranking member for allowing this colloquy to take place. I also wish to state that…”

“I wish to thank the chairman and the ranking member for allowing this colloquy to take place. I also wish to state that I believe the Senator from Oklahoma laid out a little bit of the groundwork of what we are discussing now. I rise to discuss the depot maintenance issues associated with the House-adopted language in the conference. We must avoid doing anything that may upset the existing balance between DOD's internal depots, logistic centers, arsenals and specialty facilities, and the industrial base. The House-adopted provision can disrupt that delicate balance and have unintended consequences. We just don't know who may be impacted. We need time to get this right, and we need to ensure a transparent process in which all stakeholders can make their position known to Members of Congress. The sensitivity associated with maintenance workload is at an all- time high. Disrupting the balance of depot-level maintenance comes at a time when our economy is struggling and when DOD is consolidating depot source-of-repair work for current and emerging weapons systems. Additionally, prematurely disrupting the readiness of our weapons systems fleet is not an option, especially with the operational tempo of our military.…”