I can say from firsthand experience that I am continually impressed and humbled by the men and women conducting these important missions, and our Nation can truly be proud of their accomplishments.

Since that time, this force has been preserving strategic options for our Nation, and their track record is second to none.

It is nonetheless imperative that we achieve every ounce of efficiency out of our back office and IT operations.

Information technology represents over $30 billion of the Department's total budget; however, too often it is treated as a support tool secondary to platforms, weapons, training, and the operations of the Department.

The subcommittee will come to order.

In addition to investments in IT to improve its use of data to inform decision-making, DOD also needs to address the cultural barriers that hinder effective information sharing throughout the Department.

The 2016 Annual Report on Developmental Test & Evaluation stated that the Department's current knowledge management capabilities and processes used to gain, collect, and analyze the information necessary to conduct acquisition assessments…

Absolutely. I think that increased flexibility is the right direction, particularly when there are opportunities outside of the military certainly within the government broadly, but also in the private sector.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you gentlemen for your service and for your testimony today.

And then just quickly before I have to run to votes, I want to ask specifically what the impact of a CR would be on your cyber efforts.

Near-peer adversaries such as North Korea and Iran are building super-hard and deeply buried facilities to conceal weapons development and other activities.

It is important for us to get on the record the negative impacts that a continued CR would have on the DOD.