Jim Langevin

Rebuilding our Nation's infrastructure will also require more than investments in bridges, roads, waterways, and broadband; it will require a workforce that can design, build, and maintain them.

I certainly echo the words of the majority leader and the need for infrastructure investment.

Thank you, Chairman DeFazio and Ranking Member Graves, for the opportunity to testify today.

We appreciate your consideration of these requests and look forward to working with you to ensure these items are included in the nation-wide infrastructure package.

We must maintain this commitment moving forward.

By including these investments in a comprehensive infrastructure package, we will ensure that resources committed to our nation's infrastructure will be effective, building on established workforce development strategies to provide the…

I hope you are going to be asking for the right resources to do that and we stand ready to support you.

I appreciate the Department recognizing the critical need for a third Virginia-class submarine in its FY20 budget request.

We have to face the fact that climate change is here and it is going to cost us more if we don't prepare for it and mitigate those effects going forward.

Our enemies and adversaries are not standing still on this, and they used this asymmetric technology to undermine our advantages.

How has the optimization of AFRICOM affected SOCOM? Has this improved PERSTEMPO and dwell ratios for force providing components?

Do SOCOM personnel conduct periodic peer reviews of their team members and if so, how does this affect personnel management?

Over the past 5 years, what is the range of special duty incentive pay paid to SOCOM personnel broken out by component?

Do all SOCOM components use the same ground mobility vehicles? If not, why and is there an effect on the interoperability of SOF components?

What are the top five most high-demand/low-density skill sets in SOCOM currently?

We need to make sure that we get that right. It goes right to the heart of the health, also the force.

It is an understatement to say that the world has changed since the establishment of the command in 1987.

H.R. 312 would allow the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe to open a casino in Taunton, Massachusetts.

Thank you. I think you touched on my next question I had, but in really thinking about more specifically how the Department is thinking about cyber and opioids and other nontraditional research materials and capabilities that could be used…

I think this--again, the challenges that we face here reinforce the need for much more of a whole-of-government approach and getting the oars pulling in the same direction.

I am becoming increasingly concerned about the dual-use technologies, the threats of bioweapons, and we need to have a continued and strengthened focus on this area to keep our country safe, keep our troops safe, and our allies around the…

I would hope that we are building resiliency in, that we are planning ahead. I mean, climate change, whether people want to recognize it or not, it is happening, and we are going to be throwing good money after bad if we do not plan.

I would say the effects of climate change are things that we have to consider at the strategic, operational, tactical level in all of our military operations in the future.

I mean, climate change, whether people want to recognize it or not, it is happening.

Unfortunately, the Department of Defense has failed significantly to meet its statutory mandate on this report, and I am concerned that we are now in a cycle of throwing good money after bad.