This S&T ecosystem is charged with delivering the best capabilities to the warfighter in the near, mid and long term.

I would like to thank the committee. You have given some additional funds in 2018, $20 million, which allowed us to burn back 25 percent of our backlog in minor MILCON, which was really powerful for the labs, and we have taken full…

Now more than ever, our science and technology enterprise plays a strategic role that is fundamental to our national and economic security.

We must do more to educate, inform, and protect our defense innovation ecosystem from these threats...

We cannot allow our own bureaucracy to constrain the services from acquiring new technologies...

To say it another way, normalizing for inflation and labor cost escalation, this S&T budget has effectively been shrinking for years.

I ask that you follow up on the questions I posed at the end, and other members may have questions that they will submit for the record.

The subcommittee will come to order. I want to welcome everyone to today's hearing on the fiscal year 2020 President's budget request for the Department of Defense science and technology programs.

I thank the ranking member. I want to thank all of our witnesses for your testimony today.

We must invest in it, and we must also protect it.

Thank you, Ranking Member Stefanik. I want to thank you for your remarks.

The INDOPACOM region remains one of the most natural disaster-prone areas in the world, and I am concerned that our bases and installations in the region may not be appropriately postured for the threat posed by climate change.

How are you working with the interagency on programs that address the underlying conditions of terrorism?

How are you ensuring that countering violent extremism activities in your AOR do not perpetuate and aggravate the underlying conditions that so often lead to extremism?

Do you agree that climate change poses a threat to our readiness, to our ability to achieve military objectives?

I continue to remain concerned about overreliance on SOF, and we want to make sure we get that balance right.

We are just going to be throwing good money after bad if we are repairing bases or building new bases and not factoring in the changing weather patterns and seriousness of climate change.

On another topic, I am concerned about the resilience of Navy and Marine Corps bases, in particular, due to the effects of climate change and rising sea levels.

It is a frightening phenomenon known as unregulated, child-custody transfers, or UCT, also known colloquially as rehoming.

I am proud to co-chair the Foster Youth Caucus with Congresswoman Karen Bass.

It is important for it to have full support and full resourcing.

bipartisanship isn't dead

Anytime that our enemies or adversaries do something that goes unanswered, I think it just emboldens them further.

And I think we are going to see more and more of this conflict in the gray zone below the threshold of armed conflict.

However, the connections that we rely on also create vulnerabilities and new potential avenues for our adversaries to exploit at our Nation's expense.