Political Quotes

“I include in the Record the letter from Under Secretary of Defense Michael McCord that I quoted from earlier. Under Secretary of Defense, Washington, DC, March 20, 2023. Hon. Pramila Jayapal, House of Representatives, Washington, DC. Dear Representative Jayapal: I am responding on behalf of Secretary Austin to your letter of January 31, 2023, regarding the submission of unfunded priorities lists (UPLs) to Congress. The Department appreciates your sustained commitment to our service members, their families, and our entire work force. We are grateful for your leadership, and we share your commitment to maximizing the impact of every dollar Congress appropriates. The practice of senior military leaders providing to Congress a list of unfunded priorities was initiated by Congress, first as a request and, since 2017, as a statutory requirement. This process was created by Congress and we agree the Congress should reconsider the merits of this approach. Every Department of Defense (DoD) budget supervised and submitted by Secretary Austin is built to implement his National Defense Strategy and represents the Department's highest priorities. The current statutory practice of having multiple individual senior leaders submit priorities for additional funding absent the benefit of weighing costs and benefits across the Department is not an effective way to illuminate our top joint priorities.…”