Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2019

Floor Speech

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Mr. BROWN of Maryland. Mr. Chairman, I rise before you today to offer my amendment No. 24 to the fiscal year 2019 Department of Defense Appropriations Act.

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Mr. BROWN of Maryland. Mr. Chairman, in the proposed NDAA, the chief managing officer of the Department of Defense is to develop a plan no later than March 1, 2020, to transition certain functions and services from the Defense Information Systems Agency, or DISA, to other elements of the DOD.

My amendment on which I worked closely with my friend and colleague from Maryland, Congressman Ruppersberger, prevents funds from executing this change. In fact, the administration has objected to this change in the NDAA because it would ``weaken the Department's ability to secure its cyber networks and inhibit DISA's mission to provide seamless communication to warfighters and senior leaders.''

While our men and women, Mr. Chairman, in uniform focus on defending our values abroad, DISA is constantly managing the information network that supports our entire defense apparatus and fighting for American interests on the global stage.

DISA's primary mission is to secure our network infrastructure for our warfighters and intelligence and security agencies. The question regarding DISA's fate has never been asked or answered by this Congress nor the Pentagon.

While I commend the effort to find efficiencies within the Department of Defense, it remains unclear what would happen to DISA's missions and functions if the measures in the NDAA were executed.

According to retired Lieutenant General Harry Raduege, who served as DISA Director from 2000 to 2005, he said: ``We have looked at reorganizing DISA in the past, disestablishing it, but the missions are going to have to be performed somewhere.''

DISA is an agency where numerous other functions from other agencies have been folded in over time, and the operations include global missions, such as commercial satellite communications, leasing for all of the military, secure communications for the White House and other senior government and government leaders, support to the Joint Staff, and disaster response communications.

Over the years, many missions and activities that even today are relatively unknown have been transferred to DISA because everyone has been looking to increase efficiencies and effectiveness.

By eliminating DISA, Congress may be increasing the costs, manpower requirements, and cyber risks that can be better managed via a shared services approach currently envisioned by DISA.

Mr. Chairman, I thank the committee chair and the entire committee for consideration of the amendment. Let's support our warfighters and help them focus on the threats that we face today.

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Mr. BROWN of Maryland. Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.

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