Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2016

Floor Speech

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Mr. BARR. I thank the chairman for yielding.

I rise today to echo the concerns expressed by my colleague across the aisle from Minnesota in concern for our Nation's warfighters and our military base.

As you know, the FY15 NDAA authorized and the FY15 Defense Appropriations bill provided $80 million for a body armor industrial base initiative in the Army's operations and maintenance program. However, the U.S. Army is not properly utilizing the appropriated funds in the manner Congress intended.

Congress has been clear on this matter. Report language for both the FY15 and FY16 Defense Appropriations measure demonstrates that the importance of body armor is critical to protecting our soldiers in combat.

Because of the Army's repurposing of these funds at odds with congressional intent and the safety of our troops, the Army and the U.S. body armor industry will lose the unique capability critical for meeting high-tech U.S. lightweight body armor standards.

After the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, we must rehabilitate and replace used body armor to ensure the readiness and the safety of our troops in the field if they are called to serve in another conflict.

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Mr. BARR. If we do not act now to ensure that the body armor industrial base is able to continue the development and manufacturing of more advanced lightweight body armor, there will not be a capable body armor industrial base left in the future to fund.

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Mr. BARR. Mr. Chair, I want to thank the gentlewoman from Minnesota for her leadership on this issue and partnership in supporting this important and critical mission of our military to make sure that the United States warfighter in combat has the most advanced, lightweight body armor available to protect that soldier in the field against the enemy, and we must act now to make sure that the U.S. Army does what is the intent of the Congress.

As the gentlewoman pointed out, despite the fact that Congress has been clear on this matter, despite the fact that report language for both the FY15 and FY16 Defense Appropriations measures recognize the importance of lightweight body armor protecting soldiers in combat, we encouraged the Secretary of the Army to ensure that the body armor industrial base was able to continue the development and manufacture of more advanced body armor by implementing the body armor modernization through a replenishment program.

Despite all of that, despite the articulation of the clear will of this body, the Army has not used and deployed the funds appropriated properly, and the Department of Defense was at odds because the Army did not deploy the resources appropriated until, or expressed the intent of not deploying those resources until the end of the fiscal year.

What this amendment will do is make sure that congressional intent is honored, make sure that the armor industrial base is properly maintained, and most importantly and most critically, when our men and women are called into combat to defend liberty and freedom, that we give them the tools that they need to keep them safe and carry out their mission with victory and honor.

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