WASHINGTON, DC - U.S. Senator Daniel K. Akaka, Chairman of the Armed Services Subcommittee on Readiness and Management Support, delievered the following speech today on the floor of the United States Senate: 

     Mr. President, I rise today to urge my colleagues to set aside bipartisan differences and vote in favor of the Motion to Proceed to the National Defense Authorization Act.  This bill is critically important to ensuring that our troops have the equipment and support that they need in order to fulfill their mission.  Voting against the motion to proceed would have significant consequences for the men and women who have made so many sacrifices for this nation as well as their families.  It would mean delays in pay increases, delays in benefits and delays in authorities that are necessary to train and equip our soldiers.  This bill also authorizes the military construction projects that directly affect the quality of life of our armed service members by giving them new, safer, more effective facilities to work in. Under the leadership of Chairman Levin, the Armed Services Committee has produced a carefully crafted bill that addresses the many complex issues facing today's military.  This includes language in direct support of our Armed Service members and their families such as a 3.9 percent pay raise.

     Over the last six years, continuous combat operations have put a severe strain on our nation's military capabilities. Consequently, one of the primary goals of this year's bill was to focus on restoring the readiness of our troops.  As Chairman of the Subcommittee on Readiness, I worked very closely with Ranking Member Thune on the readiness, acquisition policy, and military construction portions of this bill that are under the jurisdiction of my subcommittee.  I would like to take this opportunity to thank Senator Thune for his hard work and cooperation during the markup of this bill.  It was my privilege to work with him to advance the readiness of our armed forces.  I would also like to thank our personal staff members and the professional staff of the committees for their efforts in particular Peter Levine, Mike McCord, Bill Sutey, Lucian Niemeyer, Greg Kiley, and Chris Paul.

     The Readiness subcommittee has a broad mandate of policy oversight as well as jurisdiction over a substantial part of the DOD budget. In addition, it is responsible for the readiness and operation and maintenance provisions that support the essential requirements of the military services for the next fiscal year for the cost of normal operations.  However, our goal remains simple - to maintain and, wherever possible, improve the readiness of our military.  Altogether, this bill contains $162 billion for the programs within the jurisdiction of the Readiness subcommittee, which represents over 30 percent of the DOD budget.  That amount is within one quarter of one percent of the amount requested.  I believe that all of us are concerned that our military forces have what they need to be trained and ready, but we are particularly concerned about the readiness of our ground forces. This bill fully funds the Army and Marine Corps readiness accounts including their training and equipment maintenance request.  With respect to revitalizing our defense facilities, this bill invests an additional $413 million above the budget request in our infrastructure to repair or replace our aging defense facilities and improve the quality of life and the productivity of our military. These military construction projects require both an authorization and an appropriation.  I urge the Senate to pass both these important pieces of legislation - this authorization bill and the Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriation bill - as soon as possible.

     This year's Defense authorization bill also addresses the need for increased oversight of the Department of Defense's acquisition programs and activities to ensure that taxpayer dollars are well spent and not wasted.  For example:  

• This bill requires DOD to establish ethics standards to prevent personal conflicts of interest by contractor employees who perform acquisition functions on behalf of DOD.
• This bill ensures that private security contractors do not perform inherently governmental functions in an area of combat operations. It codifies existing DOD standards, under which security operations are inherently governmental, if they will be performed in highly hazardous public areas where the risks are uncertain.
• This bill prohibits contractor employees from conducting interrogations of detainees during or in the aftermath of hostilities. The provision has an effective date one year after the date of enactment, to give DOD time to comply.
• This bill requires the military departments to ensure that urgent requirements documents developed by operational field commanders are presented to senior officials for review within 60 days of the time they are submitted. This is a response to reports that Marine Corps leadership failed to respond to requests for Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles, known as MRAPs, and other critical equipment for several years.
• This bill codifies the requirement for boards to review and approve (or disapprove) any new requirements that could add to the costs of a major weapon system.
• This bill requires DOD to ensure that a contractor does not receive a competitive advantage by using foreign subsidiaries to avoid the payment of U.S. payroll taxes for its workers.
• This bill requires DOD to establish a database of information regarding the integrity and contract performance of contractors, to ensure that this information is available to acquisition officials making key contracting decisions.
• This bill requires DOD to take steps to ensure that contractor employees who are the victims of sexual assault and other crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan receive the help they need and the investigative assistance they deserve.
• This bill requires the military departments to establish Business Transformation Offices to serve as a central focus for the reform of their business and financial systems and processes.
• This bill ensures that the chief lawyer for the DOD Inspector General, or IG, serves at the discretion of the IG and reports only to the IG.

     It is my hope that the Senate will strongly support these provisions.

     In addition to working to improve the readiness of our troops as Chairman of the Readiness Committee, I was pleased in my role as Chairman of the Veterans Affairs Committee to work to include language in this bill that will improve care for this nation's wounded warriors. One such provision responds to the need for comprehensive care for wounded warriors and their families by requiring the Secretary of Defense to provide referrals for legal assistance when appropriate in order to help with legal issues related to long term care needs. The necessity to encourage and promote the treatment of service related injuries was also addressed in this bill through the authorization of a pilot program to assess treatment approaches for all forms of traumatic brain injury and the establishment of a center of excellence for the treatment and rehabilitation of traumatic extremity injuries and amputations.  In order to ensure that the Department of Defense and Department of Veterans Affairs continue to carefully coordinate these efforts to improve the process for the care, management and transition of wounded and ill service members, this year's bill also provides for a three year extension of the Senior Oversight Committee.

     Let me end by restating how vitally important it is for us to move forward with the debate of this bill.  A little over three weeks ago, I attended the deployment ceremony for the members of the Hawaii Army National Guard's 29th Infantry Brigade Combat Team who are headed to Kuwait in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom for their second deployment.  It was my great honor and privilege to say goodbye to these soldiers who are leaving their homes, their jobs and their families in order to fulfill their commitment to defend and protect our nation.  I would remind my friends and colleagues that we have also made a commitment.  A commitment to work together to pass a bill that provides our troops with everything they need to come home safely. The first step in this process is to pass this motion to proceed so that we can begin debate on this very important bill. 

Thank you Mr. President.