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Good morning. I want to thank you all for being here today for this hearing to review the budget and programs at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. We are pleased to be joined by the Secretary of Agriculture, Brooke Rollins. Welcome, Madam Secretary.

Thank you, Chairman Calvert and Ranking Member McCollum. This hearing could not come at a more consequential time. The global security landscape has only continued to grow more complex and volatile. Among those challenges before us are ongoing operations in the Central Command theater, and a pacing threat in the Indo-Pacific that does not pause while our focus may be elsewhere.

It is my pleasure to welcome Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works Adam Telle and Chief of Engineers Lieutenant General Butch Graham to discuss the Fiscal Year 2027 budget request for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. I am equally pleased to welcome Assistant Secretary for Water Science at the Department of the Interior Andrea Travnicek to discuss the Fiscal Year 2027 budget request for the Bureau of Reclamation and Central Utah Project. General Graham, it is great to see you again in front of the Energy and Water Subcommittee. Assistant Secretary Telle and Assistant Secretary Travnicek, it is a pleasure to have you here before us for the first time. I look forward to working with you to advance our nation’s water resources for the benefit of all Americans.

Today, the Subcommittee will receive testimony on the posture of the United States Army. First, I would like to welcome our two witnesses: Secretary of the Army Daniel Driscoll, and General Christopher LaNeve, the Acting Chief of Staff and Vice Chief of Staff of the Army.