Calvert Remarks at FY27 Defense Bill Full Committee Markup (As Prepared for Delivery)

First, I would like to thank Chairman Cole for his leadership and guidance throughout the Fiscal Year 2027 process. It is quite a remarkable feat to have all twelve full committee markups completed before July 4th.  Thank you, Chairman Cole, and congratulations on a job well done to get to this point.

I would also like to thank the distinguished Ranking Member, Ms. McCollum, along with the full committee Ranking Member, Ms. DeLauro, for their efforts and partnership over many years. I greatly value their inputs to ensure we produce a bill that will support our men and women serving in harm’s way. 

The Fiscal Year 2027 Department of Defense Appropriations Act provides a total discretionary allocation of one trillion, seventy-two billion ($1.072 trillion). It provides funding for a host of programs and platforms that are vital to our national security.  This bill enhances America’s strategic military advantage; strengthens support for service members and military families; optimizes the Department of Defense; and disrupts transnational drug trafficking.

The bill before us represents a historic and overdue investment in national security at a critical inflection point given the current threat environment.  As the United States faces enormous and complex technological, industrial, economic, and diplomatic challenges, the nation must navigate an increasingly contested security environment with persistent threats across every domain.  It is imperative that the Armed Forces, and our entire national security apparatus, are sufficiently equipped to dominate any battlespace, deter conflict when possible, and adapt to rapidly evolving threats. 

This bill reflects a thoughtful commitment to meet the challenge and pace of progress presented by adversaries and competitors to the nation. 

To this end, the bill supports the President’s budget request to appropriately prioritize critical modernization efforts.  Numerous next generation weapon systems are advancing through various stages of development, including sixth-generation air dominance platforms, hypersonic weapons, and unmanned systems. Priority investments also include aggressive shipbuilding and aircraft procurement; integrated command and control systems; long range fires; air and missile defense; advanced autonomous systems; and enhanced counter-drone systems. 

Among the most critical are the components of the nuclear triad, all undergoing concurrent upgrade and replacement.  The land, sea, and air strategic forces have not been modernized in decades, with critical systems nearing the end of their reliable service lives.  This bill includes resources to drive the Sentinel program, the Columbia-class program, and the B-21 Raider toward timely success.

This recommendation also prioritizes the “high ground” in space.  The race for presence, situational awareness, influence, and ultimately dominance in the space domain has not only arrived, but it is continually intensifying.  The Space Force has made remarkable progress in maturing into a true warfighting service, accelerating the delivery of critical capabilities, and prioritizing resilience across its architecture.  This bill makes critical investments in space and ground architectures, consistent with the President’s budget request, with robust funding in space launch, missile warning, satellite communications, and global positioning. 

Similarly, the extraordinary advancement of artificial intelligence has become a critical new arena of competition, essential to both national and economic security.  This technology presents unprecedented new opportunities and efficiencies that are already being realized.  Additionally, the rapid advancement of artificial intelligence poses significant national security threats.  We must remain actively engaged in all these areas. 

This bill continues recent years’ prioritization of innovation.  The recommendation equips the Department with funding and authority to support new entrants in the national security industrial base.  In conjunction with the Administration’s efforts, it creates expedited processes to support and reward innovation and risk-taking, incentivize private investment in the expansion of production capacity, and expand research and development capacity.  The unprecedented resources recommended in this bill will ensure the Department and its industry partners can continue to accelerate innovation, create new economies of scale, and increase output to help meet the challenges and threats that have already arrived along with those emerging in the coming years. 

Accelerated development and production of munitions, for example, has been a shared priority for both the Department and the Committee.  The bill recommends more than $30 billion in discretionary funding for munitions procurement.  Last year, we provided multiyear procurement authority for eight munitions in order to incentivize private investment in production capacity, drive down unit costs, and signal to the defense industrial base greater stability and predictability.  Unfortunately, the funding that is required to execute the multiyear procurement authority that was provided in Fiscal Year 2026 was requested largely as mandatory funding in the President’s budget request for Fiscal Year 2027.

We all know, as proud members of the Appropriations Committee, that mandatory funding is provided through a separate reconciliation process that is uncertain and unaligned with the annual appropriations cycle, and outside the jurisdiction of this Committee.  Rather than using the reconciliation process as a tool to scale up and accelerate investments beyond the base budget, the mandatory request includes funding for several critical efforts, such as munitions, which should have been built into the base discretionary request.  The two legislative vehicles are on entirely separate tracks, with different timelines, committees of jurisdiction, and approval processes.  This approach is risky and uncoordinated. 

This bill also fully funds military personnel requirements, including the proposed service member pay raise and over $43 billion for the Military Health Program.  In addition, it includes over $25 billion in investments supporting the President’s Golden Dome for America initiative; over $30 billion for depot maintenance efforts; over $20 billion for facility sustainment, restoration, and modernization; over $4 billion for defense security cooperation efforts; and over $1.2 billion for drug interdiction and counter-drug activities. 

Finally, I would like to end my remarks with a note of sincere thanks to the staff. I would like to thank Ben Walters and Mary O’Brien with the Government Publishing Office, along with the entire team with G-P-O who helped edit and format throughout the process and has helped us produce a searchable report for the first time. I would also like to thank Andrea Conine and the team from the Congressional Budget Office.  I would like to thank Brendan Gallagher and the team with the House Office of the Legislative Counsel.  And I would like to thank Eric Jackson for his support throughout. 

I would like to especially thank the subcommittee majority staff starting with our clerk, Adam Sullivan, along with Colleen, Dan, Adam, Kyle, Keri Lyn, Max, Gina, Keaton, Jackie, Ariana, and Taylor; and my personal office team of Rebecca, Danny, Will, and Jeremy.  And lastly, my thanks once again to my partner on this bill, the Ranking Member, Ms. Collum, and her staff, Jennifer, Ed, and Jason. Their hard work has produced a bill that I think we should all be proud to support.

This is a bill that invests wisely to meet our obligations to the warfighter and to keep this nation safe from ever-growing threats. In all, this bill meets the nation’s most pressing national security imperatives, reflects dedicated stewardship of taxpayer funds, and will help ensure the United States meets the next 250 years in strength and safety. With that, I yield back.