Considerable effort has been made to implement these reforms and establish the enabling mechanisms. They are in place and working.

Clarification of the relationship amongst the combatant commanders, the Services, the Chairman of the JCS, and the NCA. That clarification has allowed appropriate military advice to reach the NCA while solidifying operational command and control from the NCA to the CINCs and from the CINCs to Service components for joint operations.

Goldwater-Nichols has served the Defense Department well since 1986. I don’t anticipate any DoD sponsored legislative proposals in the foreseeable future.

I expect to have a sound working relationship with the Secretary, Under Secretary, other Assistant Secretaries and General Counsel of the Air Force. In order to carry out my statutory and assigned responsibilities, it will be necessary for me to deal directly and frequently with these officials. I will cooperate fully with them and their offices to achieve efficient administration of the Department of the Air Force and to carry out effectively the authority, direction, and control of the Secretary of the Air Force.

I will work closely with my OSD and Service counterparts to develop policies and procedures that impact upon the mission of the Department of Defense. Together, we will develop strategies for responding to short and long term department goals, address current issues, and prepare reports to Congress.

I will provide counsel and guidance to members of the Headquarters staff. We will jointly develop and evaluate policies and programs that benefit our total force personnel. We will ensure that information is current and communications is a two-way venture that encourages open discussions on all relevant facts that affect the recruitment, retention, and readiness of the workforce.

If I am confirmed, I understand that Acting Secretary Peters will assign me general responsibilities of providing guidance, direction and oversight of all matters pertaining to formulation, review and execution of plans, policies, programs, and budgets relative to:

In my opinion, the major challenges are as follows:

Enhance the total Air Force team through full integration of active duty, guard, reserve, civilians and contractors.

Provide for our Air Force men and women a decent quality of life that is commensurate with that of the citizens they protect and defend. The quality of life issues I will emphasize include: adequate housing, compensation and pay; personal and family counseling; affordable and accessible community support services; educational benefits, and medical care.

Enforce the Air Force "zero tolerance" policies for drug abuse, racial and gender discrimination, and sexual harassment.

Embrace the business revolution through best business practices. However, ensure the Air Force doesn’t contract away it’s "Sense of Community" during outsourcing and privatization efforts.

Focus on people as our most valued resource and providing them with the necessary support.

Continue the emphasis on quality of life initiatives that affect retention for active, guard, reserve and civilians. In addition, advocate reduced OPSTEMPO for both deployed and home-station members.

Retention along with the process of properly balancing modernization and readiness issues with quality of life issues.

After consultation with the functional area experts, time tables will be established to address each issue. However, I will immediately begin to examine the problem and seek plausible solutions through examining existing reports, and reviewing budgets and manpower authorizations currently being programmed. I would expect to have a grasp of the problem and possible solutions within my first three months on the job.

We support the Secretary of Defense’s request for additional rounds of base closure and realignment. That proposal presents the best approach for bringing military infrastructure in line with missions and force structure - optimizing the parameters of readiness. The Air Force’s strategic direction for basing serves as a model to reduce excess capacity in support of a future surge capacity. It does this by aligning strategic basing criteria with military utility and the operational readiness requirements anticipated in the next century. Excess capacity is a draw on resources and therefore degrades readiness. As we have drawn back from overseas bases, we anticipate deploying our forces overseas to meet wartime requirements and therefore do not anticipate a surge problem when we eliminate our excess capacity. We also must retain an appropriate mix of strategically located bases, providing the capability to respond when and where needed.

The Air Force has been a leader in promoting private sector development on its under-utilized property. We will continue to look for ways to leverage the value of

Air Force property to the satisfaction of both the Air Force and the private sector. However, I must reiterate: this is not in lieu of further rounds of (BRAC), rather, a way to offset the cost of maintaining infrastructure we cannot divest without BRAC authority. There are opportunities for leasing that could shift the burden of facility management to the private sector as long as they are consistent with the installation’s inherent military mission. Except for at our depots, this is not a good long term solution. New depot partnering legislation provides additional benefits for industry/government infrastructure cost sharing. These partnership arrangements will help us to efficiently use the capacity at the depots.

None. We would not enter into dual use agreements which impede Air Force operations.

Military family housing is an important compensation benefit for our members and their families. We do not have sufficient numbers of units available to meet the demand and many of our houses are in need of repair. Plans are to increase the inventory of housing and to repair as many units as possible on an annual basis. It will be necessary to partner with industry to accelerate home improvement projects. We will also privatize housing construction to maximum extent viable while maintaining cost containment for our families.

First, as noted above, family housing is neither a management nor maintenance burden to the Air Force, it’s an investment we make in Quality of Life to ensure we’ll have enhanced recruiting, retention, and readiness. We support privatization of military family housing at locations that are economically feasible and in the best interest of the Air Force and our people.

The Air Force is developing a Family Housing Master Plan that should be completed in Dec 98. In the short term, it is necessary for us to retain ownership in management of houses within our inventory. We currently have plans to build-to- lease several family housing projects. These privatization initiatives include a demonstration project at Lackland AFB later this year. Solicitation for Robins AFB is expected to be awarded in Jan 99. Additionally, five remaining projects are in various stages of development. These include Dyess, Elmendorf, Kirtland, Mt Home, and Peterson AFBs.

I firmly support the "One plus One" barracks standard. It is important that troops have privacy in their sleeping quarters to relieve the stress of intense and long work days. Our troops have told us in many surveys that privacy is their number one concern in dormitory living. Getting a good nights sleep and having the ability to relax without interruption, no doubt contributes to readiness and improves safety.

My past and current positions have provided me a solid foundation and background to successfully serve in this position. I have been involved in developing and implementing manpower and human resource policy and programs for the past 18 years. I also served 16 months as a professional staffer in the United States Senate. I have experience in military personnel, civilian personnel, health affairs, morale, welfare and recreation programs, family and community resource programs, child care, family advocacy, and other quality of life programs. Additionally, I serve on the Air Force Board in budget preparations for the Air Force, and coordinate on installations and environmental issues. I also plan and oversee mobilization plans for Reserve and Guard personnel.

For the past five years, I have worked many critical issues that have helped us achieve the most ready and able Air and Space Force in history. I have traveled extensively to over 60 bases and spoken with thousands of airmen and their families. They’ve shared their concerns about benefits erosion and the high level of OPSTEMPO for those on deployments and those who stay at home base. I have been a successful advocate for quality of life and transition assistance programs that enable us to recruit, retain, and separate our mighty fighting force.

This is a good news story--we take every opportunity to get the word out to the officer force. Officers not normally associated with the promotion process sit on boards and share their firsthand experience with others. We encourage officers--over 400 last year alone--to go back to their home bases and tell others about their experiences. We also bring young officers from all over the Air Force, from many different specialties and areas of expertise, into the Promotion Board Room to act as Administrative Assistants on the promotion boards (50 last year). Again, the goal is to allow them to share their views, as non-vested observers of the process, with other young officers on the flight-lines, in the missile silos, or at the desks and computer terminals throughout the Air Force. I believe these efforts provide a high degree of confidence within our officer corps.

Proposals to reduce payments or require a contributory system to present and future retirees--whether enacted or not--undermine the confidence of career-minded members in the system and lessen the "pull" of the MRS. The retirement system must be perceived as "non-negotiable" by our members to maximize its value as a recruiting and retention tool. When the reductions of the 1980s cut future retirement outlays, they also significantly cut the retention value of that system.

The Air Force will work with OSD to comply with the NDAA report language to examine the "effect on retention of the retirement changes [High-3 and MRRA]…and assess the need to restore the value of military retirement." Restoring the retention value of the military retirement system is expensive. With the help of the DoD Actuary, we estimate that to move all of our members currently in the least generous MRRA plan up to the High-3 plan would cost DoD an additional $808M annually. In the near term, we believe preservation and stability are the keys to maximizing the retention value of the MRS.

Yes, to some degree. While current data do not reflect a significant problem, indications are that military pay coupled with other factors (Tempo/QoL/health care/retirement system), are impacting readiness and retention. Once again I point to the 11% drop in second term reenlistment rates from FY93 (82%) to FY97 (71%). In the recent Quality of Life (QoL) Survey, when asked if military pay was fair, only 48% of the officers and 21% of the enlisted force surveyed responded positively. With the help of Congress, the Air Force continues to address the need to provide fair and equitable compensation. We are very pleased with the Congressional Authorization Committees’ vote for a 3.6% pay increase for FY99. However, we must continue to work together to address pay and compensation issues in order to positively impact retention and readiness.

We certainly need to review our basic compensation system and strike a balance between higher rates of base pay, special pays, and bonuses, although no adjustments should be made at the expense of basic pay. Incentive pays were instituted in response to specific manning problems and the need to properly balance technical expertise and experience across the force. A decade of yearly pay caps at a half percent below the employment cost index, increased TEMPO, the Military Retirement Reform Act, closure or curtailment of Military Treatment Facilities and conversion to TRICARE, and a strong economic environment, have all played key roles in driving the requirement to find remedies to sustain recruitment and retention for various specialties. As a result:

- The Services currently use 44 different special and incentive pays

- Over 40% of the active force receive one or more special and incentive pays

- Growth of special and incentive pays and allowances plus certain tax advantages, have relegated basic pay to only about two-thirds of an enlisted member’s compensation

Yes. I concur with the language in the committee report, in that the participants can gain valuable insight into the workings of the federal government and that this experience can benefit the services when the member returns. We are presently answering the bi-annual update to the DoD audit that was conducted last summer. I certainly will review the department’s actions and will provide you with an assessment.

I can only answer for the Air Force. There is a strict selection process for both military and civilian personnel who are selected as Legislative Fellows. For military personnel they are identified as candidates when they are selected for promotion to major. Then, their records meet a selection board for the various schools/fellowships ( part of Professional Military Education selection). Civilians’ applications also go through a rigorous board process. The Air Force makes every effort to assign individuals to positions where the individual’s knowledge and expertise can be utilized effectively. For example, two of our recent graduates in positions requiring legislative expertise, one works in the SAF Legislative Liaison Office and one is working legislative issues for our Deputy, Chief of Staff Operations.

The quality of the experience as a congressional staff member might be degraded if Legislative Fellows were required to wear their uniform. The program allows officers to function as integral parts of various members’ staff. A uniform would definitely identify them as separate and apart from the "normal" staff. Our goal is

Yes