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Carter Fights for First District Military Installations in Budget Discussions

Washington, April 10, 2019
Congressman Earl L. "Buddy" Carter (R-Ga.) testified before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense today to highlight the need to fully support the military installations in the First District of Georgia during fiscal year 2020 budget discussions.


Highlights

Kings Bay: "Kings Bay is home to the Atlantic ballistic missile submarine fleet and I’ve seen firsthand the dedication of the sailors and their families here. The Ohio-class submarines play a crucial role in nuclear deterrence, but they will soon be reaching the end of their life cycle. In order to make sure we have nuclear deterrence, I support robust funding for the Columbia-class program to ensure the timely development and deployment of our nuclear submarine fleet.

Additionally, we are looking at the retirement of the SSGNs, they currently provide the largest undersea strike capability for non-nuclear launches. This is very important, and they have certainly served an integral role across the globe, but we need to know how those will be replaced and how that will impact the nation’s submarine basing decisions. The Virginia Payload Module is a cost-effective way to preserve our undersea strike capability and offset the loss of our guided missile subs.  And it’s for that reason that I have submitted language that would direct the Department of Defense to explore and deploy a plan that would determine how those will be fully replaced in the future and how those basing decisions will be made and where."

Moody Air Force Base: "There’s no question about the A-10’s capabilities and what they are able to do and their survivability. Again, I’m submitting a request to fully fund the A-10 platform and any upgrades including wing replacements."

Mitigating Extreme Weather Events: "Also, the ability of our military installations to properly mitigate extreme weather events to increase training opportunities is essential to the ability of our Armed Forces to maximize readiness. This is especially important in our district. As you know, we’ve had a number of extreme weather events in South Georgia, certainly with Hurricane Irma, with Hurricane Michael, Hurricane Matthew, all of those have had an influence. We’ve had fires, we had the West Mims fire, all of the natural disasters that are happening are really impacting this. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Engineer Research and Development Center performs essential installation assessments that allow Garrison Commanders to better determine how to maximize their resources in support of soldiers. And by allocating proper funding to this account, we can better understand how to fully utilize the tools available to ensure the military is fully prepared. I want to reiterate the importance of this again. We’ve had a number of natural disasters in this area, and this is extremely important."