WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC), U.S. Senator Angus King questioned three witnesses about the adverse impact of the Republican-led House and Senate not passing annual federal spending bills on military capability and production. During the hearing, Senator King spoke with David Berteau, the President and Chief Executive Office of the Professional Services Council; Dr. Christine Michienzi, the former Senior Technology Advisor to the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment; and Dr. John McGinn, the Executive Director of the Greg and Camille Baroni Center for Government Contracting at George Mason University’s Costello College of Business.

The exchange comes as Congress has struggled to negotiate a federal spending law that would pass with bipartisan support and be approved by the White House. Now, with less than 10 days to avert a government shutdown, Congressional appropriators are pursuing a continuing resolution that would temporarily fund the government at the previous year’s levels — therefore not adding new policies or investments that the military needs.

“Could we all agree that continuing resolutions absolutely are not part of the solution to this problem,” asked Senator King.

“Franklin Roosevelt did not face a single continuing resolution in the entire buildup to World War II and the entire execution thereof,” replied Berteau.

“I concur,” said Dr. McGinn.

“I concur,” echoed Dr. Michienzi.

“All of you agree with that. That is one of the difficulties we are in now. It creates all kinds of downstream in the industrial base and preparation. Thank you for that. Let the record show, continuing resolutions are not the way to do business, particularly in the defense area,” said Senator King. “All of you have mentioned something very interesting which is allies are part of the solution. It concerns me that we are embarked on a course that is not encouraging to our allies, and in some cases poking our allies in the eye. Talk to me about the importance of allies in dealing with the production necessary for significant conflict whether it is Japan, U.K., Canada, or other countries.”

“Our allies are a key part of our industrial base. We have a number of agreements and collaborative programs. The largest fighter program in the world, the F-35, we have a dozen partner countries I believe,” responded Dr. McGinn. 

“We cannot do this by ourselves, correct,” asked Senator King. “All of you are nodding, could you say yes? They don't show up in the transcript.” 

“Yes,” Berteau, Dr. Michienzi and Dr. McGinn agreed unanimously.

A member of the Senate Armed Services Committee and the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Senator King is recognized as an authoritative voice on national security and foreign policy issues who has also been named a “fiscal hero” by government watchdogs for responsible spending. Senator King has previously urged the Department of Defense (DoD) to take advantage of private sector technologies or risk losing access to innovative defense technologies and encouraged the (DoD) to reevaluate its acquisition process of defense technologies.

###