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1 (2014)

handle is hein.cbhear/fdsysabtz0001 and id is 1 raw text is: AUT-ENTICATED U.S. GOVERNMENT INFORMATION GP DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE APPROPRIATIONS FOR FISCAL YEAR 2015 WEDNESDAY, MARCH 5, 2014 U.S. SENATE, SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS, Washington, DC. The subcommittee met at 9:58 a.m., in room SD-192, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Hon. Richard Durbin (chairman) presiding. Present: Senators Durbin, Feinstein, Cochran, and Shelby. NATIONAL SECURITY SPACE LAUNCH PROGRAMS STATEMENT OF CRISTINA CHAPLAIN, DIRECTOR, ACQUISITION AND SOURCING MANAGEMENT, GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY OF- FICE OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR RICHARD J. DURBIN Senator DURBIN. Good morning, and welcome to this meeting of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee. We're going to start a minute or two early, which is unprecedented in the Senate because we have votes scheduled, and I want to try to get as much testi- mony in as possible before we might have to break for a vote, should that occurrence arise soon. So I'll make my opening state- ment. I want to acknowledge at the beginning that Senator Coch- ran is not late; no one is late at this point. I'm starting a minute or two in advance. Today, the defense subcommittee will receive testimony on na- tional security space launches, with a focus on the Evolved Expend- able Launch Vehicle, or the EELV, program. Our questions expose some of the core tradeoffs in defense policy and highlight several challenges we face as a Nation. What is the best use of taxpayers' money? How do we promote and reward innovation? How do we safeguard the viability of our industrial base? How do we protect our competitive edge against other nations? We'll return to these questions and many others throughout the year as we review the President's fiscal year 2015 defense budget, which we received just this week. Today, we discuss the EELV program, which was created almost 20 years ago when the costs and risks of launching satellites were out of control. EELV missions launch the most important satellites developed by the Air Force, National Reconnaissance Office, and the Navy, not to mention NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) and a fewer number of commercial customers. (1)