Ranking Member Kim Opening Statement for Military Personnel Subcommittee Hearing on "Meritocracy in the Military Services: Accession, Promotion, and Command Selection"

Statement

"Like the Chairman, I'm looking forward to hearing from today's witnesses.

I believe all of us in this room want the same thing. We want the strongest possible military to defend our nation. That goal requires the best leaders to step up and lead this military.

In pursuit of this absolute need, we need a process of accession, retention and promotion that is fair and transparent, and based on skill and merit.

All of us want and demand a meritocratic system. But let us keep in mind that meritocratic means weighing both quantitative and qualitative qualities. There is no solely quantitative way to identify the best leaders.

Academic achievement and tactical proficiency are easy to measure --

…You either have a degree or you don't;

…You're either a marksman or an expert with your assigned rifle.

But assessing and defining factors such as leadership, character, and integrity cannot be perfectly reduced to a number.

I'm interested in hearing from our witnesses how they assess those hard to measure attributes across the spectrum of service -- how we recruit, how we retain, and how we decide to promote our service members.
I also hope to hear our witnesses' insights on what improvements we need to make so our processes work as intended.

I hope Congress and the Department of Defense make every effort to encourage service by people from all types of backgrounds.

We should work together to foster a culture that encourages and rewards excellence, creativity, innovation, and critical thinking so our military can continue to meet emerging challenges around the globe.

As I close, I also have to say that our desire for the promotion of the best military leaders should also encompass the need for Congress to fulfill its role in this process.

Holding up military promotions is not the right way to make a political point. I hope all of us in this room can agree that our national security is vital and the threats we face are real. We need fully qualified leaders in their jobs doing the work to secure our nation.

We ask a lot of our service members, now we need to make sure they know we are supporting them and their mission.

Thank you to the witnesses again for being here and I yield the balance of my time."

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