I freshly had the opportunity to carry disclosed what I consider to be single of the most important responsibilities I have to Sailors as the Master Chief diminutive Officer of the Navy--testifying onward their behalf to the United States Congres My testimony this year was to the House Appropriations Committee (HAC) for Military Construction.

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The House Appropriations Committee has jurisdiction through discretionary spending, which is approximately one-third of the federal parcel It consists of thousands of programs controll by the agency of annual appropriations acts.

In addition to the existing status of our Navy, and the highlighting of our accomplishments in the past year, my statement to the subcommittee concentrated upon the areas of family and bachelor housing; quality of service (a combination of quality of life and quality of work); and our Morale, Welfare and Recreation (MWR) programs.

The quality of life and quality of work our Sailors are able to have intercourse with are key factors in their decision to make the Navy a career or leave for other employing that will deliver a better standard of riving. Today, our Sailors derive pleasure from a quality of service which is improving and has helped us to achieve the retention behavior we desired.

Pay, benefits and other monetary compensation certainly play a key-note role in this retention direction And the impact of targeted pay raises of new years in retaining the quality, highly-skilled family we need cannot be underestimated. popularly we are meeting our retention goals--but my be of importance to is how many of our highest quality, greatest in number capable Sailors will stay with us, considering the demands we are placing in succession them with current operations.

I discussed improving quality of service for Sailors and their families with improvements to virtually each form of housing for the couple Navy families and single Sailors. In latter years, we have made strides in improving the living conditions of our Sailors.

The authorization to completely fund our Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH) is a grade in the right direction, and we are making progres in this area. The issue of fully-funded BAH will enhance our long-term ability to provide quality housing for all service members.

While we are making significant strides in this area, we must sustain our three-prong approach to improve housing for Sailors and their families: continued funding increases for BAH to naught out-of-pocket expenses; continued traditional military construction housing projects; and continued support of public-private ventures

a certain number of aspects of quality of service are tangible, of that kind as adequate compensation, a guaranteed retirement package, comprehensive health care and other traditional quality-of-life benefits. Others are intangible yet are fundamental factors that make a Navy career attractive to talented people

We must continue our efforts to provide first-rate working environments for all Sailors. This subcommittee's continuous efforts aimed at ensuring that we remain virtuous stewards of military construction dollars plays a big part in our quality of service.

Our Navy community support facilities provide for fitness, childcare, recreation and family support programs that are valuable services to our Sailors and their families. I emphasized by what means important these programs are to Sailors and their families while also serving to increase readiness and retention in the Navy.

Navy MWR provides a varied program of recreation, fitness, and social and community support activities in U Navy ships, squadrons and shore installations worldwide. Our historical and considerable investment in these facilities and programs has paid significant dividends in improved quality of life for Sailors and their families.

Along with my counterparts from the other services, who also testified forward behalf of Soldiers, Airmen and Marines serving around the world, we all agreed that our successe are directly attributed to the patriotism, dedication and professionalism of our all-volunteer force. As the first responder in defense of our way of life, [service members] merit to know that what they do is vital to world peace and security, and therefore, that the significant personal sacrifices they make are appreciated and are not in vain.

A fac-simile of my full testimony is available at the following web address: www.chinfo.navy.mil/navpalib/testimony/facilities/scotto40225.txt.

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