Thanks, Chair.
We oppose the amendment because there needs to be provision in this act for a surge capability for military justice. We did not see that need on a mission such as the Afghanistan mission, even though there was extraordinary complexity there. We saw it on the battlefields of Europe at different periods in our history. When our armed forces go from roughly 100,000 to 200,000, or half a million to a million people in uniform, as has happened in the past, there is a requirement to take the tools of military justice overseas with that force.
This provision applies specifically to that. It meets the operational obligation of the force under the act to be ready to operate in intense situations on a very large scale at short notice. If we didn't have it, we would really be hamstringing the military justice system in terms of its flexibility in the unlikely event, the very unlikely event, that this need should arise. It's absolutely essential, in fact one of the most essential aspects of the military justice system, as now codified in the act.
The changes our bill is making to clause 41 will enhance the status, the reliability, the professionalism of military judges. That is one of the goals of the act: to encode their status in law more formally. The reserve force of military judges has to be part of that equation.