Army Secretary Christine Wormuth appeared before the House Armed Services Committee Wednesday. Here are three takeaways from her testimony:

• Wormuth said she knows finding 65,000 recruits for fiscal year 2023 is “a very ambitious goal” that the Army may not meet, but that she set that number “to send a signal to our recruiter force that they shouldn’t take their pedal off the metal,” according to Stars and Stripes. Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George said the Army projects it will sign 55,000 new recruits this year, which is 10,000 more than last year but still falls short of the current year’s goal.
• She said much of the Army’s housing facilities are unlivable as the Army tries to improve standards on a limited budget, as com reported. “I’ve seen some barracks quite frankly I wouldn’t want my daughters to live in,” Wormuth told lawmakers. Wormuth has made quality of life improvements a priority for the service.
• If Congress isn’t able to pass a budget this year and relies on continuing resolutions, “it would be, I think, a significant problem for us, first of all, at a time where we are competing against China,” Wormuth said, adding that a CR means “fighting with one hand tied behind our back. A CR would essentially tie down about $5.3 billion in terms of procurement programs,” as Defense News reported.

File photo from DOD by Lisa Ferdinando