Opening Statement Ranking Member Subcommittee on National Security, March 3, 2003 GOOD MORNING, MR. CHAIRMAN. I WOULD LIKE TO EXTEND A WARM WELCOME TO EVERYONE AS WE BEGIN THE SUBCOMMITTEE'S WORK FOR THE 108TH CONGRESS. AS YOU KNOW. MR. CHAIRMAN, WE WORKED TOGETHER LAST CONGRESS TO CONDUCT OVERSIGHT OVER THE ADMINISTRATION'S EFFORTS TO SECURE THE COUNTRY AGAINST TERRORIST ATTACKS. AFTER THE HORRENDOUS EVENTS OF SEPTEMBER 11, IT BECAME MORE EVIDENT THAN EVER THAT WE NEEDED A RATIONAL APPROACH TO PROTECTING THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. OFFICIALS FROM THE U.S. GENERAL ACCOUNTING OFFICE. WHO ARE APPEARING BEFORE US AGAIN TODAY, TESTIFIED THAT THE NUMBER ONE STEP IN CRAFTING A NATIONAL STRATEGY WAS A COMPREHENSIVE THREAT AND RISK ASSESSMENT. BEFORE WE REORGANIZED OURSELVES OR ALLOCATED ADDITIONAL FUNDING, WE NEEDED TO UNDERSTAND AND PRIORITIZE THE TRUE THREATS TO OUR NATION. MR. CHAIRMAN. ON OCTOBER 15, 2001, YOU AND I JOINED TOGETHER. WITH OUR COUNTERPARTS ON THE FULL COMMITTEE. CHAIRMAN BURTON AND RANKING MEMBER WAXMAN, AND THE FOUR OF US SIGNED A LETTER TO PRESIDENT BUSH URGING HIM TO CONDUCT EXACTLY THIS TYPE OF ASSESSMENT. WE PUT ASIDE PARTISANSHIP AND ASKED THE PRESIDENT TO USE THE OPPORTUNITY OF GOVERNOR RIDGE'S APPOINTMENT TO CAREFULLY EXAMINE ALL OF THE THREATS WE FACE. UNFORTUNATELY, PRESIDENT BUSH IGNORED US. HE NEVER RESPONDED TO THE COMMITTEE, HE PUSHED AHEAD WITH THE NEW DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY, AND HE PRODUCED A NEW BUDGET — ALL WITHOUT TAKING THE INITIAL STEP OF COMPLETING A COMPREHENSIVE THREAT, RISK. AND VULNERABILITY ASSESSMENT. NOW, WHAT IS THE RESULT OF THIS? TODAY'S HEARING IS APTLY ENTITLED "A PROLIFERATION OF STRATEGIES." THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION HAS BEEN CRANKING OUT NATIONAL STRATEGIES-NEARLY A DOZEN BY MY COUNT WITHOUT ANY LOGICAL OR DEMONSTRABLE SENSE OF PRIORITIES. THIS LACK OF LOGIC AND PRIORITIES IS EXEMPLFIED BY THE BUSH ADMINSTRATION'S PUSH FOR A PREEMPTIVE ATTACK ON IRAQ. THE ADMINISTRATION CANNOT MAKE A CONNECTION BETWEEN IRAQ AND AL-QAEDA. NOR HAS THE ADMINISTRATION PRODUCED EVIDENCE CONNECTING IRAQ AND 9/11. YET, THE ADMINISTRATION IS BULLYING AND BUYING SUPPORT FOR A PREEMPTIVE WAR AGAINST IRAQ DESPITE THE FACT THAT IRAQ POSSES NO IMMINENT THREAT THE UNITED STATES. THE ADMINISTRATION'S RUSH TO WAR, IN THE FACE OF INTERNATIONAL OPPOSITION, THREATENS TO ALIENATE THE UNITED STATES FROM THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY AT THE VERY MOMENT WE NEED INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION TO ROOT OUT TERROR. BY PUSHING OUR NATION, AND THE WORLD, TO THE VERGE OF A HISTORIC PREEMPTIVE ATTACK, WE ARE MAKING THE AMERICA A FAR MORE DANGEROUS PLACE. THIS WEEKEND'S ARREST OF KHALID SHAIKH MOHAMMED, THL SUSPECTED MASTERMIND' BEHIND NUMEROUS AL-QAEDA ATTACKS, BY PAKISTAN OVER THE WEEKEND ONCE AGAIN DEMONSTRATES THE GREAT IMPORTANCE OF INTERNATIONAL COALITIONS AND COOPERATION IN OUR ONGOING EFFORTS TO ROOT OUT TERRORISTS. THE ADMINISTRATION'S RUSH TO A HISTORIC PREEMPTIVE WAR AGAINST IRAQ THREATENS TO ISOLATE THE UNITED STATES AND ALIENATE THE VERY ALLIES THAT WE NEED IN OUR EFFORTS TO DISRUPT AND CAPTURE AL-QAEDA TERRORISTS. Mr. SHAYS. At this time, the Chair would recognize Mr. Janklow, former Governor of South Dakota, and then we will recognize Mr. Murphy from Pennsylvania. This is our first hearing and we're delighted to welcome both of them. Mr. Janklow, you have the floor. Mr. JANKLOW. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, very much. And I am going to be very brief in my comments. As I had an opportunity to review the strategies that were put forth by staff, I believe there were eight in number, it becomes really clear as it's been suggested, that we have had a proliferation of strategies enunciated and, at the same time, they are interrelated in certain respects, overlapping in certain respects. What I think we do lack is one clear overall strategy. Now that's really not surprising. Notwithstanding political comments any of us want to make, this President was President for 9 months when the World Trade Center was attacked and we were subjected to the greatest terrorist attack in the history of this country. As a matter of fact, I believe it was the War of 1812 the last time that America, in a substantive way, had enemy soldiers within our borders operating. Be that as it may, this administration inherited no strategic plans at all; that occasionally cruise missiles would be launched against some site in Afghanistan at an empty camp to enunciate some kind of announcement. But other than that, there really wasn't any clear cohesive strategy. But the important thing is now we have thousands of dead people. We have enormous damage to individuals' lives, survivors' lives. We have trauma the likes of which this country has never known before. We have untold damage to our economy totaling in the hundreds of billions of dollars. And terrorists have figured out they have the ability to bring America virtually to a standstill. Five or six anthrax letters stopped the U.S. Postal Service, and, for all practical purposes, most of the governments in America, from being able to function for a period of time. The airlines were shut down. America's economy, for all practical purposes, was shut down. And so, Mr. Chairman, I look forward to your leadership and working with you and the other Members of the Congress, the administration, and the American people to do what we can to come up with an overall program, laying out the road map in a very clear-in very enunciated ways, specifically setting forth what it is that we are trying to accomplish and the objectives by which we mean to accomplish that. I realize when I say that, it is not unlike a play book for a football game; that you go into the football game with a play book and by the time the second play is called, the other team intercepts your ball and your play book is back to the drawing board for modification. But we in this country have about 18,000 law enforcement units. that have never before had to work together in an absolutely coordinated way. In my State of South Dakota, which is one of the least populated in the Union and one of the largest-as I tell people in my congressional district, it is just slightly smaller than Great Britain in terms of size; we have 534 fire departments within the State of South Dakota, over 250 of which are in communities of less than 1,000 people. So we can begin to understand the magnitude on a national scale of what it is that we have to deal with and how we have to address it. So, Mr. Chairman, I am pleased that you have been selected to be our chairman, with respect to this subcommittee, and look forward to working with you and others as we move forward to try and get accomplishments done at the speed of light to better protect and secure the American people in this country. Mr. SHAYS. Thank you very much. At this time we will call on Mr. Murphy from Pennsylvania. Mr. MURPHY. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I first of all commend you for calling this hearing. It is very important that if there's anything that the Government Reform Committee should be doing during this time, it is looking at ways to reform our strategies on national security; to make them more efficient, both in local emergency services, as Congressman Janklow just alluded, but also at the State and national level. We have to be united in our message, united in our strategy, and then united in our means of implementing that strategy during a time when people will—and certainly the terrorists will look for ways to divide us. They are counting on our short memory of events, although they are burned in our memories forever. They are counting on Americans to be fickle about their memories and counting on us to be divisive in our politics as they watch the news, and they mistake freedom of speech for disunity. There may be times when this committee and other committees may have people who do not agree, but I want them to also know a message that as we iron out ways of making these strategies more efficient, as we'll hear from testimony today, these are geared toward working in a united way to take care of these problems quickly and efficiently. So I look forward to the hearing, Mr. Chairman. Thank you. Mr. SHAYS. I thank the gentleman. We will call our first panel. Our panel is Mr. Raymond Decker, Director, Defense Capabilities and Management Team, U.S. General Accounting Office, accompanied by Stephen Caldwell, Assistant Director of Defense Capabilities and Management. As is our practice, we will ask you gentlemen to stand and we will swear you in. [Witnesses sworn.] Mr. SHAYS. I thank the gentlemen. Note for the record that our witnesses have responded in the affirmative. I think we only have one statement. That's from you Mr. Decker, correct? Mr. DECKER. That's correct. Mr. SHAYS. And just let the record note, Mr. Decker, we have worked with you for many years and we appreciate very sincerely the work of the GAO and specifically your work. Thank you very much. And, Mr. Caldwell, nice to have you here as well. I am going to put the clock for 5 and rotate it another 5, so you will have 10, and we will go from there. |