Washington, D.C. – (Link) House Armed Services Committee Ranking Member Adam Smith (WA-09) made the following statement at today’s SOUTHCOM, and NORTHCOM posture hearing:
“I would like to join Chairman McKeon in welcoming General Fraser, and General Jacoby. We appreciate your time and look forward to hearing your thoughts on the budget requests for your respective commands.
“Earlier this year, the President released the findings of a strategic review, which clearly articulated the global threat environment, and presented a broad strategy to address those threats moving forward. This strategic review appropriately places a renewed focus on the critically important Asia-Pacific region, but our regional commands will continue to play a vital role as we work to confront national security threats wherever they arise.
“I look forward to hearing from General Fraser regarding your important issues at SOUTHCOM. I want to hear more about your thoughts on the non-traditional threats in the region, the rising violence and instability in Central America, our military to military cooperation in the area, and your counter narcotics duties. While SOUTCOM lacks traditional military threats to the United States, these issues are important to the United States and often require an interagency approach to address them. I hope you can take some time to address how you are working with your interagency partners and were we can make progress in that area.
“In regard to NORTHCOM, I look forward to hearing about how we are working with Mexico to address issues on our Southern border. We focus a lot of our attention on the Southern border but I’d also like to hear your views on some of challenges on our Northern land borders. I’d also like to hear your thoughts about what global warming and increased access to the Arctic mean for national security, how NORTHCOM, in partnership with EUCOM, is addressing this challenge and whether you have the resources you need.
“Again, thank you all for your time and I look forward to hearing your testimony.”
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