House Policy Committee Policy Statement, June 14, 2001

CHRISTOPHER СОХ CHAIRMAN 47TH District, California c. ROOM 2471 RAYBURN HOUSE OFFICE BUILDING (202) 225-6168 BENEDICT COHEN Executive Director )|ou6c polity Committee Congress of tfjc SJniteb States Mlasljington, ®£ 20515-6549 Policy Statement June 14, 2001 President Bush’s New Strategic Framework The United" States is determined to proceed with Missile Defense. Two years ago, an overwhelming bipartisan majority in Congress and a Democratic president formally declared that it is the national policy of the United States to deploy an effective national missile defense as soon as technologically feasible. This national policy is enunciated in the National Missile Defense Act of 1999, and constitutes the law of the land today. As President Bush recently stated, “America must build effective missile defenses, based on the best available options, at the earliest possible date. Our missile defense must be designed to protect all 50 states — and our friends and allies and deployed forces overseas — from missile attacks by rogue nations, or accidental launches.” “A threat... here and now.” Today the gravity and immediacy of the threat posed by missile proliferation can no longer be denied. It has been 10 years since Saddam Hussein dramatically illustrated the threat of ballistic missiles to U.S. forces in Saudi Arabia and civilian targets in Israel by launching Scud attacks during the Gulf War. It has been three years since the bipartisan Rumsfeld Commission issued its unanimous warning that future ballistic missile threats to the United States could emerge with “little or no warning.” Just months after the Rumsfeld Commission report, North Korea launched a three-stage missile over Japan, and Iran launched its Shahab 3 ballistic missile. It has been over a year since the Clinton Administration’s Director of Central Intelligence bluntly told Congress, “The missile threat to the United States ... is steadily emerging. The threat to U.S. interests and forces overseas is here and now ” (emphasis added). In February 2001, the Director of Central Intelligence updated his earlier warning. In his annual testimony to Congress on Worldwide Threats to the United States, he stated that “the missile and [weapons of mass destruction] proliferation problem continues to change in ways that make it harder to monitor and control, increasing the risk of substantial surprise” (emphasis added).