[House Hearing, 116 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.A.S.C. No. 116-34]
NATIONAL SECURITY CHALLENGES
AND U.S. MILITARY ACTIVITY IN
NORTH AND SOUTH AMERICA
__________
COMMITTEE ON ARMED SERVICES
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED SIXTEENTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
__________
HEARING HELD
MAY 1, 2019
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
______
U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE
37-501 WASHINGTON : 2020
COMMITTEE ON ARMED SERVICES
One Hundred Sixteenth Congress
ADAM SMITH, Washington, Chairman
SUSAN A. DAVIS, California WILLIAM M. ``MAC'' THORNBERRY,
JAMES R. LANGEVIN, Rhode Island Texas
RICK LARSEN, Washington JOE WILSON, South Carolina
JIM COOPER, Tennessee ROB BISHOP, Utah
JOE COURTNEY, Connecticut MICHAEL R. TURNER, Ohio
JOHN GARAMENDI, California MIKE ROGERS, Alabama
JACKIE SPEIER, California K. MICHAEL CONAWAY, Texas
TULSI GABBARD, Hawaii DOUG LAMBORN, Colorado
DONALD NORCROSS, New Jersey ROBERT J. WITTMAN, Virginia
RUBEN GALLEGO, Arizona VICKY HARTZLER, Missouri
SETH MOULTON, Massachusetts AUSTIN SCOTT, Georgia
SALUD O. CARBAJAL, California MO BROOKS, Alabama
ANTHONY G. BROWN, Maryland, Vice PAUL COOK, California
Chair BRADLEY BYRNE, Alabama
RO KHANNA, California SAM GRAVES, Missouri
WILLIAM R. KEATING, Massachusetts ELISE M. STEFANIK, New York
FILEMON VELA, Texas SCOTT DesJARLAIS, Tennessee
ANDY KIM, New Jersey RALPH LEE ABRAHAM, Louisiana
KENDRA S. HORN, Oklahoma TRENT KELLY, Mississippi
GILBERT RAY CISNEROS, Jr., MIKE GALLAGHER, Wisconsin
California MATT GAETZ, Florida
CHRISSY HOULAHAN, Pennsylvania DON BACON, Nebraska
JASON CROW, Colorado JIM BANKS, Indiana
XOCHITL TORRES SMALL, New Mexico LIZ CHENEY, Wyoming
ELISSA SLOTKIN, Michigan PAUL MITCHELL, Michigan
MIKIE SHERRILL, New Jersey JACK BERGMAN, Michigan
KATIE HILL, California MICHAEL WALTZ, Florida
VERONICA ESCOBAR, Texas
DEBRA A. HAALAND, New Mexico
JARED F. GOLDEN, Maine
LORI TRAHAN, Massachusetts
ELAINE G. LURIA, Virginia
Paul Arcangeli, Staff Director
Chidi Blyden, Professional Staff Member
Mark Morehouse, Professional Staff Member
Rory Coleman, Clerk
C O N T E N T S
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Page
STATEMENTS PRESENTED BY MEMBERS OF CONGRESS
Smith, Hon. Adam, a Representative from Washington, Chairman,
Committee on Armed Services.................................... 1
Thornberry, Hon. William M. ``Mac,'' a Representative from Texas,
Ranking Member, Committee on Armed Services.................... 3
WITNESSES
Faller, ADM Craig S., USN, Commander, U.S. Southern Command...... 8
O'Shaughnessy, Gen Terrence J., USAF, Commander, U.S. Northern
Command........................................................ 6
Rapuano, Kenneth P., Assistant Secretary of Defense for Homeland
Defense and Global Security, Department of Defense............. 4
Wheelbarger, Kathryn, Acting Assistant Secretary of Defense for
International Security Affairs, Department of Defense.......... 6
APPENDIX
Prepared Statements:
Faller, ADM Craig S.......................................... 97
O'Shaughnessy, Gen Terrence J................................ 72
Rapuano, Kenneth P., joint with Kathryn Wheelbarger.......... 55
Documents Submitted for the Record:
[There were no Documents submitted.]
Witness Responses to Questions Asked During the Hearing:
Mr. Cisneros................................................. 121
Mr. Gaetz.................................................... 121
Questions Submitted by Members Post Hearing:
Mr. Cisneros................................................. 126
Mr. Langevin................................................. 125
NATIONAL SECURITY CHALLENGES AND U.S. MILITARY ACTIVITY IN NORTH AND
SOUTH AMERICA
----------
House of Representatives,
Committee on Armed Services,
Washington, DC, Wednesday, May 1, 2019.
The committee met, pursuant to call, at 10:00 a.m., in room
2118, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Adam Smith (chairman
of the committee) presiding.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. ADAM SMITH, A REPRESENTATIVE FROM
WASHINGTON, CHAIRMAN, COMMITTEE ON ARMED SERVICES
The Chairman. All right, then. We will call the meeting to
order. Thank you all for being here.
This morning we have testimony from the Northern Command
and the Southern Command, and it is a very topical time to have
both of them in. There is a lot going on in both areas. We will
have four witnesses with opening testimony.
We have General Terrence O'Shaughnessy, who is the
commander of the U.S. Northern Command; Admiral Craig Faller,
who is the commander of the U.S. Southern Command; the
Honorable Kathryn Wheelbarger, who is the Assistant Secretary
of Defense for International Security Affairs; and the
Honorable Kenneth Rapuano, Assistant Secretary of Defense for
Homeland Defense and Global Security.
And as I was mentioning when I went out with these two
gentlemen earlier, we do not have to say this will probably be
your last time before you testify before us. We have had a lot
of turnover and a lot of folks coming before us for the last
time. But both of you, I think, far as we know, going to be
here for a little while.
Before we begin, an apology. Didn't want to start on a sad
note.
Some of us up here served with Ellen Tauscher, who was a
member of the Armed Services Committee for a little over 12
years. She passed away this week, very sadly. I came into
Congress actually in 1996 with Ellen, served in this committee
with her for her whole time before she moved over to the Obama
administration to engage in arms control discussion with the
Russians.
Ellen was a terrific person and a great member of this
committee. She will be missed by many and I just want to
express my condolences and sympathies for her family and
friends and just mention what a great pleasure it was serving
with her and appreciate her service to our country and to her
district.
Mac, did you want to say anything?
Mr. Thornberry. Thank you, sir.
I would just add that I think Ellen reflects the best of
the bipartisan traditions of this committee. She worked on both
sides of the aisle, especially on nuclear arms control issues.
A wonderful, warm, caring person, and I think we are all going
to miss her but also continue to benefit from the example she
set for both of us. And I appreciate the opportunity to say
that.
The Chairman. Thank you. And with that, as I mentioned, we
are having the testimony from the Southern Command and the
Northern Command. And it is a very, very interesting time. I
think the most topical thing right at the moment to hear from
the Southern Command is on the issue of Venezuela, and what is
happening down there, really, minute by minute.
There is a lot going on in that area, and I do want to
emphasize how important it is to get a stable government in
Venezuela and, in my belief, that the Maduro government is not
legitimate. The facts, I think, make that clear, and the
devastation throughout Venezuela shows how their leadership has
impacted that country.
The statistics are staggering. The incredible rise in
poverty and malnutrition, the people who are displaced. It is
devastating for Venezuela, but it is also devastating for the
region. Some of us were on this committee when we passed Plan
Colombia and we have worked with Colombia for literally decades
now to try to combat the narcoterrorists down there and really
made an enormous amount of progress.
That progress is threatened by the instability in Venezuela
as refugees pour across the border and as various criminals,
terrorists, and violent organizations take advantage of that
instability. You know, trying to get back to a more stable
situation in Venezuela is enormously important.
We will also be very interested by the role that both Cuba
and Russia are playing in that region, as Russia in particular
attempts to expand their reach. We have seen, obviously, what
they have done meddling in Europe and in the Middle East, but I
think this is instructive of just how ambitious President
Putin's plans are to spread Russia's malign influence
throughout the globe. We will be interested in hearing about
that.
And the broader, overarching issue with Southern Command is
almost always the drug trafficking. How we can contain the
drugs that flow south to north. And the one piece, and I spoke
yesterday with Admiral Faller about this, is we have to focus
on a, I believe, total approach to this and look at the demand
side of this.
If there was not the demand in the United States of America
for these drugs, they wouldn't come, and as long as the demand
remains as high as it is, it is going to be incredibly
expensive and difficult to stop them. So I think it would be
instructive not to just try to stop the drug cartels from
shipping them north but what can we do to combat the entire
problem? A whole-of-government approach. You know, working with
people here domestically in the United States to try to reduce
the demand for drugs.
And Northern Command, obviously, we are very focused on the
southern border. I have given speeches about that before. I
won't take this moment to do that. But we do have a significant
challenge on the southern border right now.
The sheer number of people who are flowing towards the
border is overwhelming our ability to process the asylum-
seekers that are coming. And we need to come up with a plan for
that because, right now, the only thing that I would hope we
can all agree on is what we are doing now is not working.
So I would appreciate some insights about how we can change
that to try to address the situation. I would only offer one
specific thought--again, you know, like with the drugs,
focusing on stopping them from coming in as opposed to stopping
the demand is perhaps the wrong approach.
When it comes to the border, folks say, how can we stop
these people once they get here?
We have to figure out some way to change the equation so
that they don't want to come. The best way to do that is to
have greater prosperity and stability in the countries that
they are coming from. They are fleeing violence, poverty, and
hopelessness. Until we replace those things, it is hard to
imagine that they are going to stop making that choice.
So we are going to, again, need a comprehensive approach to
addressing that problem and challenge, and I look forward to
the testimony from all four of our witnesses.
And with that, I will turn it over to the ranking member,
Mr. Thornberry.
STATEMENT OF HON. WILLIAM M. ``MAC'' THORNBERRY, A
REPRESENTATIVE FROM TEXAS, RANKING MEMBER, COMMITTEE ON ARMED
SERVICES
Mr. Thornberry. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I join you in
welcoming our witnesses. Appreciate each of you being here.
All of us are intensely focused on the developments in
Venezuela.
A week before last, I had the opportunity to be there on
the border and to listen to some of the thousands of people who
are streaming across that border every day and hear their
desire to be freed from oppression and to have a chance for a
better life. As you said, I think we all have something at
stake here.
I am also very disturbed by the reports of Russian, Cuban,
Chinese, other interference there. For example, I think the
Secretary of State has said that Maduro was ready to leave
yesterday but the Russians wouldn't let him. So there is a
tremendous concern not only about the people of Venezuela but
about foreign manipulation that prevents the people of
Venezuela from having a better life. And of course, a lot of
that is directed against us.
I would also just say that my takeaway from visiting at
least three of the countries in South America was we have
tremendous opportunities there. Tremendous economic, security,
all sorts of opportunities, but we also have significant
concerns. Chinese involvement and the Russian, Iranian, other
things that you have mentioned.
A lot of issues to talk today and, obviously, protecting
the homeland is absolutely central to the purpose of the
Department of Defense and the Federal Government, and there are
a variety of concerns that we have.
Last thing I would say is, and it goes beyond the scope of
this committee and this hearing, but I completely agree with
your statement that we need a more comprehensive approach to
deal with the challenges at the southern border. Part of that
is helping the countries of Central America so that people have
a safer place to stay. Part of it, in my opinion, is the asylum
laws in the United States. Part of it is doing better for the
Department of Homeland Security so they can do their job,
rather than rely on the military.
A lot of that is beyond our scope. I know we will talk
about some of those aspects. The key thing is, maybe more so
than at any time I have been on this committee, our own
hemisphere is at stake with American national security in ways
that I think it hasn't been before.
And so, I think it is appropriate to have these witnesses
and I look forward to hearing their testimony.
The Chairman. Thank you.
Mr. Rapuano, we will start with you.
STATEMENT OF KENNETH P. RAPUANO, ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF DEFENSE
FOR HOMELAND DEFENSE AND GLOBAL SECURITY, DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
Secretary Rapuano. Chairman Smith, Ranking Member
Thornberry, and distinguished members of the committee, I am
honored to be here with General O'Shaughnessy, Admiral Faller,
and Assistant Secretary Wheelbarger.
For the Department of Defense, defending the homeland is
our highest priority. Our homeland, once a sanctuary, is
threatened by potential adversaries that are developing a wide
range of capabilities to threaten the homeland. Our adversaries
are developing these capabilities to threaten or to commit acts
of aggression against the United States. Their actions are
intended to limit U.S. response options, thus preventing us
from our defending our allies and partners.
China and Russia, by far our most advanced potential
adversaries, increasingly developing 21st century technologies
to hold the U.S. homeland at risk; employing systems intended
to deny our advantages, delay our warning time, and likely
target our civil infrastructure. These capabilities include
anti-satellite systems, hypersonic glide vehicles, and advanced
cyber capabilities.
While North Korea has not conducted any nuclear-capable
missile tests in more than a year, it retains weapons of mass
destruction. North Korea also possesses cyber capabilities and
has demonstrated its intent to use them to threaten the U.S.
homeland. Iran continues to work on a space launch vehicle,
reducing the timeline to development of intercontinental-range
ballistic missiles.
Although our focus is on great power competition and rogue
states, we must continue to address the threat posed by violent
extremist organizations. ISIS [Islamic State of Iraq and Syria]
and others continue to strive for opportunities to strike the
U.S. homeland. The defense of the homeland is not restricted to
adversaries abroad. In providing defense support to civil
authorities, my office coordinates the Department's role for
disaster relief and border security support to the Department
of Homeland Security.
To meet this range of challenges, the administration
released its National Security Strategy. This informed the
National Defense Strategy, which in turn helped shape the
National Military Strategy. A common thread throughout all
these documents is the need to strengthen homeland defense by
enhancing our deterrence and assurance posture, improving our
ability to respond if deterrence fails, and strengthening our
negotiating position against adversaries.
To that end, every element of my team is focused on
strengthening U.S. homeland defense. I would like to highlight
outer space. Space is a key domain for our national and
homeland defense; however, the space domain is changing, and we
must address growing foreign counter-space threats.
Thus, the Department provided Congress a legislative
proposal for the establishment of the U.S. Space Force as a new
branch of our Armed Forces. The Space Force will catalyze the
Department's transformation of space as a warfighting domain to
ensure we are postured to deter aggression and, if necessary,
are prepared to defend our vital interests in space.
Cyber policy's development of the Defense Cyber Strategy
and first ever Cyber Posture Review has put the Department of
Defense [DOD] on a path to fight and win against a capable
adversary, enhance the effectiveness of the joint force, defend
critical infrastructure, secure DOD information anywhere, and
prioritize cyber cooperation with partners and allies. These
objectives, along with our intent to defend forward, puts the
United States in a far better position to protect the homeland
and counter adversary aggression.
Additionally, the Department is enhancing its missile
defenses for the homeland and improving its ability to counter
unmanned aircraft systems to further deny potential adversaries
any potential advantage of using these capabilities against the
homeland. Support to the homeland is not limited to countering
foreign adversaries. We must also be prepared to support civil
authorities.
DOD actively supports the DHS [Department of Homeland
Security] mission on the border because border security is a
core element of national security. The immigration crisis on
the southwest border poses significant national security and
humanitarian challenges for the Nation and threatens to
overwhelm the Department of Homeland Security.
In the last 6 months, over 430,000 undocumented aliens have
been apprehended on the southwest border, which already
surpasses the total number of aliens apprehended in the entire
fiscal year of 2018. Last month alone, over 92,000 undocumented
aliens were apprehended on the border.
DHS will continue to need DOD support into the foreseeable
future until they have the necessary resources and tools to
properly exercise their responsibilities. Each of these
missions have greatly contributed to homeland defense and are
pivotal to enhancing U.S. deterrence and assurance posture,
improving our ability to respond should deterrence fail, and
strengthening our ability to deter or defeat potential
adversaries that threaten our way of life.
Thank you again, and I look forward to your questions.
[The joint prepared statement of Secretary Rapuano and Ms.
Wheelbarger can be found in the Appendix on page 55.]
The Chairman. Thank you.
Ms. Wheelbarger.
STATEMENT OF KATHRYN WHEELBARGER, ACTING ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF
DEFENSE FOR INTERNATIONAL SECURITY AFFAIRS, DEPARTMENT OF
DEFENSE
Ms. Wheelbarger. Chairman Smith, Ranking Member Thornberry,
members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to
testify this morning. We enjoy enormous potential in our
hemisphere, given the significant cooperation we receive from
our partners and the democratic values we share with most
nations in the region. Our vision is for a hemisphere that is
collaborative, prosperous, and secure.
But we face significant challenges as well, and Venezuela
is the foremost example. Yet we have unprecedented regional
unity at this historical moment, and the United States and our
international partners continue to harness diplomatic
information and economic means to encourage a peaceful
transition of power.
For the Department of Defense, we have responded to Interim
President Guaido's call for humanitarian aid by assisting USAID
[United States Agency for International Development] in those
efforts to pre-position aid in Colombia. We face other
challenges in the region as well, including autocratic regimes
in Cuba and Nicaragua, terrorist and criminal organizations,
trafficking, natural disasters, and external actors seeking
undue influence over countries' decisions.
For the Department, our partnerships are paramount. We
deepen our relationships to address shared challenges and focus
on interoperability, intelligence sharing, science and
technology cooperation, advancing cyber defenses, and expanding
exercises.
We counter illicit trafficking by supporting law
enforcement agencies and emphasizing human rights training. We
prioritize regional cooperation in humanitarian assistance and
disaster relief, and we emphasize defense institution building,
because strong institutions and anti-corruption measures
encourage efficiency and support legitimate government.
And as we see in Venezuela, the Western Hemisphere is a
region of great power competition. We counter Chinese and
Russian influence by gaining the trust of our partners to
achieve objectives together. Unlike relationships with Russia
and China, our cooperation is built on respect, collaboration,
and a desire to bolster prosperity and security for all.
With that, I will simply conclude by saying the Department
takes a global view of the challenges we face and remains
committed to the region. Thank you for your time.
The Chairman. Thank you very much. And let me just say, you
told me beforehand that your statement would be 2 minutes and
it was exactly 2 minutes. That is incredibly impressive in this
line of work, so I appreciate that.
General O'Shaughnessy.
STATEMENT OF GEN TERRENCE J. O'SHAUGHNESSY, USAF, COMMANDER,
U.S. NORTHERN COMMAND
General O'Shaughnessy. Chairman Smith and Ranking Member
Thornberry and distinguished members of the committee, I am
truly honored to be here today as the commander of the United
States Northern Command [NORTHCOM] and the U.S.-Canadian bi-
national command, North American Aerospace Defense Command
[NORAD].
I am also proud to testify this morning alongside my good
friend, Craig Faller, and Craig and the USSOUTHCOM [Southern
Command] team are vital partners and continue to bring our
commands closer together to better defend our Nation.
And I am also proud to appear with our great OSD [Office of
the Secretary of Defense] partners, Assistant Secretaries
Rapuano and Wheelbarger.
USNORTHCOM and NORAD are two complementary but distinct
commands driven by a single, unyielding priority: defending the
homeland from attack. In this era of rapidly evolving
technology and renewed great power competition, the need for
energized and active defense of the homeland cannot be
overstated.
Revisionist powers of Russia and China have given every
indication that their security strategies are based on holding
the United States at risk with both conventional and nuclear
weapons, and they have signaled that we must anticipate attacks
against our civilian and defense infrastructure in the event of
a conflict.
Russia has modernized its aviation and submarine fleets and
fielded long-range cruise missiles designed to evade radar
detection. Russia and China continue their efforts to penetrate
our networks while developing and testing hypersonic glide
vehicles, and both have also established a noticeably stronger
foothold in the Arctic along the northern approaches to the
United States and Canada.
As a result, the strategic value of the Arctic as our first
line of defense has re-emerged, and USNORTHCOM and NORAD are
taking active measures to ensure our ability to detect, track,
and defeat potential threats in that region. Our adversaries
have engaged in deliberate, focused efforts over a number of
years to exploit our perceived weaknesses. As a result, it is
clear that our homeland is not a sanctuary.
Our mission to deter our adversaries is dependent on our
ability to detect and defeat potential threats to our homeland,
and I am grateful to the committee for your strong support of
USNORTHCOM and NORAD. Along the lines of the efforts, for
example, fielding AESA [active electronically scanned array]
radars for our Aerospace Control Alert fighters and improving
the capability and capacity of our missile defense sensors and
interceptors clearly demonstrates our shared sense of urgency.
In that same spirit, we must take prudent steps now to
ensure our next-generation defensive capabilities, to include a
space-based sensing layer for missile defense, are not too late
to need. We must develop an integrated family of systems,
including undersea, terrestrial, airborne, and space-based
sensors, with a sense of urgency.
Given the fact that our adversaries are already developing
and testing these weapons, time is of the utmost importance.
And while the challenges facing us are significant, I have
great faith that through collaboration with industry in
harnessing the power of innovation in the United States of
America, we will restore our competitive advantage and continue
to outpace any adversary that might threaten our homeland.
And I sincerely appreciate the committee's work to provide
much-needed predictability and stability with an on-time budget
in fiscal year 2019. And I am also grateful for the committee's
ongoing efforts to ensure that we avoid the devastating, deep-
cutting impacts that a return to sequestration would bring to
the Department of Defense.
USNORTHCOM and NORAD work every day with our partners to
keep our citizens safe while confronting challenges emanating
from multiple approaches and in all domains. I especially want
to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to the amazing
men and women in the National Guard, who are great partners and
critical to our ability to perform our missions.
And whether intercepting Russian bombers off the coast of
Alaska or providing much-needed support along our Federal law
enforcement partners along our southern border, the airmen,
soldiers, sailors, Marines, coastguardsmen, and civilians of
USNORTHCOM and NORAD are deeply committed to defending our
Nation and I am honored to represent them today. And we have
the watch.
Thank you and I look forward to your questions.
[The prepared statement of General O'Shaughnessy can be
found in the Appendix on page 72.]
The Chairman. Thank you.
Admiral Faller.
STATEMENT OF ADM CRAIG S. FALLER, USN, COMMANDER, U.S. SOUTHERN
COMMAND
Admiral Faller. Good morning, Chairman Smith, Ranking
Member Thornberry. Thank you for the opportunity to testify
before you today with my shipmates, General O'Shaughnessy,
Assistant Secretary of Defense Rapuano, and Acting Assistant
Secretary of Defense Wheelbarger. Also, thanks to this
committee for the steadfast support you provide our men and
women every day.
Western Hemisphere is our shared home, our neighborhood. We
are connected to the nations of Latin America and the Caribbean
by sheer democratic traditions, culture, and geography. From my
headquarters in Doral, Florida, it takes me longer to travel to
DC than it does to many countries in my area of responsibility.
We are connected to our neighbors in every domain--sea,
air, land, space, and cyber. And, most importantly, shared
values.
Only by working together can we meet current and future
global challenges. Ultimately, what we want is enemies to fear
us, friends to partner with us, and the Western Hemisphere to
shine as a beacon of peace, democracy, and prosperity.
To ensure the security of our homeland, SOUTHCOM works
closely with our interagency teammates from the Department of
State, USAID, Department of Homeland Security, and the
Department of Justice, to name just a few. This teamwork,
especially with Northern Command and the U.S. Coast Guard, is
critical to mission accomplishment.
Over the past 5 months, I have travelled throughout Central
America, South America, and the Caribbean to get a firsthand
view of the opportunities and the challenges that directly
impact the security of our hemisphere and our homeland.
Criminal organizations, narcotrafficking, illegal migration,
violent extremist, corruption all enabled by weak governments
are principal among these challenges.
The most disturbing insight, however, that I have garnered
in my time in command has been the degree to which external
state actors have been rapidly expanding their presence and
influence in the Western Hemisphere; across the world to
include in our neighborhood democratic values are under assault
by China, Russia, and Iran. So, how do we best counter these
threats to our neighborhood?
Security cooperation is our best tool, to continue building
on the strong partnerships in the region and turn the
challenges of the hemisphere into opportunities. Our partners
are doing great things every day. In this hemisphere, in our
neighborhood, a little goes a long way. We need the right focus
and consistent military presence. We cannot achieve positive
results and influence outcomes without being on the playing
field.
But every security challenge and threat in our hemisphere
is compounded by the crisis in Venezuela. Russia provides
lifelines through loans, technical and military support, and
rhetoric. China is Venezuela's single largest state creditor,
saddling the Venezuelan people with more than $50 billion in
debt and exporting surveillance technology used to monitor and
repress the Venezuelan people.
Iran is restoring direct flights from Tehran and
reinvigorated diplomatic ties. Ever-present Cuba provides
critical personnel and resources to prop up a corrupt and
illegitimate dictator. In the face of this malign influence,
the rest of the world unites in support of Venezuela's
legitimate leader, Interim President Guaido.
A transition to legitimate democracy is underway and I have
a message for the professionals in the Venezuelan military and
security forces. The brutal dictatorship of Maduro has led to
this man-made crisis. Cuba and Russia have invaded your country
and disgraced your sovereignty.
You have a chance to do the right thing and alleviate the
suffering of your people and your families, those you have
sworn an oath to protect. When a legitimate democracy has been
restored, we look forward to having you return to the
profession of arms, including attendance in United States
military training and education.
Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member Thornberry, thank you again
for the opportunity to testify. The SOUTHCOM team, our
civilians, and military members, and our families appreciate
the support Congress has provided. We will continue to honor
your trust and our fellow citizens have placed in us.
I look forward to your questions.
Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Admiral Faller can be found in
the Appendix on page 97.]
The Chairman. Thank you, all.
Admiral, I will start with you, and picking up where you
left off on Venezuela. What is sort of the military's role in
what is going on down there because I agree with your statement
that Maduro is not a legitimate president. We need to have a
transition to a, you know, true democracy and legitimate leader
in Venezuela.
I am concerned, though, that we would think that there is
some sort of role of the U.S. military, given our history down
there and given what we have learned about using the military
to sort of change governments. What role do you see for our
military in what is going on in Venezuela and where do you see
the limits of that role?
Admiral Faller. We have been focused on working with our
regional partners, intelligence sharing, information sharing,
gathering and generate a shared appreciation for the
complexities associated with a problem: the impacts both in
Venezuela; the horrific starvation, over 90 percent of
population starving; and the impacts of security with partners,
and we are looking a way to apply our security assistance in a
mutually beneficial way, that has been the primary line of
effort.
Secondary line of effort has been focused on planning for
noncombatant evacuation and protection of American citizens and
lives within Venezuela. Prudent planning, as you would expect,
Chairman, for a combatant commander. The look in support of
USAID was mentioned by our colleagues here. USAID, we have
supported the delivery of humanitarian aid, and we are working
and planning with USAID.
And then, more broadly, we are looking at a day after when
we have a democratic Venezuela. How do we work with their
militaries and security cooperation that is representative of a
normal mil-to-mil relationship? Those have been of our
priorities, sir.
The Chairman. But you do not see a role for the U.S.
military in actually overthrowing the Maduro government,
correct?
Admiral Faller. Our leadership has been clear. It should be
primarily a democratic transition. We are in total support of
the diplomacy and we stand ready to support that effort, sir.
The Chairman. And one final question, sir, on the
sanctions. Obviously, Venezuela has many challenges. You have
outlined some of them. What role do you see U.S. sanctions on
Venezuela having played in the economic difficulties that are
there? And how do you balance sort of the pressure we want to
put on the regime to change with the potential impact of those
sanctions?
Admiral Faller. The misery of the people of Venezuela came
about as a result of the illegitimate dictator's actions and
inept way with which he has run the country, and China and
Cuba's complete inclusion in that problem set. The sanctions
have been a necessary tool to help apply pressure to accelerate
the diplomatic efforts. The misery began and ends with Maduro.
The Chairman. And it is worth noting that, you know, much
like Putin in Russia, huge part of problem is that Maduro and
his cronies take all the money. They don't care about the
people whatsoever. They are, you know, running a kleptocracy
there, and the people are the ones who are paying the price for
that.
Couple of quick questions on the border side of it--and I
will shift over to the--the policy folks. It seems, you know,
if you go back before the Trump administration started
implementing its immigration policies, we are in much worse
shape now than we were when that started. Do you see any
connection between a variety of those policies and what is
happening on the border? And if so, have you started to talk
about how you might do things differently? And I guess that is
for Mr. Rapuano.
Secretary Rapuano. So we do not deeply assess the causation
in terms of the desire of individuals to immigrate to the
United States and how that contributes to illegal immigration.
Our support is to Department of Homeland Security, which is
responsible for that mission, and we are providing support in
that role, the support that is appropriate for the Department
of Defense to provide.
The Chairman. But surely, you are around for the
conversations about what policy might make sense. So I am just
curious, you know, as someone who is involved in this and the
Department of Defense is now deeply into what is going on in
the border because Homeland Security has asked for a lot of
money and a lot of human resources. What is your thought about
how we can adjust that policy to improve the situation?
Secretary Rapuano. Well, I can certainly say the
administration has been very focused on looking at the
diplomatic, the legal, the engagement with nations that are the
primary sources of illegal immigration to the United States.
The Chairman. Yes. The only thing I have heard is the
administration talking about how they want to cut off money
from those places, which doesn't strike me as a particularly
productive approach. So, if you could drill down a little bit,
what is the administration doing to try to look at--in
specifically Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador--to say how
can we help them towards a more stable, less desperate
situation?
Secretary Rapuano. Well I really cannot speak for the
administration's efforts associated with engaging with the
countries south of the border. That is outside of my portfolio
and my writ.
The Chairman. Anybody else want to take a stab at it?
Ms. Wheelbarger. I will say it from the perspective of the
regional policy shop in OSD, we continue to focus on security
cooperation efforts with Central American countries. The
President has made a decision with respect to looking at our
cooperation in the region.
But from the DOD perspective, DOD activities are going to
continue forward because the mil-to-mil relationships, we
find--and I will defer to Admiral Faller as well--are a
significant source of security and stability in those countries
but in the region at large----
The Chairman. And I guess that is the point I want to make.
There are other tools in our toolbox other than the military.
In fact, we are already confronting this with the request for
more mil-to-mil cooperation around Venezuela, whereas the
cutoff on State Department and the USAID remains in place.
I just, frankly, do not get this administration's complete
and total blind spot towards the notion that international
affairs involve more than just the military. That USAID and
diplomatic--you know, cutting them off and focusing only on the
military, saying to Central America we are not going to give
you any more money, just encourages more people to flow
forward.
That is more a message for you to deliver back to the
people at the White House than anything you need to answer, but
it is contributing to the problem because, the irony for me is,
when the President started talking about there being an
emergency at the border, there wasn't.
Now there is, and I think the two are connected, so I hope
we will figure out those policies because nobody on this
committee wants the Department of Defense to have to have their
resources drained out to go to Department of Homeland Security
missions. And DOD has enough to do. So we are in serious
trouble down there, and we need to figure out how to better
confront it.
I want to give General O'Shaughnessy and Admiral Faller a
chance if you have any response, any ideas for how we can
improve that situation. Don't go on for too long because I am
over my time and I want to turn it over to somebody else. But
just curious if you have any quick thoughts on that.
General O'Shaughnessy. Chairman, I would just say, from our
vantage point, we have a role to support our CBP [U.S. Customs
and Border Protection] partners. And from the NORTHCOM
perspective, we are executing that role in the mission that we
have been given to support CBP.
The Chairman. Okay.
Admiral Faller. I will be in Honduras Monday next week as
co-host of a Central America security conference with all the
Central American countries, including some of the--the
neighbors. This will be a topic of what we can do working
mutually together to better the security of both our countries
and the United States homeland.
The Chairman. Okay. Again, I hope we can include more folks
than just on the security side. There is a very complex
humanitarian problem down there. I think there are a lot of
tools in our toolbox. We have a lot of, you know, allies and
neighbors throughout the region who could help. We need to
start employing all of those tools because it is a serious
situation, as we all know.
Mr. Thornberry.
Mr. Thornberry. Admiral, I appreciate the statement you
made, particularly at the end, making an appeal to the
Venezuelan military. It seems to me that a relatively small
number of people have the future of their country in their
hands.
One of these days, the Venezuelan people are going to have
a say. And the question is, how long the suffering has got to
go on. And there are folks now who are making decisions for
which they may be held accountable someday. And so, I
appreciate that appeal.
General, I wanted to ask you briefly, you mentioned space-
based sensors. Can you just, again, briefly describe why it is
important that we have space-based sensors to defend the
homeland?
General O'Shaughnessy. Thank you for that opportunity.
Clearly, as we look at the advanced threats that we are facing,
both from Russia and China, they are of a changing nature. And
our current sensors that we have are just not situated to be
able to be effective against that. Part of it is just a pure--
the track that a weapon would take is not conducive to a
terrestrial-based sensing grid.
And therefore, if we look at the space-based sensors, it
gives you the opportunity, for example, a hypersonic track,
that you could maintain the track from birth to death, right?
You could see it from the time it launched to the time that we
are able to take that out with an interceptor or directed
energy or some sort of ability to defend against it.
Right now, if we just put more money into just what we are
doing today, with the terrestrial-based sensors, we will never
get to the point where we can actively defend against them. So,
the space-based sensing layer, to me, is absolutely critical if
we are going to be able to defend against these advanced
threats.
Mr. Thornberry. I appreciate it. I suspect there is more
detail we can get into in a classified session, but I think
that is helpful.
Mr. Rapuano, chairman said this--I think we all agree--we
face an unprecedented situation at the border. The Border
Patrol is completely overwhelmed. Reports this week are that
military folks are going to be asked to do more tasks at the
border than they have been doing before.
My question to you is, why can we not use contractors for
these support activities that we are now asking the military to
do? Any time any of us visit Afghanistan, other places around
the world, a lot of the people doing the cooking, the cleaning,
the driving, monitoring sensors are often contractors. Why
can't we use contractors?
Secretary Rapuano. Sir, the Department of Homeland Security
and CBP have been using contractors. But what they describe to
us is there is a practical limit in terms of availability of
contractors in the areas where they seek to have the work done
and the timelines associated with getting those contractors on-
task.
In addition to that, there are certain functions that are
DOD military capabilities. Sensors, the barrier construction in
terms of the concertina wire, for which we do have ready
capabilities. In the other areas--and you described some of
them, in terms of the logistics management for migrant
processing--that are not necessarily a lead military skill, but
it certainly is a capability that we can provide in exigent
circumstances, such as being experienced today.
Mr. Thornberry. Well, I hope that as DOD considers requests
from the Department of Homeland Security that you look at,
independently, the availability of contractors to perform some
of these functions, especially as the task-ask of our military
expand.
I know we can do it. The question is, are U.S. military
people the best entity to be deploying wire? As I say,
contractors run sensors all over the world and the other
logistical support. I think that is maybe a better way forward
than to continue to expand the job of our military. I yield
back.
Mr. Langevin. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And I want to thank
our witnesses for your testimony today and your service to the
country. Just to follow up on the chairman's discussion on
Venezuela, just so we are clear. First of all, I agree with
where the discussion was going, that we need to apply maximum
diplomatic pressure and resolve the situation within Venezuela
diplomatically.
But just so we don't leave anything hanging out there, we
are not missing something, have any of you in any way, shape,
or form been given instruction by your leadership to prepare
for any type military conflict? I just want to make sure that
we are clear on that. So, pre-positioning troops or any kind of
forces? Can we run down the line?
Ms. Wheelbarger. We, of course, always review available
options and plan for contingencies. But in this case, we have
not been given the sort of orders that you are discussing, no.
Mr. Langevin. General, Admiral, or Mr. Secretary?
Admiral Faller. The mission sets that I discussed with
respect to the chairman's question, our principal focus, really
focusing on building those partnerships, leveraging our
partners, making sure that whatever happens in the future--and
we know we won't be able to predict it, that we are ready to
approach this together as a united region and working with our
military. It has been our principal line of focus.
Mr. Langevin. General.
General O'Shaughnessy. Sir, we are in support of Admiral
Faller in the SOUTHCOM aspect, but nothing directly. Just
helping Admiral Faller.
Mr. Langevin. Okay. Mr. Secretary, anything you want to
add?
Secretary Rapuano. No. Nothing to add.
Mr. Langevin. Okay. Thanks. Okay. Thank you. Just wanted to
get that on the record.
General O'Shaughnessy, if I could? I am pleased the DHS has
assigned a liaison officer to NORTHCOM headquarters, and I hope
that the interagency partnership will enhance the resilience of
U.S. critical infrastructure, particularly in a time of crisis.
What I wanted to ask is how are you and your counterparts
institutionalizing the relationship, though, so it is not just
personality-driven or public-attention-driven, and that you are
exercising the various scenarios under which CISA
[Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency] may call on
NORTHCOM for support?
General O'Shaughnessy. Well, thank you for the opportunity
to highlight the close coordination and collaboration we have
with the Department of Homeland Security and specifically with
respect to CISA.
As you mentioned, literally within the first week of it
standing up, we actually had exchanged liaisons back and forth
that are full-time within each other's headquarters. And these
are well-seasoned professionals who truly understand the nature
of the threats that we face.
Part of the way, as we go forward, is we are inserting
ourselves and have inserted ourselves inside the battle rhythm
of each other's headquarters. And so, every day we have
integration and coordination in the various issues that we are
working.
Under Secretary Nielsen--and we will continue on, no doubt,
with Acting Secretary McAleenan. I actually met with them on
a--on a biweekly basis where we talked about not only support
to the border but things like we are doing to support the
critical infrastructure.
And to the point of, how do we institutionalize it? We are
bringing it into our exercises. We are bringing into both our
annual exercises as well as the longer-term exercises to make
sure that we do it all the way from a tabletop exercise to a
full interagency exercise. That we do this together because you
simply can't separate homeland defense and homeland security.
They are intertwined in ways that we need to collaborate
together. Not on a one-off event, not when a crisis happens,
but every day.
Mr. Langevin. Excellent. Thank you. The exercising part of
that is essential, I agree especially. How are you working with
U.S. CYBERCOM [Cyber Command] also to ensure that it is
prepared to support you if you are called upon in a DSCA
[Defense Support of Civil Authorities] role and I am thinking
particularly of coordination with the national mission teams?
General O'Shaughnessy. Yes. Thank you for that. We have a
kind of twofold interaction with our Cyber Command in this
area. One is for our own systems, right? We have our own
systems designed to defend the United States and Canada that we
want to make sure are able to survive any attacks, any attempts
to take them down not only in crisis but day to day.
And so, we have a day-to-day engagement with Cyber Command
and their cyber teams that are actually in support of us on a
regular basis. We have two actively engaged as we speak right
now.
In addition to that, though, as we look at the broader
protection of the Nation, we also, to your point, use the DSCA
model of how we can work with Cyber Command to present that
force to both our state--for example, within the elections was
an example, in 2018, how we present the force throughout the
Nation, both on a critical infrastructure, things like
election.
And that DSCA model with us is essentially the DOD
synchronizer, has proven to be quite effective in hurricanes,
wildfires, and so we are approaching that with the same model
as we look at the cyber. And we have had great success already
and look forward to maturing that as we go forward.
Mr. Langevin. Thank you very much.
Secretary Rapuano. I would just add to that that, at the
departmental level, the Department of Defense and the
Department of Homeland Security now have a memorandum of
agreement signed last year by Secretary Madison, Secretary
Nielsen in which we are working with them across the board,
starting with defense critical infrastructure, as well as civil
infrastructure, how are we prioritizing between the Department
of Defense and DHS and the sector lead agencies. And then how
are we looking at where and how we support them best----
The Chairman. I am sorry. The gentleman's time has expired.
And I apologize. Should have warned the witnesses. We try to
keep it to 5 minutes. I will not cut you off in mid-sentence or
anything. But once we hit 5 minutes, we do try to move on to
other folks, even if you are in mid-question. At that point, we
take it for the record. If you have an answer you want to
submit to the member, you can do that then.
Mr. Wilson.
Mr. Wilson. And thank you, Mr. Chairman. And thank each of
you for being here and your service to our country.
Admiral Faller, I am grateful for the relationship of the
U.S. Southern Command maintains with the Republic of Colombia
as part of the National Guard State Sponsorship Program.
Since 2012, South Carolina and Colombia have partnered to
enhance military cooperation with the rotary wing and air
defense capabilities. As Colombia continues to expand its NATO
[North Atlantic Treaty Organization] Global Partner, how do you
judge the strategies for Plan Colombia? Specifically, what are
the investments DOD is making to combat terrorist activities
and drug trafficking to continue the successes?
Admiral Faller. We will start with the South Carolina
Guard, a fantastic partner. In fact, they are down there this
week working with the Colombians. They will be down later this
summer for an air defense exercise with some of high-end
capability exercising with Colombians. And we are very
appreciative of the National Guard, what they do across the
range of security cooperation. It is absolutely a wonderful
partnership.
Colombia, their military and security forces are making a
difference. And they are taking the attack to the
narcotraffickers. They are taking it to the ELN [National
Liberation Army], the FARC [Revolutionary Armed Forces of
Colombia] dissidents. And the results that we will see and the
eradication plateau in coca production, high interdiction
rates, these are going to have an impact on both the internal
security of Colombia and the United States security.
A very capable partner, I have the utmost trust for the
Colombian armed forces and what they do as professionals and
what they do in terms of their warfighting ability.
Mr. Wilson. Thank you very much.
And Ms. Wheelbarger, Russia and China are expanding their
presence in Latin America. They are using economic and military
influence to strategically compete against the U.S. in this
vital region and systematically engage with the autocratic
regimes.
Admiral Faller has already cited Russia and Cuba are
increasing military intelligence activities in Venezuela. What
types of equipment, aircraft, or capabilities are you most
concerned about?
Ms. Wheelbarger. I will defer to Admiral Faller for the
specific technical concerns. But in terms of Russia and Chinese
influence who are at large in the region, we are very focused
on countering that influence with our own productive activities
with building partner capacity.
As I discussed in the opening, our National Defense
Strategy encourages us as a department to look at these as
global threats. And that includes countering the influence in
our hemisphere. Therefore, we are consistently and continuously
looking for opportunities to build our partners and build new
relationships, and we have significant opportunity right now to
do so.
With respect to their specific activity in Venezuela, as it
was cited at the beginning this morning with respect to
Secretary Pompeo's statements, it is not just technical
concerns that we have, but it is just the overall influence
that they can have and bear on the decision making of these
countries. And that is why we, as an international community,
call on Russia and China, in particular, to cease their support
to the Maduro regime.
Mr. Wilson. Thank you. General O'Shaughnessy, the North
American Aerospace Command is improving the defense coverage
for the National Capital Region. The South Carolina National
Guard currently has personnel in the region to support this
mission. What is your timeline of the three-phase plan to
expand the National Capital Region architecture to protect the
rest of the country? And are you working with our neighbor,
Canada?
General O'Shaughnessy. Yes. Thank you for the question. And
as you highlight, the Guard participation in all the defense
within NORAD and NORTHCOM is significant. An example you used,
the National Capital Region, as we sit right here today we have
guardsmen protecting us literally as we sit here today. And so,
my hat is off to the great support that we get from them.
Now, with respect to, specifically, the Homeland Defense
design, Phase I and Phase II are actually funded, and Phase I
in place, Phase II ongoing now. As we look to Phase III, it
becomes significantly more complicated as the threat has
continued to develop as well.
And so, we are continuing to refine what that Homeland
Defense design should look like going into the future with the
advanced threats, hypersonics, et cetera, cruise missiles that
we know we have to defend against. And we are using the basis
from the Homeland Defense Phase I and II as the starting point,
but in a much more complicated and complex manner to defend
both the United States and Canada.
Mr. Wilson. And the level of synchronization with Canada?
General O'Shaughnessy. Extreme. NORAD's 60 years of history
of the great relationship with NORAD and the modernization
within NORAD, we are trying to look bi-nationally. I can submit
for the record some studies that we are doing bi-nationally
with Canada, in the interest of time, but we are looking at
this together with Canada.
Mr. Wilson. Thank you very much.
The Chairman. Thank you.
Mr. Larsen.
Mr. Larsen. Thank you.
General, the Coast Guard came out with their Arctic
strategy a few weeks ago. It was called Protecting Sovereignty.
The administration, under General Mattis at the time, said that
you had an updated military strategy in June. Will we have that
by June?
General O'Shaughnessy. I will defer to OSD on that. We have
been working with the OSD office that is working that strategy.
Mr. Larsen. All right. OSD, is it going to be done by June?
Ms. Wheelbarger. I currently understand that it will be. I
was seeing sort of final deliberations over the last couple of
weeks. So we will get you an update if we think it is going to
not be delayed for any reason.
Mr. Larsen. Please do that. Thank you.
Back to General, then. Could you talk a little bit--in your
testimony on pages 11 through 12-ish or so, you are the duty
advocate for Arctic capabilities and combatant commander
response for defending approach to the homeland. Rather than
getting into what Russia and China are doing, could you just
review your testimony a little bit for us on what we are doing?
The Arctic has been, obviously, of interest for us for a
long time. What are doing that isn't in response to Russia and
China? What are we doing because we ought to be doing it for
the--for our own reasons?
General O'Shaughnessy. Right. And really, as we look at the
Arctic, it is a very difficult operating environment. And so we
feel that we need the ability to operate in that environment.
And so, for example, the working we are doing in the JPARC
[Joint Pacific Alaska Range Complex] range in Alaska gives us
the ability to train our force in ways that we haven't been
getting after for the last several decades.
If you look at the work that we are doing, the U.S. Navy,
for example, sail the Harry S. Truman in the high north that we
hadn't in literally decades. And so, we are really trying to--
from exposing our team--our airmen, soldiers, sailors,
Marines--to that environment and making sure that we are
prepared to operate.
Just last week, I personally went out to Thule Air Base in
Greenland, I went up to Inuvik and higher areas of Canada and I
will tell you firsthand, those conditions that we are going to
ask our force to operate in are extreme and you can't go there
without the adequate preparation and training.
The second thing we are looking on is actually, what do we
need to be able to operate there? So we look at domain
awareness, we look at our ability to communicate. Many of the
traditional means of communication simply don't work in the
Arctic. We are looking at our ability to sustain those
operations there so that once we have the training, we will
have the ability to actually have a force with an
infrastructure that will actually support them in a sustained
way.
The way we are looking to advocate for that is we are
working closely with EUCOM [U.S. European Command] and PACOM
[U.S. Indo-Pacific Command] so that we can be the lead, but it
is not something that is just done alone at NORTHCOM and NORAD.
It is done in coordination with our sister combatant commands,
but it is also done, for example, with the Coast Guard.
And as they are looking to get the heavy icebreaker,
critically important for us. And so, it is that coordination
and doing these things together. We are running symposiums. We
are trying to be a little bit of the vocal advocate for it, not
only within DOD but within the interagency as well. And we will
continue to take those measures.
Mr. Larsen. How are you using the CONUS [contiguous United
States] bases as platforms for deployment?
General O'Shaughnessy. Well, I think as we look at some of
the places here within the CONUS, we have, for example, the Air
National Guard, the 109th, has the LC-130s that have capability
that is absolutely critical for us. And so, being able to use
that--in fact, they were up at Greenland last week as well.
They are up there for about a 4-month tour. They will also go
down to Antarctica. But making sure we use that capability and
that expertise.
Now, as far as other bases within the U.S. in the CONUS, we
try to take advantage of some of the experiences that we have,
that we can leverage forward. What we see right now is that--
look at, for example, some of the operations that we see are
just a lack of experience of being in those environments.
Mr. Larsen. Yes. Thanks.
So, Secretary Wheelbarger, we will expect then--maybe just
by the end of the week get us an update on a more precise
timeline?
Ms. Wheelbarger. Yes. We will get you an update by the end
of the week.
Mr. Larsen. That would be great. Thank you.
And I will yield back to myself and recognize Mrs. Hartzler
for 5 minutes.
Mrs. Hartzler. Well, thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
General O'Shaughnessy, the F-15C fleet based within the
U.S. is tasked with, as you know, supporting our top mission of
defending the homeland. And the Air Force plans to refresh the
F-15C fleet with the F-15EX and has requested funding for eight
aircraft in the fiscal year 2020 budget. So, how would bringing
advanced F-15s into these units impact NORTHCOM in terms of the
capacity and capabilities available for the homeland defense?
General O'Shaughnessy. Ma'am, I think you know, the Air
Force has very publicly talked about they need 72 aircraft a
year in their procurement in order to sustain and grow the Air
Force to the size that it needs to be. We are one of those
requirements, right? We are one of the forcing agents for the
U.S. Air Force to respond to that demand signal.
And so, we are very supportive of the work that they are
doing to maintain a capability and capacity to support all of
the requirements. We also understand that they are committed to
fifth-gen and that hasn't changed as we do go forward. But as
we look at the readiness capability of a sustained fourth-gen
fleet, it needs to be refreshed and, as such, we are looking
forward to continuing to work with the Air Force, make sure
they provide us with the capability and capacity we need, and
we support the Air Force's initiatives going forward.
Mrs. Hartzler. So, you support their plan to buy more F-
15Es?
General O'Shaughnessy. We are fairly agnostic to the
platform in the sense of a capacity that we need them to have,
and so I do support General Goldfein, Secretary Wilson in the
approach that they have taken to have both readiness and
capability and capacity available for us as a combatant
commander.
Mrs. Hartzler. So the Air Force has testified that
converting the F-15C squadrons to the F-15EX will better
support the needs of the Air Force and combatant commands by
minimizing the downtime of mission conversion. Compared to the
years it would take to convert to an entirely new platform, the
Air Force believes units transitioning between F-15 variants
would take just months. Looking at the forces available to
NORTHCOM today, how important is that mission conversion
timeline to meeting your requirements?
General O'Shaughnessy. Well, ma'am, the service will be
ultimately responsible for that but what we can't afford is a
gap, right? We cannot have a gap in the capability and the
capacity. As we sit here today, you know, we have five
different F-15 units that support us within NORAD. It is an
important platform for us. And in the end, we can't afford to
have any detriment in the capacity or capability that we have
supporting NORAD.
Mrs. Hartzler. Okay. In your written testimony, you
discussed the challenges of unmanned aerial systems in the U.S.
airspace and the importance of the authorities provided to DOJ
[Department of Justice] and DHS in the recent FAA [Federal
Aviation Administration] Reauthorization Act. DOD has also
received counter UAS [unmanned aircraft system] authorities in
both the fiscal year 2017 and fiscal year 2018 NDAAs [National
Defense Authorization Acts]. How is NORTHCOM using the granted
DOD authorities and have any gaps been identified from a COCOM
[combatant command] perspective?
General O'Shaughnessy. Ma'am, I would first like to start
by thanking you and your team for the great support that we
have had with respect to these authorities over the last
several years. And not only for the DOD because it is an
important aspect for us, for our authorities. But, as you
mentioned, the interagency is equally as important.
And so as we work closely with Department of Homeland
Security and as you worked to help get them the similar
authorities that we have within DOD, that has been extremely
helpful. The example I use is right here within the National
Capital Region where we are working closely with many sub
organizations within DHS, but also DOJ, the Capitol Police, the
local police, and the individual services, as we work an
exercise here in about 2 weeks to try to bring all that
together. And it is very complex.
And so, it is a question of the authorities we have and
then the tools and the kit that we have to actually defeat any
threat that we have with the counter UAS. So the exercises that
we are doing are driving us to better understand if there are
additional authorities or requirements that we might have and
we will stay in close coordination and collaboration with your
team and this committee as we go forth to speak with more
authorities that we will be seeking.
Mrs. Hartzler. Yes. Appreciate your work on that, and look
forward to continuing to work with you on it because it is such
a very important mission. And lastly, another question. I am
proud to, as you know, represent Fort Leonard Wood in my
district, which contributes vital capabilities to NORTHCOM by
training service members for specialties such as military
police and the CBRN [chemical, biological, radiological, and
nuclear] response.
In your written testimony, you discussed NORTHCOM's defense
support of civil authority's mission and provided many examples
of interagency coordination. Can you talk in more detail about
coordination and training activities among DOD CBRN specialists
and civilian CBRN experts aimed at protecting the homeland?
General O'Shaughnessy. Yes, ma'am. And let me first thank
you. Actually, Fort Leonard Wood is--is instrumental to our
ability to have this capability. We have about 18,000 personnel
at any given time that are committed to the chemical,
biological, radiological, and nuclear response efforts. We have
57 CST [civil support team] or teams that are designed within
the States to be able to respond.
To a person, they are trained at Fort Leonard Wood. And it
is also--the training they do is also within the interagency
and the local law enforcement officials and the first
responders that they will work with. And so, I know we are
short on time, but I will just say, absolutely critical and we
would not be able to do it without the expertise resident there
and it is not----
The Chairman. Thank you.
General O'Shaughnessy [continuing]. Just within DOD but
within----
The Chairman. Thank you.
General O'Shaughnessy [continuing]. The broader response.
Mrs. Hartzler. Thank you----
The Chairman. Thank you.
Mr. Courtney.
Mr. Courtney. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you to all
the witnesses for being here today. Again, looking at the, sort
of, mission of Southern Command--and I think it has been
referenced by some prior remarks. Obviously, the migration
issue, in terms of where there is instability, is certainly the
issue of the day. The administration's decision to cut aid to
the Northern Triangle countries, again, I think has just
totally flabbergasted people in terms of, you know, how that
possibly helped stabilize that situation.
Mr. Chairman, I have a statement that was signed by five
combatant commanders of the U.S. Southern Command--General
Craddock, General Hill, General McCaffery, Admiral Stavridis,
General Wilhelm--who all basically make the point that the
solution, in terms of the drivers that cause people to leave
their country and move north, that cutting aid to the region
will only increase the drivers and will be even more costly to
deal with our border. I would ask that it be admitted to the
record.
The Chairman. That is five former combatant commanders.
Mr. Courtney. Correct.
The Chairman. But, yes, without objection, so ordered.
[The statement referred to was not available at the time of
printing.]
Mr. Courtney. Thank you. Yes. No slight intended, Admiral.
And I want to thank you for being here today. It is good to see
you back on the Hill.
Again, maybe Ms. Wheelbarger or Mr. Rapuano can respond to
that question.
How on earth cutting aid--which doesn't go to the
governments. They actually go to NGOs [non-governmental
organizations], faith-based groups, you know, all the folks who
are trying to help individuals who are definitely in crisis in
economies and almost failed states in those regions.
How that is going to help us at the border deal with this
problem?
Ms. Wheelbarger. I will just start by saying, as I
explained before, we are continuing our mil-to-mil and MOD
[Ministry of Defense] to DOD partnerships in the region as much
as we can. You know, we will inevitably be impacted somewhat by
the ending or the pausing of State Department support.
We agree that it is important to do all we can to bring
stability and security to the regions, both to the Central
Region but also around the hemisphere. And that a key part of
that, again, is an interagency process that uses a whole-of-
government approach. I think our perspective is that we will be
reviewing what our security cooperation is in light of the
decision and reviewing foreign assistance writ large in the
region over the coming weeks and months.
Mr. Courtney. Well, as those former combatant commanders
stated pretty powerfully is that military alone cannot
strengthen the investments for development and the other whole
of government has to be part of the effort. Otherwise, you
know, you are just, you know, chasing something that you will
never catch in terms of trying to deal with this issue.
Admiral, we talked yesterday about the flow of drugs into
our country, particularly in New England, which has been hard
hit by the addiction issue. Maybe you could talk a little bit
about your efforts with the Coast Guard, in terms of
interdiction.
Admiral Faller. The drugs and the deaths as a result of
drugs in this----
Mr. Courtney. Right.
Admiral Faller [continuing]. Country is certainly a
national security crisis. The flow of those drugs--cocaine
principally from Colombia, heroin from Mexico, and then
fentanyl from China and other sources--all mix together in a
concoction that is killing our citizens.
The Coast Guard is our number one partner. And our Joint
Interagency Task Force South in Key West, we have 20 partner
nations and all elements of the U.S. Government laser-focused
on this across both the NORTHCOM and the SOUTHCOM boundaries
because, as you know, sir, the drug traffickers know no seams.
They exploit them.
The Coast Guard's presence any given day is six to eight
cutters, assets beyond that, and our Navy's now stepping up.
This fall, we will have a littoral combat ship. But keep in
mind, we are talking about covering an area the size of the
United States with from 6 to 10 ships. And so the interdiction
percentage with the current assets we have is about 6 percent
of the detections.
So we need more ships, we need more intelligence,
surveillance, and reconnaissance assets to include maritime
patrol aircraft. The Navy's contributed two P-8s. The Customs
and Borders Protection has some P-3s in the hunt. And those are
our critical needs.
Mr. Courtney. And you mentioned the littoral combat ship as
being an additional asset that maybe can be brought to this
mission. I mean, could you talk quickly about where that
stands.
Admiral Faller. We will get our----
The Chairman. By quickly, he means 5 seconds.
Admiral Faller. We will get our first one this fall. The
Navy needs more ships. We welcome those ships in SOUTHCOM.
The Chairman. Very good.
Mr. Lamborn.
Mr. Lamborn. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you all for
being here.
General O'Shaughnessy, always good to see you and welcome
to our community. I would like to ask a question about missile
defense, and then a more Colorado-based question. But, first of
all----
And, Mr. Rapuano, if you want to weigh in on this, also,
you would be welcome to. Given that the Redesigned Kill Vehicle
[RKV] schedule continues to slide to the right, do you think it
makes sense to consider next-generation solutions--and I am
thinking of the MOKV, the Multiple Object Kill Vehicle--because
the threat is out there and we don't want to get caught with
the threats--not being able to address the threats? So, MOKV,
should we start working on that and accelerate our work on
that?
General O'Shaughnessy. Well, thank you, sir. First, I would
say, with respect to the RKV, I do have a concern, as you would
expect, from the operational perspective of the delay as it hit
the critical design review and was not ready to move forward.
So, we have been working closely with General Greaves, MDA
[Missile Defense Agency], in fact, immediately after that was
highlighted.
I went down to the headquarters personally, met not only
with General Greaves but the technical experts to better
understand not just the RKV but the broader system of systems
and things that we could do. From my perspective, I am very
concerned about the overall capacity and capability.
In other words, if we look at North Korea as an example,
there is a capability that we need to have to be able to
intercept any missiles they shoot, but there is also a capacity
that we need to maintain. And so we want to make sure that,
between the radars, between the kill vehicles, that we maintain
ahead of that capacity.
So, without getting into technical discussion, which, of
course, would have to go classified, I would say it is really a
bit of both. In other words, I don't know that you can just
skip the RKV, but certainly the MOKV needs to be continued to
be pursued because, as you highlighted, it does give you the
ability to go after multiple objects. And so, I think as we go
forward, we can have a follow-on discussion in classified, but
I do believe we need to continue to pursue the RKV but also
look at the MOKV----
Mr. Lamborn. Okay.
General O'Shaughnessy [continuing]. MOKV going forward.
Mr. Lamborn. Well, thank you, General.
Mr. Rapuano, would you want to weigh in on that?
Secretary Rapuano. I think General O'Shaughnessy covered it
quite well. It is really what the trade space is in terms of
time as well as capabilities between RKV and MOKV. And those
are the things that we are looking at because we see
adversaries continuing to develop their capabilities, but we
want to make sure that the trade we make is a balanced trade.
Mr. Lamborn. Okay. Thank you.
And lastly, General O'Shaughnessy, I want to ask you about
a Colorado-specific question. As you know, in northwest
Colorado, we have the HAATS site, or the High-Altitude Army and
National Guard Aviation Training Site, and that is on public
land. There has been legislation introduced by some of the
Colorado delegation to declare large areas of Colorado
wilderness.
And I am sure this is unintentional, but it could have the
effect of shutting down that aviation training site because
wilderness use is very limited, very stringently controlled.
So, do you have concerns about this legislation, which is H.R.
823, and how it might affect the HAATS site and affect
firefighting as well?
General O'Shaughnessy. Yes. Thank you, sir. I don't have a
direct involvement in that as a NORTHCOM or NORAD, but I
clearly understand the dilemma that this would put us in within
the services. And so, I would look forward to working with your
team going forward to see if there is something we can do
together to address this issue.
Mr. Lamborn. Okay. We will stay in touch with you on that.
It is a work in progress. I just wanted to get you to weigh in
on that because it is a concern in our State.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I yield back.
The Chairman. Thank you.
Mr. Garamendi.
Mr. Garamendi. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Admiral Faller, you indicated that one of your
responsibilities is drug interdiction. Is that correct?
Admiral Faller. It is detection, monitoring, and then the
interdiction as well, yes, sir.
Mr. Garamendi. Thank you. How do most drugs enter the
United States?
Admiral Faller. Most drugs come through the United States
crossing in through Central America, up through Mexico, across
border, and also through the other means--containers, the
mails, the ports--particularly the fentanyl, which has been the
latest trend.
Mr. Garamendi. How about the oceans or the Caribbean and
the Pacific?
Admiral Faller. Sir, both the Caribbean and the Pacific are
high transit areas as the drugs flow out of----
Mr. Garamendi. Those drugs that enter from Mexico, enter
through the ports of entry or through unsealed border----
Admiral Faller. Sir, I would defer to General O'Shaughnessy
on the entry.
General O'Shaughnessy. Sir, I would say both. And as we
work with our Customs and Border Protection, we certainly see
it through the ports of entry, we certainly see it through the
containers, but we also see it through the open border.
Mr. Garamendi. I see. How best can we spend $6 to $8
billion? On border fences, or on Coast Guard activities,
littoral combat ships, improvement of our detection at the port
of entries? How would we best spend $6 to $8 billion?
General O'Shaughnessy. Sir, from my perspective it is not
one silver bullet that is going to defeat this threat to our
Nation.
Mr. Garamendi. So, how much would you apply to border walls
versus ports of entry?
General O'Shaughnessy. I would defer to policy on the
specifics of that, but what I would say is----
Mr. Garamendi. And the policy, Mr.----
General O'Shaughnessy. Really needs to be a little bit of
everything.
Secretary Rapuano. So, border barriers is one approach in
terms of----
Mr. Garamendi. No. The question was, where would we best
spend the money?
Secretary Rapuano. So, if we were solely considering
counternarcotics as the primary function that we are investing
in and addressing versus all the other dynamics associated with
the border?
Mr. Garamendi. My question is, drugs. How best could we
spend the money?
Secretary Rapuano. Well, I can't speak----
Mr. Garamendi. Would you spend it on the Coast Guard, would
you spend it on ports of entry, or would you spend it on walls?
Secretary Rapuano. I don't have the counterdrug portfolio--
--
Mr. Garamendi. It is your task. You are not going to answer
the question?
Secretary Rapuano. No. I simply don't have the information
to answer the question in terms of looking at drugs solely
versus looking at border security or operational control of the
border, which are two primary----
Mr. Garamendi. Thank you. But you are not answering the
question. Could you please provide me with the data? Thank you.
General O'Shaughnessy, we have missile threats, we have
cyber threats. What is the most imminent of those two threats?
General O'Shaughnessy. Sir, I think the near term, cyber
threats are happening every day. Quite literally. That said, I
do have significant concern on the kinetic or missile threats
as well.
Mr. Garamendi. So, cyber threat is the most imminent, that
is, here and now?
General O'Shaughnessy. Yes, sir.
Mr. Garamendi. Okay. And with regard to the cyber threat,
amongst those threats, what is the most imminent of those
threats?
General O'Shaughnessy. Sir, I think as we look at what is
happening every day within our infrastructure--when I say our
infrastructure I mean as a Nation, not as the Department of
Defense, clearly, we see both Russia, China working in
malicious ways.
Mr. Garamendi. Okay. Including things like elections.
Therefore, where should we apply our money and our talent and
task? To the immediate problem or to the long-term problem? I
understand we will probably do both, but is there a
relationship?
General O'Shaughnessy. Well, again, sir, I do believe it is
not one silver bullet that is going to take care of all the
threats that we are faced with. So, it is both. I know from our
Cyber Command is working diligently on the cyber threat.
Mr. Garamendi. I guess the point--thank you. And I will
just get back on it here. We have an imminent threat, immediate
threat. We need to attend to that immediately. The long-term
threat, missile defense and so forth, are also out there. I
understand that.
What is the single point of failure in the American system
of our electronic systems? It is GPS [Global Positioning
System]. It has been identified by the Federal Government for
the last 25 years as the single point of failure. We lose GPS,
these lights go out, your cellphone won't work, nothing will
work. Most of the military equipment won't work. Is there a
backup system to GPS?
General O'Shaughnessy. And, sir, what I would like to do,
is address that in a classified environment with you.
Mr. Garamendi. My time is out. The answer is there is one
available but does not yet exist and it is a problem for the
continental United States. It is called E-LORAN [Enhanced Long-
Range Navigation].
The Chairman. Thank you.
Mr. Byrne.
Mr. Byrne. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, lady and
gentlemen, for being here and thank you for the work that you
do. I wasn't here earlier, and you may have already addressed
this--and if you did, if you would just quickly summarize it.
But I would like to know, from your perspective--I know you are
not the Department of State--where we are today with regard to
the situation in Venezuela.
Ms. Wheelbarger. I will start. I think, from our
perspective, we continue to see the policy and our strategy of
multilateral international diplomatic and economic pressure on
the Maduro clique as working. The kind of regional support we
see in rallying against him and for the interim president is a
historical moment.
We will be watching over the course of today as events
unfold, because there have been calls for further protests. I
think yesterday was a significant day, but we are watching what
is unfolding today as well because they have called for further
protest and we are seeing further pressure put on Maduro around
their international community but also from within his own
system.
Mr. Byrne. Are there concerns that what is happening in
Venezuela might destabilize some of their neighbors who are
allies of ours in that region?
Ms. Wheelbarger. Of course. That is a significant challenge
we face, and we focus on, particularly given the migrant flows
into Colombia and Brazil in particular. These are solid,
important partners in the region for us and for regional
stability, so we remain focused and concerned about the
potential spillover effects to the region.
Mr. Byrne. All right. Thank you.
Admiral, let me ask you about China in Latin America. They
seem to be growing their footprint there: One Belt, One Road.
Other things that they are doing there. I know you can't
address all of that from your perspective. But from your
perspective, what can you address and tell me about what you
can do, and what we can do to help you try to push back against
China in our own neighborhood?
Admiral Faller. The National Defense Strategy rightly calls
out China as a competitor. It is--it has gone beyond that
around the world, frankly. We are in conflict with China in the
information space and for the values in democracy.
We see that in this hemisphere. Over 60 port projects--that
includes what we see in the NORTHCOM and the SOUTHCOM: 56 in
SOUTHCOM in the Caribbean. They have locked up big development
areas, both sides of the Panama Canal, significant IT
[information technology] infrastructure investments. They have
military dimensions to their involvement in space stations in a
couple of the nations. Any discussion by China that this is
soft power is simply not the truth.
In the information space, we see where China--the state
spokesman is outright just blatantly lying about some of the
causality in Venezuela with respect to the electrical
infrastructure, which was clearly Maduro's ineptness is the
reason why the country doesn't have electrical power, and China
blaming it on the U.S.
So, across the front--democracy, human rights, rule of law,
sovereignty--our partners and the values that this neighborhood
has are aligned on those dimensions. And I know how China's
don't align across those dimensions.
And so, the best response for us is to be that strong,
reliable, consistent partner, to be able to deliver our
security assistance on time with a program that has return on
investment for America and enhances the security of our
partners. That starts with intelligence sharing.
I get my best insights from the Chief of Defense;
yesterday, for example, on the phone with the Brazilian Chief
of Defense and the Colombian Chief of Defense with respect to
insights on the Venezuela situation. But again, back to China.
Completely unhelpful in Venezuela and across the hemisphere.
The One Belt, One Road in front of that term certainly
epitomizes what they are up to. One way for China's way.
Mr. Byrne. Well, I get concerned sometimes. We look at
China, and we think about the South China Sea and places over
there in the Western Pacific, and we forget that they are
present in our own hemisphere and I am concerned about that. I
think a lot of us are very concerned about that.
And we want to make sure that we are giving you the
resources you need to accomplish what you have to accomplish in
your mission: that is, to protect us and protect our neighbors
in this hemisphere. So please let us know in the future what
you need for us to give to you that you need to do your job.
And I would like for us to do it.
General, if we could, very quickly--I am going to run out
of time. I would like to know if a space sensor would address
NORTHCOM's requirements for missile detection and tracking for
both ballistic and hypersonic missiles.
General O'Shaughnessy. Yes, sir. My view is that it is
absolutely critical for us to have a space-based sensing layer,
an approach to get after the advancing threats that we see with
both ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, and hypersonics, as
you mentioned.
Mr. Byrne. Good. Mr. Chairman, my time is about to run out,
but I would make this observation. It is pretty easy to look
around the world and think that our greatest threats are in
Asia or the Middle East or, you know, with Russia. But we see a
lot of those same threats visiting themselves here in North
America and in South America.
And I hope that we will never forget that it is our
homeland that makes the most importance to her and our
neighbors to our south. So, I hope you will let us know what we
can do to be supportive of you. Thank you, I yield back.
The Chairman. And that point is worth emphasizing. We have
had, obviously, a focus on the National Security, Armed
Services Committee on the Middle East, and while Afghanistan
and Iraq, you know, dominated in the Middle East and Asian
region. And as a consequence--and we haven't touched on this
yet today--a lot of assets are not available to the Southern
Command. They have been redirected.
Now, that is coming back a little bit since we have drawn
down completely out of Iraq--or, we were completely out of
Iraq. Drawn down considerably in Iraq and Afghanistan. But it
is a challenge for all of these missions that we're talking
about, that you have kind of been at the back of the buffet
line here in terms of assets. So we need to I think re-
emphasize the importance of this region.
Mr. Gallego.
Mr. Gallego. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I yield my time to
Representative Cisneros.
Mr. Cisneros. Thank you, Mr. Gallego.
Thank you all for being here today. I just want to follow
up on Mr. Courtney's question regarding the letter from the
former SOUTHCOM commanders. You know, Secretary Pompeo
dismissed the State Department statistics that suggested U.S.
aid programs in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras, you know,
had an impact on reducing homicide rates and migrants fleeing
their countries, suggesting that the aid programs really had no
positive impact that all.
Admiral Faller, I know you are new to the position, but can
I just get your assessment on what impact you think those aid
programs will have on how you can do your job and be successful
down there in those three countries?
Admiral Faller. Had the opportunity to visit Honduras, El
Salvador, and Guatemala within weeks of taking command because
of the importance that that region has and the connection with
the United States, our neighborhood, and I will be in Honduras
next week again.
I had the opportunity in each country to go visit some of
the poorest neighborhoods and I wanted to talk to people and
find out what was on their minds, what was influencing them to
make decisions, whether to turn to organized crime or to travel
to the United States.
And one conversation with a young man who had gone all the
way to the border of Mexico and the U.S. and come back just
resonates with me. And I said to him, Well, why did you leave?
And he said, Well, my neighbors had some food because they had
family in the United States to send them money back.
We were starving, and I knew how dangerous this was. The
government was broadcasting the messages. But I wanted to keep
my family from starving, so I went anyway. And I said, Why
would you come back? He said, Because it was really, really
dangerous when I got up on the border.
So there is not one solution set, sir. It is got to be a
broad series of kits that work, a suite. And the nations have
to play and participate as well. And so, all those dynamics got
to fit together and create sustainable security at home. And
here, we forget sometimes that these are fragile democracies
that are less than a generation old, that were going through
civil war in our lifetime, so that plays into this, too.
I will say with respect to mil-to-mil, the programs are
working. I can't assess USAID versus everything else. But in
Guatemala, the special forces that we have trained are stopping
drugs that are flowing to the United States. And as Secretary
Wheelbarger said, those programs are going to be permitted to
continue at the mil-to-mil level.
Mr. Cisneros. So would you say you agree with the statement
from your predecessors that diplomacy and U.S. aid is an
important part, and that it is needed there down in those
regions?
Admiral Faller. Those are highly esteemed mentors I
respect. From a fundamental principle, around the world, it is
important to have diplomacy and all the toolkits available. But
I also would pivot to say, I think ensuring that our partners
are doing their part and putting pressure on them is an
important part of the equation. And so, I have actually seen
evidence that the additional pressure we are placing on this
being a true partnership, two-way, is changing some dynamics in
a helpful way.
Mr. Cisneros. Mr. Rapuano, news reports indicate that the
acting Secretary of Defense in a memo to the comptroller,
requesting by May 10th a list of military construction projects
of sufficient value to provide up to $3.6 billion in funding
for its consideration to defer in favor of the President's
border wall. This committee has yet to receive that memo. Can
you assure me that the memo will be shared with this committee?
And when will it be shared?
Secretary Rapuano. I can assure you the memo will be shared
as soon as possible. You are talking about the memo in which he
makes a decision with regard to 2808?
Mr. Cisneros. Yes.
Secretary Rapuano. Yes. He fully intends, and he has stated
so that he will be sharing this with Congress.
Mr. Cisneros. All right. And is the comptroller is in
process of identifying specific projects. Has he made a
determination yet that the border wall is necessary to support
troops?
Secretary Rapuano. He is still awaiting the Joint Staff
assessment with regard to the role that the barriers play. And
when he receives that assessment, he will make the decision.
Mr. Cisneros. All right. So have you been involved in those
conversations regarding what criteria, beyond simple no forms
of military housing projects that have been already awarded or
will be awarded this fiscal year, will be followed to identify
military construction projects that will be delayed to pay for
the President's wall? If so, what are that criteria?
The Chairman. And that we are going to have to take for----
Mr. Cisneros. Oh.
The Chairman [continuing]. The record because----
Mr. Cisneros. Yes.
The Chairman [continuing]. We are just completely out of
time. And I am pretty sure the answer----
Secretary Rapuano. We will provide it for the record.
[The information referred to can be found in the Appendix
on page 121.]
The Chairman [continuing]. Wouldn't be terribly
satisfactory anyway. Just for the committees, we have not yet
been told what projects the money is going to be taken from. We
continue to ask that question in a variety of different forms.
And the sooner we can get that answer--I wouldn't go so far as
to say the happier we're all going to be, but at least the more
informed we will all be about what our challenges are. So, we
are still waiting to find out exactly where that money is going
to----
Secretary Rapuano. And that decision has not been made by
the Secretary yet.
The Chairman. Apparently. But as soon as it is, we would
like to know what it is.
Ms. Stefanik.
Ms. Stefanik. Thank you, Chairman Smith.
General O'Shaughnessy, thank you for visiting my office
yesterday. Can you describe NORTHCOM's role in the Missile
Defense Agency's decision-making process for determining the
benefits and location of potential third continental
interceptor site on the East Coast?
General O'Shaughnessy. Yes, ma'am. And thank you for the
time yesterday to talk about this and other issues. NORTHCOM as
the operator, if you will, has a significant input with MDA
relative to what that future would look like.
We started with over 50 different locations that we are
looking at. We work closely with MDA for our operational
criteria that we wanted to be included in that. We provided an
assessment to MDA and work with MDA for that. And that has been
incorporated into the MDA's ongoing work in this regard.
Ms. Stefanik. Thank you. Can you expand upon the
operational criteria?
General O'Shaughnessy. Sure. Without going into great
classified detail, but broadly what we are looking at is, as
you know, we have two interceptor sites already at--one at Fort
Greely and one in California at Vandenberg. One of the
opportunities this would provide us is a dispersal for that.
It would potentially give us the opportunity for a shoot-
look-shoot. And that is just pure geometry and geography, if
you look at what that would allow us to do. And of course, we
need other sensors to be able to actually be able to take full
advantage of that. And of course, we want to look at what is
the effectiveness of the location in order to defend our
defended area, which obviously includes United States.
Ms. Stefanik. And in terms of your assessment, we are
working with the Secretary of Defense to get a timeline as to
when the preferred site would be announced. So without getting
into the specific site, can you expand upon how the
recommendation and assessment was given to MDA?
And by that I mean, did you rank the three sites? Did you
look at specific operational capabilities and say what sites
meet those capabilities? How did the assessment--how was that
formed?
General O'Shaughnessy. Our input is early in that process
in the sense of we are providing the input into MDA, who then
co-locates our--takes all of those inputs and puts them
together into a recommendation that they will ultimately give
to OSD through Dr. Griffin's office.
Ms. Stefanik. Okay. Thank you very much. I yield back.
The Chairman. Thank you.
Mr. Gallego. Or, sorry, Mr. Carbajal. Sorry.
Mr. Carbajal. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And thank you to all of
you for being here today. In California and the Central Coast,
we now experience a year-round fire season. It is no longer for
a smaller period of time.
Throughout California, and again in my district
specifically, every time we experience one of these major
events, we depend on the Defense Department--to be specific the
California National Guard. We recently were successful in
helping them get more equipped with Black Hawk helicopters.
But as we rely on the California National Guard, one thing
has become evident. In order for us to use some equipment, they
have now identified a challenge. Governors have requested the
use of unmanned systems for emergency, disaster, search and
rescue, and defense support to Federal and other civil
authorities, like the Coast Guard.
However, unlike all other assets in the National Guard
inventory, there is a restriction on their use, requiring under
DOD policy that the Secretary of Defense himself must sign off
on each individual use, a far too long of a process that is
potentially life-threatening for our communities. NORTHCOM is a
part of that domestic use chain, and we understand you have
worked with incident commanders in California several times to
employ them when approved.
General O'Shaughnessy, do you see any reason to continue
prohibiting Governors' immediate access to unmanned systems to
help protect our citizens during emergencies? And two, how can
we help expedite this process to ensure timely response to
disasters.
General O'Shaughnessy. Yes. Thank you for highlighting the
great work that the Guard is doing in support of those
wildfires. In fact, we work closely with Dave Baldwin, your TAG
[The Adjutant General] General Baldwin. And in fact, I have
ridden on those very helicopters you mentioned, looking at some
of the fires that were happening in California earlier this
year.
One of the things I will say is the UASs that you mentioned
are a high-demand, low-density asset. My sister combatant
commanders do not have the ISR [intelligence, surveillance, and
reconnaissance] that they require. And as such, it has been
trying to look at those assets on the global front to see where
is it needed.
And it is not just the asset themselves, but also the work
that has to be done on the back end, that we call it the PED
[processing, exploitation, and dissemination]. You know, you
have to process the information that comes from that UAS. And
so that is why we keep that at a very high level.
What I will say is I pledge to continue to work with Dave
Baldwin. In fact, last year there was an occurrence during a
fire season when he called me directly to ask for assistance to
get the clearance from the Secretary of Defense. And within
hours of his call, we actually got the Secretary of Defense's
approval to use that asset.
And so, I think the processes are in place. We can continue
to expedite it, and I commit to work closely with the Guard.
But I am not opposed to the system as it sits today. And the
OSD and Secretary of Defense office has been responsive to the
request that we have made in the past.
Mr. Carbajal. Well, that sounds great. But as long as it
works as we think it does, can we put in some kind of
performance that, when that communication comes from various
jurisdictions, there is some kind of response period so that we
know within what time period we can get some kind of an answer
that that will take place?
Because when these incidences are happening, every minute,
every hour, is essential and critical. And if it is going to
take days, well, you might as well as not have this in place,
not even have that asset available. Is there any way we can
look at the system, the chain of command and communication, to
make sure that there is a timely decision-making point so that
communities can get the help they deserve and need?
General O'Shaughnessy. Yes. We can't commit to what the
answer would be at the end of that, but I do believe it would
be prudent for us to put a timeline to make sure that we are
held accountable for getting a decision, whether the decision
is yes or no: yes, it is available; or, no, it is not
available; yes, it can be used; no, it won't. So, I will work
with both you, I will work with General Baldwin, and work with
OSD to determine what that timeline ought to look like.
Mr. Carbajal. Great. I would appreciate your office
following up with mine. Thank you very much.
Secretary Rapuano. I would just quickly add that, to my
knowledge, when those requests are delayed, it is because there
is a multiple demand signal for the high-demand, low-density
asset. When the system is available, the decisions are made
very quickly.
Mr. Carbajal. Well, it would be great to look at the past
20 times that has been requested to see how efficient the
system is working and where we need to make improvement. So,
thank you very much.
The Chairman. Thank you.
Mr. Gallagher.
Mr. Gallagher. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Admiral Faller, I want to commend your very strong
statement on the brutal Maduro regime at the start of this
hearing and the way in which Cuba and Russia have violated
Venezuelan sovereignty. In simple terms, what tools do you have
in the kit to prevent enhanced Russian meddling or even Chinese
meddling or Cuban meddling in Venezuela as we try and shape a
positive outcome?
Admiral Faller. Clearly, the reason this crisis has gone so
long, responsibility squarely rests, as you pointed at,
Congressman, on Cuba, Russia, and, to some extent, China. China
has an opportunity, I think, in the international community to
step up and help with this and they haven't.
In the information space, in the intelligence space, in our
partner, in our security cooperation, we have the tools we need
and we are using the full range of those tools, from cyber to
public messaging and information security cooperation. We are
using assets diligently and quietly in a number of ways to help
paint the picture of what is going on inside and outside the
country. And then we are sharing that with the interagency in
full cooperation in a manner that matters. The region has been
exceptionally united.
Last week, I was in Colombia, and the Colombian Chief of
Defense and myself hosted a multinational border meeting with
Peru, Ecuador, Brazil, and Colombia. We discussed the range of
challenges that affect the region. Central to all of those was
Venezuela, and to the extent to which Venezuela complicates and
magnifies every single problem that affects the region, and the
extent to how these external state actors are meddling in a way
that is unhelpful to democracy.
So, those discussions lead to coordinated calls for action.
And we are all united and we are all standing firmly behind
diplomacy and the need for this democratic process to work. And
it will.
Mr. Gallagher. President Trump suggested a complete embargo
of Cuba if Cuban troops don't cease their activities in support
of Maduro. If you were to get such an order, do you have the
assets necessary to effectuate such an embargo?
Admiral Faller. Again, back to Cuba's centrality in all
things bad in this hemisphere, including how they are just
simply completely protecting Maduro, all the inner circle
Praetorian Guard around Maduro, the intelligence service all
infiltrated. And so, putting pressure on Cuba is a good thing.
Maximum pressure a good thing.
We are aware of the embargo--those orders and we are
carefully looking at plans and what it would take to do that,
and I am not prepared to discuss in open setting what it would
take.
Mr. Gallagher. Fair enough. Fair enough. Looking more
broadly to Chinese investment in SOUTHCOM AOR [area of
responsibility], how should Congress think about or be
concerned with Chinese investment in and around the Panama
Canal?
Admiral Faller. Looking around the world, we have to think
globally about China, certainly the South China Sea and the
INDOPACOM [U.S. Indo-Pacific Command] area are a central piece
of this, but they are a global power and they are acting
globally. Their investments are global. The number of
agreements that China's signed with government of Panama, the
extent to which they have locked up contracts for
infrastructure for IT, for port facilities, is an area of
concern.
Panama still wants to partner with us, and we still share
much more in common than they do with China, but they have
turned to an economic partner of necessity vice choice. And so
we have to look at that more broadly in our strategy in the
Department of Defense, as part of the whole government
strategy, is looking at those high leverage points around the
world where we need to insure the access and influence that the
United States needs as a global leader.
Mr. Gallagher. Sure. Quickly, Assistant Secretary Rapuano,
first of all, I want to thank you for your help with getting
the Cyberspace Solarium Commission off the ground. I know it
has been a bureaucratic struggle, but I think we are on a good
path and I want to thank you for your participation in that.
You know, we have talked a lot about future of 5G and some
of the decisions our allies are making in terms of excluding
Huawei and ZTE from their network, debating that. But it seems
like we still have a little bit more work to do here at home.
Could you just talk briefly about your concern, if any, about
Huawei's activity in the United States in general, particularly
in rural networks where we really don't have good visibility?
Secretary Rapuano. Well, thank you. And thank you very much
for the role that you played with the Solarium Commission, and
it has been very productive thus far and I look forward to it.
With regard to 5G, obviously, we have very significant
concerns. We have concerns about Huawei. We have concerns about
allies and partners, in particular, in terms of systems that
may be allowing Chinese access and the accessibility of
information that we are sharing with partners and allies. So
that is an ongoing effort, engaging with them to give them a
better appreciation for what the risk and threat is----
The Chairman. And if I could follow--the gentleman's time
expired.
We are going to do a couple things which are on this point
within the bill. One is to try to take further steps to make
sure that we cut off Huawei and ZTE from participating in--
having any part of our 5G going forward.
But one critical part of that is to develop the domestic
capability because one of our problems is, we don't have any
domestic capability--and I forget the technological term, but
the stuff that makes it go from the device out into the--we
don't build that. There are a couple European companies--Nokia
and Ericsson, and Samsung--we are trying to develop a domestic
capability, which DOD is--they're buying their own 5G piece so
it could help with.
So that is something we are going to be really interested
in, blocking Huawei and ZTE, but also making sure that we have
a domestic capability, so we have that alternative because,
regrettably, those other three that I mentioned aren't
necessarily providing what we need. So look forward to working
with you.
And I know, Congressman Gallagher, you have a big interest
in this, so we will certainly loop you in the work on that as
well.
With that, Ms. Speier.
Ms. Speier. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you to all of
our witnesses this morning.
General O'Shaughnessy, the President's budget is proposing
reallocating a billion dollars in funding for military
construction, including funds intended to repair hurricane-
damaged installations along the east coast, for construction of
a border wall.
During the recess, I toured five of our bases, one of which
was Camp Lejeune, that is filled with buildings that are
tarped. And I remember them saying they had about 3 billion
dollars' worth of damage there. In your estimation, what poses
a greater security challenge to our homeland? Asylum seekers
and economic migrants on foot, or ill-equipped Marines and
soldiers living and training in unsafe buildings?
General O'Shaughnessy. Ma'am, the individual services are
the ones who--in this case, the Commandant of the Marine Corps
is the one who is actually working the recovery efforts for
Camp Lejeune. It doesn't fall under the NORTHCOM
responsibility.
Ms. Speier. Okay. Then, Secretary Rapuano, there has been
an analysis from the Brookings Institute that a strategy
centered around capturing high-value targets in
counternarcotics operations intensifies violence by fomenting
turf wars, which lead to corruption of law enforcement
officers. What strategies is the U.S. engaged in,
counternarcotics operations employing in order to ensure that
they do not perpetuate corruption and further destabilize the
region?
Secretary Rapuano. So, I will turn to Secretary Wheelbarger
to address that issue.
Ms. Wheelbarger. Thank you, ma'am. I don't directly have
responsibility for counternarcotics policy, but I do have
responsibility, obviously, for the region. From the Department
of Defense's perspective, both counternarcotics activities as
well as counter-trafficking activities is a major line of
effort for the Department.
We do this in support of local law enforcement as well as
our interagency partners, the Coast Guard in particular. But
part and parcel of everything we do as a partner in the region
is, again, developing the capability and capacity of these
local governments to defend themselves against their external
as well as internal threats.
Earlier this morning, the chairman brought up Plan
Colombia. I just want to highlight that the success of Plan
Colombia over a couple of decades is because it had bipartisan
support from Congress for decades. The kind of sustained
partner capacity programs we need to be successful across the
host of threats in the region not just counternarcotics or
counter-trafficking or the drug cartels really it takes our
sustained commitment to these partners.
And so, you know, the strategy is a whole-of-government one
in terms of addressing the challenges of the region. But with
respect to our particular capabilities in the Department, it is
really ensuring that our partners have resources and
capabilities to secure themselves internally.
Ms. Speier. So who should I talk to specifically within
your Department on this issue, then?
Ms. Wheelbarger. Assistant Secretary Owen West has
responsibility for our counternarcotics programs.
Ms. Speier. All right. Thank you----
Secretary Rapuano. I just would note that no funding has
been taken from the 284 counterdrug programs for barrier
construction, either to NORTHCOM or Southern Command.
Ms. Speier. No. I was asking a different question. Thank
you, Secretary.
Secretary Wheelbarger, in your written statement, you
described the need to address great power competition with
China and Russia in the Western Hemisphere as they seek to
expand their political, economic, and military influence
throughout Latin America. The initiatives by China are pretty
widespread around the world.
According to Pew polls, in 2016, 66 percent of Latin
America held favorable views of the United States. But by 2017,
the favorability had dropped by 19 points. Given this
considerable and rapid decline, are we still able to appeal to
militaries in the region as a source of training, equipment,
and leadership? Are we still well-positioned on the field that
you mentioned?
Ms. Wheelbarger. Yes, thank you. Global competition with
China is, as the National Defense Strategy indicated, one of
our key priorities as a department. We stressed to our
partners, as Admiral Faller mentioned earlier, it is not just
what equipment you can get or what training you can get, but
actually how much you can trust the partner that you are
partnering with. And the United States continues to be well-
positioned throughout the region to be the security partner of
choice.
I think from the day-to-day activities throughout the ranks
of our government, whether it be our training in the United
States or in the region, we continue to be well-positioned to
compete and grow in our competition in the region.
And I would defer to Admiral Faller, if you have any other
thoughts.
Admiral Faller. Thanks for the question. From the mil-to-
mil perspective in my travels--and I have met with almost every
single Chief of Defense or Minister of Defense, and we try to
get out beyond that. When my wife goes with me, the people
still want to and value that relationship with the United
States above all. So, whatever the polls say, ma'am, what I am
seeing in person and what my team is seeing is an affinity to
work with us and trust us.
Ms. Speier. I know my time is expired but while you may
dismiss the polls based on your personal interactions with
people, I think it is very important to recognize that there
has been slippage and what are we going to do to raise it.
Thank you, I yield back.
The Chairman. Thank you.
Mr. Bacon.
Mr. Bacon. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And thanks to all of
you for being here today. And it is nice to see General
O'Shaughnessy again. I used to serve with him a few years ago.
My first question is to Admiral Faller. You know, Venezuela
used to be the richest, wealthiest country in South America and
in the region, but the dictatorship and the socialist policies
have broken it. Can you give us, you know, your feedback on
just how bad it is for the average Venezuelan?
Admiral Faller. Shortly after I assumed command, I had the
opportunity to go out on the United States Naval Ship Comfort,
which we had deployed to the region to provide comfort, medical
support, lifesaving stability to--the entire region was
impacted by this crisis. And I got to see some small children,
8-year-old, 9-year-old kids.
The average Venezuelan has lost 20 pounds in the last year.
These kids were emaciated. It is the first time they had
received any medical treatment in their lives. I don't think
they knew who I was or what I was about. Their mother certainly
did. And the look in her eye, and the conditions that she
represented impacts the entire region.
Over 3 million people have been migrated out of Venezuela.
It is on track to be worse than the Syria migration crisis by
the end of this year. That is affecting all aspects of life.
Ninety percent of the people are malnutritioned and starving.
Most of the country's without power; we see that daily. And it
is a dictatorship and brutal in all ways.
Mr. Bacon. The governance has devastated its own people, is
what I am hearing.
Admiral Faller. Yes, sir.
Mr. Bacon. On a different tack, it seems to me that
Colombia and Chile's been sort of the pillars of our engagement
in South America, or at least our closest relationships. Do I
have that characterized right?
Admiral Faller. Colombia's an example, when we have a long
view, we stick to a plan over 20 years, as Secretary
Wheelbarger stated, with people committed to their democracy,
their own security, where we can have impacts. Colombia this
year is on track to train over 1,000 security personnel in
Central America.
Those security personnel are going to contribute to the
security of their countries--Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador,
and beyond--and the United States. They are a capable and
willing partner. Chile stepped up and has stepped up
consistently. They have participated in some of our
international exercises at a leadership level, and they remain
a very capable and committed partner.
Mr. Bacon. I sense from what I am hearing from Brazil that
there is a desire to draw closer with us, which is, I think,
good news. Could you just give us your views or your
perspective on the potential of what we can do with the
stronger ties of Brazil?
Admiral Faller. Brazil's a resource-rich country that has
the same values of us, the second-largest democracy in the
hemisphere. They are all in. We have been down to Brazil. They
have been to see us. We are integrating our staffs, we are
sharing information. They are looking for ways to strengthen
intelligence sharing, exercises, education.
Part of our security assistance program is so important is
this International Military Education and Training, IMET that
it is referred to. It is State Department-funded in foreign
assistance. It is a foundation. We build life-long friends. I
am looking to double that this year, but I will need the
support of Congress to raise that level of assistance. And
Brazil's all in. They want to double the number of people they
send to our schools.
Mr. Bacon. Thank you.
General O'Shaughnessy, you have such an important mission,
so does STRATCOM [U.S. Strategic Command], so does the future
of Space Command. And it seems like there is some overlapping
potential there, or mission areas. How do you deconflict and
what are some of the challenges there? Thank you.
General O'Shaughnessy. Yes. It may be looked at as a
challenge, but it is also an opportunity. And we are clearly--
STRATCOM has morphed over several years--if you look at Cyber
Command coming out now, look at Space Command--and that has
given us an opportunity to really look at all of the mission
sets and try to determine what is the best organizational
construct there.
What I will say and report, without a doubt, it is a
collaborative perspective that we are taking. And if you look
at all of the players--whether it be General Hyten, whether it
will be--at least on Air Force Space Command is being worked by
Jay Raymond. How do we best do this? That is the only question
that is being asked. I think we will be able to work our way
through this. But in the end, I think we will end up being
stronger than we are today.
Mr. Bacon. Turn my mike back on. Are we where we need to be
when it comes to speediness of response? NORTHCOM detects
threats, then STRATCOM would have to respond. Do we have that
as seamless as possible?
General O'Shaughnessy. I would say we do. And actually, it
is NORTHCOM responds as well as the operational--we are
actually the ones who do the ballistic missile defense.
STRATCOM--and we are tied on the same conferences in literally
seconds, not minutes in the way we respond together.
Mr. Bacon. Mr. Chairman, I yield back.
The Chairman. Thank you.
Ms. Hill.
Ms. Hill. Thank you. Thank you all for your service.
General O'Shaughnessy, you spend a great deal of time
talking about Russian threats, including their investments in
long-range, low-radar, cross-section cruise missiles that can
be fired from aircraft or subs against targets within the
United States. And in particular, about advanced long-range
cruise missiles capable of flying through the northern
approaches.
Can you talk about the potential capability of the F-35 in
missile defense?
General O'Shaughnessy. Certainly. And as we look at these
threats that you mentioned, one of the reasons that we are most
concerned about is, we see not only a capability and a
capacity, we see a doctrine where their very strategy, as they
articulate it, is to take attacks on our infrastructure. And
then we look at the patterns of behavior that they do. For
example, their fly of the missions that are clearly flying
practice attacks against North America.
So, to that end, we want to make sure we have the most
advanced capability that we can possible have. F-35 has proven
itself. In fact, we just heard in the news--it just dropped in
combat within the last 24 or 48 hours. But more importantly, it
is the ability for it to fuse all of the capability together
that becomes critically important because it is not just the
endgame is how you get after the cruise missiles. It is the
sensors that have to all fuse together for that to work.
And whether it be from Red Flag scenarios that we see, the
exercises that we do, we see the F-35's real capability and
capacity is its ability to essentially be the quarterback, if
you will, to bring all that together. So, we see it as vital
going forward.
Ms. Hill. So you need them.
General O'Shaughnessy. We need them and as many as we can
procure.
Ms. Hill. Great. Okay. And then along the same lines, what
is your biggest challenge when dealing with Russian military
aircraft in the U.S. and Canadian air defense identification
zones?
General O'Shaughnessy. Our biggest challenge we have right
now is domain awareness. Many of our systems were designed in
the Cold War era. And as the Russians have advanced their
capability, we need to stay ahead of that and advance our
capability and be able to understand what is happening. In the
Arctic, as an example, we are currently challenged and need to
advance our capabilities.
Ms. Hill. So I think you mentioned there has been an
increase in these interactions in the last few years. Is that
correct?
General O'Shaughnessy. It is increased in the number but,
really, they have been up and down as they have gone through a
modernization with their bombers. But more importantly, it is
the complexity of the events that we are seeing. Very complex,
very much more integrated with multiple platforms that has us
concerned.
Ms. Hill. Thank you. Are there resources that you need that
you are not currently receiving to execute this part of the
homeland defense strategy?
General O'Shaughnessy. As always, much like my partner here
in SOUTHCOM, we are always looking to make sure that we have
the adequate resources to defend our Nation. We do. But I will
say that, going forward, as this becomes more and more advanced
weaponry, we want to make sure that we maintain the ability to
stay ahead of those threats is probably our most pressing
concern.
Ms. Hill. So as we move to an all fifth-generation fleet,
is it fair to say the F-35 would be used for these missions as
well?
General O'Shaughnessy. Yes.
Ms. Hill. Okay. Admiral Faller, in your statement, you
mentioned a Russian spy ship with the capability to map
undersea cables. Are you able to tell us in this setting what
is being done to harden and protect the fiberoptic systems that
connect our world?
Admiral Faller. I can speak broadly about Russia and the
region. The specifics would not be able to go into in this
setting. But around the world, Russia is advancing their
interests in ways that are harmful. And we see this around the
world, and we see it in Latin America and the Caribbean as
well.
Ms. Hill. So, I guess that kind of leads to a simple
summary from you all. Would you say just in terms of North and
South America who is our most dangerous and eminent threat?
General O'Shaughnessy. I would say in the long term it is
China, without a doubt, as a nation, I think, as we look at the
threat that China presents us. But in the short term, we have
significant concerns about the Russian capability and their
patterns of behavior and what they have shown to be an intent.
Admiral Faller. China, without a doubt. And our best
defense is to ensure that our defense remains strong, that our
people are ready, that we invest in it appropriately, and we
don't overlook the home game here in this hemisphere, with
security cooperation being key. It is a small dollar value with
a high return on investment.
Ms. Hill. And, Ms. Wheelbarger, would you agree? And Mr.
Rapuano?
Ms. Wheelbarger. Yes. Absolutely. I sometimes describe it
as, I think China is our chronic threat and, in some ways,
Russia is our acute threat right now, given their misbehavior
around the world. But we have to make sure we address them
equally as well as ensure stability around the world, so we
don't get distracted as we maintain that long-term focus.
Secretary Rapuano. I also strongly agree. And just on the
partnerships and alliances, they are tremendous force
multipliers for us. And the United States is unique in our
history and ability to leverage those partnerships.
Ms. Hill. Thank you, all. Yield back.
The Chairman. Thank you.
Mr. Gaetz.
Mr. Gaetz. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Admiral, if the DOD was prohibited from contracting with
any persons that had business operations with an authority of
Venezuela that is not recognized as the legitimate government
of Venezuela by the Government of the United States, which
capabilities would you expect could be impaired from our
standpoint?
Admiral Faller. More broadly, I think anything we can do to
impact and pressure Venezuela and continue this necessary
transition to democracy, we should be doing. And I know we are
looking at that across the full range. My suspicion is we
haven't done it yet, we just haven't thought of it because the
full-court press from our leadership on.
To the specifics of your question, I am not aware or
understanding of any impacts on those, but we would have to
look at them case by case.
Mr. Gaetz. Well, thank you for that response. And if you
could take that for the record and--and provide responses,
because I believe my colleague Mr. Waltz and I are going to
introduce an amendment to the NDAA to assist you in achieving
that pressure. But in doing so, we don't want to have the
inadvertent effect of hamstringing DOD. I don't expect that it
would do that. Your clarification that you can't think of a
circumstance where it would, is similarly helpful.
[The information referred to can be found in the Appendix
on page 121.]
Mr. Gaetz. I want to now ask about how the United States is
interacting with and engaging in the ongoing crisis in
Venezuela. If the United States were to have uniform military
in Venezuela, engaging in operations, have we modeled out or
planned or conducted analysis regarding how some of the other
ALBA [Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas] nations would react
to such an action?
Admiral Faller. First, looking at the range of things we
are thinking about, discussing with our partners, our allies
within the interagency, we are looking at ways to be helpful to
the inevitable rise of legitimate Guaido government. And then
how do we set the table afterwards to ensure that those
professional military forces get the training, the assistance
they need. This will be a regionally led issue.
The countries in the region that aren't democracies--
Nicaragua, Bolivia, Cuba--and the external actors that don't
believe in democracy, although they may say they do, they are
not going to be happy about anything we do. I mean, Russian
news agencies had repeated reports of----
Mr. Gaetz. Other than unhappiness, which I appreciate and
understand, are there other activities that we have had to
analyze or plan for? For example, if we were to put uniform
military on the ground in Caracas, do we have contingency plans
for mass protests in other Latin American capitals?
Because, as I have analyzed how the region perceives the
possibility of U.S. involvement--and I understand we've got to
keep every option on the table, that U.S. involvement is very
popular right now in Venezuela and with the Venezuelan
diaspora. But U.S. direct involvement with uniformed military
is very unpopular with every other Latin American country. If
you are aware of information that is different or more up-to-
date, I would love to hear it.
But I just wonder whether or not our military--and I know
we are involved in a lot of train-and-equip missions with these
other partner nations--if we are planning for the potential of
the Venezuelan crisis erupting into a broader regional crisis,
if the arrival of American troops on the ground gives Maduro
the ability to externalize his conflict, to scapegoat his own
failures, and then to deny the organic efforts of the
Venezuelan people to fight for a brighter future.
Admiral Faller. I wouldn't want to speculate anything that
Maduro's thinking. I am not sure he does. But the details of
the different course of action, things we are looking at, I
would take in a closed session. Broadly, we are looking at--as
I have said, the leadership has been clear. Our job is to be
ready and we are on the balls of our feet.
Mr. Gaetz. And I have no doubt, as the Congressman for the
7th Special Forces Group, that we are ready, and we can take
the fight to the enemy and we can win it. I just want to make
sure that if we are going to have that fight and if it becomes
necessary, that we have really thought out all the options
when, in my experience, there is a good amount of latent
resentment in some pockets of Latin America that date back to
prior administrations and their involvement in--in the
continent.
And so, I certainly am proud of that state of readiness.
And I would similarly add that, over the last decade or so, the
great work at SOUTHCOM has greatly enhanced the capabilities of
our partner nations. The Colombians, the Peruvians, they are no
joke. They can bring the fight and I think that that is a
consequence of the great work that has been done at SOUTHCOM.
And I hope that, you know, as circumstances continue to
change in Venezuela, that we leverage the great work that we
have done so that we have, as you described, a regional
approach and not a unilateral approach by the United States.
Admiral Faller. I would like to commend the 7th Special
Forces Group and our teammates in your district that are ready,
they are ready to go and they have a focus on the region. And
we actually need more of their presence. Thank you.
Mr. Gaetz. Thank you. I yield back.
The Chairman. Thank you very much.
Mr. Moulton.
Mr. Moulton. Mr. Chairman, thank you. And thank you, all,
for everything you do to keep us safe. A lot of American lives
are entrusted in your care. I want to actually pick up where
Mr. Gaetz left off and ask a similar question. This kind of
harkens back to the Iraq experience. You say you have
contingency plans if we were to do something in Venezuela.
Do we have any plans for what happens on the day after not
just in other countries but in Venezuela itself? We have
obviously been through the experience of having great invasion
plans and no plans for what to do next in recent conflicts.
Admiral Faller. The complexity of the situation, the
magnitude of the misery, is going to require every element of
international unity that currently exists to focus on recovery
of the economic infrastructure, the oil infrastructure, port
facilities, electrical infrastructure that Maduro has ruined.
There are ongoing efforts to look at all aspects as--at my
headquarters, we call it Day Now because there is going to be a
day when the legitimate government takes over and it is going
to come when we least expect it and it could be right now. So,
we are calling it Day Now planning.
Mr. Moulton. And do those plans exist in the contingency of
U.S. military intervention as well, Admiral?
Admiral Faller. Our ability to be ready for anything that
the President has been clear might be on the table is things we
are looking at. We are on the balls of our feet. Details of
what those plans look like I would take in closed session.
Mr. Moulton. Okay. I would like to shift to Mr. Gallagher's
question about Panama. And I understand you answered it
briefly. But just tell me in general, here. You have all stated
the influence of China is the greatest long-term threat to the
security and safety of the United States. I would agree with
you. What is the worst-case scenario with the Chinese presence
in Panama?
Admiral Faller. I would like to start by pointing out what
Panama is doing for us. So, the canal remains open and free,
and the canal authority remains independent and operational.
Panama has stepped up their game in the drug interdiction
through our security cooperation----
Mr. Moulton. Admiral, with all due respect, I am asking
about the worst cases, not the best----
Admiral Faller. The worst case is that I can't answer that
question in that way a year, 2 years, 5, or a generation from
now because Panama Canal, both the zone and the ends of the
canal are controlled by Chinese and they actually influence
Panama in a way that is counter to any international interest.
Mr. Moulton. So since we are heading in that direction,
maybe quickly, maybe slowly, what can we do to stop it? What
should we be doing to turn Chinese influence away, because
right now it just seems to be increasing?
Admiral Faller. Military dimension that has to stay strong.
Our partnerships must be consistent. We must be responsive in
our security cooperation. Some of the tools that Congress has
given us are good, but they are not responsive enough. The
current way that we have implemented our 333 authorities are
too slow. A lot of that is on the Department to look itself in
the mirror and figure out how to speed it up.
Some of this could be better if we had 2-year money and
combatant commanders had some additional authority to deliver
on small things that can help both our partners and return on
investment for the security of the United States.
Mr. Moulton. Admiral, in general, do you think we are doing
enough as the United States of America to deter the Russian and
Chinese influence in our hemisphere?
Admiral Faller. We are doing everything we can and that
will never be enough or fast enough, so we have to act with a
speed of urgency----
Mr. Moulton. I mean, frankly, if their presence in the
region were decreasing, I would say it is probably enough. I
mean, it is headed in the right direction. But it doesn't seem
to be headed in that direction.
General, do you have any comment on this? Do you think we
are doing enough to deter Russian and Chinese influence in our
hemisphere?
General O'Shaughnessy. Well, I would agree with Admiral
Faller in that we do need to continue to--I will just use our
own within NORTHCOM AOR. Look at the Bahamas. It is a nation 50
miles off the coast of Florida, yet we are seeing Chinese
influence right there. And it does not take a significant
amount of dollars, frankly, for a very positive affect.
And so, the more that we can look at it within this
hemisphere and focus our efforts not just with China and the
Asia-Pacific region, but in the Western Hemisphere as well, I
think we will see the fruits of that pay off fairly quickly.
Mr. Moulton. Well, I hope you will be a partner with us
with the development of the NDAA to help in that mission.
Ms. Wheelbarger, we don't have much time left, but I just
wanted to ask you, do you think Plan Colombia should be a
model? Should Plan Colombia be a model that we duplicate
elsewhere?
Ms. Wheelbarger. I think it is dangerous to always think
about duplicating programs in--in countries or locations that
are not exactly the same. But I will say as a model of a whole-
of-government approach and interbranch approach to a particular
problem set, it is a model.
And I have used it as one of the examples I give of our
security cooperation truly working because it was long-term, it
was sustained, it had bipartisan support, and it didn't just
focus on tactics and operations. It focused on true defense
institution building and that is the sort of thing we need to
be doing around the world.
Mr. Moulton. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
The Chairman. Thank you, Mr. Moulton.
And I would say, you know, when we look back to the Central
American countries where most of the migrants are coming from,
whether Plan Colombia is the exact model or not but some sort
of comprehensive plan in that region is probably the best thing
we could do to deal with the migrant crisis that we have.
Before I call on Mr. Waltz, I want to welcome him to the
adults' table. For those of you who don't know, we had to
reconfigure the room here. He used to be all by himself down
there in front, right next to the witnesses. And now he has
joined the rest of us.
So, welcome. And you are recognized for 5 minutes.
Mr. Waltz. Mr. Chairman, I have spent a little bit of time
on forward outposts and I like to consider it the forward
combat post up there but thank you for that and thank you all
for coming today. And just to add to my colleague Seth
Moulton's comment there, I do think Plan Colombia--as a Green
Beret, I am a little bit invested in that one, as the tip of
the spear in Plan Colombia. I do think it is a model for advise
and assist and whole-of-government operations.
Admiral, thank you for coming by yesterday. You know, as a
number of my colleagues have stated, I think I had a back-and-
forth with my good friend Tucker Carlson of Fox News on why
should the American people care, really, of what is going on
down in Venezuela?
And I reminded him that the migration problem, the refugee
problem from Venezuela is approaching the levels that we saw in
Syria, and that we are approaching 3 to 5 million refugees by
the end of 2019, destabilizing the area. I think that it is
important for us to really take that message out on what this
can do, what the Cubans, Russians, and Chinese are doing, not
only in Venezuela but doing it in Nicaragua as well, where we
are also seeing a refugee flow.
So, given that dynamic, do you think it is a time, Admiral
Faller, for a coalition, humanitarian, forcible if necessary
intervention? Do you think from a logistics and military
standpoint that the Colombians, the Brazilians, possibly the
French and Dutch are ready with U.S. leadership to have that
intervention? And do you think it would do more harm than--I
mean, do you think it would do more good than harm?
Admiral Faller. I would start with the level above that,
Congressman, where it is time for a plan for the hemisphere. We
talked about Plan Colombia, we need a plan for this hemisphere,
and an initiative that recognizes the importance of this
hemisphere, with all the various security dimensions that have
been discussed today, including the impact that this Venezuela
crisis particularly has on all of us; this mass migration.
To the point of the partner unity, extremely important that
the partners are unified partners, and the allies--the Dutch,
the French, the U.K. [United Kingdom], the Canadians--to the
extent that the diplomatic solution needs that kind of bulk
that militaries can bring to humanitarian intervention, I know
in the U.S. we are prepared to support. So, diplomatically led
and----
Mr. Waltz. And I completely agree with you. We need a
broader Plan Latin America. But in the immediate term, while we
are at an inflection, a crisis point in Venezuela, do you think
that intervening with a humanitarian, coalition-led, is a
viable option at this point?
Admiral Faller. There is a----
Mr. Waltz. Would you recommend it?
Admiral Faller. There is a need for humanitarian
assistance; it ought to have an international and USAID or an
Organization of American States face. And if asked, militaries
would be our military and partners, I think, willing and ready
to help support the----
Mr. Waltz. Do you think that the----
Admiral Faller. We have seen that already with the staging
in Colombia and Brazil.
Mr. Waltz. Do you assess that the Cuban security forces--
which I have seen estimates ranging from 3,000 upwards of
20,000--Cuban security forces on the ground, protecting Maduro,
do you think they would oppose militarily a coalition
intervention, particularly with Colombian and Brazilian
involvement?
Admiral Faller. I wouldn't want to speculate what the
Cubans would or wouldn't do. I think they are as--as likely as
unpredictable as the Russians. There would have to be some
level of cooperation and invitation from the legitimate Guaido
government to make this work.
Mr. Waltz. Do you think it would be--completely agree. Do
you think it would be helpful if Guaido offered amnesty and
more overtly offered amnesty?
Admiral Faller. Well, the----
Mr. Waltz. In terms of peeling away Maduro-loyal military
officers?
Admiral Faller. The amnesty offer is open. And as I
understand it, they are moving forward towards enacting that in
legislation. That would be very helpful if the National
Assembly passed that as part of the package. But I think there
is plenty of teeth to the amnesty. And again, the message I
would have for the military is, believe in us. The world is
united. There will be amnesty. There will be a place in our
schools. There will be a place to partner with us when there is
a legitimate democracy.
Mr. Waltz. What do you assess is the Russian presence on
the ground in terms of either military, Wagner Group, you know,
surrogates, and what is their current mission and guidance and
role?
Admiral Faller. We saw recently additional flights in, 100
or so--technical, special forces, other advisors. There are
other Russians present. I wouldn't want to discuss in an open
hearing what our estimate of their presence are, but it is
significant and it is contributing to the devastation.
Mr. Waltz. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I yield.
The Chairman. Thank you very much.
Ms. Escobar.
Ms. Escobar. Thank you, Chairman, and good morning. Thank
you all so much for your testimony this morning. And,
gentlemen, thank you especially for your service. Very grateful
for it.
Mr. Rapuano, the fiscal year 2016 NDAA had a provision in
it entitled, Section 1059, Department of Defense Authority to
Provide Assistance to Secure the Southern Land Border of the
United States. In communications with Congress, the Department
of Defense has cited this as one of their authorities for
deploying service members to the southern border, including my
community, El Paso, Texas.
This authority requires a DOD report every 3 months. And
yet, as we approach 6 months of Active Duty support at the
southern border, this committee has not received a single one
of these reports. The first report would have been due the
first week of February. Why hasn't the Department adhered to
the law that they are citing and submitted the required report?
Secretary Rapuano. Congresswoman, I am familiar with 1059.
I will get more familiar with the reporting requirement. I will
follow up on that and ensure that we follow up if we are not
complying with our obligations.
Ms. Escobar. Great. And would you be able to have a
timeline for when this committee and myself, in particular,
would receive a copy of this report?
Secretary Rapuano. As fast as I can help make it happen.
Ms. Escobar. Okay. Thank you. I would appreciate that.
Admiral, I so appreciated your perspective on having a plan
for the hemisphere. As I mentioned, I represent El Paso, and we
have seen a significant influx of, essentially, asylum seekers
arriving at our front doorstep. And I agree with the chairman
when he says that really the best way to address what is a
significant humanitarian challenge is to address what is
happening in the Northern Triangle.
I, myself, have called for hemispheric collaboration and
cooperation. This is a shared responsibility and duty. So with
that in mind, and because I so appreciated that comment you
made, can you speak to the effort SOUTHCOM is engaged in in the
critical Northern Triangle region to address the root causes of
these immigration flows? Do you think you can positively impact
this humanitarian challenge that we are facing?
Admiral Faller. We are working with our partners in
Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, Belize--not traditionally
considered part of the Northern Triangle, but part of that
region--to work on professional forces. Professional forces
have legitimacy with their people.
We have a human rights program that is now in its 20th
year. We talk about human rights at every venue. We hold
training and I have found them very receptive. But it is a long
process and there is a history to everything. We also have
noncommissioned officer, NCO, training and development.
The backbone of our forces are our enlisted. And to the
extent that we can grow that and build that in our partner is
very important. And they are in, from our perspective. They are
all-in. But again, it is something you have to really work on
with a longer view.
Another aspect of this is just general professional
military education and training. The Western Hemisphere
Institute for Security at Fort Benning, we put upwards of about
2,000 enlisted officers through that school a year. Range of
courses that deal at the heart and sharing common doctrine,
training, and tactics with our partners that helps them go back
and be more interoperable with us on drug enforcement missions,
security/stability-type missions.
At the institution level, the Perry Center here in
Washington, DC, is a place where they teach the classes in
Spanish. It is over at--in adjunct with the National Defense
University. And we bring through--at the institutional level,
we are trying to teach our partners the best practices in
budgeting and programming and planning so that the important
security dollars that they have or that we contribute can be
used effectively and appropriately.
All these tools, we are working each and every day that--it
is not very high dollar, but it has high impact. And we can
measure and see that impact over time. It is working.
Ms. Escobar. And so, Admiral, I take it that you believe
that the aid that we provide to the Northern Triangle is
crucial to that success.
Admiral Faller. The mil-to-mil security cooperation that we
are working is showing demonstrated results that are improving
the security of the homeland of the United States. Can our
partners do more? They can. I have spoken to all their Chiefs
of Defense in recent weeks and their ministers. They are
committed to do more. And next week, we will host a security
conference to ask them to do more. And we will work towards
that goal.
Ms. Escobar. Thank you. Chairman, I yield back my time.
The Chairman. Thank you very much.
Mr. Brooks.
Mr. Brooks. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Doing a little bit of research, Nicolas Maduro is quite
clearly a socialist, but he was elected to the National
Assembly as far back as the year 2000 and then was elected
again with Chavez in 2012/2013, this time as vice president.
And finally, in 2013, was elected president with 50.6 percent
of the vote, more or less. Of course, there is always debate
about legitimacy of elections that we are familiar with.
When we look at Juan Guaido, he helped found the social-
democratic Popular Will party. The research suggests that that
is also a socialist organization. Certainly, it is a supporter
of the Socialist International entity. He was elected in 2015
to the National Assembly with 26 percent of the vote. And the
National Assembly later promoted him to the status that he has
now.
Given that it appears that the fight is between two
different sets of socialists, both of whom, at least in the
original day in which they got into politics, were elected, is
there anything that suggests to you--and feel free, any of you
that wish to answer--is there anything that suggests to any of
you that Guaido, if he does assume power in Venezuela, will not
also turn out to be a dictator, much like Maduro ended up
being?
Ms. Wheelbarger. I think the important thing to recognize,
too, in the recent history of when you talk about these are
both elected officials, is the clear indications of
illegitimacy of the last election. And the international
community recognizing that there weren't just questions about
the elections, but that it was pretty clear that Maduro secured
himself a continued position.
And that is unique now in this particular time versus
previous periods of protests within Venezuela, where Maduro
clearly didn't have the support of his people, is now we do
actually have a recognized alternative opposition that can
replace him. Whereas, in the future, you don't ever know what
in the future can bring.
What we do know is right now we are living under a regional
disaster caused by one man's desire to continue to rule that
population illegitimately. And as Admiral Faller has described
in the great detail the level of, you know, harm he has brought
to his own citizenry is not something that we could sit back
and just ignore.
And so the fact that we do have an opposition leader who we
recognize as the legitimate interim president, that the
international community and the people in Venezuela can rally
behind is a significant difference from the past few years.
Mr. Brooks. Well, we know that Maduro has become a
dictator, but we also know that it's economic policies founded
in socialism that have wreaked havoc with that economy as
socialism has done with so many economies around the world at
various periods of time.
Do you know anything about Guaido that would suggest that
he ultimately would not become dictatorial, too, which is the
essence of socialism, where the government is dictating to the
populace what they can and cannot do in an economic ballpark.
Anything about Guaido that would suggest that he ultimately
would not follow that same dictatorial path?
Ms. Wheelbarger. I don't think we should assume that he
would follow a dictator path. So, I think the evidence that we
have of hope in him is the communications and the relationship
we already have between him, his people, and most directly our
Department of State.
Mr. Brooks. All right. And again, this is a different
question. Any of you all want to chime in, please do so. There
have been different suggestions that China, Russia, and Cuba
have been involved economically, perhaps even militarily in
trying to prop up the Maduro regimes. Is there some way that
you all can try to quantify how much each of these three
nations are propping up Maduro?
Admiral Faller. I will take that. The estimates of Cuban
military strength range between 2,000 and 20,000. Those are
accurate. All the guards that surround Maduro are all Cuban----
Mr. Brooks. That is a pretty big gap, 2,000 to 20,000.
Admiral Faller. It is a big gap. It is----
Mr. Brooks. All right. I am sorry. Keep going.
Admiral Faller. The Russian strength is significant.
Recently saw 100 personnel fly in, special forces that are
involved in cyber, they are involved in air defense, they are
involved in technical training aspect. They recently
commissioned a helicopter maintenance facility. Most of the
gear--the kit that Venezuelan military uses, a lot of it is
Russian. And China's in there a way that goes far beyond soft
power. As I mentioned in my opening statement, in the
information space as well.
Mr. Brooks. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I see my time has
expired.
The Chairman. Thank you, Mr. Brooks.
Ms. Luria.
Mrs. Luria. So, Admiral Faller, on Sunday of this week, you
relieved Admiral Ring as the commander of the Joint Task Force
overseeing the prison at Guantanamo Bay. This happened a day
after The New York Times published a story where he was
critical of the long-term plans for the prison. Was his firing
a result of this criticism?
Admiral Faller. The relief for cause of Admiral Ring was in
no way related to any media reporting.
Mrs. Luria. Okay.
Admiral Faller. It was a result of loss of confidence and
an investigation that completed long before any of the----
Mrs. Luria. Did anyone outside of Southern Command direct
or encourage you to fire Admiral Ring?
Admiral Faller. No. That decision was mine.
Mrs. Luria. Okay. So, for the record, you are saying his
firing was unrelated to anything reported in The New York
Times.
Admiral Faller. Correct.
Mrs. Luria. Switching subjects, what percentage of your
2019 request for forces, specifically for surface combatants,
was met?
Admiral Faller. We received no Navy ships in our 2019
request.
Mrs. Luria. Okay.
Admiral Faller. After the request, we did receive some
fills for exercises, and Navy came through with littoral combat
ship.
Mrs. Luria. So, to move on, on the impact of that, you
previously said today that only 6 percent of the drug shipments
that are known are actually interdicted. I can only assume that
this low level is a direct result of the fact that you don't
have any, specifically, Navy assets to help intercept those.
And in your comments, you also said all elements of the
U.S. Government are laser-focused on this problem of, you know,
stopping drugs flowing into our country. But would you agree
that we are not allocating an appropriate amount of naval
assets to work in conjunction with the U.S. Coast Guard,
potentially LEDETs [law enforcement detachments] on Navy
platforms in order to help this problem?
Admiral Faller. The area is the size of the United States,
as you know, and we have, on any given day, 6 to 10 Coast Guard
cutters. And now we do have a Navy PC [Patrol Coastal ship] and
a USNS [United States Naval Ship] fast transport ship, so not--
not adequate enough forces----
Mrs. Luria. So, you mentioned the EPF [expeditionary fast
transport], the fast transport ship, do you find that an
effective platform in conjunction with Coast Guard LEDETs to be
able to help for a much lower cost than, say, a DDG [guided-
missile destroyer] or cruiser operating in the area to be able
to get after this problem?
Admiral Faller. Congresswoman, the finishing part of that
discussion on the Navy's readiness, which I have knowledge of,
is certainly impacted here, too. So, when we look globally,
there is just not enough naval assets. The EPF is a good
platform. There needs to be some fixes made, Military Sealift
Command and the Navy, to a couple of the systems that assist
in----
Mrs. Luria. Okay.
Admiral Faller [continuing]. Seakeeping and boat launching.
We get past those shortfalls, that platform will be a good
platform for a detection and monitoring drug interdiction
operation.
Mrs. Luria. Thank you. And a final topic. We have talked a
lot about Chinese and investment in the Panama Canal region and
within South America. And some in the current administration
have invoked the Monroe Doctrine when speaking of Latin
America. Do you think the United States should use the concept
of the Monroe Doctrine or an approach similar in Latin America
regarding the increasing Chinese influence and Russian
influence?
Admiral Faller. I would leave the application of the Monroe
Doctrine to policy and policy makers. The committed, enduring
promise of partnership is what we ought to focus on and that is
what we are focused on.
Mrs. Luria. Would you see that any differently if this
economic expansion and investment in port facilities and the
different activities that you have described was expanded to an
actual military base within South America?
Admiral Faller. If we make the right investments in time,
people, location, training, education, the full range of
security cooperation, I am convinced that we will be the
partner of choice and we will maintain those long-term
relationships. It troubles me that China is on a path to have
permanent bases in this hemisphere. I believe that they are,
based on my own assessments of their intent and capability
around the world.
Mrs. Luria. So, to dovetail further on the discussion about
naval assets and your ability to conduct drug interdiction
mission, I would only assume the fact that you had zero assets,
you know, intentionally, deliberately allocated to you for your
mission last year, the same thing would apply that you don't
feel like you have the sufficient naval assets to show presence
in the region or to do theater security cooperation with our
allies as far as naval assets is concerned.
Admiral Faller. Congresswoman, absolutely. The two go hand
in hand. We have created a concept with our 4th Fleet to build
a combined maritime task force with U.S. naval leadership and
naval assets. We believe that will bring more out of our
partners as we work and train together, both for the drug
mission and across all the range of missions that we have in
this hemisphere.
Mrs. Luria. But just to clarify, it is a little bit hard to
do that if you don't actually have any ships assigned to the
4th Fleet.
Admiral Faller. You absolutely can't win a football game
without players on the field.
Mrs. Luria. Thank you.
The Chairman. Thank you very much. That concludes our
hearing. I thank you for your testimony and all the members for
their questions. And we are adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 12:25 p.m., the committee was adjourned.]
?
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A P P E N D I X
May 1, 2019
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PREPARED STATEMENTS SUBMITTED FOR THE RECORD
May 1, 2019
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[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
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WITNESS RESPONSES TO QUESTIONS ASKED DURING
THE HEARING
May 1, 2019
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RESPONSE TO QUESTION SUBMITTED BY MR. GAETZ
Admiral Faller. At this time, we are unable to determine how this
type of prohibition would impact our capabilities or operations. It
will take some time to develop and coordinate a list of people or
companies with ties to the Maduro regime and to work with other U.S.
Government agencies to prevent the award of new contracts and terminate
pre-existing business relationships. [See page 40.]
______
RESPONSE TO QUESTIONS SUBMITTED BY MR. CISNEROS
Secretary Rapuano. The projects under consideration for possible
deferral do not include family housing, barracks, or dormitory
projects; projects that have already been awarded; or projects that are
expected to have fiscal year 2019 award dates. Furthermore, the Acting
Secretary directed that the Comptroller's review of projects under
consideration for possible deferral rely heavily on prioritization from
DOD Components. The Department is also confirming that projects have
award dates in fiscal year 2020 or later to minimize effects on
readiness and to be consistent with the strategic approach in the
National Defense Strategy. [See page 29.]
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QUESTIONS SUBMITTED BY MEMBERS POST HEARING
May 1, 2019
=======================================================================
QUESTIONS SUBMITTED BY MR. LANGEVIN
Mr. Langevin. In your written testimony, you noted that NORTHCOM
worked with the Department of Homeland Security to prepare for
Hurricane Florence in September 2018, which decimated Camp Lejeune.
Considering that you, Admiral Faller, commented in your testimony that
we live in a neighborhood that ``experiences approximately 50 natural
disasters every year, of almost every type'' I am concerned that 2018
was just a preview of the climate change intensified weather events
that are to come. What are you doing to prepare for this eventuality,
prepare our installations, and support our partners?
Admiral Faller. USSOUTHCOM takes a variety of measures to prepare
for adverse weather events and natural disasters that impact our area
of responsibility every year. We work to maintain and build readiness
of U.S. forces for a range of missions by tailoring bilateral and
regional exercises and training events, including humanitarian
assistance and disaster response. During the TRADEWINDS and FAHUM
annual exercises, U.S., Partner Nations, and Regional organizations
practice collaboration and coordination to limit the impacts of the
weather systems often attributed to climate change. We work closely
with our partner nations and regional coordination mechanisms such as
the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA), the
Regional Security System (RSS), the Coordination Center for the
Prevention of Natural Disaster in Central America (CPREDENAC), and
support to the development of the Multinational Caribbean Coordination
Center to build our collective capacity to respond to and/or coordinate
disaster relief efforts. We've seen a decrease in requests for
assistance following these disasters because our partners are
increasingly prepared to handle the responses themselves. USSOUTHCOM
also considers environmental challenges such as earthquakes, hurricanes
and flooding in its planning. Additionally, to ensure our own personnel
and families are ready, SOUTHCOM conducts annual hurricane preparedness
training for all personnel assigned to our headquarters in Miami.
Furthermore, USSOUTHCOM also focuses deployments of its limited forces
during hurricane season. This includes the deployment of the USNS
COMFORT when it's available and a Special Purpose Marine Air Ground
Task Force that is sourced for six months every year. Knowing these are
not permanent presence in the region, we opt to employ them during
hurricane season so they are already pre-positioned in the event of a
disaster response. Finally, USSOUTHCOM invests DOD humanitarian
assistance funds to build partner nation capacity to prepare for and
respond to natural disasters. We constantly assess the underlying
factors that predispose a country to disasters and the effectiveness of
the partner nation's disaster response enterprise to develop targeted
projects to build their resilience to withstand shocks and disruptions
resulting from disasters.
Mr. Langevin. In your opinion, will additional operational capacity
and capability at CISA aid in coordination with your command? Will it
help ensure DOD personnel are better able to continue DOD missions even
in a time of crisis?
General O'Shaughnessy. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure
Security Agency (CISA) provides additional capacity and capability
essential to defense of critical infrastructure that is outside of the
Department of Defense's (DOD) control. This critical infrastructure
supports USNORTHCOM's homeland defense mission. Further, CISA's
capabilities reduce the demand signal to DOD to provide forces that
execute under CISA authorities. These high demand DOD forces can
instead be applied to directly defend DOD infrastructure and further
enable USNORTHCOM's homeland defense mission.
Mr. Langevin. In your testimony you acknowledge the changing nature
of missile defense and the need to look increasingly to directed energy
systems. These technologies are vital to our nation's ability to defend
itself from all manner of threats. As we transition to these
technologies, how do you expect to employ them in defense of the nation
and what are you doing to prepare for this change?
General O'Shaughnessy. Due to the complexity and evolution of
missile threats, I believe we need missile defense technology that is
lethal, reliable, and resilient in order to defend the homeland now and
keep pace with the future threats. I will remain fully engaged with the
Missile Defense Agency as directed energy and other advanced weapons
concepts mature, as the capabilities would be complementary to the
existing Ground-based Midcourse Defense system and enhance our homeland
defense. Using advanced technologies to destroy missiles in the early
stages of flight also provides the potential to reduce the cost per
shot for intercepting missiles. Specifically, as part of an ongoing
layered approach for missile defense in the future, I will consider
each weapon's contribution to the broader ballistic missile defense
system for an optimal employment strategy.
Mr. Langevin. In your written testimony, you noted that NORTHCOM
worked with the Department of Homeland Security to prepare for
Hurricane Florence in September 2018, which decimated Camp Lejeune. I
am concerned that 2018 was just a preview of the climate change
intensified weather events that are to come. What are you doing to
prepare for this eventuality, prepare our installations, and support
our partners?
General O'Shaughnessy. In my role as the Department's Defense
Support of Civil Authorities (DSCA) Synchronizer, I coordinate and
collaborate across the whole-of-government to ensure application of
effective and efficient military capability in order to fulfill a lead
federal agency request for assistance. Annually, USNORTHCOM conducts a
week-long DSCA preparedness workshop with over 400 DOD and interagency
participants. The focus of this workshop is to increase our
preparedness prior to a disaster so that we are more effective in our
response when a disaster does occur. We conduct two annual exercises
per year and conduct a thorough after action review assessing best
practices, lessons learned, and ways to improve our response efforts.
Following both hurricane and wildland firefighting seasons, we also
conduct after action reviews to assess what we did right and determine
ways we could have supported our partners more effectively in
anticipation of future events. Additionally, through our Joint
Interagency Coordination Group, we regularly partner with industry and
other Government organizations to increase and develop a common
operating picture how we will seamlessly be required to respond when
disaster occurs. All of these efforts increase the level of
preparedness for both Department of Defense personnel and our partner
organizations, resulting in a more timely and effective response to
natural disaster occurrences.
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QUESTIONS SUBMITTED BY MR. CISNEROS
Mr. Cisneros. Aside from parameters stating that military housing
and projects that have been already awarded or will be awarded in
fiscal year 2019 will be excluded from consideration, what are the
criteria by which military construction projects will be selected for
deferment in order to pay for a border wall?
Secretary Rapuano. The projects under consideration for possible
deferral do not include family housing, barracks, or dormitory
projects; projects that have already been awarded; or projects that are
expected to have fiscal year 2019 award dates. Furthermore, the Acting
Secretary directed that the Comptroller's review of projects under
consideration for possible deferral rely heavily on prioritization from
DOD Components. The Department is also confirming that projects have
award dates in fiscal year 2020 or later to minimize effects on
readiness and to be consistent with the strategic approach in the
National Defense Strategy.
Mr. Cisneros. Last year, the World Bank reported that climate
change could lead at least 1.4 million people to flee their homes in
Mexico and Central America and migrate during the next three decades.
Does the Department believe climate change is one of the factors
driving migration patterns and how has the Department accounted for
climate change in its approach to the region? What are the national
security implications of climate change on the region?
Ms. Wheelbarger. I defer this question to the appropriate Executive
Branch departments and agencies as DOD is not responsible for
projecting migration flows. DOD works with the Mexican and Central
American militaries to address humanitarian assistance and disaster
relief activities most effectively in response to manmade and natural
disasters.