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“The Terrorism and Unconventional Threats and Capabilities portion of the bill fully resources and enhances the DoD’s ability to combat terrorism and other unconventional threats.
“We support the continued expansion of our special operations forces and provide them all the equipment they need – including an increase of $210 million over the President’s request for SOCOM’s top five unfunded requirements.
“Our mark encourages SOCOM and the DoD to better address unconventional threats such as terrorist networks and insurgencies. We do this by:
· Urging SOCOM to put adequate emphasis on its indirect action missions;
· Requiring a plan for addressing future unconventional warfare requirements; and
· Increasing funds for “Irregular Warfare” research and development activities, with the aims of better understanding our enemies and their ideologies, culture, and strategies.
“It also improves DoD’s ability to harness technological innovation by:
· Providing robust funding for IT programs and science and technology research and development, including full funding for DARPA ($3.1 B) and for DoD’s basic research accounts ($1.4 B)
· Establishing a commercial IT Demonstration Program to emphasize Commercial-Off-the-Shelf solutions and tie these with the pressing needs of the Combatant Commands
· Promoting innovative acquisition solutions for IT and other key technologies
· Encouraging investments in energy storage technologies ($15 M) and renewable energy solutions (Army VC fund - $10M)
“Finally, we fully fund the other important components of the subcommittee’s jurisdiction:
· Chemical-Biological Defense Program ($1.5 billion)
· Chemical –Demilitarization Program ($1.45 billion)
· Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) ($ 1.1 billion)
“I’d like to thank Ranking Member Thornberry and former Chairman Saxton for their important contributions to this mark.” |