“The hearing will come to order. Good afternoon and welcome.   

 “Our hearing topic today is ‘Irregular Warfare and Stability Operations:  Approaches to Interagency Integration.’ Today’s hearing is a little unusual in that it is a joint hearing conducted by the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations and the Subcommittee on Terrorism and Unconventional Threats and Capabilities.

 “Since many of the topics we’re going to cover at today’s hearing will overlap between the work that our O&I Subcommittee has been doing and the jurisdiction of the Terrorism and Unconventional Threats and Capabilities Subcommittee, Chairman Smith and Ranking Members Akin and Thornberry and I agreed that we should hold this hearing as a joint hearing between our two subcommittees.

 “I truly appreciate this collaborative spirit that has always been a hallmark of the House Armed Services Committee and look forward to a very productive hearing. 

 “Our subcommittee’s case study on PRTs and its related work on stability operations and interagency integration have served to highlight, again and again, the need to improve ‘whole of government’ efforts to achieve ‘unity of effort’ in all aspects of national security policy, planning, and operations.  That goes to all levels of policy, planning, and operations, be it at the national strategic level here in Washington, at the theater operational level which our second panel of witnesses will be able to discuss today, or at the tactical level where PRTs operate. 

 “At our last hearing, Principal Deputy Under Secretary for Policy Ryan Henry came up to me at the end of the hearing and made a point of telling me how genuinely pleased he was to appear before our subcommittee to discuss the importance of improved interagency integration and ‘the need to ensure that our national security system is adapting to provide the proper tools, processes, and incentives to encourage cooperation across the government’ not only among the Departments and Agencies but also between the Legislative and Executive Branches.

 “As you all probably know, Secretary Gates has made several notable speeches on this topic.  He’s said:  ‘Looking forward, bureaucratic barriers that hamper effective action should be rethought and reformed. The disparate strands of our national security apparatus, civilian and military, should be prepared ahead of time to deploy and operate together.’

 “The Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee heard from Ambassador Herbst in October, so we’d like an update on his progress.  We also heard from Secretary Vickers' boss, Ryan Henry, and the Deputy Secretary for Stability Operations, Celeste Ward, so his insights will be very important.

 “The intent of this hearing is to receive testimony from our witnesses on how well we’re doing in integrating, not just DOD’s, but the entire U.S. government’s, efforts in irregular warfare and stability operations; we’ll hear about the State Department’s Civilian Stabilization Initiative; and we’ll hear about how the combatant commands are working to involve their interagency partners at the operational level. 

 “On our first panel today we are joined by:

• The Honorable Michael G. Vickers , Assistant Secretary for Special Operations,
Low Intensity Conflict, and Interdependent Capabilities, Department of Defense

• Ambassador John E. Herbst, Coordinator, Reconstruction and Stabilization, Department of State

 “After their statements, our members will have questions.  Then, our first panel will be joined by our second panel of witnesses, who are: 

• Rear Admiral Dan W. Davenport, USN, Director, Joint Concept Development and Experimentation (J-9),U.S. Joint Forces Command

• Brigadier General Robert H. Holmes, USAF, Deputy Director of Operations, U.S. Central Command

• Lieutenant General Frank Kearney, USA, Deputy Commander, U.S. Special Operations Command

• Colonel Joseph E. Osborne, USA, Director, Irregular Warfare Directorate (J-10), U.S. Special Operations Command

 “I understand that SOCOM will only have one statement, but that General Kearney will introduce Colonel Osborne. 

 “Welcome to all of you and thank you for being here.  After Mr. Smith’s opening remarks, and our Ranking Members opening remarks, I’ll turn to our first panel of witnesses for a brief opening statement.  Your prepared statements will be made part of the record.   

 “I’ll remind our members that we will use our customary five-minute rule today for questioning, proceeding by full committee seniority and arrival time. With that, let me turn it over to the Chair of the Subcommittee on Terrorism and Unconventional Threats and Capabilities, Mr. Smith, for his opening statement.”