Press Releases
Brendan Daly/Nadeam Elshami
202-226-7616
03/28/2007
Pelosi, Reid, Former Defense Secretary Perry Announce New Review of Post-9/11 National Security Record
Washington,
D.C.—Today, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Senate
Assistant Majority Leader Dick Durbin and House Majority Leader Steny
Hoyer announced that a major new initiative, the House and Senate Majority's
National Security Advisory Group (NSAG), will review the United States' performance
on national security matters since 9/11 and recommend solutions to
address shortcomings and failings in our current national security posture.
The Restoring
America's Power and Influence project will examine the current state of our
national security, how we got here, and what needs to be done to address
current shortcomings and failings. It will identify concrete actions to
restore
Speaker
Pelosi said: "Democrats are committed to making the safety of the American
people our top priority. The advisory group has been an invaluable
resource, and their latest initiative is the next step in our efforts to take
Leader
Reid said: "Five years after 9/11,
Former
Secretary of Defense William J. Perry, Chairman of the NSAG, said, "I am
honored to lead this review and I look forward to this expert group providing
to all Members of Congress and the nation the best advice possible on how to
better craft a strong national defense."
Background
on the National Security Advisory Group
The House-Senate
National Security Advisory Group was originally commissioned by Senate
Minority Leader Tom Daschle and House Democratic Leader Pelosi in 2003 and
produced a series of reports to shape the House and Senate agenda in the 108th
Congress. Senator Reid and Leader Pelosi asked the
Group in the 109th Congress to produce reports on the
threat of nuclear terrorism and on the alarming deterioration of military
readiness, which helped shape the national debate on these vitally important
issues.
The
NSAG's January 2006 report on military readiness, The U.S. Military: Under
Strain and At Risk, available here,
helped focus the House and Senate on the long-term effects of
The
NSAG's July 2005 report on nuclear terrorism, Worst Weapons in Worst Hands,
available here,
focused the House and Senate's attention on the setbacks to American national
security due to the inability to prevent
The
Group's membership also includes former Secretary of State Madeleine K.
Albright, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs General John M. Shalikashvili,
former Supreme Allied Commander Europe General Wesley K. Clark, former White
House Chief of Staff John D. Podesta, former national security advisor Samuel
R. Berger, former deputy national security advisor James B. Steinberg, former
Assistant Secretaries of Defense Ashton B. Carter and Graham T. Allison, former
Assistant Secretaries of State Susan E. Rice and Thomas E. Donilon, former
Deputy Assistant Secretaries of Defense Michèle A. Flournoy and Elizabeth D.
Sherwood-Randall, and former State Department Counselor Wendy R. Sherman.