Throughout his Senate career, Senator Carl Levin has been a member of the Armed Services Committee, including service as the chairman of the committee from June 2001 to January 2003. Under the current Republican-controlled Senate, Senator Levin is the committee's ranking member (the senior Democrat).

Senator Levin's work on the committee reflects his longstanding commitment and concentrated focus on the readiness, morale and welfare of our military forces and their families; the modernization of our armed forces; cost-effective defense procurement and management practices; and efforts to reduce the threats to our nation and the world from the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and the threats posed by terrorism.

Over the years, Senator Levin has consistently fought for improvements in the pay, benefits and quality of life for military members and their families. He supports the efforts of the military services to transform their forces, technology, and tactics to meet the new, emerging threats of the 21st Century, particularly the threat of international terrorism. He has called for a common sense approach to development of a limited national missile defense system, supporting funding for research and development, but opposing the decision to deploy a national missile defense system before realistic operational testing has been conducted to determine whether such a system will actually work.

A staunch advocate for careful management of defense dollars, Senator Levin co-authored with Senator John McCain, R-Arizona, legislation which was enacted to allow the Defense Department to close unneeded military bases in 2005. He has been successful in saving billions of dollars in excess Pentagon inventories of unneeded items. He also has a proven track record of success in improving defense purchasing practices. Among his many legislative achievements, he was a driving force behind several pieces of landmark legislation to reform the defense acquisition system, including the Competition in Contracting Act of 1984 and the Federal Acquisition Streamlining Act of 1994.

Senator Levin has been an active supporter of improving U.S. security by cooperative threat reduction, including arms control agreements that reduce weapons of mass destruction and other excess military capability. He has championed programs, particularly the Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction program, which are designed to reduce the threat of proliferation of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons, materials, or scientists from the former Soviet Union. Senator Levin remains committed to continued U.S.-Russian nuclear weapon reductions and to improved relations between our two countries.

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