CONGRESSWOMAN |
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1034 Longworth HOB - Washington, D.C. 20515 - (202) 225-1880 (phone) & (202) 225-5914 (fax)
CONTACT:
Kevin Lawlor (202) 225-1880 |
The Truth about Missile Defense
In recent days there has been a lot of disinformation about who supports a missile defense shield as a component of our national security strategy. I want to take this opportunity to share the facts, and what I believe to be the reckless strategy supported by Republicans in Congress. – Rep. Ellen Tauscher
FACT: Republicans have made a big deal recently about the 1999 vote on missile defense which they claim shows that Democrats are not supportive of missile defense. However, I and 103 of my Democratic colleagues voted for this bill.
· This number represents more than half of the Democrats in the House of Representatives at that time. While some of my colleagues, on both sides of the aisle, had issues with the proposed system, no one can make the claim that any single party defeated or for that matter, championed this program. Here is the record of the vote: http://clerk.house.gov/evs/1999/roll059.xml
· The text of the 1999 legislation read in part “It is the policy of the United States to deploy as soon as is technologically possible an effective National Missile Defense system capable of defending the territory of the United States against limited ballistic missile attack whether accidental, unauthorized, or deliberate.”
FACT: Since coming to office, the Bush administration has tried to rush the deployment of a system that has not been fully tested, has withdrawn from the ABM Treaty, and gone forward with an untried development and acquisition strategy of “field as you build,” which runs counter to any reasonable approach of testing our system before declaring it operational.
Officials Call Test a Success After a Missile Is Shot Down
New York Times
2 September 2006
DAVID S. CLOUD
“But critics said that the test lacked key elements of realism and that its main objective had been to allow the Missile Defense Agency to claim the program was back on track after the interceptors in the last two flight tests, in December 2004 and February 2005, failed to leave their silos. Even General (Lt. Gen. Henry A.) Obering, after calling the test ''as close as we can come to an end-to-end test,'' said that the target missile did not deploy decoys or other countermeasures meant to confuse the interceptor from striking the actual warhead.”
FACT: The administration has requested billions of dollars in funding and has yet to credibly deploy a system that can shoot down an incoming missile under realistic conditions.
Congress Daily
Megan Scully
September 27, 2006
“The Defense bill also fully funds the Pentagon's missile defense program at $9.3 billion…”
FACT: I support a missile defense system that works, and don’t think we should be spending billions of dollars on deploying a system until we have one that will work to actually increase our security.
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