Speech #1040015777

And finally. based on the threats that exist to us throughout the world. we have established a bipartisan commission that would consist of equal Members of both parties. appointed by the Speaker. appointed by the leadership in the Senate and by the President. that would be instructed to revisit the defense policy blueprint. the bottomup review. to ensure that we adequately identify these threats that we face. the strategies that we need to confront those threats. the force structure that will be needed to implement the strategy and the resources that we will need to make sure that our force structure. equipment and readiness are to the standard that the American people expect. I might mention and it might be appropriate to cover briefly many of the different commitments that we have. many of them that are recent in nature. and frankly I think that the expectation at the end of the cold war was--our experiences proved contrary to what we have actually seen in fact. As my colleagues know. as I speak on the floor of this House we have forces in Cuba handling significant numbers of refugees. We have the same commitments in Panama. In fact. Mr. Speaker. I am advised that between the two different locations we have as many as 20 or 30.000 refugees being cared for by thousands of American men and women in uniform. We have nearly 7 to 10.000 forces in Haiti. and again those forces may be withdrawing shortly. but presently they are engaged in a very important mission. Some of us may have disagreed as to whether or not it was appropriate to commit those forces. but now that they are there we are a hundred percent committed to seeing that they have what they need to fulfill the mission they have been assigned.