[Congressional Bills 108th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Con. Res. 82 Introduced in House (IH)]






108th CONGRESS
  1st Session
H. CON. RES. 82

    Expressing the sense of the Congress on commemorating the 20th 
  Anniversary of President Ronald Reagan's vision for protecting the 
United States against ballistic missile attack and commending President 
   George W. Bush's commitment to a multi-layered ballistic missile 
   defense system to protect the homeland of the United States from 
                       ballistic missile attack.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             March 6, 2003

   Mr. Hostettler (for himself, Mr. Hunter, Mr. Young of Alaska, Mr. 
   Bartlett of Maryland, and Mr. Thornberry) submitted the following 
  concurrent resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Armed 
Services, and in addition to the Committee on International Relations, 
for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case 
for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of 
                        the committee concerned

_______________________________________________________________________

                         CONCURRENT RESOLUTION


 
    Expressing the sense of the Congress on commemorating the 20th 
  Anniversary of President Ronald Reagan's vision for protecting the 
United States against ballistic missile attack and commending President 
   George W. Bush's commitment to a multi-layered ballistic missile 
   defense system to protect the homeland of the United States from 
                       ballistic missile attack.

Whereas in the midst of the Cold War, the former Soviet Union began deploying a 
        ballistic missile defense system near Moscow in 1966, which became 
        operational in 1968, has since evolved, and remains under the 
        operational control of the Russian Federation today;
Whereas the United States decided not to exercise its authority under the Anti-
        Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty of 1972 to deploy two limited anti-
        ballistic missile systems and instead in 1976 discontinued deployment of 
        a single very limited ballistic missile defense system potentially 
        capable of protecting parts of the United States from ballistic missile 
        attack;
Whereas President Reagan challenged the concept of mutually assured destruction 
        (MAD) as the reality of the United States' nuclear deterrent posture 
        with the Soviet Union, and asked the people of the United States in a 
        nationally televised speech on March 23, 1983, ``What if free people 
        could live secure in the knowledge that their security did not rest upon 
        the threat of instant U.S. retaliation to deter a Soviet attack, that we 
        could intercept and destroy strategic ballistic missiles before they 
        reached our own soil or that of our allies?'';
Whereas President Ronald Reagan delivered a vision to the people of the United 
        States that called for a comprehensive, long-term research and 
        development program to develop the capability to defend the United 
        States and its interests from the threat posed by strategic ballistic 
        missiles;
Whereas President Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative led to a substantial 
        research and development effort that greatly advanced the technologies 
        related to and capabilities of missile defense systems;
Whereas the 106th Congress overwhelmingly passed with a bipartisan majority H.R. 
        4, the National Missile Defense Act of 1999, a bill to declare that it 
        is the policy of the United States ``to deploy as soon as is 
        technologically possible an effective National Missile Defense [NMD] 
        system capable of defending the territory of the United States against 
        limited ballistic missile attack'';
Whereas on July 22, 1999, President William Jefferson Clinton signed into law 
        H.R. 4, the National Missile Defense Act of 1999;
Whereas the United States officially withdrew from the Anti-Ballistic Missile 
        (ABM) Treaty of 1972 on June 13, 2002, consistent with the terms in 
        Article XV of the ABM Treaty;
Whereas the unclassified summary of a December 2001 National Intelligence 
        Estimate (NIE) entitled ``Foreign Missile Developments and the Ballistic 
        Missile Threat Through 2015 '' indicates that the United States remains 
        subject to a grave and growing threat from ballistic missile attack;
Whereas the same National Intelligence Estimate made the key judgment that 
        ``Most Intelligence Community agencies project that before 2015 the 
        United States most likely will face ICBM threats from North Korea and 
        Iran, and possibly from Iraq--barring significant changes in their 
        political orientations''; and
Whereas United States Director of Central Intelligence George J. Tenet testified 
        to the Congress in February 2003 that North Korea already possesses a 
        ballistic missile capable of reaching portions of the western 
        continental United States: Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), 
That the Congress--
            (1) commemorates the 20th Anniversary of President Ronald 
        Reagan's speech that provided for a visionary policy of seeking 
        a defensive capability to counter the threat posed by strategic 
        ballistic missiles;
            (2) commends President Reagan for decreasing the reliance 
        by the United States on the threat of retaliation with 
        offensive nuclear weapons, and instead increasing the 
        contribution of defensive systems to the security of the United 
        States and its allies; and
            (3) commends President George W. Bush's commitment to a 
        multi-layered missile defense system to protect the homeland of 
        the United States, United States Armed Forces overseas, and 
        friends and allies of the United States from the threat of 
        ballistic missiles carrying conventional weapons or weapons of 
        mass destruction, including nuclear, chemical, biological, and 
        radiological munitions.
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