[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 11 (Thursday, February 12, 1998)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E179]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              USING SPACE TO ENSURE U.S. NATIONAL SECURITY

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. DANA ROHRABACHER

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, February 12, 1998

  Mr. ROHRABACHER. Mr. Speaker, on January 15 of this year, a highly 
respected defense think-tank, the Center for Security Policy, held a 
high-level roundtable focusing on the need for American space dominance 
to promote U.S. national security in the next millennium. Key speakers 
included former Defense Secretaries Caspar Weinberger and James 
Schlesinger, who were joined by five retired four-star flag officers 
and a range of senior military officials and civilian analysts.
  There was a general consensus at the conference that President 
Clinton's recent line-item veto of three Congressionally-sponsored 
programs to create advanced space technology for U.S. national 
security--the KEASAT, Clementine 2, and military spaceplane--was 
misguided, inappropriate, and unacceptable because it put U.S. national 
security at unnecessary risk.
  The roundtable dealt with a range of issues related to space and 
built its theme around the growing importance that space plays in 
ensuring U.S. national security. Secretary Weinberger began the 
discussion by placing space in the broader context of U.S. national 
security when he noted, ``since the first ballistic missile rose from 
the pads, space has had military uses by ourselves, by others, and by 
those friendly to us and those not friendly to us.'' In reference to 
the Clinton administration's recent vetoes, the Secretary went on to 
argue, ``we cannot put the country at risk by deliberate attempts to 
block us from the use of space or to block any attempts to develop 
systems that could be helpful to use in space.'' General Edward ``Shy'' 
Meyer, who served as Army Chief of Staff under President Carter noted 
that our force structure depends on space for key advantages. Admiral 
Wesley McDonald, former Supreme Allied Commander, Atlantic, stated, ``I 
can't impress you enough as to how dependent on use of space the Navy 
is.'' Retired Air Force General Mike Loh, who led the Air Combat 
Command, stressed how ``very dependent they [the military services] 
have become on space assets. It is almost frightening when you then 
turn around and look at how little we have allowed for the protection 
and the space superiority of those assets. As I look back over the last 
couple of years, we have become more and more dependent on [space] and 
we want to become dependent on it because, for those functions, space 
is a more efficient medium than the way we did it before. It is less 
costly in the long run, and it is better. I am all for it, provided we 
can maintain space superiority.'' In addition, conferees considered 
matters of procurement and policy, discussing the increasing pace of 
change in the commercial space markets and the impact that the 
proliferation of civilian space technologies will have on U.S. national 
security.
  I want to commend the Center for holding the roundtable and encourage 
my colleagues to review the summary of the Roundtable's proceedings 
available from the Center for Security Policy at 1250 24th Street, NW, 
Suite 350, Washington, DC 20037 and on the Center's home page, 
``www.security-policy.org.''

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