[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 82 (Tuesday, May 24, 2016)]
[Senate]
[Page S3118]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

  SA 4132. Mr. GARDNER submitted an amendment intended to be proposed 
by him to the bill S. 2943, to authorize appropriations for fiscal year 
2017 for military activities of the Department of Defense, for military 
construction, and for defense activities of the Department of Energy, 
to prescribe military personnel strengths for such fiscal year, and for 
other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table; as follows:

       At the end of subtitle E of title XVI, add the following:

     SEC. 1667. SENSE OF CONGRESS ON THE BALLISTIC MISSILE THREAT 
                   OF NORTH KOREA AND THE DEPLOYMENT OF TERMINAL 
                   HIGH ALTITUDE AREA DEFENSE IN SOUTH KOREA.

       It is the sense of Congress--
       (1) that the short-range, medium-range, and long-range 
     ballistic missile programs of the Democratic People's 
     Republic of Korea (DPRK) represent an imminent and growing 
     threat to the Republic of Korea (ROK), Japan, and the United 
     States homeland;
       (2) that, according to open sources, the Democratic 
     People's Republic of Korea currently fields an estimated 700 
     short-range ballistic missiles, 200 Nodong medium-range 
     ballistic missiles, and 100 Musudan intermediate-range 
     ballistic missiles;
       (3) that, in February 2016, the United States and Republic 
     of Korea officially began formal consultations regarding the 
     deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) 
     missile defense system to the Republic of Korea;
       (4) that the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense missile 
     defense system would effectively complement and significantly 
     strengthen the existing missile defense capabilities of the 
     United States on the Korean Peninsula;
       (5) that the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense missile 
     defense system is a limited defensive system that does not 
     represent a threat to any of the neighbors of the Republic of 
     Korea;
       (6) to welcome deployment consultation talks between United 
     States and the Republic of Korea on the Terminal High 
     Altitude Area Defense missile defense system and to consider 
     the deployment of that system as a sovereign choice of the 
     Republic of Korean Government and a bilateral decision of the 
     alliance between the United States and the Republic of Korea 
     to protect the citizens of the Republic of Korea against the 
     growing ballistic missile threat from the Democratic People's 
     Republic of Korea and provide further protection to United 
     States Armed Forces currently deployed to the Korean 
     Peninsula; and
       (7) to welcome joint missile defenses exercises between the 
     United States, the Republic of Korea, and Japan against the 
     ballistic missile threat from the Democratic People's 
     Republic of Korea and encourage further trilateral defense 
     cooperation between the United States, the Republic of Korea, 
     and Japan.
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