[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 13]
[House]
[Page 18820]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



       HOUSE RECOGNITION OF THE 40TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE NATIONAL 
                         RECONNAISSANCE OFFICE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Florida (Mr. Goss) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. GOSS. Madam Speaker, I come to the floor with a great sense of 
pride and admiration to recognize the National Reconnaissance Office, 
the NRO, for 40 years of outstanding service to our Nation. Since its 
beginning as a small covert organization on 31 of August 1960 during 
the administration of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, the NRO has 
developed an unprecedented capability to conduct signals and 
photographic reconnaissance from space, a capability that to this day 
remains unmatched by any other nation in the world.
  Part of the success during the last 4 decades is due to the 
partnership between American industry and the NRO's highly capable 
workforce. This workforce, which consists of government civilians and 
military members of the four services, has consistently delivered new 
and innovative satellite systems that provide critical intelligence 
information to our national policymakers and to our military and 
civilian officials during periods of peace or in crisis or in war.
  Its record of outstanding technological achievement has rightly 
earned the NRO the title of Freedom's Sentinel in Space.
  As one of 13 Members of the intelligence community, the NRO has been 
very skillfully managed throughout its history by the Secretary of 
Defense and the director of Central Intelligence. Today the NRO 
provides systems that push the limits of reconnaissance capability to 
acquire enhanced images of the Earth and an ever-expanding variety and 
volume of electromagnetic signals. NRO space systems serve us daily 
from making it possible to verify arms control treaties to aiding in 
protecting American lives throughout the world, Americans at home and 
abroad.
  For these many important achievements and the promise of continued 
excellence in space reconnaissance during the years ahead, we heartily 
congratulate the men and women of the NRO past and present on the 
occasion of the organizations's 40th anniversary.

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