Doug Bereuter: “I do support the legislation, as I supported the rule. There has been, I think, almost unanimous support expressed for…”

“I do support the legislation, as I supported the rule. There has been, I think, almost unanimous support expressed for the Taiwan Relations Act of 1979. This legislation has been said to be both extraordinarily significant or perhaps not needed at all. Both positions are probably exaggerations, but I would like to address one aspect of the Taiwan Relations Act that is not being implemented today thereby providing a justification for H.R. 1838. Now, in the legislation before us, section 4(b) requires that beginning 60 days after the next round of arms sale talks between the U.S. and Taiwan, and one is ongoing now, the President shall submit a report to Congress in classified and unclassified form detailing each of Taiwan's requests, describing the defense needs asserted by Taiwan and its justification for these requests, and a description of the decision-making process used to reject, postpone, or modify any such request. In order for Congress to play its appropriate role in foreign and defense relationships generally, but also in respect to our TRA commitment to Taiwan to provide them necessary defensive material, we must have this kind of report.”