Mike Levin: “In the area of missile defense, the conference report, such as the Senate bill, authorizes the President to reallocate…”

“In the area of missile defense, the conference report, such as the Senate bill, authorizes the President to reallocate $814 million, should he choose, from missile defense expenditures which, at least to some of us, appears to be unjustified or duplicative in combating terrorism. And he can reallocate the $814 million to the effort to combat terrorism. Again, that is left to his discretion. But this bill does, this year, require that he identify whether or not he has made that choice. The bill also would ensure better oversight and management of missile defense programs in a number of ways. We are going to require programmatic information on ballistic missile defense programs with the budget justification materials that come to Congress. We are going to require the Joint Requirements Oversight Council, the so-called JROC, to perform a review of the cost, schedule, and performance criteria for ballistic missile defense programs so that the validity of those criteria in relationship to military requirements can be assessed.”