Thad Cochran: “the National Missile Defense Act of 1999 will make it the policy of the United States to deploy an effective missile…”

“the National Missile Defense Act of 1999 will make it the policy of the United States to deploy an effective missile defense system to defend against a limited ballistic missile attack as soon as technologically possible. Today, American citizens are completely vulnerable to ballistic missile attack. Last year, when the Senate debated similar legislation, some suggested that our bill was premature, that there was not yet any reason to suspect that we were confronted with a ballistic missile threat. Now, however, there is no disagreement about the nature of the threat. Consider these recent developments: (1) In 1997, the Director of Central Intelligence said, ``Gaps and uncertainties preclude a good projection of when `rest of the world' countries will deploy ICBMs.'' (2) Last year, both Pakistan and Iran successfully tested new medium-range missiles, each based in some degree on a newly deployed North Korean missile, the No Dong. (3) Also last year, in July, the bipartisan commission headed by the former Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, reported its unanimous conclusions that foreign assistance to missile programs was a pervasive fact and that new ICBM threats to the United States might appear with ``little or no warning.'' (4) A few weeks after the Rumsfeld report, North Korea launched the Taepo Dong 1, successfully demonstrating a multiple-staging capability, and using a solid-fuel third stage.”