Jeremiah Smith: “I rise to address the committee amendment offered by the Senator from South Carolina and the Senator from Michigan. This…”

“I rise to address the committee amendment offered by the Senator from South Carolina and the Senator from Michigan. This amendment implements agreements made between the Armed Services Committee and the Intelligence Committee. Pursuant to this agreement, the Armed Services Committee has agreed to reduce by $275 million funds in the pending bill for non-intelligence programs, and to increase by $275 million funds for the National Foreign Intelligence Program, which is also part of this bill. The Armed Services Committee has considered a range of options for implementing this agreement, all of which involve making difficult choices to cut defense programs. After consideration deliberation, the committee has decided to reduce funding for the Theater High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) program by $254 million and the Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missile system by $21 million. The $21 million in AMRAAM is now excess to program requirements as a result of contract negotiations between the Air Force and the contractor. The funding issue related to THAAD is more complex. We have all heard the news of Tuesday's THAAD test failure. This was the fifth time in a row that THAAD has filed to intercept a target. Although we don't have the details, we know that there was an electrical failure in the booster which caused the missile to self-destruct early in flight.”