Floyd Spence: “Despite the strong vote on what I believe is a very good bill, our military is still confronting its most serious…”

“Despite the strong vote on what I believe is a very good bill, our military is still confronting its most serious problem since the hollow military days of the 1970s. The committee's approach to this and previous bills has been shaped by long-standing concerns over the risk America's Armed Forces face today. Although public perception is that the post Cold War world is stable, three basic trends ought to give every American cause for concern. First, the level of resources that the United States devotes to national defense remains at historical lows. Not since before World War II has defense spending represented such a small proportion of the Nation's Gross Domestic Product as it does today. Despite being the world's wealthiest Nation, a Nation with important interests all over the world and the world's only remaining superpower, we devote only 3 cents out of every dollar of the Nation's GDP to national defense. Second, our Armed Forces are being tasked at a record pace with an average expanding list of peacekeeping, peacemaking and other contingency missions.”