Hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee - Opening Statement of Sen. Reed, Hearing on United States Northern Command, and United States Southern Command

Hearing

Well, thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Let me join you in welcome our witnesses: General Robinson
and Admiral Tidd. Thank you for your extraordinary service To the nation.Please convey our thanks to the men and Women in your commands who, as we all know, do the job every day for us. Thank you.

General Robinson, your mission is to protect the homeland to deter and defeat attacks on the United States and support civil authorities in mitigating the effects of attacks and natural disasters.

DOD's support to the States and territories affected by hurricanes, wildfires, and floods in this past year, and we thank you for that. We saw this demonstrated in You are also dual-hatted as the Commander of the North American Aerospace Defense Command, NORAD, which brings unique responsibilities and partnering opportunities with Canada to deter and defend against threats to our nation.

You are also responsible for the operation of our homeland ballistic missile defense system. We look forward
to hearing about your priorities for further improvements to the ground-based missile defense system.

Particularly important in light of the growing threat from North Korea. This is Lastly, your relationship with the military leadership in Mexico, along with your collaboration with Admiral Tidd and other federal agencies, is crucial to promoting security along our southern border.

Border originate in the SOUTHCOM area of operations and efforts to address those problems require a whole-of- government approach. A number of problems at the Admiral Tidd, you are on the front lines of a
significant threat facing our nation, the opioid crisis.

In 2016, we saw 64,000 deaths from drug overdoses, an increase from 52,000 in 2015. more and more Americans addicted to opioids are turning to other dangerous drugs that are flowing into our borders from Central and South America and Asia.

Cocaine and other drugs like fentanyl into the country is exacerbating this crisis. Up, as we spoke in our office, and is destabilizing the countries of the Northern Triangle as it works our way to our border and destroys lives here.

What has made the crisis worse is that The flow of heroin and Cocaine production in Colombia is I was very encouraged to hear that SOUTHCOM held an opioid conference last week which brought all the government stakeholders together to work on this problem.

Is important to recognize, while our military has an important role to play in the fight against narcotics in this country, we will only win against this threat with Because it adequate resources for domestic agencies such as the Food and Drug Administration, the Drug Enforcement Administration, and the Department of Health and Human Services.

About the outcome of the conference and about SOUTHCOM's effort to counter the flow of narcotics into the United States. Admiral Tidd, I look forward to hearing from you In addition, China and Russia have been increasingly active in Central and South America, committing millions of dollars of investment and partnering with Latin American militaries.

Statement, China has pledged $500 billion in trade with Latin American countries and $250 billion in Chinese direct investment over the next 10 years.

Cooperation and the continued provision of financing and loans that appear to have no strings attached provide ample opportunity for China to expand its influence over key regional partners and promote unfair business practices and labor practices.

State Department and USAID, we are not doing everything we can to position ourselves as a partner of choice for our neighbors in the region.

From you on how China and Russia are investing in Central and South America and how they pose a national security threat to the United States.

Admiral Tidd, as you noted in your written Increased economic I am concerned because of the cuts to our
Admiral Tidd, I would like to hear Finally, we are all observing the humanitarian crisis in Venezuela. Longer the regime can survive and how the crisis will affect neighboring countries.

Colombia, which is already struggling to implement its disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration process and is ill-equipped to deal with a long-term refugee problem in the border region.

We would like your perspectives on how much I am especially concerned about General Robinson, Admiral Tidd, again thank you for your service.

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