Letter to Chairman Carl Levin and Ranking Member James Inhofe, Senate Armed Services Committee - Hearing on POW/MIA Efforts in Wake of Troubling Report

Letter

U.S. Senator Kelly Ayotte (R-NH), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, today wrote to Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-MI) and Ranking Member James Inhofe (R-OK) requesting a hearing to examine the findings of a report released today that identifies disturbing problems with the Pentagon's POW/MIA recovery efforts.

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) report describes an ineffective management structure within the Department of Defense, contributing to a lack of leadership and accountability and hindering POW-MIA accounting efforts.

Senator Ayotte intends to raise the issue with the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Martin Dempsey, during tomorrow's nomination hearing.

AYOTTE LETTER TO LEVIN AND INHOFE:

Dear Chairman Levin and Ranking Member Inhofe:

I am writing regarding a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report released today that details serious problems within the Joint POW-MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) that are hindering efforts to locate and bring home missing persons from past armed conflicts. This report is deeply troubling. Coming on the heels of last week's Associated Press story describing similar problems, it underscores the urgent need for the Committee to hear directly from JPAC officials about these disturbing findings and to ensure proper steps are being taken to address these problems.

The GAO report describes an ineffective, fragmented organizational structure within DoD that contributes to a lack of leadership and accountability on POW-MIA accounting efforts. In addition to an ineffective management structure, I am also concerned that DoD has failed to establish agreements with all geographic combatant commands to conduct recovery operations. It's clear from the report that these factors are causing DoD to fall woefully short of its mandated goal of accounting for 200 missing persons per year by 2015.

More than 83,000 persons remain missing or unaccounted for from past conflicts - including 49 missing service members from Vietnam and Korea from the State of New Hampshire alone. Our nation has a solemn responsibility to find and bring home the remains of American military heroes who served overseas, and we owe it to our fallen and missing soldiers and their families to do everything in our power to fulfill that promise.

It is with this commitment in mind that I request a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee as soon as possible to investigate GAO's findings.

Thank you for your consideration.

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