<div><br></div>From Barbara Lee's office<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">---------- Forwarded message ----------<br>Date: Tue, Oct 11, 2011 at 4:08 PM<br>Subject: Update on Supercommittee Letter on Defense<br><br><br>
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<div>Hello all,</div>
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The letter to the Supercommittee on Defense spending reform closes this week. Right now we have 34 offices on board, but it would be really fantastic to get as large, bipartisan set of signers on board before the letter closes on Thursday at 12:00 pm.</div>
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<div>Please do all you can to spread the word and encourage your folks to help seize this unique opportunity to reduce Defense Spending!</div>
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<div>Thanks all,</div>
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<div>-Teddy</div>
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<div><font face="Times New Roman, serif" size="5" color="#0000FF">Join Bipartisan Colleagues Calling for Common Sense Defense Spending Reforms from the “Supercommittee”</font></div>
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<div><font face="Times New Roman, serif" size="3">Current Signers (34): <i>Braley, </i>Campbell, <i>Clarke (NY), Conyers, Edwards, Ellison, Filner, Frank, Grijalva, Holt, Honda, Jackson Jr., Johnson (IL), Lee, Lewis (GA), Maloney, Markey, McDermott, Moore,
Norton, Olver, </i>Paul<i>, Payne, Polis, Rangel, Rush, Schakowsky, Serrano, Speier, Stark, Towns, Welch, Woolsey, Yarmuth, </i></font></div>
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<div style="text-align:center"><font face="Times New Roman, serif" size="4" color="#FF0000"><b>-DEADLINE: CLOSES AT NOON ON THURSDAY, OCT. 13 -</b></font></div>
<div><font face="Times New Roman, serif" size="3">Dear Colleague,</font></div>
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<div><font face="Times New Roman, serif" size="3">As the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, or the ‘Supercommittee’, seeks out savings and works to end wasteful spending throughout the federal budget, it is critical that all federal agencies, including
the Department of Defense, are subject to the same level of scrutiny and consideration. Significant savings can be realized without compromising our national security. </font></div>
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<div><font face="Times New Roman, serif" size="3">One of the main drivers of our deficit is military spending and it must be on the table for the committee to consider as they seek to reduce our deficit. </font></div>
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<div><font face="Times New Roman, serif" size="3">Please join us in calling for the Supercommittee to consider savings opportunities throughout our defense spending. </font></div>
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<div><font face="Times New Roman, serif" size="3">Please note that the letter specifically rejects any cuts that would compromise the security of American troops in the field, as well as any cuts in services and increases in fees for our veterans and military
retirees. </font></div>
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<div><font face="Times New Roman, serif" size="3">The deadline for joining the letter is this Thursday. </font></div>
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<div><font face="Times New Roman, serif" size="3">Sincerely</font></div>
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<div><font face="Times New Roman, serif" size="3">Barbara Lee John Campbell</font></div>
<div><font face="Times New Roman, serif" size="3">Member of Congress Member of Congress</font></div>
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<div><font face="Times New Roman, serif" size="3">Barney Frank Ron Paul</font></div>
<div><font face="Times New Roman, serif" size="3">Member of Congress Member of Congress</font></div>
<div><font face="Times New Roman, serif" size="3"> </font></div>
<div><font face="Times New Roman, serif" size="3">Gwen Moore Rush Holt</font></div>
<div><font face="Times New Roman, serif" size="3">Member of Congress Member of Congress</font></div>
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<div style="text-align:center"><font face="Times New Roman, serif" size="3">October __, 2011</font></div>
<div><font face="Times New Roman, serif" size="3">Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction Chairman Mark Prater</font></div>
<div><font face="Times New Roman, serif" size="3">Senator Patty Murray (Co-Chair)</font></div>
<div><font face="Times New Roman, serif" size="3">Senator Max Baucus</font></div>
<div><font face="Times New Roman, serif" size="3">Senator John Kerry</font></div>
<div><font face="Times New Roman, serif" size="3">Senator Jon Kyl</font></div>
<div><font face="Times New Roman, serif" size="3">Senator Pat Toomey</font></div>
<div><font face="Times New Roman, serif" size="3">Senator Rob Portman</font></div>
<div><font face="Times New Roman, serif" size="3">Representative Jeb Hersarling (Co-Chair)</font></div>
<div><font face="Times New Roman, serif" size="3">Representative James Clyburn</font></div>
<div><font face="Times New Roman, serif" size="3">Representative Xavier Becerra</font></div>
<div><font face="Times New Roman, serif" size="3">Representative Chris Van Hollen</font></div>
<div><font face="Times New Roman, serif" size="3">Representative Dave Camp</font></div>
<div><font face="Times New Roman, serif" size="3">Representative Fred Upton</font></div>
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<div><font face="Times New Roman, serif" size="3">Dear Members of the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction:</font></div>
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<div><font face="Times New Roman, serif" size="3">As you begin your work, we respectfully suggest reexamining our defense and security spending priorities as pathways to reducing our deficit and debt. You have been tasked with finding at least $1.5 trillion
in deficit reductions over a ten-year period by November 23 of this year. You have a unique opportunity to bring our defense spending in line with our legitimate national defense needs while getting our nation on the path to a balanced budget free of deficit.
As former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates noted last year, paraphrasing President Dwight D. Eisenhower, “The United States should spend as much as necessary on national defense, but not one penny more.”</font></div>
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<div><font face="Times New Roman, serif" size="3">In the ten years since the 9/11 attacks, spending on defense and security has increased 96% and totaled almost $8 trillion. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have cost $1.36 trillion, and taken the lives of
over six thousand men and women while leaving over thirty thousand wounded. In the same time frame, the base budget for the Pentagon has mushroomed to $5.6 trillion.</font></div>
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<div><font face="Times New Roman, serif" size="3">As the 9/11 attacks demonstrated, the kinds of threats we face today are very different than those of previous eras. We live in an age where a few determined individuals with minimal financing, good planning
and training, and a willingness to die can inflict billions of dollars in damage and kill thousands in a matter of hours. None of the billions of dollars of Cold War-era weaponry in our arsenal on September 11, 2001 stopped Al-Qaeda. </font></div>
<div><font face="Times New Roman, serif" size="3"> </font></div>
<div><font face="Times New Roman, serif" size="3">The continued reliance on Cold War weaponry and conventional tactics two decades after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Soviet Union makes little strategic or fiscal sense. The June 2010
report of the Sustainable Defense Task Force detailed proposals to reduce our nuclear stockpile substantially, realizing savings of over $100 billion without compromising our national security.<font face="Calibri, sans-serif" size="2"> See “Debt, Deficits,
and Defense: A Way Forward” at <a href="http://www.comw.org/pda/fulltext/1006SDTFreport.pdf" target="_blank">
http://www.comw.org/pda/fulltext/1006SDTFreport.pdf</a></font> The report proposed over $960 billion in defense department savings over the next decade.</font></div>
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<div><font face="Times New Roman, serif" size="3">Significant savings could also be realized by auditing the Pentagon and requiring that it produce financial documents like any private sector business. Waste, fraud and abuse are endemic at the Pentagon, with
the recent report from the General Accountability Office detailing hundreds of billions of dollars in duplicative programs with little oversight.<font face="Calibri, sans-serif" size="2"> See full March 1, 2011 GAO report “Opportunities to Reduce Potential
Duplication in Government Programs, Save Tax Dollars, and Enhance Revenue” at: <a href="http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d11318sp.pdf" target="_blank">
http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d11318sp.pdf</a></font> The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have been characterized by poor planning, no-bid contracts, and lack of oversight leading to massive cost overruns. In August, the Commission on Wartime Contracting released
its final report finding that an estimated $30 and $60 billion has been wasted during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. This level of mismanagement is simply unacceptable.<font face="Calibri, sans-serif" size="2"> See full August 2011 Commission report “Transforming
Wartime Contracting: Controlling Costs, reducing risks” at: <a href="http://www.wartimecontracting.gov/docs/CWC_FinalReport-lowres.pdf" target="_blank">
http://www.wartimecontracting.gov/docs/CWC_FinalReport-lowres.pdf</a></font></font></div>
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<div><font face="Times New Roman, serif" size="3">There are multiple reforms proposed that would save hundreds of billions of dollars over the next decade. The Bowles-Simpson commission outlined $750 billion in suggested defense cuts in the next decade. Former
Assistant Secretary of Defense Lawrence Korb has proposed $1 trillion in cuts to the Pentagon over the next 10-12 years. These reductions in defense spending would come out of $6.5 trillion in proposed spending between 2011 and 2020.</font></div>
<div><font face="Times New Roman, serif" size="3"> </font></div>
<div><font face="Times New Roman, serif" size="3">We are not urging reductions that in any way would cut resources and supplies necessary to protect American troops in the field. Similarly, while we are not opposed to an honest look at efforts at reforming
the way that the Department of Defense provides health care and other services to personnel, we are opposed to cuts in services and increased fees for our veterans and military retirees.</font></div>
<div><font face="Times New Roman, serif" size="3"> </font></div>
<div><font face="Times New Roman, serif" size="3">Our economic recovery is vital to our strategic interests. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Michael Mullen, has warned that ongoing debt accumulation is undermining our economic strength and
threatening our national security. Taking serious steps to resolve our fiscal imbalance must include the Pentagon’s budget, which should be subject to the same scrutiny as the rest of our discretionary budget as you look for savings. As Members on the Joint
Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, we urge you to think openly and act boldly to reduce our deficit and get our nation back on the right track. Bringing our defense spending in line with our legitimate security needs must be considered along with other
measures to regain our economic footing.</font></div>
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</div><br><br clear="all"><div><br></div>-- <br>Robert Naiman<br>Policy Director<br>Just Foreign Policy<br><a href="http://www.justforeignpolicy.org" target="_blank">www.justforeignpolicy.org</a><br><a href="mailto:naiman@justforeignpolicy.org" target="_blank">naiman@justforeignpolicy.org</a><br>
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