“Good afternoon.   Chairman Skelton is unable to be here, but I am pleased to have the opportunity to chair this important hearing in his place. 

 “Led by the Subcommittee on Strategic Forces, which is ably chaired by Ellen Tauscher, this committee has a long tradition of attention to the United States’ strategic posture, and nuclear weapons policy in particular.

 “The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008 called for establishment of this commission – a congressionally-appointed, bipartisan commission to analyze and make recommendations on U.S. strategic posture.

 “I am pleased to welcome the commission chairman and vice chairman – Bill Perry and Jim Schlesinger – to this hearing.  You deserve a lot of credit for leading the impressive but diverse group Congress appointed. 

 “In the interim report you released last December, I agreed with your broad definition of strategic posture, and the priority you placed on dealing with the most urgent post-Cold War threat – what you termed in that report ‘catastrophic terrorism.’

 “You went on to write, and I quote, that ‘a terror group cannot make a nuclear bomb from scratch, so the best defense against this threat is to prevent terror groups from acquiring a nuclear bomb or the fissile material from which they could perhaps make a bomb.’

 “I have been making this argument since the demise of the Soviet Union, and I commend you for emphasizing it in your interim report. 

 “I have not yet had the chance to read your final report in its entirety, but I can see that it similarly places our most pressing strategic challenges in the right context.

 “My friend and colleague Ellen Tauscher really was the driving force behind the legislation that established this commission, so I want to now yield to her for any opening remarks she has.”