United States Representative Mike Rogers (R-AL), Lead Republican of the House Armed Services Committee, delivered the following opening remarks at a hearing on U.S. national security challenges and force posture in the NORTHCOM and SOUTHCOM areas of operation and related policy.
Lead Republican Rogers' remarks as prepared for delivery:
And thank you to our witnesses for being here to provide an update on security in the Western hemisphere.
As we focus on the growing threat from China and Putin's appalling acts in Ukraine, we must not neglect the many national security challenges in our own backyard.
Homeland defense is the foundation of our national security.
A strong homeland defense enables us to project power around the globe.
We rely on NORTHCOM for everything from ballistic missile defense to stopping the illegal trafficking of drugs and migrants across our borders.
But its mission is becoming increasingly difficult. Our adversaries are enhancing their ability to strike our homeland with ballistic missiles and now threaten us with hypersonics.
Non-state actors trafficking narcotics and human beings across the border continues to be a major problem.
In fiscal year 2021, Customs and Border Protection encountered more than 1.6 million inadmissible individuals at the southwest land border. That is the most ever encountered.
Last year, border seizures of cocaine grew by 68 percent and seizures of fentanyl increased by 134 percent.
CBP is overwhelmed.
It must rely on support from the Department of Defense and NORTHCOM just to perform its basic mission.
I look forward to hearing General VanHerck and Assistant Secretary Dalton's perspectives how to best tackle these threats.
In Central and South America instability is growing and further undermining our national security.
SOUTHCOM works hard to counter instability by building partner capacity, carrying out counternarcotics operations, and responding to disasters.
They do a tremendous amount of good, but their job is becoming more difficult.
China and Russia are expanding their influence both economically and militarily in the region.
Their presence undermines our national security.
To counter these threats, we must build new, and enhance existing, partnerships in the region.
I congratulate General Richardson on her new command.
I look forward to hearing how she intends to tackle these challenges.
The threats to our national security in North and South America are complex and increasingly connected to our great power competition.
I look forward to hearing from our witnesses and getting their best military advice on how to overcome these challenges.
