To express the sense of Congress on the submittal to Congress of the homeland defense hedging policy and strategy of the Secretary of Defense.

1. Adds SEC. 238. SENSE OF CONGRESS ON THE SUBMITTAL TO CONGRESS OF THE HOMELAND DEFENSE HEDGING POLICY AND STRATEGY REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF DEFENSE at the end of subtitle C of title II

   Adds a section

   In S. 3254 · Placed on Calendar Senate

   Of the amounts authorized to be appropriated for fiscal year 2013 by section 201 for research, development, test, and evaluation, Defense-wide, and available for the Missile Defense Agency, $210,000,000 may be provided to the Government of Israel for the Iron Dome short-range rocket defense program as specified in the funding table in section 4201.

   Inserted: SEC. 238. SENSE OF CONGRESS ON THE SUBMITTAL TO CONGRESS OF THE HOMELAND DEFENSE HEDGING POLICY AND STRATEGY REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF DEFENSE.

   Inserted: (a) Findings.--Congress makes the following findings:

   Inserted: (1) Section 233 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012 (Public Law 112-81; 125 Stat. 1340) requires a homeland defense hedging policy and strategy report from the Secretary of Defense.

   Inserted: (2) The report was required to be submitted not later than 75 days after the date of the enactment of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012, namely by March 16, 2012.

   Inserted: (3) The Secretary of Defense has not yet submitted the report as required.

   Inserted: (4) In March 2012, General Charles Jacoby, Jr., Commander of the United States Northern Command, the combatant command responsible for operation of the Ground-based Midcourse Defense system to defend the homeland against ballistic missile threats, testified before Congress that "I am confident in my ability to successfully defend the homeland from the current set of limited long-range ballistic missile threats", and that "[a]gainst current threats from the Middle East, I am confident we are well postured".

   Inserted: (5) Phase 4 of the European Phased Adaptive Approach (EPAA) is intended to augment the currently deployed homeland defense capability of the Ground-based Midcourse Defense system against a potential future Iranian long-range missile threat by deploying an additional layer of forward-deployed interceptors in Europe in the 2020 timeframe.

   Inserted: (6) The Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, has testified to Congress that, although the intelligence community does "not know if Iran will eventually decide to build nuclear weapons", it judges "that Iran would likely choose missile delivery as its preferred method of delivering a nuclear weapon". He also testified that "Iran already has the largest inventory of ballistic missiles in the Middle East, and it is expanding the scale, reach, and sophistication of its ballistic missile forces, many of which are inherently capable of carrying a nuclear payload".

   Inserted: (7) The 2012 Annual Report to Congress on the Military Power of Iran by the Department of Defense states that, in addition to increasing its missile inventories, "Iran has boosted the lethality and effectiveness of its existing missile systems with accuracy improvements and new submunitions payloads", and that it continues to develop missiles that can strike Israel and Eastern Europe. It also states that "Iran has launched multistage space launch vehicles that could serve as a testbed for developing long-range ballistic missiles technologies", and that "[w]ith sufficient foreign assistance, Iran may be technically capable of flight-testing an intercontinental ballistic missile by 2015".

   Inserted: (8) Despite the failure of its April 2012 satellite launch attempt, North Korea warned the United States in October 2012 that the United States mainland is within range of its missiles.

   Inserted: (9) The threat of limited ballistic missile attack against the United States homeland from countries such as North Korea and Iran is increasing.

   Inserted: (b) Sense of Congress.--It is the sense of the Congress that--

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   Inserted: (1) the homeland defense hedging policy and strategy report required by section 233 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012 is necessary to inform Congress on options to protect the United States homeland against the evolving ballistic missile threat, including potential options prior to the deployment of Phase 4 of the European Phased Adaptive Approach to missile defense; and

   Inserted: (2) the Secretary of Defense should comply with the requirements of section 233 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012 by submitting the homeland defense hedging policy and strategy report to Congress.

   Original wording

   At the end of C subtitle of title II, add the following:

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As printed