S.Amdt. 3414

1. Adds Subtitle E--Matters Relating to the Asia Pacific SEC. 1271. SENSE OF CONGRESS ON THE ASIA-PACIFIC REBALANCE at the end of title XII

   Adds a section

   In S. 2410 · Placed on Calendar Senate

   (2) Form.--The report required by paragraph (1) shall be submitted in unclassified form, but may include a classified annex.

   Inserted: Subtitle E--Matters Relating to the Asia Pacific SEC. 1271. SENSE OF CONGRESS ON THE ASIA-PACIFIC REBALANCE.

   Inserted: It is the sense of Congress that--

   Inserted: (1) the Asia-Pacific region has nearly a third of the world's population and over one-quarter of global gross domestic product, and its future prosperity and security are intertwined with the United States;

   Inserted: (2) In addition to long-standing historic ties with Asia-Pacific countries, such as Japan, the Republic of Korea, Australia and New Zealand, the United States welcomes its growing partnerships and collaboration with member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and with governments across the Pacific Islands;

   Inserted: (3) throughout the Asia-Pacific, a strong defense posture provides the foundation for United States national security as well as for United States diplomatic, economic, humanitarian, and people-to-people engagement in the region;

   Inserted: (4) a regional defense posture must therefore include a balance of traditional and nontraditional military engagement in order to make use of the capabilities and capacities of United States partners and allies in the region with fewer resources;

   Inserted: (5) traditional military engagement is especially important in areas such as nonproliferation, ballistic and cruise missile defense, maritime security assistance, and combined military exercises;

   Inserted: (6) nontraditional defense engagement should include collaboration on combating emerging infectious diseases, responding to humanitarian disasters and extreme weather events, effectively addressing the security challenges posed by human and drug trafficking, civilian educational partnerships and foreign language learning, and joint research endeavors devoted to meeting the region's energy needs;

   Inserted: (7) while the Department of Defense is traditionally the United States Government agency with the resources and capacity to lead engagement throughout the region, whenever and wherever possible it should work closely with interagency partners to accomplish shared foreign policy objectives and should encourage those interagency partners to lead when appropriate in order to better achieve United States objectives in the Asia Pacific;

   Inserted: (8) regionally-focused security studies organizations managed by the Defense Security Cooperation Agency, such as the Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies established with the support of the late Senator Daniel K. Inouye, are critical to building broad, multilateral approaches to regional security concerns; and

   Inserted: (9) to support the rebalance to the Asia Pacific, the Department of Defense is encouraged to--

   Inserted: (A) enhance the use of the National Guard State Partnership Program to broaden and deepen mutually beneficial relationships with partner militaries and facilitate interoperability across a range of issues, such as humanitarian assistance and disaster relief;

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   Inserted: (B) advance shared goals in the area of global health, including through biosurveillance and disease monitoring, as well as collaboration between partner governments and the United States Army Research Institute of Infectious Disease to protect military and civilian interests from all biological threats;

   Inserted: (C) improve resilience to extreme weather and other natural disasters through humanitarian assistance and disaster relief exercises that build the capacities and capabilities of partners and allies in the Pacific;

   Inserted: (D) reduce the strategic vulnerability of fossil fuel consumption through science and technology agreements that help the Department and partner governments improve energy efficiency of military platforms and conservation at bases, and engineer nonpetroleum alternative fuels that can be dropped into existing military platforms;

   Inserted: (E) utilize to the fullest extent possible the National Security Education Program to continue to build a broader and more qualified pool of United States citizens with critical-need foreign language and cultural competency skills relevant to the Asia-Pacific, and increase collaboration with appropriate interagency partners, such as the Department of State, that sponsor similar language training and other scholarship programs with an Asia-Pacific focus; and

   Inserted: (F) explore additional ways to leverage the highly-effective nontraditional military and civilian academic partnership and capacity-building programs at the Asia-Pacific Center for Strategic Studies and further develop the Center's alliances with its Defense Security Cooperation Agency sister organizations, the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies, the Africa Center for Strategic Studies, the William J. Perry Center for Hemispheric Defense Studies, and the Near East South Asia Center for Strategic Studies.

   Original wording

   At the end of title XII, add the following:

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As printed