S.Amdt. 2014

SA 2014. Mr. CASEY (for himself and Mr. Cornyn) submitted an
amendment intended to be proposed to amendment SA 1463 proposed by Mr.
McCain to the bill H.R. 1735, to authorize appropriations for fiscal
year 2016 for military activities of the Department of Defense, for
military construction, and for defense activities of the Department of
Energy, to prescribe military personnel strengths for such fiscal year,
and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table; as
follows:

At the end of subtitle E of title X, add the following:

SEC. 1049. SENSE OF CONGRESS ON FURTHER CUTS TO THE NUMBER OF
BRIGADE COMBAT TEAMS OF THE ARMY.

It is the sense of Congress that--
(1) both the quantity and complexity of national security
threats facing the United States have grown in recent years,
particularly the threat posed by the terrorists of the self-
declared Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, and continuing
aggression by the Russian Federation;
(2) the National Commission on the Future of the Army is
currently assessing the appropriate force structure for the
Army in light of these threats, and is required to report to
Congress on that assessment by February 1, 2016; and
(3) in light of these growing threats and that assessment,
the Department of Defense should not make further reductions
in the number of brigade combat teams in the regular and
reserve components of the Army, including the Army National
Guard, which would be difficult and costly to reverse and
would have an adverse impact on the ability of the Army to
respond to global threats.
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