To amend title 10, United States Code, to authorize the National Defense University to award the degree of Master of Science in Joint Campaign Planning and Strategy, and for other purposes.

Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume; and I thank the gentlewoman from Virginia (Mrs. Drake) for her support for this very, very important bill and thank her for her keen interest in professional military education.

I rise today to support H.R. 1490, which would award a masters of science degree to the officers who complete the Joint Advanced Warfighting School at the Joint Forces Staff College. As the gentlewoman from Virginia noted, this bill will give the Department of Defense the authority to award graduates of the Joint Advanced Warfighting School their masters-level degrees. I also urge my colleagues to vote yes on this bill.

It is important that Congress pass the bill and the President sign it so that we can present those men and women with the accolades that they have earned when the first class of that program graduates this coming Thursday at 9 o'clock in the morning.

Madam Speaker, as my colleagues know, I have spent a great deal of my career promoting the need for a rigorous program of joint professional education. We have two missions as I see it: to fight the war that we are fighting today and to prepare for the next. It was the professional military education system that sustained the warfighting competency during the lean years between the First World War and Second World War. Men like General Troy Middleton, who went on to command an Army corps during the Battle of the Bulge, spent years and years in the school system studying the art and science of war. Warfare is becoming more complex at lower and lower levels, and our professional military education system must continue to evolve to develop the thinking warriors the future will require.

The Joint Advanced Warfighting School, or JAWS as it is called, at the Joint Forces Staff College is a wonderful example of how joint professional military education has grown to meet the new and unique challenges military professionals face. This first class of JAWS has given its graduates the tools to be able to create campaign-quality concepts, employ all elements of national power, and succeed as joint force operational and strategic level planners as well and commanders. These graduates will populate the Joint Staff and Combatant commands with officers expert in the joint planning processes and capable of critical analysis in the application of all aspects of national power across the full range of military operations.

The student of the JAWS program have spent the past year immersed in a rigorous course of study. They have completed a curriculum focused on ``high end'' operational art consisting of courses such as Foundations in Theory of War, Strategic Foundations, and Operational Art and Campaigning, all of which blend theory foundations and historical evidence to provide them with a developmental framework. They have honed their decision-making, problem-solving, and planning skills using seminar exercises, war games, as well as simulations.

Additionally, the JAWS course included several field research trips. The students participated in a comprehensive historical staff ride to Gettysburg, for example. They also traveled here to Washington and spent a week with senior military and governmental policymakers as well as practitioners.

Madam Speaker, I am sure my colleagues will agree that joint professional military education is so very important. Sir William Francis Butler put it very well when he said, years and years ago, ``The Nation that will insist on drawing a broad line of demarcation between the fighting man and the thinking man is liable to find its fighting done by fools and its thinking done by cowards.''

That is why I believe, Madam Speaker, that Congress should vote to support H.R. 1490 so we may recognize the students of the Joint Advanced Warfighting School with a degree they have properly earned.

Madam Speaker, having no further speakers, I yield back the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 1490) to amend title 10, United States Code, to authorize the National Defense University to award the degree of Master of Science in Joint Campaign Planning and Strategy, and for other purposes, as amended.

Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks on H.R. 1490, the bill under consideration.

Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Madam Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 1490, offered today by the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Skelton), the ranking Democrat on the House Committee on Armed Services and a long-time advocate of the necessity for joint professional military education for Armed Forces personnel.

Today, America's Armed Forces successfully operate together, and with allies, across the globe in incredibly complex wartime undertakings that would not have been possible if it were not for an underlying system to educate military officers and other national security leaders in joint, multinational and interagency operational-level planning and warfighting.

For nearly 60 years, the Joint Forces Staff College in Norfolk, Virginia, which I proudly represent, has been a critically important part of that joint professional military educational system. This week, the Joint Forces Staff College achieves another educational milestone with the graduation of the first class to complete the requirements for the Master of Science Degree in Joint Campaign Planning and Strategy.

These graduates of the Joint Advanced Warfighting School will be assigned to critical roles on the Joint Staff and in the joint warfighting commands. These graduates will bring with them a high degree of skill in joint planning, as well as capability for critical analysis that will allow them to be effective, creative, conceptual and innovative planners and commanders.

This bill, H.R. 1490, provides the statutory authorization to the Department of Defense to award these and future graduates of the Joint Advanced Warfighting School their masters-level degrees. It is a milestone not only for these first graduates but also for the Nation. These officers and those who follow are certain to be our future senior military leaders. Their success will be America's success.

I thank the Member from Missouri for his enduring commitment to the education of America's military leaders and urge all my colleagues to vote yes on H.R. 1490.

Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I have no additional speakers, and I yield back the balance of my time.