“Strong Point of Reference”

The Republican members of the House Armed Services Committee Wednesday publicly issued the bipartisan Committee Defense Review report, the so-called complement to the Quadrennial Defense Review that chairman Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) and ranking member Ike Skelton (D-Mo.) began in September 2005. Just before publication, Skelton and fellow Democrats opted out, so only Hunter and 22 House Armed Services Republicans signed the final CDR. Still, Hunter calls the CDR “a strong point of reference” for the future and notes that 55 of the committees 62 members participated in the nine-month effort. The premise for the CDR was that it should reflect needs based upon threats rather than budgets. It appears to have done that, taking issue with budgeteers who see the war on terrorism as “an aberration” rather than a “baseline for future force planning.”