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Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008

Floor Speech

Date: May 10, 2007
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: National Security


INTELLIGENCE AUTHORIZATION ACT FOR FISCAL YEAR 2008 -- (House of Representatives - May 10, 2007)

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Mr. LARSON of Connecticut. Madam Chairman, I rise in strong opposition to the amendment offered by Mr. Hoekstra that would strike language requesting an assessment of the national security challenges posed by global warming. As a member of the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming and an original cosponsor to H.R. 1961, the Global Climate Change Security Oversight Act, I support the inclusion of this language in the Intelligence Authorization bill.

There are serious political, social, economic and national security risks associated with climate change. It is only appropriate that our nation have a National Intelligence Estimate assessing its global warming threat. The National Intelligence Council is already a producing a community assessment on this issue, this provision would simply require that assessment be elevated to a formal National Intelligence Estimate.

This type of review is supported by a group of 11 retired three-star and four-star generals and admirals, who on April 16, 2007, issued a report entitled, ``National Security and the Threat of Climate Change.'' This report concludes that global warming presents significant national security challenges the United States. The effects of climate change are projected to have grave consequences for some of the poorest areas of the world--already volatile areas, the instability of these regions would be multiplied. Projected climate change will seriously exacerbate already marginal living standards in many Asian, African, and Middle Eastern nations, causing widespread political instability and the likelihood of failed states. As retired U.S. General Gordon R. Sullivan described before the Select Global Warming Committee, the potential national security threat of global warming in certain regions of the world could potentially be a Petri dish for terror.

Climate change is yet another front in the war on terror and now is the time for the United States to fully understand the implications it has on our national security. I urge my colleagues to join me in opposing this amendment.

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