National security reform is one of Congressman Davis' highest priorities in Congress. He has recently co-sponsored a House Concurrent Resolution that expresses the sense of Congress that comprehensive national security reform is urgently needed to enable our government to meet the novel and complex challenges of the 21st century.
Congressman Davis is particularly concerned about national security interagency reform. He is Republican co-chair of the House National Security Interagency Reform Working Group. The Democratic co-chair is Congresswoman Susan Davis of California. Congresswoman Susan Davis is also a distinguished member of the House Armed Services Committee (HASC), of which Congressman Davis is a former member, and she is chairman of HASC’s Personnel Subcommittee.
The current interagency process is hamstrung and broken. There are regulatory, legislative, budgetary, resource and cultural impediments to effective interagency operations. The interagency system was devised over sixty years ago for a different era, when national security was primarily a function of military capabilities wielded by one department in overseas missions. Today, national security involves a much wider array of issues that can only be addressed with a broader set of capabilities that are highly synchronized and carefully calibrated.
The following are some examples of the problem:
- Helping the Afghan government create a secure and stable society requires, among many other things, that we assist Afghan farmers in growing crops that enable them to improve the livelihood of their families. Currently, many Afghan farmers grow poppies, which are used to produce opium that is then used for the manufacture of illegal drugs targeted for U.S. and European markets. Unfortunately, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has never been used before now to provide personnel in support of operations like those in Afghanistan. Instead, military personnel have been required to fill the gap with personnel who may not have the grounding in agriculture required to help Afghan farmers. While our soldiers are very quick to adapt to roles for which they have not been trained, we would be better off if USDA were routinely engaged in overseas national security operations with other agencies, military and civilian, of the federal government
- In the early days of the Iraq occupation, ensuring that the Iraqi Army had the required numbers of personnel for combat operations was a high priority for U.S. forces who were advising and assisting the Iraqis. Unfortunately, because there was no modern banking system in Iraq, Iraqi soldiers could only be paid in cash, which required them to spend days away from their units while taking money home to their families. During this period, the Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of the Treasury told Congressman Davis that, if given the go-ahead, he was prepared to help Iraq establish a modern banking system which would have, among other things, enabled Iraqi soldiers to send pay home without having to leave their units and on-going combat operations. The Secretary’s proposal was not implemented then because, like USDA, the Department of the Treasury was not tapped to conduct overseas national security operations with other agencies of the federal government. Over the years this problem has been largely solved. However if the Department of the Treasury had been properly involved early-on, the problem could have been solved sooner thereby contributing to increased Iraqi combat power and lightening the burden on U.S. forces during one of the most difficult periods of our military presence in Iraq.
In short, the United States must do a better job of using the civilian agencies of the federal government to assist our overseas national security efforts. Additionally, we must make sure that all agencies, military and civilian, are effectively tied together to ensure the success of our efforts in places like Iraq and Afghanistan.
Watch the Video
Click above to watch Congressman Davis speak on the House floor about an amendment he offered for the National Defense Authorization Act that would enable our nation to more effectively plan and execute national security interagency operations.
Read More
Learn more about the importance of national security reform and Congressman Davis' work to achieve it.
Military Review, July-August 2008 Issue: Interagency Reform: The Congressional Perspective (Speech by Congressman Geoff Davis)
