Statement of Committee Chairperson -- Susan Davis


July 10, 2008

“The hearing will come to order.

“I want to thank our witnesses for coming -- we appreciate you being here with us. Our hearing today focuses on the status of POW-MIA activities, which this subcommittee has been tasked with overseeing.

“The last subcommittee oversight hearing on POW-MIA activities was back in October 1998, nearly ten years ago. However, while the subcommittee did not hold hearings in the intervening years, it has not forgotten its oversight responsibility, nor has it been sitting idly by on this issue.

“The subcommittee has put forward a number of initiatives which have become law. For example:

• It is the sense of Congress that the ‘United States should pursue every lead and otherwise maintain a relentless and thorough quest to completely account for the fates of those members of the Armed Forces who are missing or otherwise unaccounted for.’

• The Department of Defense is required to maintain a minimum level of personnel and budget resources for POW-MIA programs.

• The Secretary of Defense is required to submit a consolidated budget justification display that includes prior year and future year funding for specified organizations supporting POW/MIA activities of the Department of Defense as part of the President’s annual budget request.

• The committee increased funding for the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command by $7.5 million and the Defense Prisoner of War Missing Personnel Office by $200,000 above the President’s budget request for fiscal year 2008.

“Suffice to say, the subcommittee remains dedicated to the full accounting of all American POWs and those Missing in Action. We owe it to their families, but most importantly, we owe it to the men and women who are currently serving in uniform.

“Again, let me welcome the Honorable Charles A. Ray, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for POW/Missing Personnel Affairs and Rear Admiral Donna L. Crisp, Commander, Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command.

“Ambassador, Admiral, welcome, I would ask that you testify in the order that I stated. Mr. McHugh, do you have any comments that you wish to make?”