Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.  I would like to join you in welcoming our nominees and thank them for their willingness to serve in positions of great responsibility in the Department of Defense.  I would also like to thank your family members, many of whom are here today, for their support.

Mr. Rood, if confirmed as the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, you will play a key role in shaping the Department of Defense’s contributions to our national security.  The Department has defined the primary threats facing the country today as Russia, China, North Korea, Iran, and the enduring non-state threat of violent extremism. 

While we have made great progress in our efforts to deal ISIS a lasting defeat, we have not achieved similar success in addressing the political challenges in the Middle East that gave rise to ISIS in the first place.  You will also be faced with formulating Department policies to help address the civil war in Syria, the expansion of Taliban territorial control in Afghanistan, Russian active measures and other malign activities, and Iran’s malign influence in the Middle East. 

It is important to note that effectively addressing each of these national security challenges is not a job solely for the Department of Defense.  Sustainable solutions will require significant diplomatic contributions from your colleagues at the State Department.  Unfortunately, our ability to achieve such a whole-of-government approach is hampered by massive proposed cuts to the State Department’s budget and the fact that our career diplomats are leaving government service at an alarming rate.

Mr. Rood, the Department is undertaking the first Nuclear Posture Review since 2010.  The threat environment has changed significantly since that time.  Our relations with Russia have worsened.  China is fielding a ballistic missile submarine deterrent in the Pacific.  Pakistan’s arsenal is growing capable of reaching some of our allies with whom we have security agreements.  North Korea is quickly becoming a nuclear armed state - soon capable to holding at risk our homeland.  The last administration began a modernization program of all three legs of the triad as well as our National Coalition of Certification Centers system.  Given the existential threat posed by nuclear weapons, this modernization effort has, for the most part, been a bipartisan endeavor.  I want to make sure as you complete this Nuclear Posture Review you continue that tradition, because these modernization programs are 10-20 years in length, outlasting this administration and future ones. They will only be successful on this time scale if that bipartisan tradition continues.

Mr. Schriver, if confirmed as the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Asia Pacific Security Affairs, you will be responsible for dealing with three of these primary national security challenges – North Korea, China, and violent extremism in South and Southeast Asia.  North Korea poses one of our most complicated challenges – you will be required, along with Mr. Rood, to develop a policy that both creates military pressure on North Korea but also creates and maintains the space for diplomatic negotiation with the North Korean regime. 

At the same time, you will be faced with developing long-term strategies to counter China’s behavior in the South China Sea and across the region.  While we must work together with China to counter the nuclear threat from North Korea, we must also work to counter China’s attempts to bully its neighbors in the region and its failure to abide by the rules based international order from which it has benefited so greatly. 

If confirmed, you will also be involved in further developing and executing the Administration’s South Asia Strategy.  As we continue to expand Afghan warfighting capabilities, as the strategy calls for, it will be equally important to continue to build and reform the institutional capacity of the Afghan Government to sustain U.S. and coalition training and investments.  Fundamental to the success of any of these efforts will be a whole-of-government approach to translate any military progress on the battlefield to political progress towards a peace settlement. 

Mr. Rood, Mr. Schriver, thank you for your willingness to be here today and to serve your country.  The committee looks forward to hearing your views on these issues.