For Immediate Release. Contact: Katie Smith 314-625-5107
St. Louis. – Sen. Jim Talent, American Freedom and Enterprise Foundation Honorary Chair, is meeting tomorrow with leading security experts as an appointed member of the Congressionally-mandated Independent Panel. The panel was created to assess the Department of Defense’s Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR). Talent was appointed to serve on the panel in December 2009.
The 8-member panel will be briefed by top security experts at the Department of Defense and will provide feedback on the content of the draft report: http://www.defense.gov/qdr/images/QDR_as_of_12Feb10_1000.pdf. The document Talent is guiding and reviewing will determine the direction of America’s defense programs for the next four years.
“I am honored to serve on this important panel. The threats against the U.S. are real and a strategic approach is vital to promoting national security,” Talent said. “I am however concerned that the defense budget does not reflect these threats. I have always been a strong proponent of increased military funding as a crucial investment in freedom and security for our country.”
The Quadrennial Defense Review will assess the threats and challenges the nation faces and re-balance Department of Defense strategies, capabilities and forces to address today’s conflicts and tomorrow’s threats. The QDR is one of the principal means by which the tenets of the National Defense Strategy are translated into potentially new policies, capabilities and initiatives.
The panel is required to provide the Secretary of Defense and Congress with an initial report in the spring of 2010 and a final report by July 15, 2010. In addition, the Secretary of Defense is required to respond to the panel’s final report and its recommendations no later than August 15, 2010.
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