Sec. 1048. Sense of Senate on the United States Marine Corps
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/bill/114/hr/1735/pap/section-1048·A research copy — for the controlling text, always check the official state or federal source. Not legal advice.
The Senate makes the following findings: As senior United States statesmen Dr. Henry Kissinger wrote in testimony submitted to the Committee on Armed Services of the Senate on January 29, 2015, [t]he United States has not faced a more diverse and complex array of crises since the end of the Second World War. . The rise of committed, non-state forces and near peer competitors has introduced destabilizing pressures around the globe. Advances in information and weapons technology have reduced the time available for the United States to prepare for a respond to crises against either known or unknown threats.
The importance of the maritime domain cannot be overstated. As acknowledged in the March 2015 Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard maritime strategy entitled A Cooperative Strategy for 21st Century Seapower: Forward, Engaged, Ready , [o]ceans are the lifeblood of the interconnected global community…90 percent of trade by volume across the oceans. Approximately 70 percent of the world’s population lives within 100 miles of the coastline . In this global security environment, it is critical that the United States possess a maritime forces whose mission and ethos is readiness, a fight tonight force, forward deployed, that can respond immediately to emergent crises across the full range of military operations around the globe either from the sea or home station.
The need for such forces was recognized by the 82nd Congress during the Korean War, when it mandated a core mission for the Nation’s leanest force, the Marine Corps, to be most ready when the nation is least ready. In recognition of this continued need and the wisdom of the 82nd Congress, the Senate reaffirms section 5063 of title 10, United States Code, uniquely charging the United States Marine Corps with this responsibility. It is the sense of the Senate that— the Marine Corps, within the Department of the Navy, should remain the Nation’s expeditionary, crisis response force; and as provided in section 5063 of title 10, United States Code, the Marine Corps should— be organized to include no less than three combat divisions and three air wings, and such other land combat, aviation, and other services as may be organic to it; be organized, trained, and equipped to provide fleet marine forces of combined arms, together with supporting air components, for service with the fleet in the seizure or defense of advanced naval bases and for the conduct of such land operations as may be essential to the prosecution of a naval campaign; and provide detachments and organizations for service on armed vessels of the Navy, provide security detachments for the protection of naval property at naval stations and bases, and perform such other duties as the President may direct; develop, in coordination with the Army and the Air Force, those phases of amphibious operations that pertain to the tactics, techniques, and equipment used by landing forces; and be responsible, in accordance with the integrated joint mobilization plans, for the expansion of peacetime components of the Marine Corps to meet the needs of war.