Sec. 901. Sense of Congress on Goldwater-Nichols Reform

227 words·~1 min read·/bill/114/s/2943/eah/section-901

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It is the sense of Congress that the following principles should be adhered to in any reform of the Goldwater-Nichols Department of Defense Reorganization Act of 1986: Civilian control of the military and the civilian chain of command must be preserved. The role of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in providing independent military advice, as the principal military advisor to the President and the Secretary of Defense, must be preserved. Any changes to the Goldwater-Nichols Act of 1986 should be rooted in a clear identification and understanding of the issues and the objectives and ramifications of any changes.

Any changes to the Goldwater-Nichols Act of 1986 should enhance the capabilities of the United States Armed Forces. Each Geographical Unified Command has its own distinct area of emphasis and expertise, as well as requirements and responsibilities. Combining Northern Command and Southern Command, or combining European Command and Africa Command, would severely degrade mission effectiveness, but would provide only marginal increased efficiency. Additionally, consolidating Geographic Unified Commands would cause unacceptable risk to both global strategic influence as well as regional capability, and would exacerbate already significant capacity challenges.

The emphasis on strategy and planning in the Goldwater-Nichols Act must be sustained. Complex security challenges will become increasingly transregional, multi-domain, and multi-functional. Therefore, the Department of Defense, including streamlined headquarters staffs, must be more agile and adaptive.