WATCH: Rep. Carbajal raises concerns about Russia’s actions to undermine our democratic process during Armed Services Committee Hearing
Washington, DC,
March 28, 2017
Congressman Salud Carbajal (CA-24), Member of the Armed Services Committee, questioned General Curtis Scaparrotti about how to deter Russia’s activities to disrupt international order and undermine American democracy. Watch Rep. Carbajal’s remarks to Gen. Scaparrotti with his responses below at time 35:56: On Russia's Influence “General Scaparrotti, you state that Russia is now the top theatre priority. The Secretary of Defense has stated “Russia’s aggressive action have violated international law and are destabilizing. The message to this committee has been consistent, that Putin and the Russian Federation seek to disrupt the international order and the cohesion of international organizations like NATO and EU by exploiting seams. You stated in your testimony that, “Deterring Russia requires a whole of government approach.” Unfortunately, I do not believe we have used a whole of government approach, especially as this branch of government has refused to investigate Russia’s efforts to disrupt this country’s democratic process. General, there are not many who can supersede your expertise on Russia. Today, you have presented this committee with strategies to confront the Russia threat militarily. However, you agree that it will take more than military strength to effectively combat a state that is undermining and threatening democracies globally including America’s. General Scaparrotti, can you provide this committee the type of whole of government approach necessary to effectively deter Russia,” said Rep. Carbajal. “Russia is an adversary that does employ whole of government—politically, and we see them use economics as leverage, they use information to influence populations, that is disinformation as well, so for us to be effective across all those domains as well, we must, as a government we need overarching objectives and we need a lead agency that has authority to integrate across the many different agencies in respect to government information. We need to approach them economically with the same overarching objectives, so it’s a very general description but that is where we need to go. Every agency focused on our approach with Russia, and again it’s to influence them not to have conflict but to avoid conflict--yet protect our interests,” said Gen. Scaparrotti. “Do you find that we are being effective,” asked Rep. Carbajal. “I would say that we are not as effective as we could be. We could organize in a better way, and I believe we will. I know that at least my leadership is focused on that and that we have work to do. We can be more effective, particularly in the information domain, we have very good capabilities and we need to move out on that,” said Gen. Scaparrotti. “Not to make it so simplistic but what can this Congress do to address the highest priority that is perhaps our weakest link in being most effective?” asked Rep. Carbajal. “Well I think provide the leadership in those objectives, provide leadership toward a more cohesive integrated governmental approach to this problem, and as you do, finance those efforts as well,” concluded Scaparrotti. ### |
