Security Links: An Emerging Congressional Common Ground on Climate Change?

Jul 26, 2017 | Lauren Herzer Risi
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Earlier this month 46 House Republicans voted with Democrats to protect an amendment in the current National Defense Authorization Act that acknowledges that “climate change is a direct threat to the national security of the United States” and requires the secretary of defense to provide “a report on the vulnerability to military installations and combatant command requirements resulting from climate change over the next 20 years.”

The Langevin Amendment specifies that the report should include a list of the 10 most vulnerable installations in each service, an overview of actions needed to increase the bases’ resilience, and “a discussion of the climate-change related effects on the Department, including the increase in the frequency of humanitarian assistance and disaster relief missions and the theater campaign plans, contingency plans, and global posture of the combatant commanders.”