Congress at the maahiagtnn, $6 23515 January 25, 2019 The Honorable Patrick Shanahan Acting Secretary of Defense 1000 Defense Pentagon Washington, DC. 20301 Dear Acting Secretary Shanahan: We write to address the recently released ?Report on Effects of a Changing Climate to the Department of Defense.? This report, mandated by Section 335 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2018, required that the Department conduct speci?c vulnerability assessments and develop mitigation plans to address the national security threat posed by climate change. Unfortunately, the report that the Department delivered to Congress on January 10, 2019, failed to meet these statutory requirements. The ?nal report submitted to Congress lacks key deliverables mandated by Section 335 and is at odds with the plain language of the NDAA. The statute required each Service within the Department to assess the top ten military installations that are most vulnerable to climate change over the next 20 years and detail speci?c mitigation measures including their costs - that can be taken to ensure the continued operational viability and resiliency of the identi?ed installations. The Department?s ?nal report included no such list, nor a specific discussion of costs, in contravention of the requirements of the NDAA. The report also includes no methodological justi?cation for its failure to mention United States Marine Corps bases or vulnerabilities to any overseas installations. Even though the statutory language provided in the law is abundantly clear, the House Committee on Armed Services provided further clari?cation in a bipartisan letter to then- Secretary Mattis on July 16, 2018. In the letter, we not only reiterated the Congressional intent of Section 335, but also offered to answer any questions the Secretary may have had about any portions of the law that were ambiguous. It is deeply disappointing that the Department did not take notice of that correspondence and subsequently failed to ful?ll its statutory mission. We hope that this letter does not meet a similar fate. Please consider this our formal request for the Department to submit a revised report that thoroughly and clearly addresses the criteria outlined in Section 335 of the FY18 NDAA. Given the timeliness of the threat we face, we expect the revised report to be delivered on or before April 1, 2019. Should you have any questions regarding Congressional expectations, we would welcome the opportunity to discuss them with you. PRINTED 0N RECYCLED PAPER The Honorable Patrick Shanahan January 25, 2019 Page 2 Sincerely, Adam Langevin Member of Congress Member of Congress