NAMING OF GUIDED MISSILE DESTROYER THE U.S.S. SAMUEL S. STRATTON

SEC. 1426. NAMING OF GUIDED MISSILE DESTROYER THE U.S.S. SAMUEL S. STRATTON (a) Findings.— The Congress finds that— (1) the late Honorable Samuel S. Stratton served the people of the United States and the 23d District of New York as a Member of the House of Representatives for 30 consecutive years with loyalty, dedication, and warm personal friendship until his retirement at the conclusion of the 100th Congress; (2) Samuel S. Stratton served as a member of the Committee on Armed Services of the House of Representatives for 30 years and did so with total dedication to the goal of maintaining a strong national defense; (3) as a member of the Committee on Armed Services, Samuel S. Stratton served as chairman of three permanent subcommittees (the Military Personnel and Compensation Subcommittee, the Investigations Subcommittee, and the Procurement and Military Nuclear Systems Subcommittee) and as chairman of no fewer than five special subcommittees and panels having a major effect on every aspect of our country’s defense establishment; 104 STAT. 1685 (4) Samuel S. Stratton played a major legislative and intellectual role in such diverse areas as strengthening the NATO alliance, modernization of Guard and Reserve forces, pursuit of verifiable arms control agreements, protection of the defense industrial base, development of missile and aviation programs, and improvement in the military medical care and military justice systems; (5) through his singular and distinctive efforts, Samuel S. Stratton was successful in seeing enacted into law the requirement that women be admitted to the Nation’s service academies; and (6) Samuel S. Stratton’s service to the Nation (including his wartime and reserve service as a naval officer and service as a Member of Congress) left an indelible mark on the history of the Nation and his unswerving goal of maintenance of a strong national defense knows no peer. (b) Sense of Congress.— In light of the findings expressed in subsection (a), it is the sense of Congress that the Secretary of the Navy should name the next guided missile destroyer (DDG-51) to be named after enactment of this Act the U.S.S. Samuel S. Stratton.