Mission Statement

The House Armed Services Committee's fiscal year 2010 defense authorization bill aims to make some small, but significant, tweaks to the law governing special operations.

The bill modifies the section of Title 10 spelling out what activities fall under the special operations label and are therefore core missions for U.S. Special Operations Command.

The legislation introduces a couple of newcomers: information operations, counterproliferation of weapons of mass destruction, security force assistance and counterinsurgency operations.

Departing the canon of warfighting areas listed in the statute are "direct action," humanitarian assistance and theater search and rescue.

"Strategic reconnaissance" would get reworded to read "special reconnaissance."

Unconventional warfare, foreign internal defense, civil affairs operations, counterterrorism and psychological operations remain on the list.