This is the April 14, 2021 hearing on "National Security Challenges and U.S. Military Activity in North and South America," held before the U.S. House Committee on Armed Services. From the Opening Statement of Adam Smith: "[O]ur committee hearing is on 'National Security Challenges and U.S. Military Activity in North and South America.' [...] Obviously, there are a lot of challenges going on in the world right now, and, you know, the one that dominates is COVID [coronavirus]--its impacts, how it is impacting your commands, how it is impacting stability in your areas of responsibility. We are very interested to hear how it is going in terms of making sure that we protect our service members, maintain our ability to train and meet our readiness requirements, and, at the same time, how COVID may be impacting your areas of responsibility. Obviously, there is a great deal of instability, in particular in South America--two hurricanes, continued economic challenges. We have the ongoing crisis in Venezuela, and we have seen the impact in the flow of folks coming to the border. There are a lot of challenges in that region. [...] I am very curious to get your take on how you perceive the threats to the homeland, the rise of both Russia and China in terms of their global capability. North Korea, as well, has introduced a level of threat to the homeland that we haven't seen before. How do we need to respond to that? What is the most intelligent spending we can do in the Department of Defense budget to meet those challenges? And then what is the whole-of-government response as well?" Statements, letters, and materials submitted for the record include those of the following: Craig S. Faller, Roert G. Salesses, and Glen D. VanHerck.