Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz said in a 2006 survey that he would eliminate federal funding for national missile defense, a technology experts say is crucial to fending off a Chinese or Russian attack on the United States.

Walz said he put a great deal of time and effort into filling out the survey, in which he laid out his views on a series of national security and other policy issues.

"I took the time, in about three hours, to fill out every single portion of that questionnaire in great detail," Walz said in a 2006 congressional debate. In that survey, from the non-partisan group Vote Smart, Walz also indicated he opposed "a policy of pre-emptive military strikes against countries deemed to be a threat to U.S. national security."