OFFICIALS LEGISLATION INTEREST GROUPS PUBLIC STATEMENTS COMMITTEES VETOES

National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2017

Floor Speech

Date: May 18, 2016
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Defense

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Mr. ROGERS of Alabama. Mr. Chairman, as chairman of the Strategic Forces Subcommittee, I understand that the responsiveness and distributed nature of our ICBMs are their most critical feature and their unique contribution to our nuclear triad.

Without ICBMs, an adversary would only need to strike less than 10 targets to disarm our nuclear forces. With ICBMs, an adversary needs to strike hundreds of hardened targets deep in the American homeland. That is a much more difficult proposition and is at the very heart of deterrence.

This is not a parochial issue or a political issue. This is a profound national security issue. De-alerting our ICBMs or unilaterally cutting their numbers is a terrible idea.

I urge my colleagues to vote ``yes'' on this amendment.

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