National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2022

Floor Speech

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Mr. KING. Mr. President, I have the responsibility and the privilege to be the chair of something called the Strategic Forces Subcommittee of the Committee on Armed Services.

Strategic forces is a euphemism for nuclear weapons, and it is one of the most serious threats that we continue to face. We face threats all over the world from pandemics, from terrorism, from a rising China, from a belligerent Russia, but one of the most serious that sometimes gets lost in the discussion is the unthinkable catastrophe that would be a nuclear exchange.

Throughout the last 70-plus years, our principle strategy for dealing with that threat has been deterrence, the idea that if you use nuclear weapons against the United States of America, you will pay the heaviest of prices, and that deterrence has worked. There hasn't been a use of nuclear weapon since 1945, and there are now several--I can't say the exact number for classification reasons--but there are a number of nuclear countries in the world, nuclear-armed countries, China and Russia among them. China is expanding its nuclear capability exponentially. Over the past several years, they have been embarked on an enormous buildup of their nuclear capability.

But I want to talk about a nuclear threat today in the context of the nomination that I am going to move in a few moments that, to me, is one of the most terrifying because it is a nuclear threat that deterrence doesn't work on--a nuclear threat that deterrence, the fundamental strategy of our prevention of nuclear conflict for 70 years, doesn't work.

What is that threat? The threat of nuclear terrorism. If you are not representing a country and if you don't care about dying, then the idea of a nuclear response doesn't scare you. It doesn't deter you from taking that kind of action.

How do we defend against that? What is deterrence 2.0 in the current world where international terrorism--although it has not been on the front pages recently--is still there?

ISIS-K, ISIS, al-Qaida, al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula are all still there. Boko Haram in Africa--they are all still there. They are all plotting. They are all working on ways that they can attack the West and the United States of America.

If they could get ahold of the nuclear technology and nuclear building block, which is enriched uranium, they would use it. The terrorists who killed 3,000 people on September 11 would kill--would have killed 3 million if they could have.

And so keeping nuclear materials and nuclear technology out of the hands of terrorists is, to me, one of the most important functions that our government can perform.

And that brings me to the nomination of Corey Hinderstein for the position of Deputy Administrator for Nuclear Nonproliferation. She is immensely qualified and has worked in this field for almost 20 years; has worked on nuclear proliferation and nonproliferation issues for most of those years, both in the government and in the private sector. I would venture to say there is probably no one in the United States who knows as much about this subject as she does.

Ms. Hinderstein will be responsible for a major part of the budget-- $1.9 billion--but she is responsible for controlling the proliferation of nuclear materials, and that is so critical in light of the threat of nuclear terrorism. The only way we can keep them from attacking us is intelligence, knowing what is coming, and keeping these materials out of their hands; and that is why this job is so important.

She was approved by the committee and recommended to the Senate 40 days ago. It is time to move this nomination. Nominations can be held up for a variety of reasons and some policy reasons, and I understand that, but not in this case. And I am happy to report that it appears that this nomination will not be held up because I think all of our colleagues realize how important this function is in the government.

The most--the best nuclear strike is the one that doesn't occur. The only way to prevent that is to stop the proliferation of nuclear materials. This problem is only growing. We know that Iran is now enriching uranium to a much higher extent than they did under the JCPOA. We know that North Korea is pursuing its own nuclear ambitions. India, Pakistan both have nuclear programs. So this is a clear and present danger to the United States of America, and that is why this nomination is so important.

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