The Increasing Threat of Nuclear Weapons

Floor Speech

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Mr. FOSTER. Mr. Speaker, I thank Representative McGovern for holding this Special Order hour to discuss the importance of nuclear security.

As the only Ph.D. physicist in Congress, I feel I have a special responsibility to join this discussion and to ask what we can do to strengthen our global nuclear security architecture and maintain U.S. leadership in this area.

I am proud to be the co-chair of the Congressional Nuclear Security Working Group along with Representative Chuck Fleischmann. It is important to continue the dialogue on nuclear security and the significance of arms control, especially as it connects to current events.

One of our caucus' main goals is to continue to engage on the Hill and with external organizations to facilitate awareness of global threats of nuclear proliferation and nuclear terrorism. It is our hope that through building awareness and generating bipartisan dialogues we can create practical legislative solutions for these critical national security issues.

With the escalation of China's nuclear program, Russian nuclear threats amid the invasion of Ukraine, Iran's growing nuclear capabilities, threats by Israeli cabinet members to use its nuclear arsenal against its neighbors, and the escalation of North Korean missile testing, this is not a small task.

Above all, we see Ukraine, one of the few governments on Earth that has voluntarily given up its nuclear weapons in return for an international promise of territorial integrity, we see it threatened to be abandoned by some, including some in the United States.

If we are going to be successful in confronting these unprecedented challenges, then we need to work across party lines as we look to the 119th Congress and beyond.

One particular place where we are already working together in a bipartisan manner is at our national laboratories. As the co-chair of the bipartisan National Labs Caucus, our national labs create the underlying foundation for all of our nuclear security efforts, including the nonproliferation and national security priorities that we are here to talk about today.

One of the features that you have got of being a Member of Congress, Mr. Speaker, is that if you ask, you can be taken into the room in our national weapons labs where you can see our nuclear weapons taken apart. If you enter that room and you talk to the experts about the details of the nuclear weapons, why they are built that way, what the capabilities are, and what the implications are if these are detonated, if you don't take your job seriously after entering that room, then you are not thinking clearly. I find that Republicans and Democrats upon entering that room think about their job in a different way than they would otherwise.

This whole discussion is even more important than ever as we face an uncertain geopolitical environment that pushes against the international rules-based order and toward an age of strategic competition. I find so many of the lessons that have been well-known by Members of Congress during the Cold War seem to have been forgotten today. The simple lesson, for example, that there are weapons that you can own that make you less safe, which was well understood by Members of Congress back in the fifties and sixties, seems to have become a completely alien concept to Members of Congress today. That has led, I think, to some very bad policy, like people thinking that hypersonics make you safer; whereas, in fact, if you have hypersonics and your enemies know you have hypersonics, then they are more likely to react on a hair trigger to anything that looks like a launch against them and not have the time that they need to react rationally.

Over the years, I have focused my attention specifically on several areas to strengthen our nuclear security architecture.

First and foremost is H. Res. 1079, a resolution I introduced in the House with 39 other Members supporting arms control and condemning Russia's purported suspension of its participation in the New START treaty. The current extension of New START is set to expire in just over a year, and anyone who remembers previous arms control negotiations will know that there is almost no time left to negotiate a subsequent treaty.

Additionally, any negotiations, whether with Russia, China, or any other country, require partners who are willing to have discussions on arms control, something that is easier said than done. In a time when traditional channels of dialogue in arms control and strategic stability have been closed or are quiet, we will rely even more on keeping alternative channels open.

Nongovernmental organizations, scientists, and research institutions kept dialogue open during the worst parts of the Cold War, and we may need to rely on them to fulfill those roles again.

Another institution that is crucial in these times will be the International Atomic Energy Agency, the IAEA. We are already seeing the incredibly hard work that Director General Grossi and his staff are putting in to responding to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the nuclear plants that are being put at risk there and all the myriad other crises that are at their doorstep.

In recognition of that work, I have also been leading H. Res. 641, a resolution that highlights the indispensable role that the IAEA plays in strengthening nuclear security and safety around the globe.

Again, I thank Representative McGovern for this time and this very important discussion. There is a decent chance that everyone on Earth will spend their last few moments wondering why we did not spend more attention on nuclear weapons. I do not want to be part of that mistake, so I thank the gentleman for letting us participate today.

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