Iran, North Korea, and Syria Nonproliferation Reform and Modernization Act of 2011

Floor Speech

Mr. MARKEY. Mr. Speaker, North Korea has nuclear weapons. Iran is developing nuclear weapons. Al-Qaeda wants to acquire nuclear weapons. The threat we face is very, very real.

Sanctions are important to help prevent the spread of nuclear weapons, but they are not enough. America must lead by example.

The U.S. recently signed the New START treaty, requiring reductions to our nuclear arsenal. Yet, we still plan to spend hundreds of billions of dollars on new nuclear weapons and related programs over the next decade.

Why do we allow this wasteful spending to continue? Because some Republicans in this Chamber treat the nuclear weapons budget as a sacred cow, never to be questioned or scrutinized. This is ridiculous.

Wasteful nuclear weapons spending actually harms national security. It sends the message to Iran, North Korea, and Syria that while we don't want you to have these weapons, we are not willing to make cuts ourselves. This is the wrong message to send.

You cannot argue temperance from a barstool.

The central deal in the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty was that the non-weapons states agreed to forgo the right to get the bomb. The weapons states in return, agreed to negotiate measures leading to disarmament.

That should be our goal, and we can take an important step in this direction by reducing unnecessary nuclear weapons spending.

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