Howard P. "Buck" McKeon National Defense Authorization Act For Fiscal Year 2015

Floor Speech

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Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Chairman, our country's intercontinental ballistic missiles make the world safer. They are an integral part of the nuclear triad that advances the cause of peace and promotes our national security interests around the world.

The Defense Department recently put forward a nuclear force structure plan under the New START Treaty. It is committed to maintaining 450 nuclear launchers in at least a warm status. In doing so, the Pentagon recognized the strategic value of preserving our robust nuclear deterrent capability.

The base bill would sunset the warm status requirement in 2021. I believe this is unwise and it is premature.

First and foremost, we don't know what the future holds and whether it will be in our strategic and security interests to shut down some of our silos 7 years from now.

On the other hand, what we do know is that maintaining our nuclear launchers provides our commanders with maximum flexibility to respond to potential nuclear threats against the American people and our allies. And we know that preserving this capability complicates our adversaries' ability to target our nuclear assets.

Further, we know that maintaining our current silos is in the best interest of taxpayers because rebuilding them would be very expensive.

In short, there is simply no justification for deciding today how many silos will be needed to safeguard our security interests in 2021.

I urge House passage of my amendment to strike the ill-advised sunset provision in the underlying. I reserve the balance of my time.

I reserve the balance of my time.

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Mr. Chairman, while the President is the Commander in Chief--this is the issue of micromanaging--the Constitution gives Congress the power to raise and support armies and to provide and maintain a Navy. It is our duty and responsibility to help shape our Nation's defense policy.

Regarding the ICBMs, they are deployed in hardened silos. That would tend to force an opponent to exhaust his own nuclear forces to disarm U.S. ICBMs, leaving the opponent vulnerable to a U.S. retaliatory strike. Without ICBMs, as few as five nuclear warheads could successfully disarm the U.S.

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Mr. Chairman, I am prepared to close.

Again, I urge support for my amendment, which is to protect our country's nuclear deterrent capability by striking this unwise and premature sunset language in the underlying bill.

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