National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2016
Floor Speech
Issues: National Security Defense
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Mrs. LUMMIS. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Today, I rise in support of the Lummis-Zinke-Cramer-Smith amendment: to prohibit the unilateral decrease of the alert status of our Nation's ICBM force.
Nuclear deterrence is based on the fundamental belief that a nuclear attack on the United States would cause us to retaliate. Reducing the alert status would change the time needed to retaliate from as few as 30 minutes to 3 days. This makes it much easier for an enemy to strike first, wiping out the U.S. nuclear force before it can retaliate. For this reason, Mr. Chairman, I urge the adoption of the amendment.
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