Recognizing the 30th Anniversary of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Floor Speech

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Mr. WICKER. Today, I call on my colleagues to join me in supporting the effort to rebuild America's nuclear deterrent. For most Americans, this may seem like a relic of the Cold War, but to those of us tasked with funding our national defense, nuclear threats are not a thing of the past; nuclear threats are a present-day issue.

America successfully deterred nuclear attacks during the Cold War. Back then, we had one clear foe, but today's national security situation is the most complex we have faced since World War II. Russia, China, and North Korea are rapidly growing their nuclear stockpiles, and Iran stands on the brink of building its own arsenal. Facing multiple nuclear-armed enemies at the same time requires us to rethink how we plan to modernize our nuclear capabilities.

Let me first briefly outline the nuclear threat posed by our primary adversaries and then list four steps Congress can take in response.

In the past, the Soviet Union and the United States possessed nuclear weapons stockpiles that dwarfed China's. Beijing has set out to change that. China has so rapidly expanded its nuclear arsenal that it may be a match for our own by the end of this decade.

With breathtaking speed, China completed a nuclear triad of intercontinental ballistic missiles, long-range bombers, and ballistic missile submarines. China's pace and sophistication took us by surprise, frankly. We were slow to respond as China built hundreds of new ballistic missile silos. Then they developed a fractional orbital bombardment system--orbital. That is as startling as the name sounds. With this system, China can place a nuclear warhead into the Earth's orbit and then drop it anywhere in the world with little warning. This is a fact.

The United States and the Soviet Union negotiated away these types of weapons during the Cold War. Russia and the United States did so in part because of the extreme danger such systems posed to global stability. As Xi Jinping develops this system for China, he makes it clear that causing international instability does not keep him up at night. In fact, Xi seems to thrive on it.

The situation with Russia is hardly any better. Vladimir Putin still owns the world's largest, most modern, and most diverse nuclear arsenal and is willing to threaten the use of nuclear weapons to get what he wants. He did this to try to keep NATO from intervening as he invaded Ukraine and has repeatedly done so since then to register his displeasure with our aid to the Ukrainian people.

On their own, China and Russia represent bad news for our interests, but there is still worse news. Moscow and Beijing have decided to work together. Earlier this year, China purchased over 28 tons of highly enriched uranium from Russia. This will likely be used to produce plutonium for additional nuclear weapons.

Two other nations present significant threats to the United States. North Korea may now possess enough missiles to overwhelm our homeland missile defenses. They have expanded their nuclear forces with little pushback from the Biden administration. Worse still, Iran may be only weeks away from building its own weapons, putting regional stability and our ally Israel at grave risk. The administration has shown little resolve to thwart Iran's nuclear program before it is too late.

Surveying these nuclear threats prompts us to examine our own nuclear capabilities. When we do, we find them lacking.

The last time the United States made real investments in our nuclear arsenal was the 1980s, and almost all the nuclear forces we have today are from that decade. These systems hold together only because of the hard work of our servicemembers. The National Nuclear Security Administration's industrial capabilities for maintaining our nuclear weapons stockpile are so antiquated that they are literally falling apart. For example, the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, TN, is in a state of disrepair. Y-12 is a symbol of the broader issue, and the broader issue is this: Because we have not kept our nuclear capacity up to date, we are the only nuclear armed country in the world--nuclear armed country in the world--that cannot build a single new nuclear weapon.

Around 2010, the Obama administration and Congress, to their credit, agreed to begin replacing our aging nuclear forces and revitalizing our nuclear infrastructure, including programs such as the Columbia-class ballistic missile submarine, the B-21 bomber, and the Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile. I commend the Obama administration and the Congress for doing that at the time, but I can tell you now, more than a decade later, we are still waiting for these efforts to come to fruition.

The Biden administration has seen the same news we have. We are all watching Russia fully update its arsenal. China continues its historic nuclear breakout. Yet the administration does not seem to take these threats seriously enough and does not hold anyone accountable for missing program development target dates. Instead, every single U.S. nuclear modernization program has been delayed, reduced in scope, or canceled. Amazingly, despite over $500 million in additional funds for the National Nuclear Security Administration last year to help restore our ability to build plutonium cores for our weapons, we see no real progress.

Considering the rising threats from China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran, our complacency is unacceptable. I want to commend Senator King and Senator Fischer on both sides of the aisle, chairman and ranking member of the Strategic Forces Subcommittee. They have led bipartisan efforts to advance our overdue modernization programs, and I applaud them for their leadership--Senator King from Maine and Senator Fischer from Nebraska.

Now Congress needs to come together to take even stronger actions to ensure the Department of Defense and the National Nuclear Security Administration urgently prioritizes the modernization of our nuclear forces. Specifically, I believe we should take the following steps:

First, increase investments to accelerate the building of our nuclear forces and restore the basic capabilities needed to maintain our nuclear stockpile and do this as soon as possible.

Secondly, remove regulatory barriers hindering the success of our nuclear modernization programs, and also hold the Department of Defense and the National Nuclear Security Administration leadership accountable for performance.

Third, immediately commit to expanding and diversifying our nuclear forces. An essential first step is establishing and funding a formal program to build the sea-launched cruise missile.

Fourth, reposture U.S. forces to bolster deterrence and reassure our allies in NATO and Asia of U.S. commitment to deterring Russia, China, North Korea, and Iran.

These are significant but necessary steps.

In today's world, we must deter multiple adversaries at once. That is just the reality now. This demands the preparation and investment I have just outlined.

During the Cold War, we understood what it meant to face down existential threats. We prevented nuclear conflicts then by remaining true to President Reagan's ``peace through strength'' doctrine. We would do well to return to that vision today.

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