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Floor Speech

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Mrs. FISCHER. Madam President, last week, we celebrated the birth of our Nation. The first Americans took long, dangerous journeys across the Atlantic Ocean in search of better lives, far away from a regime that stripped away their God-given rights and their freedoms all too often.

Our Founders fought a revolution against absolute power. They chafed against the control of the British Empire. Americans united against encroachments on liberty and emerged victorious, just as we have done many times since then from Great Britain to the Soviet Union.

As we look back on our history, we should consider our future as well. The United States faces a threat environment growing more dangerous by the day. Authoritarian adversaries, including China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea, are accelerating their efforts to chip away at global stability and undermine America's national security.

A couple of weeks ago, a radio host asked me an important question: What is the point of modernizing our nuclear deterrents? Don't we already have the capabilities we need to defend ourselves? And, if we build up a stronger arsenal of nuclear weapons, doesn't that just increase the risk of nuclear war?

My answer was related to the history I have just discussed: From the Revolutionary War to the world wars to the Cold War, Americans have prioritized a strong national defense and the tools we need to achieve that when we are faced with existential threats. The character of war changed after the advent of nuclear weapons. And during the Cold War, the United States recognized that we needed to have a strong nuclear deterrent to preserve the hard-fought peace that we had won. We worked overtime to ensure that our Commander in Chief had every option to deter and, if necessary, to fight back against threats.

We were successful. We deterred the Soviet Union from using its nuclear weapons destructively because its leaders knew we could hit back harder with a push of a button. It is comparable to a game of chess: You are never going to make a move that leaves your king threatened on all sides. If the Soviet Union had deployed a nuclear weapon, it would have quickly been surrounded on all sides by a retaliatory strike Moscow knew it might not survive.

A diverse and effective nuclear deterrent gives our country the ability to say: Checkmate. Not today. And it makes other nations think hard about what moves they might make. In other words, it deters authoritarian regimes from attacking the United States and attacking our allies.

During the Cold War, we prioritized the production of nuclear weapons and delivery systems because we recognized their essential role in deterring nuclear conflict. We must return to that mindset if we want to get ahead of today's looming national security challenges.

Our adversaries understand this. Earlier this year, the U.S. Strategic Command--STRATCOM--publicly confirmed that China possesses more intercontinental ballistic missile launchers than we do here in the United States. China is on track to triple--to triple--its nuclear arsenal by 2035. That is just a decade away. Stated plainly, one of the most ominous authoritarian regimes in modern history is building a nuclear force that is fundamentally altering global deterrence dynamics, and they are doing it at a pace faster than anyone imagined.

As our adversaries race to expand their nuclear arsenals, what are we doing here in our country? Well, since the fall of the Berlin Wall, our Nation has sidelined our nuclear enterprise. We have underinvested in the modernization of our nuclear triad.

That word ``triad'' refers to the three military fronts of land, sea, and air. The land-based leg of the triad is comprised of our intercontinental ballistic missile fleet. The sea-based leg of the triad refers to our ballistic missile submarines, and the air-based leg of the triad refers to our bomber fleet and certain fighter aircraft.

A full triad expands the number of options that our Commander in Chief has at his disposal. Each leg of that triad presents unique advantages. Military planners need diverse capabilities to ensure that our Nation can act decisively in any scenario. If we can strike from anywhere at any time, our adversaries will hesitate before taking aggressive action.

The problem is that we have been too slow to replace and upgrade those systems. As former STRATCOM Commander Admiral Richard testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee last year, we have ``submarines [that were] built in the `80s and `90s, an air-launched cruise missile built in the `80s, intercontinental ballistic missiles built in the `70s, a bomber built in the `60s--part of our nuclear command and control that predates the internet, and a nuclear weapons complex that dates back to the Manhattan Project.''

Our nuclear deterrent only serves to deter our adversaries so that no one will ever use a nuclear weapon if that deterrent that we have is safe, reliable, and effective. To ensure it remains so in the future, it must be modernized. Underinvesting is a huge mistake, and we need to tip the scales back in our favor by bringing our systems rapidly into the 21st century. The good news is that there is big bipartisan support for modernization.

I am the ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee's Subcommittee on Strategic Forces, and our subcommittee overseas STRATCOM, which is headquartered in my home State of Nebraska. STRATCOM does indispensable work at the helm of our Nation's strategic nuclear deterrence.

Over the last 10 years, I have worked with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle so that we can get key modernization provisions into the annual National Defense Authorization Act. We have continued this vital support in the fiscal year 2024 NDAA, which the Senate will consider this month.

This year, I have also fought to keep the Sea-Launched Cruise Missile Program--or SLCM--fully funded by the NDAA.

In the Strategic Forces Subcommittee, where we have held multiple hearings and briefings, classified and unclassified, with senior military and civilian leaders as well as a number of outside experts, we concluded--again, on a bipartisan basis--that the Biden administration's attempts to cancel the SLCM Program would make our nuclear deterrent less effective in the 2030s and beyond. So we have included a provision in the bill to create a program of record for SLCM. This will prevent the premature cancelation of the program without future congressional consent.

I also fought to secure provisions that would support the Sentinel Program, which will replace our aging ICBMs across the country. This program is the most significant and complex weapons system in recent U.S. history, and it will cover an aggregated land area almost as large as the State of South Carolina.

Both Chambers of Congress are considering their versions of the NDAA this month. I am proud of the work that my colleagues and I have accomplished with this legislative package that is coming to the floor. I urge my fellow lawmakers as well as the President to support the vital measures that we have included in this bill. I will continue to support modernization efforts, and I am confident that we will produce a strong final NDAA to send to President Biden's desk.

But our work in the Senate isn't done when the NDAA passes. We still have to back our defense priorities up with real dollars through the appropriations process. I am a member of the Appropriations Committee, as is the Presiding Officer, and I know that we are committed to working together to be able to allocate all the funds that are necessary so that we can maintain a strong national defense.

The world has changed since the fall of the Berlin Wall, and we are now, for the first time in history, facing two peer adversaries with significant nuclear arsenals. Now is not the time to shortchange our national security. It is a time for us to work together to strengthen our national security. This means that President Biden needs to cooperate with Congress so that we can get our NDAA passed.

America was born by uniting in defiance of outside threats, and we have done it many times since then. I am hopeful that we will live up to our history as new challenges loom.

As a Member of Congress, I will continue working with colleagues from across the aisle to strengthen our national security. For the sake of our safety, our legacy, and our freedom, I urge my fellow Members and the President himself to do the same.

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