At Hearing, Senator Warren Highlights Costs of a New Nuclear Arms Race, Need for Crypto Crackdown to Stop Nuclear Proliferation

Hearing

"Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We're confronting an incredibly challenging security environment, which requires us to make tough choices and set priorities. One of the elements of our national security that I think we often take for granted is the power we gain from our many alliances around the world.

I appreciate and agree with the part of your report that said that our partnerships 'further the ability of free nations of the world to speak and act together in a united front against threats.' But let's be honest, the main thrust of this report is advocating a nuclear arms race. You recommend we 'fund an overhaul and expansion' of our nuclear weapons industrial base to buy more weapons than we're currently planning, as well as starting risky new programs.

Let me start. Ms. Creedon, did the Commission develop any cost estimates for implementing its recommendations?

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We just don't have a cost estimate for this because I did not see one in the report. Would it be safe to guess that we are talking about tens of billions of dollars, if not more?

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Yeah, I get more money. I'm saying is it like tens of billions more or more than that?

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I understand that. What I'm trying to get at is how much it costs. Because if we're going to prioritize, we need to know how much money we are spending. Is your answer yes, that we can expect it to cost more than tens of billions of dollars?

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And that's what we're trying to evaluate it and if we had cost estimates, it might be helpful. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that our current nuclear weapons spending plans will already cost an average -- the current plans -- $75 billion per year.

I'm willing to spend what it takes to keep America safe, but I'm certainly not comfortable with a blank check for programs that already have a history of gross mismanagement. One of the programs the Commission endorses fully funding is nuclear pit production, which are these radioactive cores for nuclear weapons. The National Nuclear Security Administration doesn't know how much it's going to cost and won't have a reliable plan for the program for at least another year. So here we are spending billions of dollars without even a plan in place.

Did the Commission recommend any areas for spending cuts to help pay for the recommendations that you advanced?

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I'm sorry -- the winners are just let's spend all the money we want to spend and the question I have is did you recommend any areas for spending cuts to help pay for the recommendations you are advancing?

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Did you recommend cuts?

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Well, but we start this with priorities. Forgive me, we can't prioritize if we don't know how much or even an estimate of how much things are going to cost. Back in 2018 the National Defense Strategy Commission was at least honest about how they were going to pay for it. They said they would cut the social safety net that American workers paid into and deserve to receive.

It's no secret that I support the Biden administration's goal of reducing the role of nuclear weapons in our defense strategy. It's a serious failure of this report that it does not reckon with the serious costs and dangers of accelerating a nuclear arms race.

As we continue to debate our nuclear posture I think it's important to understand also how North Korea and other rogue regimes are paying for their nuclear programs. Experts estimate that half of North Korea's missile program is paid for through crypto crime. Your report rightly flags this problem, noting that North Korea stole about $1.7 billion in 2022 alone and used that to fund more than half of its missile program.

I just note that I have a bill with Senator Marshall, Senator Manchin, Senator Graham, and a dozen more Senators to crack down on the use of crypto in sanctions evasions. If we want to stop our enemies, then we need to give regulators the tools they need to crack down on how they're financed."

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