Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2024

Floor Speech

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Mr. JACKSON of Texas. Mr. Chair, the National Nuclear Security Administration's Pantex plant in Amarillo, Texas, is one of our Nation's most valuable and vital military assets as it is our strategic force's only nuclear weapons assembly and disassembly facility.

The saying within the military's nuclear enterprise is ``all roads lead to Pantex'' because this site in my district is a mandatory stop for every single nuclear weapon within our inventory.

This amendment will prohibit the Biden administration from halting construction of the much-needed High Explosive Synthesis, Formulation, and Production Facility at Pantex.

This major construction project will enhance our nuclear deterrence capability by allowing the NNSA to modernize and scale its high explosive production capabilities to meet pressing and urgent stockpile requirements.

Right now, we rely on a single, external vendor for large-scale synthesis, formulation, and blending for high explosive products. There have been repeated issues with this vendor, including lack of prioritization and even late deliveries. This presents a single point of failure in the nuclear enterprise which jeopardizes our nuclear weapons production.

Once this new facility is constructed at Pantex, NNSA will be able to meet all long-term high explosive material needs for the weapons stockpile while successfully mitigating nearly all risks associated with production.

Given the threat environment we face in the world today, many people might assume that the Federal Government has made adequate investments in Pantex and modernized appropriately. Those assumptions would be dead wrong. Many of the facilities at the Pantex plant were built in the 1940s and the 1950s.

Today, in 2023, you are required to wear a hardhat when entering some of the buildings because the ceiling is crumbling down on top of the workers that work there.

Since I have been in Congress, I have ensured that adequate funding has been provided each year to maintain the facility's modernization efforts.

While I have disagreed with the Biden administration nearly every step of the way on just about every issue, one of the only things they seemed to be doing right was prioritizing modernization of our Nation's nuclear enterprise.

Just when I thought this administration grasped how critical it is to ensure the viability of our Nation's nuclear deterrent, I opened the budget request for this year only to see that they had completely zeroed out this project.

Now, this administration wants to let our nuclear forces erode while they continue to pump billions of dollars into woke, green, and social initiatives.

This cut was rejected by both the House and Senate Armed Services Committees, as well as by House appropriators, because we can all see what President Biden apparently cannot.

The United States must be the unquestioned leader in the ability to project peace through strength.

The House has successfully authorized and will soon appropriate the funds for Pantex because we all understand how critical it is to modernize the facilities where our nuclear weapons are made. We must take our Nation's nuclear enterprise out of the crosshairs of the Biden administration.

The world is a dangerous place at the moment with global threats from China, Iran, Russia, and North Korea. We must provide adequate investment in our nuclear deterrence capability to ensure these bad actors never doubt our strategic readiness, and the Pantex plant in Amarillo is a key component of that.

I urge all Members to support my amendment to prohibit the administration from halting construction on this critical modernization initiative.

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Mr. JACKSON of Texas. Madam Chair, I appreciate having the support of all my colleagues on this amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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