Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2014

Floor Speech

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Mr. CRENSHAW. Mr. Chairman, I remind my colleagues that we have already cut the defense budget pretty drastically, and nuclear weapons exist in today's world. I might not like it, you might not like it, we might wish they didn't exist, but they do exist.

Because nuclear weapons exist in this world, we need to have the ability to defend against them and also deter their use. That is important to our national security.

We do that through what we call the nuclear triad. We have the capability to launch nuclear missiles from silos that are based on land, we have the ability to launch nuclear-capable missiles from airplanes, we also have the ability to launch nuclear-capable missiles from submarines that are somewhere in these vast oceans.

Of those three of the triad, the nuclear submarine, or the submarine with nuclear capability, is the most survivable because you can blow up a silo, you can shoot down an airplane, but it is almost impossible to find a submarine somewhere in the ocean that has this nuclear capability. Because it is the most survivable, then it is the best deterrent, because we know what it can do and our enemies know what it can do.

Right now, we are planning to replace what is called the Ohio-class submarines to continue this capability. This is a capability that has kept us safe for the last 60 years. It is still important to our long-term national security. If we adopt this amendment, we will begin to cripple this capability, and that is bad for our national security.

I would urge my colleagues to vote against this amendment.

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