Steven Holt: “I thank Mrs. Tauscher for her wise leadership. Mr. Chairman, this amendment is unwise and, at the very least, premature.…”

“I thank Mrs. Tauscher for her wise leadership. Mr. Chairman, this amendment is unwise and, at the very least, premature. Existing Department of Energy Reports and reports from outside consultants, such as the JASON group, have made it clear that our existing nuclear weapons will be viable for decades. It makes no sense to begin construction of a new generation of nuclear weapons. It is not necessary, and worse, it would be harmful to our security. In light of our efforts to convince other countries to abstain from pursuing nuclear weapons, a pressing, indeed critical, national need for our security to persuade other countries to abstain going forward with Reliable Replacement Warhead programs would not make sense. It was defunded last year by the Appropriations Committee largely for some of these reasons I have outlined. Finally, the United States has not recently conducted a comprehensive review of its nuclear posture, and no construction of new nuclear weapons or major alterations of the DOE lab complexes should be made until such a review is completed. Accordingly, I urge my colleagues to oppose the Pearce amendment.”