Political Quotes

“I offer a simple amendment to defend congressional prerogatives and ensure Congress is getting full information from the administration regarding one of our Nation's highest priority defense missions: nuclear deterrence. Several years ago the Secretary of Energy tasked the Nation's nuclear weapons labs to produce a study on the future of nuclear deterrence. That study was finalized in August of 2014, almost 2 years ago. The Secretary made a personal commitment to senior members of the Armed Services Committee that he would send over the report resulting from that study. Now, 2 years later, we still have not received that report. This amendment will ensure DOE acts to fulfill the Secretary's commitment to provide this report to Congress, ensure Congress can conduct appropriate oversight and has visibility into matters as important as the future of nuclear deterrence, which the Secretary of Defense has called the Nation's highest priority defense mission, and it fences only a couple million dollars in administrative funds within the Office of the Secretary. This will be enough to ensure we receive this report and will not impact the DOE's mission at all. I urge my colleagues to vote ``yes'' on this amendment. I reserve the balance of my time.”