Dianne Feinstein: “Yesterday Senator Kennedy and I came to the floor and we spent some time arguing on behalf of an amendment to this bill…”

“Yesterday Senator Kennedy and I came to the floor and we spent some time arguing on behalf of an amendment to this bill which contained language similar to what was recently passed by a large majority in the House of Representatives. The bill passed by the House of Representatives struck the language that appropriates funds to begin a new generation of nuclear weapons. Now, there are some on the other side who say, and continue to say, this is just a study; there is no development. I believe that is not the case. Let me connect the dots for you. In January of 2002, the administration put forward a Nuclear Posture Review which advocates the development of new types of nuclear weapons. Later that year, the President signed National Security Directive 17, indicating that the United States might use nuclear weapons first to respond to a chemical or biological attack. Earlier this year, a decade-old prohibition on the development of low-yield nuclear weapons was rescinded in the Defense authorization bill. For 10 years, this kind of thing was prohibited. That prohibition, known as the Spratt-Furse amendment, was repealed earlier this year. This spring a statement of administration policy for the Defense authorization bill clearly included support for the research and development of low-yield nuclear weapons. In this bill the Senate is being asked to provide the dollars to begin this effort--$15 million for the study of a robust nuclear earth penetrator.”