John Garamendi: “I think I will take a deep breath. I was a little wound up a few moments ago. If the opposition to this amendment would…”

“I think I will take a deep breath. I was a little wound up a few moments ago. If the opposition to this amendment would like to go through that process of an additional 5 minutes, we will play that game, and I would actually appreciate doing that. There is a lot that we need to discuss here. There is a lot that this House needs to consider, and it is about the nuclear enterprise. It is about a 10-year mission that we have been on to rebuild our nuclear programs. One part of that nuclear program is a new nuclear bomb to be put on the new Sentinel rockets that replace the Minuteman III. A moment ago, I discussed the situation. Do we really need to spend $120 billion, $150 billion over the next decade to replace the Minuteman III and a new nuclear bomb? The answer is, we have time. We have time. As I said a few moments ago, the Minuteman III will work for a considerable period into the future, and the nuclear weapon that is presently on the Minuteman III is going to work for many more years. It is not aging out. It is perfectly reliable. What is this 87-1 all about? It is a new bomb. It, in fact, is the first new bomb that we have built in many years. Presumably, it will work better than the bomb that is presently on the Minuteman III and will be used on the new Sentinel rocket when it is ready to be placed into new silos upon which we will spend billions of dollars building the silos and the infrastructure.…”