William C. Baker: “Let me just speak in behalf of our national treasures that we are cutting. The Livermore and Sandia labs and the other…”

“Let me just speak in behalf of our national treasures that we are cutting. The Livermore and Sandia labs and the other labs in New Mexico as well as California are cutting. This year the laboratory in my district, Livermore Lab, is cutting $46.4 million. That is a lot of jobs, a lot of scientists, a lot of science. Are we afraid of the future? Are we afraid of looking forward and saying, is there an alternative to burning coal and burning oil? Do we need nuclear fusion? Without the national ignition facility which has just been proposed by the Energy Department, Livermore was selected as the site because of their laser capability. Without it, we are going to have to go back to nuclear testing. France is fighting that battle now and losing. We are not going to do that. The national ignition facility allows us to keep our stockpile fresh. It also allows us to study nuclear power. We are not afraid of the future. We are going to manage our $6 billion and we are going to downsize the laboratories because the need for nuclear defensive laboratories is waning. But we want to be prepared for China, we want to be prepared for the next empire and the laboratories are doing that for us.”