Tina Smith: “If we lose this vote and lose this technology and end this technology, ASAT, it, in my opinion, will be a direct threat…”

“If we lose this vote and lose this technology and end this technology, ASAT, it, in my opinion, will be a direct threat to the thousands of American men and women all over the world who wear the uniforms of the Armed Forces of the United States. It is an unprecedented erosion of our constitutional prerogative. When we take the oath to the Constitution, we take an oath to protect and defend America. This protects and defends America. I have been hearing a lot of this talk. I have heard some of it already, and we will hear a lot more, about how we are going to do this stuff with lasers, disable all these satellites with laser technology, that that is the thing of the future. It might be, but it is not here yet. What are we going to do here in between? For those who might not care about the military application--or maybe you care about space junk--kinetic energy ASAT disables satellites. It does not break them up into hundreds of pieces and create space junk. It disables them. It is a very important point. I would think the Senate would want to think long and hard before ending this technology because this amendment will do that.”