Byron Dorgan: “I take the floor to speak in opposition to an amendment that is now pending, amendment No. 3144, offered by my…”

“I take the floor to speak in opposition to an amendment that is now pending, amendment No. 3144, offered by my colleagues, Senator Kyl, Senator Sessions, and Senator Thune. This amendment will add $10 million to be available for a program called the Space Test Bed. The space test bed is not a particularly great description of what it does, but that is the description of the program. I want to describe why I believe it would be a huge mistake for us to approve the amendment. First, let me say it deals with missile defense. There is about $8 rac{1}{2}$ billion in the bill, the underlying bill, for missile defense programs, $8 rac{1}{2}$ billion. We are, even now, buying and deploying national missile defense interceptors that have never been tested against realistic targets, such as targets with decoys and multiple warheads. We will, I think, continue to see, as we have seen before, dramatic cost overruns and test failures.”