Political Quotes

“Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman for yielding. With regard to the claims of parochialism, there is no question that those of us from the States that host these ICBMs are technical experts in the field. It only makes sense that we would know a lot about it. Mr. Chairman, while I am content with the Department of Defense's recent force structure announcement on complying with the New START Treaty to maintain 454 ICBM silos in warm status, I too strongly oppose the hard stop date that maintains these missile silos in warm status no later than 2021. Members of this body, Members of the Senate, the Secretary of Defense, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and many others have said the sustainment of our nuclear triad is essential and that any further reductions ought not be done in unilateral fashion. Maintaining and investing in the modernization of this weapon system is just as important as any other leg of the nuclear triad. From what I can tell and from what the people of North Dakota know, it is a lot cheaper to maintain them than to rebuild them should we err in our judgment currently. I urge passage of the amendment.”