Don Bacon: “I just want to point out, when I came to the Air Force in 1985, we have since then reduced our ICBM force by 60 percent.…”

“I just want to point out, when I came to the Air Force in 1985, we have since then reduced our ICBM force by 60 percent. Enough is enough. Four hundred is the level we should not go below. Our strategic nuclear force enterprise is America's force of last resort and has, for decades, asserted peace through strength for the United States and its allies around the world. I would like to remind my colleagues that every one of us in the House and the many millions of Americans we represent have lived and prospered in peace precisely because we have made the conscious decision as a nation many years ago to keep a strong, responsive, and resilient nuclear deterrent. The ICBM leg of the nuclear triad is, by design, the largest, safest, and most responsive part of our central strategic forces. It is the very foundation of our nuclear deterrent, and we must preserve the longstanding bipartisan consensus that our ICBMs be kept at high levels of alert and at sufficient numbers to ensure our nuclear deterrent stays credible. As we continue down to a new START level, a treaty level of 400 ICBMs, it is essential that we go no lower. When we say ``promote the common defense,'' this is what those words mean. Mr. Chair, I urge support of this amendment.”