On the recordMay 14, 2015
I do appreciate the gentleman from Rhode Island for setting the context here. Mr. Chairman, we ought to be concerned about what is going on. My understanding is that they found out about the widespread cheating among the missileers because they were investigating the drug abuse. There are things that ought to concern us, not something that to this point is, as they just testified, a proposal on behalf of the administration, but, rather, the notion that somehow any action to reduce responsiveness is contrary to longstanding policy and is deeply harmful to national security and strategic stability in a crisis. There may well come a time when we are able to make some changes that would remove a little bit of the hair trigger. I don't think that is something that we should prejudge. In the meantime, if people care about these missiles, they ought to make sure that they are managed in an effective fashion, that we take care of the longstanding abuses, and that we deal with the point that I made a moment ago: when we are launching on a $1 trillion program over the next three decades, we ought to find out how much we need and how we are going to pay for it.
