Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I rise today to discuss the proposed cuts to nuclear nonproliferation programs in the continuing resolution, which I believe seriously endangers our Nation's security. When the Senate was presented with H.R. 1, the House's fiscal year 2011 appropriations bill, we all knew that sacrifices were needed. We knew that we needed to examine programs and determine which were broken, which were redundant, and which needed to be eliminated. Likewise, we also had a responsibility to determine which programs worked and provided positive returns on investments for our security and economic stability. I would assert that the National Nuclear Security Administration's, NNSA, nonproliferation programs fall into this category. For the past decade, one threat has dominated our national security agenda: the threat of a nuclear weapon in the hands of a terrorist. Yet when H.R. 1 passed in February, the House proposed a 24-percent cut to the President's request for NNSA nonproliferation programs. These cuts would endanger programs that have removed a total of 120 bombs' worth of highly enriched uranium, HEU, and nuclear material from six countries since April 2009. This past November, enough HEU to make 775 nuclear weapons was removed from Kazakhstan. I would consider these outcomes an underreported, yet remarkable success. I question why such highly effective programs, vital to our national security interests, were targeted in the first place.…”