Pat Meehan: “I rise in support of the Tauscher-Markey amendment. As the ranking member of the Subcommittee on Terrorism…”

“I rise in support of the Tauscher-Markey amendment. As the ranking member of the Subcommittee on Terrorism, Unconventional Threats and Capability, I know that the threat of weapons of mass destruction is real. In Iraq this country's military demonstrated that it can get the job done effectively against heavily defended bunkers and other targets without the use of nuclear weapons. As we negotiate and persuade other nations around the world not to develop nuclear weapons, our credibility is damaged and undermined when we pursue new types of these weapons for our own arsenals. We should improve our conventional capability to defend hard and buried targets around the world as opposed to traveling down this dangerous path towards increased dependence on nuclear weapons. It does not make sense.”