Political Quotes

“Mr. President, first, let me thank the Senator from Oklahoma for his graciousness in allowing me to respond. As I read the language of the bill, the language we had in place since 2004 was stricken. That language prohibited, essentially, the production and development of a low-yield nuclear device without congressional authorization. In addition to that, the language that was inserted in the bill that is before us now creates a process, whereby in order to begin work in production and development of a low-yield or perhaps even any type of nuclear weapon, the Secretary of Energy simply must submit the request in the budget, at which point they can begin reprogramming funds that already had been appropriated to start moving forward with the development of not only the low-yield nuclear weapons we are talking about now but in the future, additional ones. The essence of my amendment is clearly to get to the point where we are considering going forward with any new proposal by the administration. I will emphasize, too, the way this language is crafted in the bill, it is the Secretary of Energy--it is not the Secretary of Defense--that puts it in his budget. Once it is in his budget, then they can begin to move money around. It could be for this submarine launch system or it could be for a system we have had in the past. We had nuclear field artillery in 1950s and 1960s. It might not be, frankly, the Secretary of Defense or anyone else.…”