Jim Cooper

Congress mandated that MDA conduct an SM-3 Block IIA intercept against an ICBM-range target by 2021, which is outside of the systems designed threat space.

Can you please provide the committee a summary of how DOT&E is working with MDA to ensure both operational and developmental systems are being tested against cyber threats?

The hearing today is to receive testimony on the 2020 budget request for missile defense and to discuss the implementation of the 2019 Missile Defense Review.

I thank the ranking member.

Mr. Hamilton, in your testimony you noted that the four waste drums at the Idaho Advanced Retrieval Project which exploded were a 'near miss,' and that there was 'some degree of luck that nobody was there to get hurt.'

The MOX facility cancellation and subsequent repurposing for plutonium pit production has been done without a competitive bid process.

I have rarely heard of a competitive bid situation in which one bidder is twice as expensive as the other bidder, and yet there is such enthusiasm for bidding--awarding the bid to the by far, the highest bidder.

So I would find it more useful for the subcommittee for all the members to try to make a decision on that instead of being forced into a decision.

As I was saying, this is 2019, we should be able to get this right.

I think the public wants to see the best that we can possibly do is the best that can be done by human beings.

We are here to do the best possible job for the taxpayer and when it involves nuclear, that usually means zero defects.

Our taxpayers back home are concerned about their life cycle, and we are spending a lot of their money, sometimes for very little result.

I would find it more useful for the subcommittee for all the members to try to make a decision on that instead of being forced into a decision.

It seems like this decision is really not being presented to Congress as a decision, but more as a fait accompli.

I believe our military has the capability to walk and chew gum at the same time. I think we can handle multiple priorities simultaneously and do them right and do them well.

Sir, can I add just in a few seconds, of all of the work we have ahead of us, the most important work we do right now is stand up the new combatant commander, because that normalizes the business of warfighting going forward.

The subcommittee will come to order.

I would like to ask our unusual unanimous consent so that members of the full committee, like Mr. Lamborn, are also able to participate in the subcommittee questioning.

I would like to ask unanimous consent that opening statements be inserted for the record.

I think the only major topic that hasn't been touched on is the space force.

There are few more important topics than this for this Congress, so I appreciate your weighing in.

If New START expires without an imminent replacement treaty, the United States would face increased risks and uncertainties in its relationship with Russia.

I cannot see how we could counter with offense the Chinese buildup. And I don't think that is the way to go. I think the way to go is defense.

My final question is whether the State Department today is even staffed adequately to negotiate some of these new agreements.

Perhaps he could be persuaded to win a Nobel Prize by reducing nuclear weapons, because I think as Churchill said, we already have enough to make the rubble bounce.