John Culberson: “I want to rise in strong support of this amendment, and I thank my colleague from Georgia for working with us and making…”

“I want to rise in strong support of this amendment, and I thank my colleague from Georgia for working with us and making sure that we get this done. We are long overdue for an antiballistic missile site in the continental United States, here on the east coast in particular. My good friend from Ohio (Mr. Turner) is absolutely right. We face an increased threat environment. That is putting it mildly. The North Koreans, who are still at war with us--we are only under an armistice in North Korea. The North Koreans have demonstrated that they actually have a nuclear weapon in hand. Visual satellite observers--I am an amateur astronomer, and as a member of a group of amateur observers of artificial satellites, one of the members of our network actually observed and tracked the North Korean intercontinental ballistic missile overflying the United States December 12 of 2012. {time} 1445 That is the first time the North Koreans had demonstrated the ability to actually fly an intercontinental ballistic missile payload over the United States. That missile flew over Pensacola, Florida, Mr. Chairman. It came up from the south and flew over the southeastern United States and exited the United States over Michigan. So the North Koreans have already demonstrated they have got the ability to deliver a nuclear weapon to the United States. So it is imperative that we move immediately to design and build an antiballistic missile site on the east coast of the United States.…”