Pete Sessions: “I have such respect for Senator Inouye and Senator Stevens, but I do want to mention a couple of things that are…”

“I have such respect for Senator Inouye and Senator Stevens, but I do want to mention a couple of things that are important for my colleagues. This is a high priority for our military leaders. They believe it is critical to have this capability. As former Secretary of Defense Harold Brown said, along with James Schlesinger: The detonation of a nuclear weapon in the United States by a terrorist group would be an unprecedented disaster. It is essential [essential] that Congress approve the funds for this program. Moreover, a small reprogramming action in the current fiscal year could accelerate the missiles' initial deployments. In a world in which terrorist groups may have access to nuclear weapons, it is imperative to give future U.S. presidents more options to prevent nuclear attacks. They go on in quite a long article and deal with this. My colleague, in talking about this, mentioned that: Well, this could be recklessly used. But any weapon we have could be recklessly used. Some have said President Clinton was not wise when he launched a cruise missile into the Sudan. I defended it when he did it. But he made that decision. He made that decision. That is a conventional weapon. The only difference, really, colleagues, in a conventional Trident launch and a cruise missile launch is it is quicker.…”