Cynthia Lummis: “Today, I rise in support of the Lummis-Zinke-Cramer-Smith amendment: to prohibit the unilateral decrease of the alert…”

“Today, I rise in support of the Lummis-Zinke-Cramer-Smith amendment: to prohibit the unilateral decrease of the alert status of our Nation's ICBM force. Nuclear deterrence is based on the fundamental belief that a nuclear attack on the United States would cause us to retaliate. Reducing the alert status would change the time needed to retaliate from as few as 30 minutes to 3 days. This makes it much easier for an enemy to strike first, wiping out the U.S. nuclear force before it can retaliate. For this reason, Mr. Chairman, I urge the adoption of the amendment. I now yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Montana (Mr. Zinke), my colleague and a member of the Armed Services Committee.”