House Armed Services Strategic Forces Subcommittee Chairman Mike Turner (OH-3) released the following statement regarding elements of our Strategic Forces upon Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta announcing the Department’s FY 2013 budget:
“When the New START treaty was ratified, it was part of a very clear bargain. The Administration promised that a specific and detailed nuclear weapons modernization plan would be implemented, and Senators consented to a unilateral reduction in U.S. nuclear forces because the remaining U.S. nuclear forces upon treaty implementation would be modernized.
“The Secretary’s announcement today is yet another indication that the President is backing off his part of the deal. Ultimately, this changes the circumstances for U.S. participation in the treaty under both Condition Nine of the New START Treaty Resolution of Ratification and language I offered in the National Defense Authorization Act for FY12. Following this announcement, I will look carefully at the President’s budget request for NNSA Weapons Activities, specifically the CMRR and UPF projects which the President pledged to accelerate. These two facilities are absolutely critical to the ability of the U.S. to maintain a credible and reliable deterrent, and they were an essential piece of the New START treaty bargain.
“I am also concerned about the Administration’s missile defense plans. For three years, the Administration has underfunded and diverted funding from national missile defense. With rising threats from Iran, North Korea, China and others, we cannot afford the risk created by the Administration’s irrational opposition to the missile defense of the United States. I hope the FY13 budget undoes more than three years of neglect of national missile defense.”
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