House Armed Services Committee Gone Wild
Apr 26, 2012
(Based on subcommittee mark-ups regarding Pentagon nuclear weapons and missile defense issues; full committee mark-up scheduled for May 9.)
Section 223—Missile Defense Site on the East Coast
Requires the Secretary of Defense to conduct an environmental impact statement by December 31, 2013, on possible locations on the East Coast for the deployment of a missile defense site. The section further requires a plan for an East Coast site to be operational not later than the end of 2015. The bill authorizes $100 million to be authorized only after this plan is submitted to Congress. Total cost: tens of billions of dollars.
Section 224—Ground-based Midcourse Defense System (system based in Alaska and California)
Authorizes $1.26 billion, an increase of $356 million despite the many problems with the existing program.
Section 225—Ground-Based Midcourse Defense Interceptor Test
Requires an intercept test, using an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) class target, of the ground-based midcourse defense system (GMD) by the end of calendar year 2013. The system has never been tested against an ICBM.
New Campaign to cut the nuclear weapons budget
Sep 29, 2011
Council for a Livable World, along with many allied organizations, is embarking on a new campaign to cut the nuclear weapons budget responsibly.
It is estimated that the United States will spend hundreds of billions of dollars to maintain and upgrade the U.S. nuclear arsenal over the next decade, including spending on new nuclear submarines, bombers, land-based missiles, nuclear facilities, and related nuclear activities.
While the objective of cutting this budget may have appeared implausible in the past, it is now both necessary and a realistic possibility. The budget deficit crunch is forcing Congress and the administration to take a fresh look at programs that were once considered inviolable.
A close examination of the Pentagon’s budget plans reveals numerous nuclear weapons programs that are more closely related to defeating the Soviet Union during the Cold War than to addressing current security threats such as terrorism.