Today, Rep. Mike Rogers (R-AL), Chairman of the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Strategic Forces, made the following remarks, as prepared for delivery, on the Subcommittee's hearing titled "Fiscal Year 2019 Budget Request for Nuclear Forces and Atomic Energy Defense Activities." For testimony and to watch the hearing click here.
"Welcome to our hearing on the 'Fiscal Year 2019 Budget Request for Nuclear Forces and Atomic Energy Defense Activities.'
Thank you to witnesses for being here today and for your service to the Nation. And for your time preparing for this hearing—we greatly appreciate it.
As usual, we have a full witness panel today. Due to limited time, we're going to cover the waterfront on DOD's nuclear forces and all of the defense-related activities at the Department of Energy. Our witnesses are:
• The Honorable John Rood
Under Secretary of Defense for Policy
Department of Defense
General Robin Rand
Commander
Air Force Global Strike Command
Vice Admiral Terry Benedict
Director
Navy Strategic Systems Program
The Honorable Lisa Gordon-Hagerty
Administrator and Under Secretary for Nuclear Security
National Nuclear Security Administration
Mr. James Owendoff
Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Energy for Environmental Management
Department of Energy
Two months ago, the Armed Services Committee held a hearing in this room with Secretary of Defense Mattis on the National Defense Strategy and Nuclear Posture Review (NPR). The Secretary gave us a sobering assessment of the nuclear threat environment and reflected that:
'We must look reality in the eye and see the world as it is, not as we wish it to be.'
I am pleased to see that the 2018 NPR does exactly that.
But back in 2010, the Obama Administration's NPR said—with misplaced hope—that 'Russia is not an enemy and is increasingly a partner.' Anyone who watches the news knows this is not the case today—if it ever was.
We were reminded of reality just three weeks ago, when President Putin announced that Russia is developing and fielding four new—and horrific—nuclear weapons. This includes a nuclear-powered cruise missile of essentially-infinite range and a nuclear-powered underwater drone with an enormous, salt-the-earth nuclear payload.
These Russian nuclear weapons have been in development for decades. Former Secretary of Defense Carter has pointed out that a nuclear arms race between the U.S. and Russia has been going on 'for two decades now…but the U.S. has not been running the race.'
Despite U.S. efforts to reduce both the number of nuclear weapons and their role in our defense strategy, Russia, China, and North Korea have gone in the opposite direction. Despite a U.S. policy to refrain from developing new nuclear capabilities, these countries are sprinting the other way.
Secretary Mattis' new NPR takes stock of this situation and prudently endorses the nuclear triad modernization program initiated by President Obama. This will recapitalize our existing systems—an effort that was put off for far too long.
The NPR also wisely proposes two capabilities to supplement the program of record. These capabilities will ensure deterrence of adversaries and assurance of allies remains strong. They deserve the full support of this committee and Congress.
Finally, let me highlight three issues that this committee has spent considerable time on and that I'm happy to see discussed at length in the NPR:
(1) the nuclear command, control, and communications (NC3) system, which is old but reliable and must be modernized;
(2) the infrastructure within NNSA that is literally falling apart and needs considerable attention and resources; and
(3) the people in uniform and civilian clothes, across DOD and NNSA, that form the backbone of our deterrent.
Nuclear deterrence is our #1 priority defense mission. Forces, warheads, NC3, people, and infrastructure—it's all a part of the deterrent. It's time to buckle down and get after all of it."
