[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 22 (Wednesday, February 5, 2014)]
[House]
[Page H1597]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    NUCLEAR WEAPONS PROGRAM SCANDAL

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Oregon (Mr. Blumenauer) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BLUMENAUER. Mr. Speaker, before turning to the subject at hand, I 
really hope that people look at the CBO report that was referenced by 
my good friend from Pennsylvania, and you will find that the 2 million 
people who would no longer be working, are not going to increase 
unemployment. The unemployment rate will be lower. There are people who 
are trapped in the workforce now because they can't afford health care. 
The Affordable Care Act will actually enable some people to retire who 
want to retire or stop working a second job. Read the report and find 
out that this is actually a very positive signal.
  But, Mr. Speaker, I am here today to reference something else that 
was in the newspapers. The papers are filled with scandal about the 
nuclear weapons program. The real scandal is not the cheating or drug 
use by people with their finger on the nuclear button. The scandal is 
that these people are there on the job at all, with these nuclear 
weapons; jobs and nuclear weapons that should no longer exist.
  Don't get me wrong. The alleged drug use by the people who stand 
watch daily with a finger on the nuclear trigger, or that were cheating 
on their proficiency exams, is outrageous, but it is scandalous that we 
are frozen in time linked to a nuclear Cold War past and committed to 
wildly wasteful spending.
  These are weapons that have never been used in 69 years, that did not 
deter the 9/11 attackers, and cannot help us in our major strategic 
challenges today. They have never been used in battle since World War 
II, but they have almost been used by miscalculation and mistake.
  In Eric Schlosser's recent book called ``Command and Control,'' there 
are terrifying examples of what were termed ``broken arrows,'' nuclear 
mishaps.
  A nuclear bomb was accidentally released over South Carolina, landing 
in Walter Greg's backyard, leaving a 75-foot wide, 30-foot crater, 
leveling his home. Luckily, it failed to trigger the nuclear explosion.
  In North Carolina, a B-52 fell into a tailspin carrying two hydrogen 
bombs, each 250 times more powerful than Hiroshima.
  There were numerous instances when our bomber fleet, which used to be 
on the runway idling, on alert 24/7, was prone to catching on fire 
while packed with nuclear bombs.
  A few years ago, there was a B-52 which flew across the country 
unknowingly carrying six nuclear-armed air-launched missiles.
  By no stretch of the imagination, do we need these 450 
intercontinental ballistic missiles on alert, plus nuclear armed 
bombers, all on top of our nuclear submarine-based missiles? We don't 
need a fraction of this weaponry. At most, we need perhaps one scaled-
down system. There is nobody left to deter. We are competing in Russia 
in the Winter Olympics right now.
  A small portion of one of these delivery systems is all the nuclear 
deterrence we could ever possibly need. The larger and more complex the 
infrastructure is not just more expensive, but more prone to mistake.
  We are talking about upwards of $700 billion over the next 10 years 
in operations, modernization, new systems, new nuclear submarines. It 
is outrageous. It is dangerous. Let me put that in context. $750 
billion is more than the Federal Government will spend on education in 
its entirety in the next 5 years.
  It is time for Congress and the American people to put an end to 
this.

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