House Appropriators, Nuclear Budget Cutters

On the radar: Bill trims $193 million from nuclear request; Colin Powell talks candidly on nukes; Pentagon : Missile Defense :: Cubs Fans : World Series; Kaptur on blocking reductions; Smugglers go airborne; and Why states won’t give the bomb to terrorists.

July 12, 2013 | Edited by Benjamin Loehrke

House cuts nuclear budget - “As has been the case since FY 2011, the House Appropriations Committee reduced the administration's budget request for nuclear weapons programs, this time by $193 million below the FY 2014 budget request.

--”While many Republican Members of Congress blame the Obama administration for not making good on its nuclear spending commitments, the reality is that House Republican appropriators continue to reduce the NNSA nuclear weapons budget below the administration's request,” writes Kingston Reif.

--The House Energy and Water Appropriations bill was approved this week on a 227-198 vote, with all but 8 Democrats voting against it. Full analysis of the bill and amendments to it at Nukes of Hazard. http://bit.ly/10R7oiD

Powell on nukes - “We're making the case that we can deter, at much lower levels. And that's what the president did with his New START Treaty. It's what I did when I was secretary, with a new treaty, the Moscow Treaty; and it's why the president wants to start negotiations again with the Russians. But, what I've always said, in the last 10 years or so, is that we can reduce nuclear weapons without having a negotiation!” said Colin Powell in an interview with Asahi Shimbun.

--After describing nuclear weapons as “militarily useless,” Powell notes that the U.S. has gotten rid of thousands of nuclear weapons since he served as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. “I hope the examples that we have given to the world of reducing stockpiles, will convince the world that we are heading to lower numbers, and maybe the day when there are none.” http://bit.ly/1b6DGvy

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Slump - After the latest failed missile defense experiment, “folks at the Missile Defense Agency probably are feeling like a team that’s in a bit of a slump these days,” writes Al Kamen in The Washington Post.

--Low blow: “Just because the Nats haven’t won a World Series since 1924 you never stopped wearing their cap, did you? Even Cubs fans...” http://wapo.st/18b8wzK

Cubs fans? - “We believe it is imperative that the Missile Defense Agency conduct, as soon as practicable, a new intercept test of the CE-1 Enhanced Kill Vehicle GBI,” write Republican House and Senate Armed Services Committee leaders Sens. James Inhofe (OK) and Jeff Sessions (AL) with Reps. Buck McKeon (CA) and Mike Rogers (AL) in a letter to Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel. (pdf) http://1.usa.gov/18b9Kej

Quote - “Blocking nuclear weapons reduction is out of step with post-Cold War and post-9/11 security environment. Secretary Schultz, Secretary Kissinger, Secretary Nunn, and Secretary Perry all have encouraged further nuclear weapons reductions,” said Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-OH) in a floor statement opposing an amendment from Rep. Michael Turner (R-OH) that would “impinge on the President’s ability to set U.S. nuclear weapons policy.” Statement here. http://bit.ly/12lFZ65

Smugglers take off - “Effective global policing to interdict weapons of mass destruction-related components being shipped on the high seas is forcing would-be proliferators to increasingly smuggle contraband by air, which offers faster and more permissive transport,” writes Rachel Oswald for Global Security Newswire. http://bit.ly/138y4I1

Tweet - @wellerstein: The new NUKEMAP debuts a week from today. Tell your friends. Hide your children. A preview: http://bit.ly/1agUAor

Article - Many readers’ principal takeaway from a recent article in International Security by James Sebenius and Michael Singh “will be that a zone of possible agreement [with Iran] probably did not exist as of time of their writing and probably will not exist unless the United States takes steps toward going to war with Iran. That answer, however, given the questionable assumptions on which it is based, is very likely wrong,” writes Paul Pillar in a response to the article. Full piece here. (paywall) http://bit.ly/16xCg6x

Article - ”Why States Won't Give Nuclear Weapons to Terrorists” by Keir Lieber and Daryl Press in International Security. (paywall) http://bit.ly/12lEHYK

--Abstract: “tracing a terrorist group that used a nuclear weapon to its state sponsor would not be difficult, because few countries sponsor terror; few terror groups have multiple sponsors; and only one country that sponsors terrorism, Pakistan, has nuclear weapons or enough material to manufacture them. If leaders understand these facts, they will be as reluctant to give weapons to terrorists as they are to use them directly; both actions would invite devastating retaliation.”

Events:

--"Generation Prague: Building a Strategy of Peace.” Keynote speaker, Secretary Ernie Moniz. July 16-17. Details here. http://ow.ly/mL24r

--68th Anniversary of the Trinity nuclear test. July 16th.