Representatives Look to Cut Waste from B61 Bomb

On the radar: Cutting the increase; Missile defenses still not working; Air-Sea goes nuclear; Guam likes hardware; Secretary blogs; UPF slips; and Tweeting the bomb.

July 10, 2013 | Edited by Benjamin Loehrke

B61 amendment - Representatives Mike Quigley (IL-05) and Jared Polis (CO-2) moved to cut $23.7 million in unnecessary spending on the B61 nuclear bomb program by offering an amendment to the FY14 Energy & Water Appropriations Bill.

--Rep. Quigley: “This amendment is a tiny, thoughtful cut to an outsized nuclear budget for weapons that do little to keep us safe. I hope my colleagues will join me in cutting funds NOT requested by the Department of Energy for nuclear upgrades NOT needed.” Press release and floor statement here. http://1.usa.gov/1abfogZ

Video - Floor discussion on the Quigley-Polis amendment to trim funds for the B61. http://1.usa.gov/12E1qz2

Tweet - @POGOBlog: INFOGRAPHIC: A Multi-Billion Dollar Bomb We Don't Need #SolidGoldNuke #defense http://bit.ly/13MPHDt

History of failure - “Your $170-Billion Missile Defenses Don’t Work: Don’t tell me you’re surprised” by Robert Beckhusen in War is Boring. http://bit.ly/1aZDyy6

Test record - The ground based midcourse defense system failed yet another test intercept last Friday, making it 3 for 10 over the last decade. “Clearly the GMD system is something the U.S. military, and the American people, cannot depend upon,” said former Pentagon chief weapons tester Phil Coyle.

--”The idea of deploying 14 more of these same flawed interceptors at Fort Greely in Alaska would be throwing good money after bad. And building yet another missile defense site on the U.S. East Coast and deploying more of these same flawed interceptors there would take U.S. taxpayers to the cleaners again,” said Coyle. Full quotes at Nukes of Hazard. http://bit.ly/15wkDa7

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Tweet - @John_Hudson: every country's entire military budget vs. the B61 bomb program. http://t.co/saWNwkJht8

Deep thinking - The Air-Sea Battle concept is an ambiguous Pentagon framing device for organizing the military after Afghanistan. Originally, it focused on how to address China in the Pacific with conventional forces, but now it’s evolving. One military planner told Breaking Defense, “when the concept was written, we put a boundary on it and we said, ‘hey, we’re not going to address nuclear weapons.’” Said another officer. “Since then we’ve realized, ‘hey, we do need to deal with nuclear operations.’” Full story here. http://bit.ly/1abieCL

The Guam lobby - “Guam Legislators Want Missile Defenses Made Permanent” by Rachel Oswald for Global Security Newswire. http://bit.ly/16r1qUi

Slipping - The construction schedule for the Uranium Processing Facility in Tennessee has slipped by several years due to a botched original design that would not fit all the necessary equipment in the building. NNSA confirmed the slip to Frank Munger at the Knoxville News Sentinel. http://bit.ly/12YTagb

Secretary’s first (?) blog - “Moving Toward a Peaceful Nuclear Future” by Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz at Energy.gov. http://1.usa.gov/18NfopN

Realizing Berlin - “In supporting further cuts in deployed strategic nuclear weapons, President Obama is acting on a bipartisan consensus that U.S. nuclear strategy remains based on a confrontation with the Soviet Union that no longer exists. Further reductions with Russia would increase U.S. security by reducing the number of nuclear weapons that can be pointed at US cities almost instantaneously,” writes Lt. Gen. Robert Gard (UEA, Ret.) in The Huffington Post.

--”If the provisions of the Berlin agenda are realized, the U.S. will be one step closer to a future without the threat of nuclear terrorism or annihilation. As Obama said, "As long as nuclear weapons exist, we are not truly safe" -- that's something upon which J.F.K., Reagan, Bush and Obama have agreed.” http://huff.to/13MHDT8

Tweet - @peterwsinger: A Floating Nuclear Power Plant...from the Bad Idea Jeans files. via @noetic_group http://bit.ly/1bnYu0o

Article - “Five Options for Iran’s New President” by Seyed Hossein Mousavian in The Cairo Review of Global Affairs. http://bit.ly/186PCtM

Tweet - @bombshelltoe: Nonpro lovers & movie aficionados should congregate for DR. STRANGELOVE drive-in theater in DC this Friday 7/12 @9 PM http://bit.ly/10MSnym

Speed reads -

--”Hagel: Israel, U.S. see same threat from Iran” by Tom Vanden Brook for USA Today. http://usat.ly/16qMxkO

--”Still Preparing for Nuclear War: The U.S. Government Continues the Policies of the Past” by Lawrence Wittner in The Huffington Post. http://huff.to/1apzY0T

Events:

--"Institutional Roadblocks to Deterrence Stability in South Asia." Polly Nayak, and Lt. Gen. Vinay Shankar. July 11, 12:30-2:00 PM @ Stimson Center. Details here. http://ow.ly/mL1lg

--”Avoiding Apocalypse: Searching for Peace with North Korea” with Bill Richardson and Jon Williams at the Asia Society, New York. July 11 from 6:00-7:30 pm. Webcast here. http://bit.ly/1bo0CVY

--"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.

Dessert:

Viral diplomacy - Last September, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sketched a red line across a cartoonish bomb to make a statement on Iran policy. “Netanyahu’s presentation, with its accompanying visual prop, was perfectly suited for the Twitterverse,” writes Kristine Bergstom.

--Full article: “Tweeting the Bomb: Netanyahu and the New Public Diplomacy” by Kristine Bergstrom for the Carnegie Endowment. http://bit.ly/12hEs0G