March 17, 2014

REP. MARKEY INTRODUCES BILL TO CUT NUKE WEAPONS SPENDING

By ExchangeMonitor

Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) introduced a bill in the House yesterday that would cut more than $100 billion in spending over the next decade on the nation’s nuclear arsenal, weapons complex and delivery vehicles. Dubbed the SANE Act, short for the Smarter Approach to Nuclear Expenditures Act of 2012, the legislation takes specific aim at several of the National Nuclear Security Administration’s largest projects, calling for the cancellation of life extension programs for the B61 bomb and W78 warhead and an end to work on the Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement-Nuclear Facility, Uranium Processing Facility and Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility. It would also delay work on a new nuclear-capable submarine until 2023 and would limit the size of the nuclear submarine fleet to eight while delaying the development of a new bomber until 2023, canceling the nuclear mission of the B-2 and B-52 bombers and the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, and canceling the development of a new intercontinental ballistic missile.

The bill has 34 co-sponsors, but has little chance of gaining any traction in the Republican-led House. Markey, who has been an outspoken critic of the nation’s nuclear weapons spending, called the nation’s nuclear weapons budget “insane” and said it doesn’t reflect the country’s 21st century security needs in a floor statement yesterday. “It’s insane to spend $10 billion building new plants to make uranium and plutonium for new nuclear bombs when we’re cutting our nuclear arsenal and the plants we have now work just fine,” Markey said, referring to the CMRR-NF and UPF.

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