To refresh your memory, Republicans on the House Armed Services Committee have for the past two years attempted to force the Pentagon to spend money that it doesn’t have – to begin building a long-range missile defense site on the East Coast that it doesn’t want – to buttress US defenses against a long-range missile threat from Iran that doesn’t exist.
Blown Opportunity: The Folly of Exempting Nuclear Weapons from Sequestration
Are nuclear weapons expensive? Should they be exempt from sequestration? According to the Pentagon, the answers to these questions are “No” and “Yes”.
Senate Defense Appropriators Slash DoD Request for Budget Busting B61 Bomb
The proposed life extension program for the B61 nuclear gravity bomb – the most expensive warhead refurbishment in history – is in trouble. Big trouble.
Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation Responses to Strategic Choices and Management Review
“The completion of the Strategic Choices Management Review by the Pentagon is a positive sign that the Department is taking seriously the reality of sequestration,” said Laicie Heeley, Director of Defense Policy at the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation. “The Secretary and Vice Chairman have spelled out future options showing that smart and strategic reductions in Pentagon spending can, in fact, enhance national security.”
House floor action on the FY 2014 Defense Appropriations bill
The House of Representatives yesterday approved the FY 2014 Defense Appropriations bill (H.R. 2397) by a vote of 315-109. The big headliner was the debate and vote on an amendment to the bill offered by Rep. Justin Amash (R-MI) and Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) to curtail the National Security Agency’s surveillance activities. The amendment failed 205-217 in an extremely close vote that saw both parties split almost evenly and hold an unusually excellent debate.
