Press

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Deb Fischer (R-Neb.), a senior member of the Senate Armed Services Committee and the chairman of the Subcommittee on Strategic Forces, released the following statement today after House Armed Services Chairman Adam Smith (D-Wash.) and U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) introduced legislation to prevent the U.S. from using nuclear weapons first in conflict:

Calculated ambiguity has long been an element of U.S. nuclear declaratory policy. Presidents from both parties, including the Obama administration, have rejected a no-first-use policy because it erodes deterrence, undermines allied confidence in U.S. security guarantees and risks emboldening potential adversariesWith Russia and China increasingly attempting to intimidate their neighbors – some of whom are U.S. allies – this is the wrong message to send. It betrays a naïve and disturbed world view. As the 2009 bipartisan Congressional Commission on the Strategic Posture of the United States stated: ‘Potential aggressors should have to worry about the possibility that the United States might respond by overwhelming means at a time and in a manner of its choosing."

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