Press

Click here to view the video 

WASHINGTON, D.C. – At today’s Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, U.S. Senator Deb Fischer (R-Neb.), a senior member of the committee and the chairman of the Subcommittee on Strategic Forces, heard testimony from Secretary of Defense Mark Esper and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley. During her questioning of the witnesses, she stressed the importance of funding the modernization of our nuclear deterrent as well as the need for robust defense funding overall.

Transcript of Senator Fischer’s discussion with Secretary Esper and General Milley:

Senator FischerThank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Secretary and General Milley, there’s been a lot of reporting about the reduction in funding for the Virginia-class submarine in connection with the NNSA’s budget increase. Critics of nuclear modernization are equating concern for the Navy’s shipbuilding plan with opposition to funding the NNSA and are using some recent comments made by Acting Secretary Modly and also you, General Milley, to suggest the DOD does not support the current budget request for NNSA. Now I share the concern for the Navy’s shipbuilding budget, and Congress will have the opportunity to look at that, but I know that you are both very strong supporters of nuclear modernization. And also Admiral Richard was before this committee when he was here several weeks ago, testifying that there was no excess margin in the NNSA’s budget. So I just want to be clear on this, do you both support the requested level of funding for nuclear modernization at the NNSA?


Secretary EsperSenator, I do and if you don’t mind I’ll give a little bit of explanation. I think it’s vitally critical that we re-capitalize our nuclear triad. That’s why we placed it as number one defense priority in terms of funding. That means not just the platforms, the B-21, the Ground Based Strategic Deterrent, and the Columbia-class submarine, but also nuclear command and control and a few others things like long-range strike. But we also have to have the packages, the warheads, et cetera, the plutonium pits to go with that. So it’s critical that those be funded and moved quickly forward so we can have them paired up in time to recapitalize and ensure the strategic deterrent is modern beginning by the year 2030.

Senator Fischer: And there’s no room for pausing any of the production?

Secretary Esper: There is no room or margin. I have been working with our folks at OSD and Admiral Richard to try and actually build margin into our current fleets so that we have some room but it’s critical we meet that timeline.

Senator Fischer: General Milley?

General Milley: I absolute support fully funding the nuclear enterprise, it’s the number one priority. It’s kept the peace, world peace, from great power of war, for going on seven and a half decades so I absolutely support that. I think what we’re talking about is the HASC testimony from last week, I was not involved in the decision to move the money from the SSN, but I fully support fully funding our nuclear enterprise.

Senator Fischer: Thank you, I think it’s important that the record reflect that. Mr. Secretary, Section 1039 of the 2013 NDAA requires the nuclear weapons counsel to certify NNSA’s budget and ensure it’s adequate to meet requirements. Conferees clearly stated in the accompanying report their expectation that through this provision the nuclear weapons council will “take an active role in shaping and reviewing the NNSA budget as it is prepared for submission to Congress and negotiated with the office of Management and Budget during the budget review process.” This year the certification letter submitted pursuant to this provision read “NNSA is unable to provide detailed budget information to support certification in advance of the budget release of the President’s fiscal year 2021 budget request by the Office of Management and Budget. The NWC cannot perform the analysis required to produce a budget certification letter without this information.” I think it is obvious that the process is not working, but what is your view of the situation and how can we resolve this to ensure the intent of the provision is being met?

Secretary Esper: Senator, I completely agree. I think we need to let the Nuclear Weapons Council work and looking at budgets needs to begin very, very early, arguably in the late summer of the year before. I would like to have a look at that as well. I want to make sure that we are prioritizing the right things so that we have a capable strategic deterrent. I think if that were the case then we would have been in a much different situation.  We’ve already gotten an agreement from the NNSA to do that, and DOE, and I got an agreement also from OMB to support us on that, so I think it is very important and we intend to implement that going forward.

Senator Fischer: Thank you. As you stated earlier this has to work together, it has to be in time in order to meet our number one priority of the NDS. Also, Mr. Secretary, in the time since the budget was released we’ve heard complaints, including many here in Congress, about things that either weren’t included or were perceived to be underfunded in this budget. Ships, aerial refueling tankers, Stars and Stripes, rumors about a withdrawal from Africa, the European Deterrence Initiative, the list goes on and on – you’ve heard those. What’s forgotten sometimes is that it is Congress that sets the funding level, not the administration. So, Mr. Secretary, is it fair to say that these trade-offs are a result of the lower top-line that was approved by Congress?

Secretary Esper: They are, Senator. I would still scrub my budget really hard year after year, regardless, because I think it’s necessary to do defense-wide reviews. But as the Chairman mentioned upfront, we have to get back on the trajectory of 3-5% annual real growth if we’re going to modernize the force and implement the NDS. I was shown a number a few days ago that if you go back to the Budget Control Act, I think it was August 2011, and the amount of funding we would have had if we hadn’t gone that course – it’s somewhere between 450 to 550 billion dollars lost that we could have put into modernization. That is the catch up we have to look at this point in time. 

 

Pursuant to Senate Policy, petitions, opinion polls and unsolicited mass electronic communications cannot be initiated by this office for the 60-day period immediately before the date of a primary or general election. Subscribers currently receiving electronic communications from this office who wish to unsubscribe may do so here.