00:01Chair now recognizes a gentleman from California, Mr. Garimendi.
00:05Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you for your opening statement, your concerns about Ukraine and the budget issues.
00:12Mr. Secretary, in your opening statement, you spoke to the issue of cutting waste and abuse at the Pentagon.
00:18I assume you intend to do that. Is that correct? Yes? No?
00:23No, we have done that, sir.
00:25All right. And therefore, it must be your responsibility.
00:28I want to bring to your attention a statement that the president made in early February.
00:34He said, there is no reason for us to be building brand new nuclear weapons.
00:38We already have so many.
00:40You could destroy the world 50 times over, 100 times over, and here we are building new nuclear weapons.
00:46And they're building new nuclear weapons.
00:48We're all spending a lot of money that we could spend on other things that are actually, hopefully, much more productive.
00:55So I'd like to focus for a few moments on one of the most expensive programs at the Department of Defense,
01:02the Sentinel ICBM, which is to replace the Minuteman III.
01:08The cost of this program has exploded from $78 billion to over $141 billion,
01:13not including a new nuclear bomb for the Sentinel and the command and control systems,
01:19which would add somewhere $20 to $40 billion.
01:23All the while, we have a Minuteman III that can continue to provide the ground leg of the triad
01:29for at least 10 to 15 more years, should we cut the Sentinel program.
01:35Well, President Trump is correct to point out that proliferation is very dangerous.
01:42But he has also, in his budget, ensured we fully fund the nuclear triad, every aspect of it, in a historic way.
01:49The Sentinel, as one leg of it, and that modernization is critically important.
01:53As you know, it faces a Nunn-McCurdy breach for being behind, and as a result, it has to be reviewed.
01:59But it's incredibly important, and so our budget does look at ensuring to...
02:04Excuse me, sir.
02:05So you have made a decision to continue, even though the review is incomplete?
02:09The review is ongoing.
02:10The investments we've made allow us to continue, should the review come out the way we hope it does.
02:15The answer is you've continued to continue the Sentinel program, even though the Nunn-McCurdy review is incomplete.
02:21I'd like now to move over to Ukraine.
02:24The chairman of this committee spoke very strongly about the Ukraine situation and the necessity of the United States being strong in support of Ukraine.
02:37It's very, very clear that a review of what Mr. Putin has said over the last two decades, that he is determined to reestablish the Soviet Empire.
02:48And Ukraine is the current step to achieve that.
02:52Ukraine's security is our security, my view, and what is dangerous for Ukraine will be dangerous for NATO, and therefore dangerous to the United States.
03:02Yesterday, two days ago, in response to Senator McConnell, who asked,
03:09which side of the Ukraine conflict do you want to win?
03:13And you said, the president is committed to peace in that conflict.
03:19Ultimately, peace serves our national interest.
03:22And we think it serves the interest of both parties, even though that outcome will not be preferable to many in this room, at that time the Senate,
03:32and I would also say this room, too, preferable to many in this room and many in our countries.
03:39Mr. Secretary, when you said that peace serves our national interest, does that peace come from a complete surrender of Ukraine and total victory for Russia?
03:55That's never been a characterization of my statement, sir.
04:01We think peace is in the best interest, but I would point out, you know, Ukraine is not the U.S., and Ukraine is not in NATO.
04:07And to draw that comparison is to draw one that is not correct.
04:11But we hope for peace.
04:13We believe peace is in the best interest of the United States of America, and our policies are pointing toward that.
04:18Well, let me go back to what I asked you.
04:22Is that peace, could the achievement of that peace through the complete surrender of Ukraine and the withdrawal of U.S. support for Ukraine,
04:35is that a worthy peace, and is that peace in the long-term and actually the short-term interest of the United States?
04:45If you look at the billions of dollars that have been invested in Ukraine,
04:49you could hardly characterize that as a surrender from the United States.
04:53So the existing military front line of troops is, as difficult as it is, moving slowly.
05:00Where peace ends at the end of that, nobody really knows.
05:03But the President has worked harder than anybody else to try to get a peaceful outcome.
05:07The gentleman's time has expired, Chair, and I recognize the gentleman from Virginia, Mr. Whitman.
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