'That Is Dangerous And I Dare Say Dumb': Seth Moulton Slams Proposed Changes To Nuclear Policy

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During a House Armed Services Committee markup meeting before the Congressional recess, Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA) spoke about funding to the Space Force.

Transcript

00:00He recognizes a gentleman from Massachusetts, the ranking member of the Subcommittee on Strategic Forces.

00:06Mr. Moulton, for any comments he'd like to make.

00:08Thank you, Chairman Rogers.

00:09First, I would like to extend my gratitude to Chairman Desjardins and members on both sides of the aisle

00:15for continuing the long tradition of keeping this subcommittee mark largely bipartisan.

00:20Every day, the jurisdiction of this subcommittee is in the headlines.

00:23From the nuclear threats of war criminal Putin's criminal war in Ukraine, to echo my eloquent friend from South Carolina,

00:31to the ballistic missile testing by the Hermit Kingdom, North Korea,

00:35from the satellite images the world has seen of damage to Iranian nuclear sites,

00:40to the most stressful test yet of our integrated air and missile defense capabilities in the defense of Israel.

00:46And, of course, we see it in the rapid expansion of nuclear capabilities by the People's Republic of China.

00:54The world, sadly, continues to prove what I have long said, that this subcommittee's work,

01:00despite being wonky and esoteric, is the most existentially important in Congress.

01:06In space, we have seen unprecedented demonstrations of both Russian and Chinese capabilities

01:12that are specifically designed to degrade and destroy U.S. space assets.

01:18This mark pushes the Department to adopt and integrate commercial capabilities,

01:22our most asymmetric advantage in the space domain, into government systems,

01:27despite several decisions by the Trump administration to cut those areas,

01:31including resilient GPS and commercial imagery.

01:34While I firmly believe our world would be a better place without nuclear weapons,

01:39I also recognize present-day reality.

01:42They are a key component of strategic stability in today's environment.

01:46We must be smart and thoughtful about anything our adversaries do or we do to upset that strategic stability

01:55because our children's lives literally depend upon it.

01:59That means not suddenly changing 70 years of policy to adopt whims of the president

02:05because some members are literally just afraid to disagree with him.

02:08It also means being willing to disagree with the doves or isolationists in our own parties

02:14who would undermine our modernization efforts,

02:17especially when those efforts make us safer and, in the long run, save taxpayer dollars.

02:23We have never faced two near-peer nuclear-armed competitors,

02:27and we need to develop a serious, cogent strategy to effectively deter them

02:33that can withstand the intellectual pressures of debate,

02:36not sweep those debates under the table.

02:39Every previous administration, Democratic and Republican,

02:43to include the first Trump administration,

02:46has understood that nuclear deterrence is essential to preventing nuclear war.

02:51This should be obvious.

02:52But now this president is trying to rewrite U.S. policy to imply

02:57that we would try to defeat, not deter, a large-scale nuclear attack.

03:03I am more than happy to entertain this debate

03:06and have even thrown my colleagues a few bones

03:08that they have not generated themselves to support this potential argument.

03:12Yet we still have yet to hear why we were apparently, all of us, all wrong

03:18the day before Trump said that he liked Israel's idea

03:23and wanted the golden version of it.

03:26We have not heard that rationale.

03:28We do not have a plan to implement it, any plan.

03:31And yet we are throwing upwards of $25 billion in taxpayer money

03:37to the wind, or more accurately, into space.

03:40That is dangerous, and I dare say, dumb.

03:43With this one significant and obviously political, not logical or scientific, exception,

03:51this mark is the result of the months-long bipartisan process

03:55to keep our long-standing tradition of producing an annual defense authorization bill.

04:01And it largely represents consistency and continuity.

04:05Finally, I would like to take this opportunity to give a sincere thanks

04:09to our subcommittee staff, Whitney Verrett, Maria Vestola, Peter Serchinger, Austin Richards,

04:16and to my personal staff, Caroline Jones, and our Navy fellow, Commander Josh Saunders.

04:20Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and I yield back.

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