Washington, D.C. \u2013 Oregon\u2019s U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley\u2014co-chair of the Congressional Nuclear Weapons and Arms Control Working Group and a senior member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee\u2014released the following statement in response to public reports that President Trump ordered the repositioning of two U.S. nuclear submarines:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\u201cThe President\u2019s provocative nuclear saber-rattling plays into the Kremlin\u2019s escalation playbook and heightens the risk of global conflict. Trump\u2019s cavalier attitude toward the threat of war is further evidence that he cannot be trusted with America\u2019s nuclear arsenal. The Trump Administration also continues to waste billions of our tax dollars on nuclear modernization programs with limited oversight and accountability.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
\n\u201cWhile the world has changed significantly since I was a nuclear weapons policy analyst at the Pentagon and the Congressional Budget Office, one thing that hasn\u2019t is the soaring costs of our nuclear arsenal. Congress must rein in out-of-control spending on these systems, starting with a weapon we don\u2019t need: the nuclear-armed sea-launched cruise missile, or SLCM-N. The Congressional Budget Office estimates it would cost taxpayers at least $10 billion\u2014a reckless and unnecessary project.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
\n\u201cPresidents from both parties retired this capability decades ago. Instead of reviving it, we should responsibly invest our tax dollars in priorities that actually strengthen American security, such as supporting our service members and ensuring we can stand with our allies in the face of aggression from China and Russia.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
###<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Washington, D.C. \u2013 Oregon\u2019s U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley\u2014co-chair of the Congressional Nuclear Weapons and Arms Control Working Group and a senior member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee\u2014released the following statement in response to public reports that President Trump ordered the repositioning of two U.S. nuclear submarines: \u201cThe President\u2019s provocative nuclear saber-rattling plays into the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":18847,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[38],"class_list":["post-22875","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-press-releases","tag-foreign-policy-and-national-security"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
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