Washington, D.C. – Oregon’s U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley—co-chair of the Congressional Nuclear Weapons and Arms Control Working Group and a senior member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee—released the following statement in response to public reports that President Trump ordered the repositioning of two U.S. nuclear submarines:
“The President’s provocative nuclear saber-rattling plays into the Kremlin’s escalation playbook and heightens the risk of global conflict. Trump’s cavalier attitude toward the threat of war is further evidence that he cannot be trusted with America’s nuclear arsenal. The Trump Administration also continues to waste billions of our tax dollars on nuclear modernization programs with limited oversight and accountability.
“While 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’t 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’t need: the nuclear-armed sea-launched cruise missile, or SLCM-N. The Congressional Budget Office estimates it would cost taxpayers at least $10 billion—a reckless and unnecessary project.
“Presidents 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.”
###