{"id":15710,"date":"2018-06-06T18:02:40","date_gmt":"2018-06-06T18:02:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2018\/06\/06\/partisan-battle-for-new-tactical-nuke-looms-in-senate\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T21:33:43","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T21:33:43","slug":"partisan-battle-for-new-tactical-nuke-looms-in-senate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/congress\/2018\/06\/06\/partisan-battle-for-new-tactical-nuke-looms-in-senate\/","title":{"rendered":"Partisan battle for new tactical nuke looms in Senate"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">WASHINGTON \u2014 Democrats want to take their <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/congress\/2018\/06\/01\/new-nuclear-warhead-still-under-fire-from-democrats\/\" title=\"\" class=\"\" target=\"_blank\">fight<\/a> against the Trump administration\u2019s planned a new <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/smr\/nuclear-triad\/2018\/04\/17\/trump-administration-repurposes-65-million-for-new-nuclear-warhead-design\/\" title=\"\" class=\"\" target=\"_blank\">low-yield tactical nuclear weapon<\/a> to the Senate\u2018s annual defense policy bill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It\u2019s the latest flashpoint in a partisan divide over whether to pursue a new, tactical submarine-launched nuclear missile. The Pentagon and others <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/smr\/nuclear-arsenal\/2018\/03\/20\/stratcom-head-to-deter-russia-us-needs-new-low-yield-nukes\/\" title=\"\" class=\"\" target=\"_blank\">advocate<\/a> for the systems to deter Russia from using its own arsenal of low-yield nuclear weapons, but <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/smr\/nuclear-triad\/2018\/05\/23\/former-defense-officials-beg-congress-not-to-fund-new-nuclear-warhead\/\" title=\"\" class=\"\" target=\"_blank\">opponents<\/a> see it as lowering the threshold for a nuclear war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Senate Armed Services Committee began debate on its $716 billion annual defense policy bill Wednesday, which contains a provision removing restrictions on the U.S. development or deployment of such a weapon without congressional authorization. The bill would grant the energy secretary new authority to carry out the weapon\u2019s energy development phase, or any subsequent phase, without Congress\u2019 specific approval.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Democrats plan to offer an amendment to preserve congressional oversight, Senate Armed Services Committee ranking member Jack Reed, D-R.I., said in a floor speech Wednesday. Reed is among lawmakers who crafted the restrictions in 2003.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI have spent countless hours [on the issue], and I\u2019m not alone,\u201d Reed said. \u201cMy colleagues on the committee and many members of this Senate have spent hours thinking about the issues that are caused by these proposals. I\u2019m concerned that we have not fully grasped all the complex implications. Indeed, there is an honest disagreement among experts in the field on this issue.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cGiven the policy ramifications of development and deployment of low-yield nuclear weapons and any type of nuclear weapon, I believe that Congress should be involved every step of the way,\u201d Reed said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Reed\u2019s House counterpart, House Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam Smith, D-Wash., has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/congress\/2018\/05\/10\/dems-target-low-yield-nukes-but-hasc-approves-trump-plans-on-party-lines\/\" title=\"\" class=\"selected-link\" target=\"_blank\" data-original-title=\"\" aria-describedby=\"popover404835\">voiced outright opposition<\/a> to the weapons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The 1,140-page 2019 National Defense Authorization Act, which still faces months of congressional debate before becoming law, tackles a broad range of policy and budgetary matters, including troop pay, weapons procurement and bureaucratic reforms. It must be reconciled with its analogue in the House, where Republicans <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/congress\/2018\/05\/23\/house-rejects-limit-on-new-nuclear-warhead\/\" title=\"\" class=\"\" target=\"_blank\">parried<\/a> other Democratic <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/congress\/2018\/05\/22\/democrats-fight-pentagon-push-for-battlefield-nukes\/\" title=\"\" class=\"\" target=\"_blank\">attempts<\/a> to scuttle the weapon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The panel\u2019s No. 2 Republican, Sen. Jim Inhofe \u2014 who is stewarding the bill while SASC Chairman John McCain, R-Ariz., battles cancer at home \u2014 seemed to support the idea of a floor debate on the matter as the chamber takes up amendments to the bill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI know there will be some controversy,\u201d Inhofe said in his floor speech. \u201cThe ranking member and I don\u2019t agree on everything, and this is one area that we probably don\u2019t agree on. We want to have amendments and open debate, and that\u2019s what we\u2019re going to have.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">SASC Airland Subcommittee Chairman Tom Cotton, R-Ark., authored the bill\u2019s language, and he appeared to be ready for debate this week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIt\u2019s troubling that Democrats want to play politics with our national security, but we simply can\u2019t afford to let our adversaries around the world have the competitive edge when it comes to nuclear weapons,\u201d Cotton communications director Caroline Tabler said in an email Tuesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the opposing corner is senior Democratic appropriator Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who has said she is troubled by the Trump administration\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/space\/2018\/02\/02\/nuclear-posture-review-puts-russia-firmly-in-crosshairs\/\" title=\"\" class=\"\" target=\"_blank\">Nuclear Posture Review<\/a> and its call for a new weapon. On Tuesday, she alerted colleagues to the Cotton amendment, reading it at the Democratic Caucus lunch meeting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">She has expressed objection to a Cabinet-level secretary being able to initiate the advanced engineering a new nuclear weapon without Congress\u2019 specific approval.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe amendment, I think, is very dangerous,\u201d she said Wednesday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Where will the next skirmish over the Trump administration\u2019s plans for a new nuclear weapon go down? Find out before it happens.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":29251,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":8,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":{"2":{"categories":["pentagon-congress","news","ebb"],"primary_category":"pentagon-congress"},"4":{"categories":["pentagon-congress","news","daily-news-roundup","newsletters"],"primary_category":"pentagon-congress"},"5":{"categories":["pentagon-congress","news","daily-news-roundup","newsletters"],"primary_category":"pentagon-congress"},"6":{"categories":["pentagon-congress","news","daily-news-roundup","newsletters"],"primary_category":"pentagon-congress"},"7":{"categories":["pentagon-congress","news","daily-news-roundup","newsletters"],"primary_category":"pentagon-congress"}}},"categories":[8,160,36,124,125,30],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3446],"class_list":["post-15710","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-congress","category-daily-news-roundup","category-newsletters","category-nuclear-arsenal","category-nuclear-triad","category-smr"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"S4LQ37STUJGRRJIU3XHTYQPQFA","arc_canonical_url":"\/congress\/2018\/06\/06\/partisan-battle-for-new-tactical-nuke-looms-in-senate\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.0 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Partisan battle for new tactical nuke looms in Senate - Defense News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Where will the next skirmish over the Trump administration\u2019s plans for a new nuclear weapon go down? 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