ARMS CONTROL ADVOCATES CRITICIZE HOUSE LANGUAGE LINKING NEW START, MODERNIZATION

Arms control advocates for the second straight year are up in arms over language in the House version of the Fiscal Year 2013 Defense Authorization Act that would tie funding to implement the New START Treaty with Russia to efforts to modernize the nation’s nuclear weapons complex and arsenal, accusing House Republicans of “partisan hostage taking” in a recent Defense News op-ed. Daryl Kimball and Tom Collina of the Arms Control Association suggested in the May 13 op-ed that the provisions—contained in an amendment offered by Rep. Michael Turner (R-Ohio) during a House Armed Services Committee markup of the bill last week—threaten national security and go against other Congressional sentiments, including positions taken by House and Senate appropriators on the National Nuclear Security Administration’s weapons program budget. Similar language was included in last year’s Defense Authorization Act, but it was altered during conference negotiations with the Senate. The Administration gave its critics more fodder this year by requesting $7.58 billion for the NNSA’s weapons program, more than $300 million less than it had anticipated needing a year ago. “If Rep. Turner’s provision to tie up New START were to become law, Russia would likely halt its nuclear reductions as well, risking the treaty’s collapse,” Kimball and Collina wrote. “This would allow Moscow to rebuild its nuclear forces above the treaty ceiling of 1,550 deployed strategic warheads and increase the number of nuclear weapons aimed at the U.S. Moreover, the inspection system established under the treaty could collapse, depriving the U.S. of crucial data exchanges and on-site inspections of Russian forces, undermining transparency and strategic stability.”