Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor Vol. 27 No. 19
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Morning Briefing

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March 17, 2014

REPS. TURNER, MARKEY CONTINUE TO SPAR OVER MODERNIZATION NEEDS

By ExchangeMonitor

The debate between Reps. Mike Turner (R-Ohio) and Ed Markey (D-Mass.) on the nation’s nuclear weapons budget is showing no signs of dying down any time soon. Turner extended the back-and-forth between the lawmakers yesterday, suggesting that Markey’s opposition to funding modernization efforts for the NNSA’s weapons complex is based on “grossly inaccurate, or wholly out-of-context information” and for a second time inviting Markey to tour aging facilities at the Y-12 National Security Complex and Los Alamos National Laboratory. “Without ever seeing the true state of these facilities, Mr. Markey is living in blissful ignorance,” Turner said in a statement. “It must make calling for funding cuts and unilateral disarmament a lot easier. No one who has toured these facilities and has seen their deplorable conditions would deny the need for this funding.”

While Turner has pushed for funding to modernize the nation’s weapons complex and stockpile, Markey has called for $100 billion worth of cuts to nuclear spending over the next decade, including the cancellation of the now-deferred Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement-Nuclear Facility and the Uranium Processing Facility planned for Y-12. He rebuffed Turner’s previous invite for a tour of Y-12 and Los Alamos, suggesting that the nation can’t afford the multi-billion-dollar facilities in light of its current fiscal problems. “Just as homeowners with tight budgets would choose to renovate a home that meets their needs at a tiny fraction of the cost of building a new home, the government should do the same,” Markey said in a March 8 letter to Turner.

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