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Senate retains nuclear research funds { September 17 2003 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A21347-2003Sep16.htmlhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A21347-2003Sep16.html
http://www.msnbc.com/news/967819.asp
Senate Retains Nuclear Research Funds
Democrats Warn of Renewed Arms Race; House Bill Had Cut Most Spending
By Helen Dewar and Walter Pincus
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, September 17, 2003; Page A06
The Senate turned back yesterday a Democratic effort to eliminate funding for research on a new generation of nuclear weapons, rejecting arguments that the White House-backed project could trigger a new arms race and raise the risk of nuclear war.
Voting 53 to 41, the Republican-led Senate rejected a proposal by Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) to drop $21 million for research on "mini-nukes" and "bunker-busters" from a $27.3 billion spending bill for energy and water projects, including the U.S. nuclear arsenal. The Feinstein-Kennedy proposal would also have blocked a proposal to reduce the time needed to resume underground nuclear testing and to construct a new plant to build "pits," or core devices, for nuclear weapons.
Later, Republicans accepted a proposal by Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) to bar anything but research on the two new weapons, meaning the administration would have to come back to Congress for approval before actual development could begin.
Meanwhile, the Air Force is exploring the idea of a new intercontinental ballistic missile system that could carry a low-yield nuclear warhead capable of loitering over targets like an unmanned drone or being redirected in flight, according to a document produced by the Air Force Space Command, which oversees the country's nuclear weapons delivery systems.
Yesterday's vote was the Senate Democrats' second failure this year to block the administration's nuclear initiatives. In May, the Senate voted 51 to 43 to repeal the decade-old ban on research dealing with low-yield nuclear weapons, paving the way for the spending proposals approved yesterday.
But the GOP-led House, defying its reputation as more reliable in its support of the administration, voted in July to cut most of the funding for the nuclear projects. Differences will have to be worked out in negotiations between the two houses. The Senate vote makes it more likely that the administration will get at least some of the money it wants.
The Senate vote to go ahead with research work on the new weapons followed a sometimes emotional debate in which Democrats charged -- and Republicans denied -- that the administration's nuclear initiatives could rekindle the arms race and undermine nonproliferation efforts.
"There should be no doubt in anyone's mind that this administration is reopening the nuclear door," Feinstein told the Senate. "They are doing this to develop essentially a new generation of nuclear weapons," Feinstein told the Senate.
"The last thing the world needs is to have the United States start playing Lone Ranger with nuclear weapons," Kennedy told a news conference. "How can we demand that North Korea and Iran abandon their nuclear weapons programs while we develop a new generation of those weapons ourselves?"
Republicans said no weapons could be built without further congressional action and that it would be irresponsible not to conduct research on weapons capable of dealing with post-Cold War threats, such as terrorists armed with chemical or biological weapons.
"There is nothing in this law that says we will build one additional nuclear weapon," said Sen. Pete V. Domenici (R-N.M.), whose state includes major nuclear laboratory complexes.
"One of the pillars of our security is our nuclear deterrent," said Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.). "It must be safe and it must be workable. It must be relevant to the new threats we face."
The Senate action leaves intact administration requests for $15 million for research on an earth-penetrating nuclear warhead capable of destroying deeply buried bunkers and $6 million to study the development of "low-yield" weapons with a yield of 5 kilotons or less, or about one-third the force of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima in the final days of World War II. The "bunker-buster" would have a force of about 10 times the Hiroshima blast.
Yesterday's vote was generally along party lines, with Virginia's senators favoring the funding and Maryland's senators opposing it. The four Democrats who are running for president were absent and did not vote. The Senate later approved the energy and water spending bill, which will go to a conference with the House.
The document on the Air Force plans lays out concepts for a new missile system, which the Air Force this month made available to potential contractors. It said the Air Force anticipates an acquisition plan beginning in 2005 or 2006.
The new missile would have a precise guidance system that could deliver a sub-kiloton nuclear explosion on mobile or fixed targets, the document said. It would carry the equivalent of several thousand tons of TNT but with significantly less explosive power and radiation than current strategic nuclear weapons, developed during the Cold War to knock out hardened Soviet targets.
© 2003 The Washington Post Company
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