It might look like it, but this isn't a retreat from the position he took during the campaign. The funding is actually is intended to reinforce his view that there should be no testing and no fiddling with or 'refurbishing' the stockpile with new warheads. So, the increase is an elaborate counter to the pressure that Congress has resisted so far from the last administration to build mini-nukes and make the weapons 'more usable' by retrofitting them with new warheads and moving forward with the testing regime required which would push past the provisions in the non-proliferation treaty which Bush disregarded. This president is working on a new nuke agreement with the Russians and these funds are intended to bolster the administration's case that those negotiations can succeed without sparking an escalation of nuclear weapon-building.
from National Journal:
http://www.globalsecuritynewswire.org/gsn/nw_20100129_1187.phpObama to Seek $5B Nuclear-Weapon Complex Spending BoostThe Obama administration plans to seek more than $5 billion in additional funding over five years for sustaining the U.S. nuclear complex and deterrent, starting with a $600 million increase in fiscal 2011, Vice President Joseph Biden wrote in a Wall Street Journal commentary published yesterday (
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704878904575031382215508268.html).
The funding boost is necessary even as President Barack Obama pursues the nuclear-disarmament agenda he laid out last April in Prague, Biden stated.
"As long as nuclear weapons are required to defend our country and our allies, we will maintain a safe, secure and effective nuclear arsenal," he wrote.
"Among the many challenges our administration inherited was the slow but steady decline in support for our nuclear stockpile and infrastructure, and for our highly trained nuclear work force," according to Biden.
"For almost a decade, our laboratories and facilities have been underfunded and undervalued. The consequences of this neglect -- like the growing shortage of skilled nuclear scientists and engineers and the aging of critical facilities -- have largely escaped public notice," he said in the column, noting that the congressionally mandated Strategic Posture Commission took the same position last year.
"The budget we will submit to Congress on Monday both reverses this decline and enables us to implement the president's nuclear security agenda," the column states.
The same facilities and specialists needed to ensure the reliability of U.S. nuclear weapons would also help to protect sensitive nuclear materials internationally while enabling the United States to "maintain our arsenal without testing" and "to track and thwart nuclear trafficking, verify weapons reductions, and to develop tomorrow's cutting-edge technologies for our security and prosperity," Biden wrote.
"Even in a time of tough budget decisions, these are investments we must make for our security. We are committed to working with Congress to ensure these budget increases are approved," he said.
"This investment," expected to raise U.S. nuclear weapons spending to $7 billion in the next budget cycle, "is long overdue," Biden added. "It will strengthen our ability to recruit, train and retain the skilled people we need to maintain our nuclear capabilities. It will support the work of our nuclear labs, a national treasure that we must and will sustain.
The budget request will be pursued alongside -- and is not contradictory to -- the administration's effort to conclude a new nuclear arms control deal with Russia, issue its Nuclear Posture Review on March 1, conduct a nuclear security summit in April, and have the United States ratify the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, according to the vice president. To bolster his argument, Biden cited a recent Journal commentary by four U.S. statesmen who have in recent years pressed the case for global nuclear disarmament.
The proposal described by Biden "underscores the fact that the United States can maintain a reliable arsenal without resuming nuclear testing or building newly designed nuclear warheads," the Arms Control Association stated today.
read more:
http://www.globalsecuritynewswire.org/gsn/nw_20100129_1187.phphttp://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704878904575031382215508268.html
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