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A group of U.S. House Republican lawmakers have written to President Barack Obama to register their strong opposition to reducing the U.S. nuclear weapon stockpile.
“We write to share our deep concern with reports that you specifically instructed the National Security Council to undertake a study that could result in U.S. nuclear weapons reductions of up to 80 percent,” the lawmakers said in a Feb. 16 letter.
The chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, Rep. Buck McKeon, R-Calif., authored the letter along with Rep. Mike Turner, R-Ohio. Turner serves as chair of the House Armed Services strategic forces subcommittee.
A total of 34 House Republicans signed the letter, which asks the Obama administration to involve Congress in its nuclear weapon planning efforts.
The administration is conducting a study that looks at how to implement the goals outlined in the president’s Nuclear Posture Review.
Reducing the role of nuclear weapons in U.S. national security strategy is one of five key objectives laid out in the review. The other priorities include countering nuclear proliferation and nuclear terrorism, strengthening strategic and regional deterrence, and sustaining a safe nuclear arsenal.
The Associated Press reported Feb. 15 that the Obama administration is considering several disarmament options, which include cutting as few as 300 nuclear weapons to as many as 1,100. Today’s current treaty limit is 1,550 deployed strategic warheads.
In May 2012, the United States announced that it had a total of 5,113 nuclear weapons in its stockpile. This number includes deployed and nondeployed weapons.
During a Feb. 15 House Armed Services Committee hearing, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said “a number of options” are being discussed, including maintaining the status quo within the U.S. nuclear program.
Because the results of that study have not yet been reported to the president, Rose Gottemoeller, acting undersecretary for arms control at the State Department, declined to share further details when she met with reporters Feb. 15.
The Republican lawmakers are asking the president to share the terms of reference for the implementation study, which they have sought for at least six months, they say.
The 34 Republicans say they are concerned by comments from senior White House national security officials that nuclear arms reductions could be unilateral, meaning without equal reductions made by Russia.
“Reductions that have been made, at least in this administration, have only been made as part of the [Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty] process and not outside of that process,” Panetta said. “And I would expect that that would be the same in the future.”
When asked whether the United States would consider reducing its nuclear inventory independent of Russian reductions, Gottemoeller said the president prefers to pursue negotiated reductions for both countries.
The White House could also consider what are known as reciprocal reductions, where both countries agree to eliminate weapons outside of a negotiated treaty, Gottemoeller said. Such parallel reductions, known as the Presidential Nuclear Initiatives, took place in the early 1990s and were initiated by President George H.W. Bush.
