I rise in strong support of H.R. 5136, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2011.

This is a strong, bipartisan bill – and, as Chairman of the Strategic Forces Subcommittee, it has been a pleasure working with my Ranking Member, Mr. Turner, and members of the Committee in crafting this measure which provides our men and women in uniform with the tools to address some of the most pressing strategic threats to our national security.

Members of our subcommittee are acutely aware that we are racing against time to secure vulnerable nuclear materials and prevent nuclear terrorism, and that we must deter nations like Iran from developing nuclear weapons.  We must also protect ourselves, our deployed forces, and our allies against the growing threat of attack from ballistic missiles, particularly from the expanding stockpile of short- and medium-range rockets. 

So our bill invests in maintaining a safe, secure and reliable nuclear deterrent; providing an effective missile defense against the most likely and immediate threats; and protecting our national security space and intelligence assets. 
          
First, reflecting the President’s commitment to provide a strong and sustained investment in our nuclear deterrent, the bill provides $15 billion for the Department of Energy’s Atomic Energy Defense Activities, not counting the nonproliferation programs.  This includes $7 billion for nuclear weapons activities, a 10 percent increase over last year’s funding, and $5.6 billion for defense environmental cleanup activities.

This increase will sustain our nuclear arsenal without nuclear testing.  It ensures we will maintain a credible deterrent as we responsibly reduce our stockpile, and provides a robust foundation for implementing the Administration’s Nuclear Posture Review, and President Obama’s historic efforts to reduce nuclear dangers. 

Second, H.R. 5136 will strengthen our ballistic missile defenses by providing $10.3 billion to protect the United States, our deployed troops, and our allies and friends against the most immediate threats from nations such as Iran, Syria and North Korea.  Our funding increase ensures that we will purchase key elements of the Administration’s Phased Adaptive Approach for missile defense in Europe more efficiently and at lower overall cost. 

The bill also provides an additional $88 million for the long-standing US-Israeli collaboration on missile defense programs. 

Further, the bill provides a $50 million increase for directed energy research and the Airborne Laser Test Bed to facilitate the testing and development of technologies that are most likely to yield operational capabilities in the future. 

The bill also requires operationally realistic testing of missile defense systems.  It makes deployment of missile defenses in Europe contingent on such testing, as well as host nation ratification of any deployments on European soil.

I’m proud of our smart spending decisions to strengthen our defenses against current missile threats.  We are embracing good government practices and emphasizing thorough testing that reduces the costs to American taxpayers in the long run.  

Finally, this authorization builds on the bipartisan approach of previous years to military space programs, providing $9.7 billion to sustain and improve these critical assets that are essential to our warfighters.

I want to thank Chairman Skelton for his leadership once again in crafting such a strong measure, and I urge my colleagues to support it.