WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Jim Risch (R-Idaho), ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, today released the following statement on the administration’s declassification of the number of active and inactive warheads in the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile:
“The Biden Administration has repeated the Obama Administration’s mistake of declassifying the U.S. nuclear stockpile. China and Russia failed to reciprocate any transparency when the United States did this during the Obama era, and instead embarked on major, opaque expansions and modernizations of their nuclear forces. Does the Biden Administration expect anything different this time?
“This is yet another example of the Biden Administration deciding to increase the risk to American security in support of ideas that have already failed. We must deal with China and Russia from a position of strength, not from a naïve and idealistic worldview that will only invite more aggression.”
Additionally, at today’s Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing, Ranking Member Risch questioned Mallory Stewart, President Biden’s nominee to be assistant secretary of State for arms control, verification, and compliance, and her views on nuclear policy. Watch their exchange here.
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