12 Democrats Warn of “Massively Corrupt” Missile Defense Plans
A dozen Senate and House Democrats sent a letter to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth July 8th, calling the proposed “Golden Dome” missile defense program a corrupt waste of taxpayers’ dollars that, like its earlier versions, can’t work.
“[P]lans for Golden Dome could make it prohibitively expensive, operationally ineffective, massively corrupt, and detrimental to U.S. and global security by igniting a nuclear arms race with Russia and China,” the Democrats wrote. “We are concerned that Golden Dome will be much more effective at wasting taxpayer dollars than countering missile attacks. We urge you to rein in this dangerous plan.”
Led by Senators. Ed Markey, D-Mass., and Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., and Reps. John Garamendi, D-Calif., and Don Beyer, D-Virg., the letter warned that, “Estimates by the Congressional Budget Office [are] that the system could cost up to $542 billion to complete, more than three times the cost that the Trump administration projected…”
To save some money on the boondoggle, Montana Republican Senator Steve Daines has proposed a federal exemption from the 1969 National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) requirements applying to major government construction projects.
Environmental protection is the function of NEPA, but meeting its requirements would slow and vastly increase the cost of replacing the 400 underground missile silos, their 40 launch control centers, and hundreds of miles of buried cables that connect them.
Senator Daines, a long-standing member of the ICBM Lobby who has 150 Minuteman missiles in his state, and who has worked strenuously to create support for outdated and dangerous U.S. land-based missile systems, offered an amendment to the must-pass military appropriations bill, that would exempt the Air Force from NEPA compliance. Congress may lawfully exempt the Golden Dome plan and any other Pentagon project from NEPA requirements if Sec. Hegseth declares that “it is critical to national security,” or “is necessary for national defense.” Under NEPA rules, Hegseth must inform Congress of the reasons for any exemption, but the reasons may be classified “secret” if he determines it is “necessary for reasons of national security.”
⸺ JML
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