S.Amdt. 3805

The Smarter Approaches to Nuclear Expenditures Act is an amendment proposed by Mr. Markey to bill S. 2296. Its purpose is to reduce the size and cost of the United States nuclear arsenal, which the amendment describes as excessively large and costly.

The amendment aims to add several restrictions and prohibitions to the bill to limit spending and the number of nuclear weapons. Specifically, it seeks to change the following:

Force Reductions

• Limit the purchase of Columbia-class submarines to eight.
• Limit Air Force intercontinental ballistic missiles to no more than 150.
• Limit deployed strategic warheads to no more than 1,000.
• Limit the purchase of B-21 long-range penetrating bomber aircraft to 80 between fiscal years 2026 and 2030.

Spending Prohibitions

• Ban funds for making F-35 aircraft capable of carrying nuclear weapons.
• Stop funding for new air-launched cruise missiles, the W80 warhead life extension program, the LGM-35 Sentinel, and any new intercontinental ballistic missiles.
• End funding for the Uranium Processing Facility at the Y-12 National Security Complex.
• Prohibit the deployment of the W76-2 low-yield warhead or other low-yield/nonstrategic nuclear warheads.
• Ban the procurement of new submarine-launched cruise missiles capable of carrying low-yield or nonstrategic nuclear warheads.
• Stop funding for the sustainment of the B83-1 bomb and the procurement of the W-93 warhead.
• Prohibit funding for a space-based missile defense system.

Accountability and Oversight

• Block the expansion of plutonium pit production at Los Alamos National Laboratory and the Savannah River Site until a master schedule and total cost estimate is submitted to Congress.
• Require joint reports from the Secretary of Defense and Secretary of Energy regarding the implementation of these reductions and the resulting cost savings.
• Require the President to provide an annual comprehensive accounting of all money spent on each nuclear weapon and related program.