House Democrats try to shoot down Trump’s low-yield nukes

A group of House Democrats will take another run this week at stopping President Trump and the Pentagon from developing low-yield nuclear weapons.

The new warhead program would be de-funded by $65 million in the coming year under an amendment to a Department of Energy appropriations bill proposed by Reps. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., John Garamendi, D-Calif., and Dan Kildee, D-Mich.

The spending bill could hit the House floor late this week following Rules Committee meetings on Tuesday and Wednesday to decide if their amendment will get a vote.

The proposal is the latest effort by Democrats on both sides of Capitol Hill to block development of a low-yield nuclear warhead for Trident missiles on Ohio-class submarines and sea-launched cruise missiles.

The weapons are a new initiative in the Pentagon’s Nuclear Posture Review released this year. The administration says the smaller nuclear warheads are needed to deter Russia, which believes it could deter the U.S. by using its own version of the weapons in an “escalate to de-escalate” scenario.

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