US lawmakers urge Pentagon to abandon costly ‘Golden Dome’ missile defense plan
WASHINGTON
Some congressional Democrats urged the Pentagon on Tuesday to abandon the Trump administration’s proposed “Golden Dome” missile defense plan, warning it could cost taxpayers billions.
Sens. Ed Markey and Jeff Merkley, along with Rep. John Garamendi and Don Beyer led their colleagues in writing to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, urging the US to refrain from building a “Golden Dome” space-based system.
“The Trump administration’s plans 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 lawmakers wrote to Hegseth.
President Donald Trump said in May that he selected the “architecture” for his long-promised “Golden Dome” missile defense program, which he estimated will cost $175 billion during the next three years to create.
“We are concerned that Golden Dome will be much more effective at wasting taxpayer dollars than countering missile attacks,” the lawmakers wrote.
Countering a possible Russian or Chinese attack involving hundreds of warheads would require “a much larger, more technologically advanced, and more costly system,” they said, adding that since 1999 on bipartisan basis, Congress has agreed that US missile defense should target only limited threats, not major arsenals like those of Russia or China.
The lawmakers posed a series of pointed questions for Hegseth, requesting responses by July 21, which include: what is the intended purpose of the “Golden Dome” and how does the administration plan to spend the proposed $175 billion for the program.
The letter was co-signed by sens. Chris Murphy, Elizabeth Warren, Ron Wyden, Chris Van Hollen and Bernie Sanders, and by Reps. Bill Foster, Eleanor Holmes Norton, Greg Casar and Lloyd Doggett.
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