“I am pleased that there is consensus from the administration and military commanders to declare 500 nuclear weapons as excess, reducing the number of active nuclear weapons to about 4,000. Unfortunately, however, I expect the House Republican majority to block our military commanders’ decision, as they did this past year. We still have many more nuclear weapons than would be needed to reliably destroy the world several times over and we should consider whether the threat of using nuclear weapons first remains appropriate and necessary. I remain very concerned about the President-elect’s recent incendiary and cavalier comments that we should expand our nuclear weapons capabilities, and his daring our adversaries to confront us in a nuclear arms race. Such a policy is dangerous and would unnecessarily increase the risks of nuclear war.”