that the United States will spend $634,000,000,000 between 2021 and 2030 on new nuclear weapons and modernization and infrastructure programs, an estimate that in total is 28 percent higher than the Congressional Budget Office’s most recent previous estimate of the 10-year costs of nuclear forces. (5) Inaccurate budget forecasting is likely to continue to plague the Department of Defense and the Department of Energy, as evidenced by the fiscal year 2023 budget request of the President for the National Nuclear Security Administration Weapon Activities account, which far exceeded what the National Nuclear Security Administration had projected in previous years. (6) The projected growth in nuclear weapons spending is coming due as the Department of Defense is seeking to replace large portions of its conventional forces to better compete with the Russian Federation and the People’s Republic of China and as internal and external fiscal pressures are likely to limit the growth of, and perhaps reduce, military spending. As then-Air Force Chief of Staff General Dave Goldfein said in 2020, I think a debate is that this will be the first time that the nation has tried to simultaneously modernize the nuclear enterprise while it's trying to modernize an aging conventional enterprise. The current budget does not allow you to do both. . (7) In 2023, the Government Accountability Office released a report entitled Nuclear Weapons: NNSA Does Not Have a Comprehensive Schedule or Cost Estimate for Pit Production Capability , stating the National Nuclear Security Administration had limited assurance that it would be able to produce sufficient numbers of pits in time to meet the requirement under section 4219 of the Atomic Energy Defense Act ( 50 U.S.C. 2538a ) that the National Nuclear Security Administration produce 80 plutonium pits by 2030. (8) According to the Government Accountability Office, the National Nuclear Security Administration has still not factored affordability concerns into its planning as was recommended by the