The United States’ contributions to international nuclear security and verification organizations would not be reduced under the White House’s fiscal 2018 budget proposal, despite significant proposed cuts to the overall State Department budget.
A State Department official said by email this week that the United States’ voluntary contribution to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) was not reduced in President Donald Trump’s budget proposal; neither was the U.S. contribution to the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO), other than an exchange rate adjustment.
The administration has proposed a $91.9 million voluntary contribution to the IAEA and $31 million for the CTBTO Preparatory Committee, even as it presses for a significant funding decrease in fiscal 2018 to the State Department’s overall arms control and nonproliferation work.
The State Department requested $312.8 million for nonproliferation, anti-terrorism, demining, and related programs for the budget year beginning Oct. 1, down from the current $500.7 million. Some of the reduced line items include the Nonproliferation and Disarmament Fund – which would receive $5 million, down from its current $30 million – and the export control and related border security categories, which would drop from $62.5 million to $40.7 million.
However, it is now clear the decrease would not affect U.S. assistance for the international organizations that, respectively, coordinate global nuclear security activities and maintain the International Monitoring System (IMS) for detection of nuclear test blasts.
“A reduction in IMS capability could deprive the U.S. of an irreplaceable source of nuclear explosion monitoring data,” the State Department’s budget justification document said.
The United States is the IAEA’s top financial contributor, providing nearly $200 million per year in total assistance – roughly 25 percent of the U.N. agency’s annual budget. The IAEA assesses each member state’s ability to pay into the agency’s regular budget, which is separate from voluntary, or extra budgetary, contributions. Almost half the total U.S. funding each year falls under the voluntary contribution category.
The United States contributes about $32 million per year to the CTBTO, also about one-quarter of its total budget. It also hosts the greatest number of the CTBTO’s IMS facilities: hundreds of monitoring stations and laboratories worldwide that detect underground, underwater, or atmospheric nuclear tests.
The State Department official said the budget proposal “reflects the U.S. commitment to remain engaged with the [IAEA] and to support their work implementing safeguards and promoting nuclear safety, security, and peaceful uses of nuclear energy,” adding that congressional consideration of the president’s budget request is likely to take several months before reaching an agreement on final appropriations levels for the next fiscal year.
Overall, the Trump administration requested $37.6 billion for State and the U.S. Agency for International Development: a 30-percent decrease from the $53.1 billion the department currently receives through Sept. 30.
Meanwhile, the Interior Department has requested in its fiscal 2018 budget suspension of the deployment of new Global Seismographic Network sensors, “a net reduction of $1.5 million for the Global Seismographic Network.”
The Global Seismographic Network, with over 150 stations that monitor seismic vibrations, coordinates with the CTBTO’s International Monitoring System. Thirty of its stations, in fact, link directly to the CTBTO’s International Data Center, through which the organization watches for nuclear explosions.
