Todd Jacobson
NS&D Monitor
5/30/2014

Nonproliferation groups have harshly criticized the Obama Administration’s Fiscal Year 2015 request for nonproliferation work, and two groups are now directly appealing to the White House to increase the funding. The Council for a Livable World and the Fissile Material Working Group have initiated an online petition calling for the White House to restore funding for nuclear security programs in the National Nuclear Security Administration and the Department of Defense. The Administration requested $1.6 billion for NNSA nonproliferation work, a cut of $398.4 million, and $365 million for the Pentagon’s Cooperative Threat Reduction account, drawing howls of concern from nonproliferation groups.

If the petition gets 100,000 signatures, the White House is required to issue an official response, the groups said. "These cuts increase the risk that terrorists could obtain materials to construct a crude nuclear weapon or a dirty bomb," the groups wrote in the petition, adding: "We applaud your leadership on initiating the Nuclear Security Summit process. Still, as you said at the 2014 summit, significant work remains to be done. Please work with Congress to ensure that these programs have resources to build a secure nuclear future where no American fears the threat of nuclear terrorism."