Todd Jacobson
NS&D Monitor
8/22/2014
A bipartisan group of 26 Senators remains upset with the Obama Administration’s commitment to nuclear nonproliferation and is asking the Administration to request more funding for nuclear security work in Fiscal Year 2016. Led by Sens. Diane Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), the Senators criticized the Administration for reducing nonproliferation funds in recent years as President Obama’s four-year goal to secure vulnerable nuclear materials around the world wound down. The Administration requested $1.55 billion in FY 2015 for the National Nuclear Security Administration’s nonproliferation account, a $399 million reduction that the Senators noted threatens to slow key nuclear security work.
Led by Feinstein, Senate appropriators provided $1.98 billion for NNSA nonproliferation work in FY 2015, an increase of $422.8 million. Some of the increase was linked to a boost to funding for the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility, but the bill also increased funding for the Global Threat Reduction Initiative by $136 million, added $50 million for the International Nuclear Materials Protection and Cooperation program, and $33 million for nonproliferation research and development. “Reducing budgets for agencies and programs that help keep nuclear and radiological materials out of the hands of terrorists is out of sync with the high priority that the President has rightly placed on nuclear and radiological material security and signals a major retreat in the effort to lock down these materials at an accelerated rate,” the Senators wrote in the Aug. 13 letter to White House Office of Management and Budget Director Shaun Donovan. “The recent spate of terrorism in Iraq, Pakistan, and Kenya is a harrowing reminder of the importance of ensuring that terrorist groups and rogue states cannot get their hands on the world’s most dangerous weapons and materials.”
Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) were the lone Republicans to sign the letter. The letter was also signed by Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Al Franken (D-Minn.), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisc.), Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), Chris Coons (D-Del.), Tom Udall (D-N.M.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Bob Casey (D-Pa.), Carl Levin (D-Mich.), Angus King (I-Maine), Bernie Sanders (D-Vt.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Jon Tester (D-Mont.), Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), Tim Johnson (D-S.D.), and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.).
