Letter to Congress to support nuclear security funding in FY11 next CR
February 7, 2011
Dear Member of Congress,
There is an overwhelming bipartisan consensus that the U.S. needs to lead the world to prevent nuclear terrorism, but the Continuing Resolution (CR) passed in December limits funding for this objective. Recognizing that the mood in Congress is to trim federal spending, we urge you, in the interest of U.S. national security, to support funding for threat reduction and nonproliferation programs at the FY 2011 requested levels in the next continuing resolution (CR) or omnibus appropriations bill. This funding is a necessary step to achieve the cooperative international effort to secure all vulnerable nuclear materials and to keep our nation safe from the threat of nuclear terrorism.
In April 2010, the President convened an unprecedented Nuclear Security Summit in Washington, D.C. during which the leaders of 47 nations pledged their support to secure vulnerable nuclear materials on their soil and to work in tandem to decrease threat levels. Numerous bipartisan reports have outlined the urgency of the danger and warned that more needs to be done to ensure that terrorists and non-state actors never obtain a nuclear weapon or materials usable for a nuclear device.
In FY 2011, the President requested over $2 billion for international WMD security programs within the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), Department of Defense (DoD), and Department of State. A critical piece of this request is a $320 million increase over the FY 2010 appropriated level that enables NNSA and DoD’s Nunn-Lugar” Cooperative Threat Reduction program to accelerate their efforts to lock down and eliminate nuclear materials around the world. The FY 2011 National Defense Authorization Act fully supported this funding.
Additionally last summer, both relevant House and Senate subcommittees decided to fully fund these important programs despite the current economic climate and competing funding demands. Money for these programs was also passed by the House during the lame duck session and in the omnibus bill that died in the Senate.
However, the final CR passed at the end of December 2010 funded most government programs at FY 2010 levels through March 4, 2011, including the programs to secure and safeguard nuclear weapons and materials. This is a significant setback in efforts to prevent nuclear terrorism because the overall funding request and congressional appropriations for threat reduction in FY 2010 are actually less than the amount Congress appropriated in FY 2009.
Failure to correct the shortfalls in the CR would significantly hamper U.S. leadership in the important efforts to secure vulnerable weapons and materials around the world. For example, NNSA’s Global Threat Reduction Initiative could face delays in completing critical conversion, removal, and protection activities in Russia, Kazakhstan, South Africa, and Mexico.
Experts agree that limiting access to vulnerable nuclear weapons-usable materials will greatly reduce the threat of nuclear terrorism. The global financial cost and terrible destruction of a nuclear terrorist attack would dwarf the costs of preventing such an attack.
The fight against nuclear terrorism is a fight that can and must be won. At the close of 2010, NNSA announced that 111 pounds of bomb-making highly enriched uranium were removed from three sites in Ukraine. Since April 2009, six countries2 have given up all their highly enriched uranium and a total of 120 bombs’ worth of nuclear material was secured. But the United States will not be able to sustain this progress if Congress does not adequately fund the programs that made these successes possible.
We urge you to ensure that threat reduction and nonproliferation programs at NNSA, the Department of Defense, and the Department of State are funded at the FY 2011 requested level for the remainder of the fiscal year. No less than America’s national security is at stake.
Sincerely,
Harry C. Blaney III
Center for International Policy
Barry M. Blechman
Henry L. Stimson Center
Jack Boureston
FirstWatch International (FWI)
Matthew Bunn
Project on Managing the Atom
Harvard Kennedy School of Government
Jay Coghlan
Nuclear Watch New Mexico
David Culp
Friends Committee on National Legislation
Charles Ferguson
Federation of American Scientist
Nancy Gallagher
Center for International and Security Studies
University of Maryland School of Public Policy
Robert G. Gard, Jr., Lt. Gen., U.S. Army (Ret.)
Former president of the National Defense University
Ambassador James Goodby
Former Ambassador for Nuclear Security and Dismantlement
Susan Gordon
Alliance for Nuclear Accountability
Howard L. Hall
The University of Tennessee
Katie Heald
Campaign for a Nuclear Weapons Free World
John Holum
Former Under Secretary State
Susan Shaer
Women’s Action for New Direction
Karen Showalter
Americans for Informed Democracy
Ambassador Vlad Sambaiew
The Stanley Foundation
Patricia Taft
The Center for the Study of Threat Convergence
The Fund for Peace
Frank von Hippel
Princeton University
Paul Ingram
BASIC (British American Security Information Council)
John Isaacs
Council for a Livable World
Daryl G. Kimball
Arms Control Association
Honorable Mike Kopetski
Former Member of Congress
Alan J. Kuperman
University of Texas at Austin
Don Kraus
Citizens for Global Solutions
Kenneth Luongo
Partnership for Global Security
Kevin Martin
Peace Action
Mark Medish
Former Senior Director, National Security Council
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Gary Milhollin
Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control
Karen Mulhauser
United Nations Association of the National Capital Area
Robert K. Musil
Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies
American University
Dr. William C. Potter
Monterey Institute of International Studies
John Rainwater
Peace Action West
Paul Walker
Global Green USA
Jim Walsh
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Peter Wilk, MD
Physicians for Social Responsibility
James E. Winkler
General Board of Church and Society
The United Methodist Church
* Organization affiliation for identification purposes only