Washington Whispers: Senate Appropriators Reverse Obama’s Nuclear Non-Proliferation Cuts
June 26, 2013
By Steven Nelson
US News and World Report
Earlier this year President Barack Obama presented a budget proposal to Congress that included across-the-board cuts to nuclear non-proliferation programs. The Senate Appropriations Committee recommended Thursday that some of those cuts be reversed.
Among the cuts proposed by the Obama administration was a $76.5 million reduction in funding for the Global Threat Reduction Initiative, which cleans up radioactive material abroad to prevent terrorists from making improvised nuclear bombs. In total, Obama’s budget proposal cut $270 million in funding for non-proliferation programs run by the National Nuclear Security Administration.
The GTRI has “cleaned out” ten countries, most recently the Czech Republic, according to the administration, and aspires to complete removal of radioactive materials from three more countries in 2013.
Kingston Reif, director of nuclear non-proliferation at the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation, told U.S. News that Senate appropriators reversed nearly all – $73 million – of the administration’s cuts to GTRI efforts.
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