We'll have more to say about the National Nuclear Security Administration's (NNSA) nonproliferation budget soon, but in the meantime, House Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee Ranking Member Pete Visclosky's (D-IN) opening statement at the Subcommittee's March 6 hearing mirrors our own views.

March 6th, 2012

Subcommittee Ranking Member Rep. Peter Visclosky

As Prepared For Delivery:

"Mr. Administrator, it is good to see you again so soon. Ms. Harrington and Admiral Donald, welcome. We're all looking forward to your testimony today on these important national security issues. Admiral Donald, this will be your last appearance before the Subcommittee. I wish you all the best in the next chapter in your life and thank you for your service to our nation.

"The threat of nuclear terrorism is one of the gravest national security threats we face today. The bipartisan 9/11 Commission found that, "The greatest danger of another catastrophic attack in the United States will materialize if the world's most dangerous terrorists acquire the world's most dangerous weapons." Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, who served under both Presidents Bush and Obama, stated, "Every senior leader, when you're asked what keeps you awake at night, it's the thought of a terrorist ending up with a weapon of mass destruction, especially nuclear."

"In April of 2009, the President committed to an aggressive nonproliferation agenda to secure all vulnerable nuclear materials worldwide in four years, an objective that I whole-heartedly support. The 2013 request professes to support this commitment by proposing $2.5 billion for the Nonproliferation account, an increase of $163 million over the 2012 enacted level. However, this increase is not to the core program. Rather it is due to the inclusion of $150 million for USEC and an increase to the Fissile Materials Disposition program, neither of which contributes to securing vulnerable materials.

"Mr. Administrator, at your appearance before the Subcommittee last week, I applauded the hard choices NNSA made in its budget request regarding nuclear weapons. However, I cannot do the same today. I have yet to be provided with any compelling reason for including the funding for USEC within Nonproliferation. Further, I must point out that the increase in the account for USEC roughly corresponds to the drastic reduction in the Second Line of Defense program. I cannot fathom an explanation that will be satisfactory for these changes given the importance of this mission, but I am here to listen to your justification.

"Admiral, the 2013 budget request for Naval Reactors funding is flat compared to the 2012 enacted level. This represents a significant change – a decrease of $144 million – to the projected needs outlined in your budget last fiscal year. I understand this reduction is enabled by the Navy's decision to defer the OHIO Replacement by two years. I look forward to your insights regarding the modified program schedule as well as more details on how this initiative has changed since last year.

"Thank you, Mr. Chairman for the time."

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The Netherlands has accepted Seoul's request to host the 3rd Nuclear Security Summit in 2014.

In a January 31 (local time) statement, its Foreign Ministry said," The Dutch government regards the request as a sign of trust and has responded positively. The chairmanship will be officially transferred at the 2012 Summit in Seoul in March."

Yonhap News cited (Korean language) similar comments made by Dutch Foreign Minister Uri Rosenthal who, while submitting a report to parliament, said that "the (Dutch) government regards South Korea's request as an expression of confidence based on the Netherlands' contributions to nuclear nonproliferation efforts this year."

An official announcement is expected in late March during the 2012 Seoul Nuclear Security Summit, as was case after the first 2010 Washington Summit.

At the 2010 Summit in Washington, Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende had argued for a new international court or tribunal to investigate countries that provide nuclear material to terrorists, claiming the Hague would be the ideal site.

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Netherlands, Nuclear Security Summit, Nukes on a Blog, nuclear terrorism (all tags)

The Nautilus Institute ran a piece on November 22, 2011 written by yours truly on the 2012 Nuclear Security Summit and can be viewed here or here.

The gist of my piece is:

“There are clear ways in which Seoul can capitalize on its strengths to flavor the 2012 [Nuclear Security Summit] with a “Korean twist” as it maintains depth on key substantive issues that ensure the security of nuclear materials, parts, and facilities…The challenge lies in clearly demonstrating that the benefits outweigh the costs, and that states would have a national interest in further investing their political capital in nuclear security."

Click here to read more.

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2012 Nuclear Security Summit, nuclear safety-security, radioactive sources, nuclear terrorism, North Korea, IAEA (all tags)

Yesterday Foreign Policy's Josh Rogin wrote a story on a recent letter sent by NGO leaders to President Obama encouraging him to play a more active role in defense of his budget for nuclear terrorism prevention programs.

In the past year nuclear material security and nonproliferation programs have been subject to unprecedented reductions. Given the Congressional mandate for significant cuts in federal spending over the next decade, there is a grave danger that the budget for these programs will continue to be at risk, which is exactly why the President's voice is needed.

The full text of the NGO letter is pasted below the jump.  For more on the nuclear terrorism prevention budget, see our resource center here.

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Over at the mothership we've put together some handy resource centers on U.S. nuclear weapons and nuclear material security spending.  

At our nuclear weapons funding resource center you'll find estimates of how much the U.S. spends on nuclear weapons, information on the nuclear triad, charts on Congressional action on the nuclear weapons budget, our own original analysis on the budget, and more.

Likewise, the non-proliferation funding resource center includes information on recent budget cuts to NNSA's nuclear terrorism prevention programs and why these cuts are so short-sighted.

We plan to regularly update and add content to these pages so be sure to visit them often!

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As Nick Roth and Ulrika Grufman documented last week, House Strategic Forces Subcommittee Chairman Rep. Michael Turner (R-OH) recently sent a letter signed by the Republican members of the Subcommittee to Senate appropriators asking that they fully fund the President’s Fiscal Year (FY) 2012 request for the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) weapons activities account.  Turner also sent a letter to the Supercommittee with the same message.  

Nick and Ulrika have already done a neat and clean job of rebutting many of Turner’s arguments.  One area that deserves further exploration, however, is the issue of where exactly money to offset reductions in weapons funding would come from.  

I examine this question in a new article over at the mothership.  Here's the bottom line:

Given the current budget situation, the unintended consequence of seeking more money for weapons activities is that every additional dollar that is added to this account could put the budget for vital nuclear terrorism prevention and nonproliferation programs at risk. Such a result would be reckless and undermine U.S. security.

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The Center for Nonproliferation Studies' Miles Pomper and yours truly took to the pages of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists today to urge Congress to promptly introduce and approve the implementing legislation for the 2005 Amendment to the Convention on the Physical Protection of Nuclear Material (CPPNM) and the 20005 International Convention on the Suppression of Acts of Nuclear Terrorism (ICSANT).  You can read the full article here.  Here's an excerpt:

The 2010 Nuclear Security Summit raised international awareness of the need for global cooperation to secure vulnerable nuclear materials and to decrease terrorist threats. The 2012 Nuclear Security Summit in Seoul will provide another high-level push to reduce nuclear risks. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Yukiya Amano will stress the importance of the amendment at the upcoming 55th annual IAEA General Conference, scheduled to take place in Vienna from September 19-23, 2011. The conference will provide an important opportunity to raise awareness about the amendment and encourage states that have yet to ratify it -- such as the United States, South Korea, Japan, France, and Canada -- to do so as soon as possible. With the 2012 summit a mere six months away, the United States is running out of time to make good on its pledge to ratify the CPPNM Amendment and ISCANT.

Congress should demonstrate its continued commitment to nuclear security by swiftly approving and implementing legislation for the two Conventions, thereby paving the way for their ratification in advance of the 2012 summit. Hopefully, there won't be another terrorist attack on US soil. But, if there is, let's make sure it's not nuclear.

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Last Wednesday the Senate Appropriations Committee approved the Fiscal Year (FY) 2012 Energy and Water Appropriations Bill.  Head over to the mothership for my full analysis of the bill.  Here's the summary:

Senate Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and the rest of the members of the subcommittee deserve great credit for prioritizing essential nuclear and radiological material security and nonproliferation programs. While the House cut the budget for the Global Threat Reduction Initiative (GTRI), the key program in the effort to secure and eliminate dangerous nuclear material worldwide at an accelerated rate, by $85 million below the administration’s FY 2012 request, the Senate fully funded it at the FY 2012 request, an increase of $72 million over the FY 2011 enacted level. The Committee should also be applauded for beginning to reign in excessive spending on nuclear weapons programs, while still providing more than enough funds to maintain a safe, secure, and reliable arsenal.

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Center Chairman Lt. Gen. Robert Gard has an op-ed in the Baltimore Sun today on the recent House cuts to vital nuclear material security programs.  Here's an excerpt:

In a time of great political gridlock, there is at least one issue that both parties still agree on — the urgency to confront and reduce the threat posed by terrorist groups that are actively seeking nuclear weapons.

But Congress reduced the fiscal 2011 funding for nonproliferation efforts by the significant amount of $369 million, and more recently the House slashed an additional $428 million from the president's fiscal 2012 budget request for the nonproliferation account, including $85 million for the Global Threat Reduction Initiative.

Now it is up to the Senate to reverse these cuts.

Fortunately, the Senate appears to have listened, as it is poised to reverse the cuts.

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This afternoon the Senate Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee approved the Fiscal Year (FY) 2012 Energy and Water Appropriations Bill.  The Subcommittee received an allocation of $31.625 billion, approximately $57 million below the FY 2011 enacted level, but $986 million above the FY 2012 House enacted level.  The full Appropriations Committee is scheduled to take up the bill tomorrow.  No amendments were offered in Subcommittee but amendments are expected to be offered in Committee tomorrow, although probably not on the NNSA portion of the bill.  You can read the official Subcommittee summary of the bill here.

According to Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein’s (D-CA) opening statement (the full text of the bill will not be released until tomorrow), the Subcommittee appropriated $11.05 billion for the National Nuclear Security Administration, an increase of $528 million (or 5%) above the FY 2011 appropriation and an increase of $451 million above the FY 2012 House enacted level.

Within NNSA, the Subcommittee appropriated $2.383 billion for the Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation Account, an increase of $109 million (or 4.7%) above the FY 2011 enacted level and an increase of nearly $300 million over the FY 2012 House enacted level.  The appropriation is $167 million below the President’s FY 2012 request of $2.549 billion.

Sen. Feinstein stated that the Subcommittee’s highest priority within NNSA was to fund nonproliferation and nuclear material security programs in support of the goal of securing all vulnerable nuclear materials within four years.  While we will have to wait for the release of the bill text tomorrow for confirmation, the additional funding looks like good news for the Global Threat Reduction Initiative (the key program in the effort to secure vulnerable nuclear materials), which the House cut by $85 million below the FY 2012 request.

On the weapons side, the Subcommittee appropriated $7.190 billion, an increase of $294 million over the FY 2011 enacted level and an increase of $99 million over the FY 2012 House enacted level.  The appropriation is $440 million less than the President’s FY 2012 request of $7.63 billion.

The future schedule for the bill is unclear.  Most people I talked to at the hearing did not believe the bill would go to the Senate floor, and that final funding levels will be decided in conference between the House and Senate.  It’s also not clear whether an agreement can be reached before the end of the fiscal year on September 30.

Stay tuned for more tomorrow when the final bill text is available.  

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