Threat Reduction Funding Increase Requested
After requesting cuts for threat reduction and nonproliferation
programs last year, the Bush administration has asked Congress to
increase funding for the efforts to downsize and secure weapons
of mass destruction materials and expertise in the former Soviet
Union.
U.S. nonproliferation efforts have received increased attention
in the aftermath of the September 11 terrorist attacks, and the
increase in requested funding was foreshadowed in late December
by the release of a White House review that concluded that most
threat reduction programs “work well, are focused on priority
tasks, and are well managed.” (See
ACT, January/February 2002.)
Submitted to Congress February 4, the administration’s fiscal
year 2003 budget requests $417 million for the Defense Department’s
Cooperative Threat Reduction (CTR) programs, a slight increase from
the fiscal year 2002 level of $403 million but still below the $443
million allocated for fiscal year 2001 by the Clinton administration.
Recent fluctuations in funding for CTR efforts have been due at
least in part to budgeting technicalities and changes in program
requirements.
The administration’s request calls for a more substantial
increase for threat reduction programs run by the Department of
Energy. For fiscal year 2003, the Bush administration budgeted approximately
$1.1 billion for the department’s Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation
account, about half of which is allocated for threat reduction efforts
in Russia. The nonproliferation account received about $1 billion
for 2002, but that sum includes $226 million of supplemental funding
added by Congress in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks, making
the administration’s request a substantial increase above the
regular 2002 appropriation.
The budget also asks for $103 million for three State Department
nonproliferation programs, approximately the same amount the programs
received for 2002.
The total 2003 threat reduction budget represents the most funding
requested for the initiatives in a single year. However, during
a February 5 Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing with Secretary
of State Colin Powell, Chairman Joseph Biden (D-DE) called the planned
increase “very, very small,” contrasting threat reduction
funding with the approximately $8 billion requested for defense
against ballistic missiles, which Biden noted the intelligence community
considers the least likely threat against the United States.
Powell agreed that the requested increase is small but noted that
the programs’ capacity to absorb additional funds is limited.
Powell also said that “we’re looking at other ways of
increasing the funding,” such as “debt relief.” Senators
Biden and Richard Lugar (R-IN) have championed a bill that would
allow Russia to write off some Soviet-era debt in exchange for nonproliferation
commitments. Approved by the Senate in December, the bill must now
be considered in the House.
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