The House of Representatives this week voted to expand efforts to stop the spread of weapons of mass destruction by increasing spending for programs to secure and dispose of vulnerable nuclear material that could potentially be used to build bombs. The Friends Committee on National Legislation, the 63-year-old Quaker lobby, congratulates Reps. Robert Andrews (NJ) and Jim Leach (IA) on their success in adding $27.8 million to nonproliferation programs on the House floor Wednesday evening.
"This was the first successful arms control or nonproliferation vote on the floor of the House of Representatives in about 10 years," said David Culp, a lobbyist for the Friends Committee on National Legislation. "It represents a hopeful change in Congress. Rather than building more nuclear bombs to protect this country, the U.S. should be urgently working to keep existing nuclear materials from falling into the wrong hands."
The amendment passed by a vote of 227-195. The Energy Department’s Global Threat Reduction Initiative budget received the added funds, which were amended to . the energy and water appropriations bill, an annual budget bill that covers the Energy Department’s programs.
The program’s mission is "to identify, secure, remove and/or facilitate the disposition of high-risk, vulnerable nuclear and radioactive materials around the world" that pose a threat to the United States. Last year, Congress appropriated only $97 million for the program. The House has now added $41 million to the Energy Department’s request of $107 million in fiscal year 2007, a total increase of 52 percent for the program over last year’s funding levels.
Increasing funding for GTRI is important because the need to secure nuclear materials is critical and proceeding too slowly, in part because of a lack of funding. . Currently, parts of the program are not scheduled to be completed until 2013-. This additional funding can accelerate the securing of highly enriched uranium and other nuclear bomb materials.
The Friends Committee on National Legislation is a non- partisan Quaker lobby in the public interest that represents 26 Yearly Meetings of the Religious Society of Friends (called Quakers). FCNL speaks for itself and like-minded individuals. Working with a network of constituents in every congressional district in the United States, FCNL seeks to bring the concerns, experiences and testimonies of Friends to bear on national policy decisions. For more information: http://www.fcnl.org
