Senate Appropriations Committee Votes to Cut Non-Prolieration Funds
The Senate Appropriations Committee unanimously approved today a version of the fiscal 2002 Defense Appropriations Bill cutting $46 million from the Nunn-Lugar program, initiated in 1991 to assist Russia in dismantling the former Soviet nuclear weapons complex.
The Bush administration had requested $403 million for the program, already $40 million less than fiscal 2001 funding levels. The additional cuts, if they stand, would bring the total 2002 funding for Nunn-Lugar down to $357 million.
The bill will next be voted on by the full Senate, and then go through a House-Senate conference before a final version is sent to the President for signature.
“The cuts to Nunn-Lugar are unconscionable,” said Steve LaMontagne of Council for a Livable World Center for Arms Control.
During his campaign, President Bush pledged to “increase substantially” U.S. nonproliferation assistance to Russia. More recently, Bush met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Crawford, Texas where the two leaders again promised to make nonproliferation a top priority in the U.S.-Russian relationship.