Wartime Supplemental Drops Nunn-Lugar Expansion Authority
The wartime supplemental appropriations bill for fiscal 2003, passed by the House and Senate last weekend, does not include language proposed by the Senate, and requested by the President, that would have authorized the President to use up to $50 million in fiscal 2003 Cooperative Threat Reduction program funds for projects in countries outside the former Soviet Union, including Iraq.
However, the bill does appropriate a total of $148 million for Department of Energy nonproliferation programs, including
$84,000,000 under the International Nuclear Materials Protection and Cooperation program to develop and deploy radiation detectors at mega seaports, in coordination with the Department of Homeland Security, Bureau of Customs and Border Protection,
$17,000,000 to expand efforts under the International Nuclear Materials Protection and Cooperation program to secure radioactive materials that may be used to construct a radioactive dispersal device (RDD), and to develop standards for the cleanup of contamination resulting from a potential RDD event,
$15,000,000 under Nonproliferation and International Security to expand nonproliferation assistance to countries other than the former Soviet Union,
$15,000,000 under Nonproliferation and Verification R&D for nuclear nonproliferation programs, including $2,500,000 for the Caucasus Seismic Network,
$5,000,000 under Nonproliferation and International Security for international export controls,
$5,000,000 under International Nuclear Materials Protection and Cooperation to support activities in Iraq,
$5,000,000 under Nonproliferation and Verification R&D for materials and devices to detect nuclear materials, and
$2,000,000 under Nonproliferation and International Security to conduct vulnerability assessments for spent nuclear fuel casks.
The pdf version of the House-Senate conference report can be accessed here