Modest Hike in Threat Reduction Budget

Claire Applegarth

In his Feb. 7 budget proposal, President George W. Bush called for a modest increase in federal spending for programs that work to secure and dismantle weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and related materials worldwide and for an expansion of funding for activities outside Russia and the former Soviet Union.

The president’s total budget request for threat reduction activities in Russia and the former Soviet Union by the Departments of Defense, Energy, and State hovers slightly over $1 billion, a figure comparable to last year’s appropriation. But marked budget increases are requested for programs at the Energy Department, particularly those that work outside the former Soviet Union, while funding for State Department nonproliferation work and the Pentagon’s Cooperative Threat Reduction (CTR) program remain fairly level.

Defense Department
The administration’s fiscal year 2006 budget request proposes allocating $415.6 million to the CTR program housed in the Defense Department, less than a 2 percent increase from the $409 million appropriated in 2005. A breakdown of the proposed funding within the CTR program has not yet been publicly released.

Created in 1991, the CTR program is aimed at securing, dismantling, and disposing of weapons of mass destruction and related materials and technology in the former Soviet Union. Among its successes to date is the deactivation of more than 6,500 nuclear warheads, including 312 Russian warheads in 2004 alone.

The administration’s CTR request, although only up slightly over the previous year’s appropriation, is higher than the amount initially proposed by the Defense Department, according to a Jan. 12 letter from nine House Democrats.

The Democrats, led by Rep. John Spratt (S.C.), ranking member on the House Armed Services Committee, claimed that Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz had earlier approved a cut in a Program Budget Decision (PBD), a budget document that is submitted to the White House Office of Management and Budget for final review before the budget is released.

According to the Democrats, the Pentagon had suggested slashing the CTR program’s budget by $46 million in fiscal year 2006 and by an additional $35 million between fiscal years 2007 and 2011.

Energy Department
The administration’s fiscal year 2006 request for the Energy Department’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) includes $526 million for threat reduction activities in Russia and states of the former Soviet Union, signaling an increase of nearly 20 percent from the $439 million requested in 2005. By some calculations, however, the request is more than $720 million if related programs that operate outside the former Soviet Union are included.

The request calls for the most significant hike for the Elimination of Weapons Grade Plutonium Production (EWGPP) program, which aims to shut down three Russian nuclear reactors that collectively produce 1.2 metric tons of weapons-grade plutonium annually. The proposed budget would be $132 million, or 200 percent more than the previous fiscal year, and would enable the Energy Department to provide replacement fossil fuel plants to halt plutonium production by 2011.

The Energy Department request also calls for substantially increasing funds for the International Nuclear Materials Protection and Cooperation (MPC&A) program to more than $343 million in 2006, up from about $295 million in 2005. Spending would also shift so that a greater share of the funds are dedicated to efforts outside of Russia and the former Soviet Union, dramatically increasing MPC&A in “non-Russia/FSU” civilian nuclear sites and at seaports worldwide, while decreasing nearly all such activities within Russia.

Under the Global Threat Reduction Initiative (GTRI), funds would be similarly transferred for use outside Russia and the former Soviet satellite states. This May 2004 initiative, essentially a reshuffling of existing Energy Department programs, seeks to repatriate Russian- and U.S.-origin nuclear fuel from sites abroad, end the use of highly enriched uranium in nuclear reactors, and secure radioactive sources worldwide. GTRI’s suggested budget is $98 million in 2006, an increase of $4.3 million. Also in the administration’s 2006 request, the Russian Transition Initiatives, a program that redirects former weapons scientists into peaceful enterprises and converts nuclear facilities to civilian uses, would become the Global Initiative for Proliferation Prevention (GIPP) to allow for possible program extension to high-risk proliferation areas outside Russia, including Iraq and Libya.

A substantial portion of the Energy Department’s 2006 nonproliferation budget would go toward surplus fissile materials disposition, including $64 million for such efforts in Russia. But some of these efforts, specifically the programs aimed at disposing of 34 tons of Russian surplus weapons-usable plutonium by converting it to mixed-oxide (MOX) fuel, have been hampered by disputes over liability protections afforded to U.S. workers. The inability to reach agreement on liability arrangements has caused delays in the construction of MOX facilities in the United States and Russia.

State Department
According to the administration’s budget, the State Department’s threat reduction efforts in the former Soviet Union would receive $71 million, the same amount appropriated in fiscal year 2005. The Nonproliferation of WMD Expertise program is the largest State Department budget item for these activities and may receive $52.6 million for fiscal year 2006, an increase of about $2.5 million over current spending. Previously known as Science Centers/Bio Redirection, this program engages and redirects former weapons scientists into peaceful research and civilian work worldwide.

Not figured into the administration’s $71 million amount, however, is a requested increase for Export Control and Related Border Security Assistance (EXBS), which assists countries at risk of WMD proliferation in developing stronger export control laws. This program would receive $44.4 million, or $6.7 million more than the 2005 estimate.

The budget also allots $37.5 million to the Nonproliferation and Disarmament Fund (NDF), up by about $5.7 million from fiscal year 2005. The NDF is the State Department’s quick-response mechanism for nonproliferation, allocating funds on an as-needed basis to projects overseas that counter new or emerging proliferation threats.