REQUESTED FISCAL YEAR 2005: Bush Administration Seeks Small Increase for State Department Nonproliferation, Disarmament Budget

Miles A. Pomper

The Department of State would see little increase in spending on efforts to combat weapons of mass
destruction (WMD) if Congress endorses President George W. Bush’s request for the fiscal year 2005 budget. Funds for humanitarian demining programs and the destruction of small arms and light weapons, however, would increase significantly.

Under Bush’s request, funds utilized by the State Department for anti-WMD programs would climb by 4.4 percent to $435 million, an increase of $18 million from the $417 million appropriated by Congress in fiscal year 2004.

One key subset—nonproliferation programs—would increase at about the same rate, rising from current spending of $187 million to $195 million in fiscal year 2005. The administration’s budget request proposes about $35 million—a $5 million increase from fiscal year 2004—for the Nonproliferation and Disarmament Fund (NDF). NDF is a slush fund of sorts, used to respond to critical short-term needs, such as removing, transporting, and protecting more than 100 pounds of highly enriched uranium from the Vinca Institute in Serbia (See ACT, September 2002) and the destruction and demilitarization of Bulgaria’s SS-23 and SCUD missiles.

If Bush’s request is endorsed by Congress, spending on programs to improve other nations’ export controls and border security efforts would also rise slightly, from $36 million to $38 million. Spending to prevent weapon scientists from countries such as Russia and Iraq from sharing their expertise with terrorists or other nations would remain constant.

Contributions to two key international arms control efforts would remain fairly constant under Bush’s requests. Bush is proposing $53 million to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the United Nations’s nuclear watchdog. Bush recently proposed altering the rules governing membership in the IAEA’s Board of Governors.

Bush also continued to request funds for the U.S. contribution to the International Monitoring System, to help enforce the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, a pact Bush opposes. U.S. officials say the system provides important seismic, hydroacoustic, infrasound, and radionuclide information to determine whether foreign nations are testing nuclear weapons. For the fourth year under Bush, the request excludes monies for future on-sight inspections under the treaty.

Bush’s budget calls for tripling funds—from $3 million to $9 million—dedicated to destroying light arms and small weapons. The United States is most interested in destroying shoulder-fire missiles, known in military parlance as man-portable air defense systems (MANPADS). U.S. officials have come to fear MANPADS as a terrorist threat, particularly after an attack on a civilian airliner in Mombasa, Kenya, in November 2002. (See ACT, January/February 2004.)

Bush is also urging Congress to provide $70 million for programs to clear up landmines and other unexploded ordinance from former battlefields. Of that amount, $60 million would be used by the State Department, and $10 million would go to an international demining organization that operates in the Balkans and the Caucasus.

State Department Funding

NOTE: Figures in thousands
*Formally called Science Centers/Bio Redirection