Ellen Tauscher: “I rise in support of the Foster amendment to H.R. 5658, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2009. As…”

“I rise in support of the Foster amendment to H.R. 5658, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2009. As chairman of the Strategic Forces Subcommittee, I am proud to say that my subcommittee's mark already included an increase of $5 million for the Department of Energy's National Technical Nuclear Forensics Program. And I worked with my colleague, Adam Smith, chairman of the Terrorism and Unconventional Threats Subcommittee in support of an additional $10 million for nuclear forensics for the Defense Threat Reduction Agency. So when Representative Foster approached us, we were happy to work with him. We welcome his amendment, which complements the base bill very nicely by requiring a plan for forensics research and development and requiring the Departments of Defense, Energy, and State to report on how best to create an independent panel of forensics experts. I urge my colleagues to support the amendment.”