Ronald Dellums: “One of the administration's highest priorities is to prevent the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction…”

“One of the administration's highest priorities is to prevent the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, particularly from Russia and other states of the former Soviet Union. The CTR program is one of the most critical parts of that effort. Congress would do serious harm to our counter-proliferation programs if it denied DOD the use of CTR funds to reduce weapons of mass destruction in Russia that stem the threat of their proliferation because of Russia's short-range transfers. This does not mean that the administration condones such transfers. On the contrary, we are waging a vigorous campaign on all fronts to prevent weapons proliferation. However, it would be folly to respond to an instance of proliferation by removing an essential counter-proliferation tool. Secondly, just to reiterate a point made by my distinguished colleague from South Carolina, nuclear warheads deactivated, 4,500; ICBMs destroyed, 81; ICBM silos eliminated, 125; bombers destroyed, 20; SLBM launchers eliminated, 64; nuclear warhead test terminals sealed, 58. Three states of the former Soviet Union denuclearized, Mr. Chairman. In 1991 the four states, nuclear states in the former Soviet Union had a total of 10,910 missiles. Today, there are 6,705.”