John Bel Edwards: “Mr. Chairman, of all the work Congress does, few things could be more important than to protect our Nation from the…”

“Mr. Chairman, of all the work Congress does, few things could be more important than to protect our Nation from the threat of nuclear terrorism. It is hard to imagine that in one instant a nuclear bomb detonating in a major American city could kill more of our citizens than we have lost in combat in every war in our Nation's history. Osama bin Laden has told his followers that it is their religious duty to secure loose nuclear materials for a bomb to be set off in the United States. It is our sacrosanct duty to ensure that that never happens. That is why I want to salute Chairman Visclosky for making homeland security against nuclear terrorism the highest of priorities in this bill. He is right to do so. This bill provides $2.1 billion to protect the American family from a nuclear holocaust, a level that is nearly $400 million above the administration's budget request. Specifically, it provides $832 million for international nuclear materials protection and cooperation activities, a $359 million increase to the budget request. With these funds, we will expand cooperative programs with Russia and other nations with vast inventories of nuclear material. In this bill, the Global Threat Reduction Initiative is increased by $132 million to a total of $251 million. This will assist us in identifying, securing, removing, and disposing of nuclear material throughout the world.”