Jeff Fortenberry: “Senator Mark Kirk, who used to be a Member of this body, told me a story a while back. He was a bomber pilot during the…”

“Senator Mark Kirk, who used to be a Member of this body, told me a story a while back. He was a bomber pilot during the Bosnian war, and during that war he literally carried a map in his hands, and there was a red circle drawn around a particular point on that map, and it said, ``Do not bomb here.'' What was there? Loose nuclear materials, unsecured, that could have been a disaster had we inadvertently struck that target. Loose nuclear materials are all around the world. We have a very specialized program here called the global material security initiative program that helps secure these materials, brings down the risk that they will get into the wrong hands, brings down the risk of a nuclear explosion--which is an absolutely critical national security priority-- to as close to zero as possible. I know it is not the intention of the author of the amendment, my friend Mr. Westerman, to undermine this program. In fact, I support the underlying intent of enhancing the surface-to- air missile program, but this is the wrong place to take this money from. The Department of State, the Department of the Treasury, the Department of Defense, and the Department of Energy as well as other agencies are sharing in the multitasked effort to try to have a multipronged effect on reducing the probability of a nuclear weapons explosion, reducing the probability of nuclear materials getting into the wrong hands to, again, as close to zero as possible.…”