Floyd Spence: “allow me to review briefly the actions taken by the National Security Committee on the Cooperative Threat Reduction…”

“allow me to review briefly the actions taken by the National Security Committee on the Cooperative Threat Reduction [CTR] Program in H.R. 3230. First, the committee cut the $327 million budget request by $25 million. Specifically, as based on the availability of prior-year funds, the committee cut $20 million from the fissile material storage facility in Russia. The committee also cut approximately $4 million from chemical weapons destruction-related activities in Russia. Specifically, the committee denied the DOD request to initiate a new, as yet unjustified demolition project and reduced the amount for the Chemical Weapons Destruction Support Office, an information clearinghouse located in Moscow. The committee also cut $1 million from CTR program overhead. The bill also includes a provision that is intended to ensure that CTR funds are spent only on core dismantlement activities, such as destroying bombers, missiles, and silos. My colleagues may recall that noncore activities such as environmental restoration, job retraining, and defense conversion have been at the heart of the controversy surrounding this program in past years. This provision would prohibit use of fiscal year 1997 or prior-year, unobligated CTR funds for conducting peacekeeping activities with Russia, providing housing, performing environmental restoration, providing job retraining assistance, or for providing assistance to promote defense conversion.”